Dissonance motivation: Its nature,persistence, and reinstatement

This paper examines whether arousal is a necessary component of the motivation to reduce dissonance. Alternative responses to attitude-behavior inconsistency include attitude change, explaining the behavior by a consonant cognition (i.e., low choice), and attributing the dissonance-induced state to an alternative source, such as the purported side effects of an ingested “drug.” For conditions in which there are few consonant cognitions (i.e., high choice), a comparison of different “drug” conditions in which attitude change does or does not occur was expected to clarify which components of the dissonance-induced state mediate attitude change. Attitude change occurred in high choice conditions where the “drug” was described as pleasant, but not in high choice conditions where the “drug” was described as unpleasant or in a low choice condition. In addition, when the “drug” was descibed as arousing there was, if anything, more attitude change than when the “drug” was described as nonarousing. These results suggest that unpleasantness and not arousal per se is the motivating factor in dissonance reduction. The effects of the passage of time and reinstating the counterattitudinal behavior on the alternative responses to attitude-behavior inconsistency were also examined. Subjects returned 2 weeks later, stated their attitudes, recalled their original counterattitudinal essay, and again stated their attitudes. Although there was a general decrease in attitude change during this period, the pattern of attitude change remained basically the same. Attitude change following reinstatement increased from its original level only in those conditions where it had been initially attenuated through misattribution or a consonant cognition.     

A partial repetition effect in choice reaction time for multidimensional stimuli

Bertelson (1963), and others more recently, have observed that when the same stimulus is presented consecutively the reaction time (RT) to the second presentation is faster than the RT to the first presentation. In Experiments 1 and 2, two-dimensional stimuli are used in a discrete four-choice RT task where the stimuli can either be completely repeated, partially repeated, or completely different. In Experiment 3, three-dimensional stimuli were used in a discrete eight-choice RT task where the stimuli can either be completely repeated, partially respeated with respect to two dimensions, partially repeated with respect to one dimension, or completely different. The partial repetition of multidimensional stimuli showed a significant facilitation effect on RT with all sets of stimuli used in the present experiments. This result is discussed in respect to the various possible loci of the repetition effect.     

Self-discrepancies and vulnerability to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating.

Two studies explored the relevance of self-discrepancies for body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. In Study 1, actual:ideal self-discrepancies of female undergraduates correlated with body shape dissatisfaction independent of Ss' body mass and number of appearance-related self-beliefs; actual:ought discrepancy was discriminantly associated with anorexic-related attitudes and behaviors. In Study 2 (using a mixed-gender sample), bulimic-related behaviors were associated with a form of actual:ideal discrepancy (unfulfilled positive potential) whereas anorexic-related symptoms were associated with actual:ought discrepancy. Both genders showed the predicted relations between self-discrepancies and disordered eating, and the predicted associations remained even when appearance-related attributes were excluded from scoring of self-discrepancies.     

The effects of schedule history and the opportunity for adjunctive responding on behavior during a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement.

The effects of schedule history and the availability of an adjunctive response (polydipsia) on fixed-interval schedule performance were investigated. Two rats first pressed levers under a schedule of food reinforcement with an interresponse time greater than 11 s, and 2 others responded under a fixed-ratio 40 schedule. All 4 were then exposed to a fixed-interval 15-s schedule. Water was continuously available under these conditions, but after responding became stable on the fixed-interval schedule, access was experimentally manipulated. With water freely available, subjects did not display characteristic fixed-interval response rates and patterns (i.e., scalloping or break-and-run). Instead, they exhibited predictable, stable patterns of behavior as a function of their schedule histories: Subjects with the interresponse-time history exhibited low response rates, and those with the fixed-ratio history exhibited high rates. Manipulating the amount of water available resulted in marked changes in response rates for rats with the interresponse-time history but not for those with the fixed-ratio history. The results illustrate the multiple causation of behavior by its previous and current schedules of reinforcement and other concurrent factors.     

Wittgenstein's New Way of Talking to Himself

A lack of consensus persists as to whom exactly the dialogues of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations are between: Wittgenstein and an interlocutor? Or perhaps a variety of interlocutors, none of whom can be identified with Wittgenstein himself? I argue here that this lack of consensus is possibly due to an ambiguity in the ordinary concept of “talking to oneself,” and that a new concept of “talking to oneself” appropriate to Wittgenstein's dialogues is needed to properly understand them. Wittgenstein is talking to himself—but he is doing so in the way we talk to other people.     

Prefrontal cognitive ability, intelligence, Big Five personality, and the prediction of advanced academic and workplace performance

Studies 1 and 2 assessed performance on a battery of dorsolateral prefrontal cognitive ability (D-PFCA) tests, personality, psychometric intelligence, and academic performance (AP) in 2 undergraduate samples. In Studies 1 and 2, AP was correlated with D-PFCA (r=.37, p<.01, and r=.33, p<.01, respectively), IQ (r=.24, p<.05, and r=.38, p<.01, respectively), and Conscientiousness (r=.26, p<.05, and r=.37, p<.01, respectively). D-PFCA remained significant in regression analyses controlling for intelligence (or g) and personality. Studies 3 and 4 assessed D-PFCA, personality, and workplace performance among (a) managerial-administrative workers and (b) factory floor workers at a manufacturing company. Prefrontal cognitive ability correlated with supervisor ratings of manager performance at values of r ranging from .42 to .57 (ps<.001), depending on experience, and with factory floor performance at pr=.21 (p=.02), after controlling for experience, age, and education. Conscientiousness correlated with factory floor performance at r=.23.     

Mapping the color space of saccadic selectivity in visual search

Color coding is used to guide attention in computer displays for such critical tasks as baggage screening or air traffic control. It has been shown that a display object attracts more attention if its color is more similar to the color for which one is searching. However, what does similar precisely mean? Can we predict the amount of attention that a display color will receive during a search for a given target color? To tackle this question, two color‐search experiments measuring the selectivity of saccadic eye movements and mapping out its underlying color space were conducted. A variety of mathematical models, predicting saccadic selectivity for given target and display colors, were devised and evaluated. The results suggest that applying a Gaussian function to a weighted Euclidean distance in a slightly modified HSI color space is the best predictor of saccadic selectivity in the chosen paradigm. Hue and intensity information by itself provides a basis for useful predictors, spanning a possibly spherical color space of saccadic selectivity. Although the current models cannot predict saccadic selectivity values for a wide variety of visual search tasks, they reveal some characteristics of color search that are of both theoretical and applied interest, such as for the design of human–computer interfaces.