Probabilistic foundations for coefficients of generalizability

This paper explores certain problems which arise within the context of the theory of generalizability put forward by Cornbach, Rajaratnam, and Gleser. In particular, a formal explication of their theory for the single observation is given, and the various coefflcients of generalizability which they define are related to the estimation of universe scores.This work is based on a Master's thesis submitted to the University of Illinois in 1963. The author is particularly indebted to Dr. Lee J. Cornbach and Dr. Ledyard R Tucker for their unstinted advice and help.     

The egocentric bias: Seeing oneself as cause and target of others' behavior

The egocentric bias—the tendency to see oneself as both cause and target of another person's behavior—was examined in the context of a small group interaction. Pairs of subjects plus a confederate conducted a short discussion, their goal being to achieve consensus on a specific topic. The discussion was interrupted by the experimenter when the confederate summarized his/her opinion. It was found that subjects were more likely to see themselves as a cause as well as a target of the confederate's last statement compared to the way they were seen by other group members. Subjects were also more likely to exaggerate the amount of attention they received from the confederate. The overall egocentric bias scores were correlated with subjects' level of self-esteem. Cognitive and motivational processes that may account for this bias were discussed.     

Eros and wholeness

It is suggested that the direction for resolving the current normative confusion regarding the place of sexuality in our lives lies in understanding it as a manifestation of Eros. Eros is revealed to be the desire for wholeness. In order for Eros to achieve its aim, therefore, we must respect the whole fabric of life. This respect is manifest when the connections between Eros and six different facets of life are held intact and thereby enhanced. These six facets are (1) pleasure, (2) human relationship, (3) procreation, (4) family, (5) psychological growth, and (6) spiritual growth. The nature of each of these connections is briefly discussed.     

Maintenance and generalization of trained metamnemonic awareness by educable retarded children

The majority of educable retarded children (young group, MA 6; old group, MA 8) required to estimate their memory span was found to be unrealistic estimators. Following training in span estimation the older subjects improved under both explicit and implicit feedback conditions, while younger children only benefited from explicit feedback. Three posttests of the effects of training revealed long-term (1-year) maintenance of training for older subjects but younger subjects showed post-test improvement only on an immediate test. While long-term maintenance was found for older subjects, generalization to similar span-estimation tests was not found. The utility of training metamnemonic knowledge which does not generalize was questioned and alternate training procedures were proposed.     

The effect of interpolated experience on visual recognition

Two hundred twelve-year-old children were shown a circle-with-gap figure and, five minutes later, required to recognize this figure from among a graded series of similar figures. The interpolation of circles with different sizes of gap resulted in retroactive interference, the recognition error being either positive or negative according to the nature of the interpolated figures. The results also draw attention to the dependence of certain recognition errors on the age of the subject and indicate a developmental trend in the perceiving and recognizing of simple figures.     

Factor analytic study of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale

A factor analysis of the Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale was conducted with a biracial u sample of children over a wide age range. The Scale was completed by 348 10-17 year old students in a rural community. Seven factors of 10 had sufficient item loadings to be interpretable. Six matched those found in the manual and an additional factor was found relating to Aggression. Race, sex, and age relationships are also reported for these seven factors.     

Children's cued recall: Developmental differences in retrieval operations

Second and fifth grade children were aurally presented a study list containing eight target items plus primacy and recency buffers, followed first by free recall, then by cued recall for items not produced in free recall. Two additional buffer items were used at Grade 5 in an effort to equate the two age groups in free recall of targets. The cues were either of high or of moderate associative strength, and equal for the two age groups. Free recall of targets did not differ with age, suggesting equivalent storage of targets. At Grade 2 the cued recall level matched expectations based on a simple associative account of cuing effects. However, cued recall at Grade 5 was much higher than the normative association values, implicating strategic retrieval operations, the possible nature of which was discussed.     

A beautiful day in the neighborhood: What factors determine the generation effect for simple multiplication problems?

In four experiments, we examined the generation effect for the free recall of simple multiplication answers. Large-product-size problems showed a consistent generation-effect advantage over small-product-size problems, except when each answer was generated twice, via two different sets of operands (Experiment 2). Also, measures of problem-solution time and strategy use accounted for the large-product-size advantage. Across experiments, however, small-product-size problems (but not large-product-size problems) showed considerable variation in the size of their generation effect. We discovered that solving small-product-size problems via direct memory retrieval increased the episodic recall probability of other problems that were near neighbors to the generated answer, and we attribute this result to a spreading activation mechanism in semantic memory. A measure of neighbor activations, combined with RT to solve each problem, accounted for 51% of the observed generation-effect variance.