CHILDREN'S THINKING IN BOTSWANA: PIAGET TASKS EXAMINED*

This Piaget replication study was done in Botswana. Six tasks were completed by 554 primary school children from urban, rural, and traditional village environments. Conservation of number, length, mass and weight, seriation and classification exercises were carried out using materials commonly found in the culture. Previous studies by other investigators have compared schooled and unschooled subjects in other African countries, but often unschooled subjects were from rural areas, so the environmental effects could not be isolated. In this study comparisons were made between students in the three environments, between age groups, and between male and female subjects. Urban children completed tasks at an earlier age than those from other environments. In general, the results are similar to findings from other African countries.     

Phonemic-analysis training helps children benefit from spelling-sound rules

It has been frequently suggested that the ability to analyze spoken words into phonemes facilitates children’s learning of spelling-sound rules. This research attempts to demonstrate that link by showing that phonemic-analysis training helps children take advantage of spelling sound rules in learning to read. In two experiments, preschool and kindergarten prereaders participated in an analysis condition and a control condition on each of 4 test days. In the analysis condition, children learned to segment (and in Experiment 2, also to blend) selected spoken syllables. In the control condition, they merely repeated syllables. Children were then introduced to printed items that corresponded to the spoken syllables with which they had worked. The pronunciation of the “related” item could be deduced from those of other printed items in the set; the pronunciation of the “unrelated” item could not be so deduced. Both experiments revealed a significant interaction between condition (analysis vs. control) and item type (related vs. unrelated). In the control condition, children tended to make more errors on the related item than on the unrelated item; in the analysis condition, they tended to make fewer errors on the related item than on the unrelated item. These results suggest a causal link between the ability to analyze spoken syllables and the ability to benefit from spelling-sound relations in reading.     

Effect of inconsistent distinctiveness of artificial semantic features on retrieval speed

A purported universal of language is the generalization of distinctive features, for example, in phonology and semantics, within a language or an individual. This could be due to a tendency either to use or to ignore a feature depending on whether or not it has previously been distinctive. This mechanism is shown to operate in retrieval of well-learned artificial concept names. Several simple models of performance cannot account for this effect. The apparent inefficiency of possible mechanisms which could account for this result suggests that it may reflect a special predisposition.     

A rate measure of the relative aversiveness of signalled vs unsignalled shock

Five rats were trained on a two-component multiple schedule with each component consisting of a two-link chain schedule. Differential response suppression in the initial links of the chain schedules was used as a measure of the relative aversiveness of events introduced into the subsequent terminal links. When unsignalled shock was scheduled in one terminal link and signalled shock in the other (in addition to equal numbers of food reinforcers), responding was suppressed to a greater degree in the initial link preceding the unsignalled-shock condition. Reversing the terminal-link positions of unsignalled shock and signalled shock led to a reversal of the differential response suppression in the initial links. These results confirm previous findings that signalled shock is less aversive than unsignalled shock and extend the generality of this phenomenon from choice measures to rate measures of aversiveness.     

Perceptual dependence: Evidence for an internal threshold

Ss were asked to make two forced-choice discriminations on each trial: in Experiment I, they had to tell on which side of the display a latter pair appeared and whether or not its members were identical; in Experiment II, to say where the pair appeared and whether it consisted of Xs or Os; in Experiment III, to say where a letter appeared and whether it rhymed with E; and in Experiment IV, to say whether a letter pair was presented and whether it was a word. In Experiment III, and for some Ss in Experiment I, the second discrimination was dependent on the first; that is, when the S was wrong on the first, he performed at chance level on the second. In Experiment IV, when Ss indicated that nothing was presented (with confidence), they performed at chance level on the recognition task; thus, recognition was dependent upon some information about the detection task. It is argued that perceptual dependence implies that a threshold state, a state in which the S has no information, exists for the dependent discrimination. One explanation of dependence assumes mediation of the dependent discrimination by a processing stage which succeeds stages mediating the other task.     

Aggression and heat: the influence of ambient temperature, negative affect, and a cooling drink on physical aggression.

Two experiments were conducted to examine the influence of ambient temperature upon physical aggression. In the first, male subjects received either a positive or negative evaluation from a confederate and were then provided with an opportunity to agress against this person by means of electric shock. On the basis of previous research, it was predicted that high ambient temperatures (92-95 degrees F) would facilitate aggression by those receiving positive evaluations but actually inhibit such behavior by those receiving negative assessments. Results confirmed both of these predictions and also indicated that more moderate but still uncomfortably warm temperatures (82-85 degrees F) produced similar effects. The second experiment employed procedures similar to the first and examined the suggestion that administration of a cooling drink would reduce the impact of high ambient temperatures upon overt aggression. This prediction, too, was confirmed. The possible mediating role of negative affect with respect to the influence of ambient temperature and other environmental factors upon aggression was discussed.     

Effects of scopolamine on repeated acquisition of radial-arm maze performance by rats.

Rats repeatedly acquired the performance of selecting only the four baited arms in an automated eight-arm radial maze, with the arms containing food pellets randomly assigned prior to each session. During each 14-trial (trial: obtain all four pellets) daily session, the number of errors (selecting nonbaited arms or repeating arm selections) showed a within-session decline, and choice accuracy for the first four arm selections showed a positive acceleration across trials for all rats. An index-of-curvature statistic, calculated for total errors, was used to quantify both the within- and between-session improvement of performance. Scopolamine (0.03 to 0.3 mg/kg, ip), but not methylscopolamine (0.3 mg/kg), reduced the accuracy of the first four selections of each trial and increased total within-session errors for all rats. Session times also were increased by scopolamine. An examination of within-session accuracy showed only slight signs of improvement at the higher dosages of scopolamine. The results indicate that behavior in transition states maintained by reinforcement contingencies in the radial maze is similar to that maintained by extended chained schedules, despite the fact that some of the stimuli controlling behavior in the maze are absent at the moment behavior is emitted.     

Inhibition by Reinforcement: Effects of Reinforcer Magnitude and Timeout on Fixed-Ratio Pausing

The Psychological Record - Rats were trained on fixed-ratio schedules with different reinforcer magnitudes (concentrations of sweetened milk), using procedures in which responding was allowed to...     

Why women fail/succeed in ministry: Psychological factors

A study was made of the most and least successful women minister graduates of Christian Theological Seminary since 1959. Significant differences were found in several scales of the CTMM, the ACL and the MMPI. These indicated, for example, higher intelligence, a better self-image, more openness to feelings and to general human faults plus alternative viewpoints, more leadership ability and ability to take charge of their own lives, for the more successful women. Implications for helpful interventions were discussed.Dr. Cardwell is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Counseling and Director of the Pastoral Counseling Service at Christian Theological Seminary, 1000 West 42nd Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46208.