Area-matching strategies used by young children

Across three studies, conditions were varied under which children aged 4–5 years matched the area of a rectangle with a given width (or height) to that of a square. In the first study, subjects observed the rectangle being changed in height from trial to trial and had access to their immediately preceding response. Under these conditions, rectangle width (the dimension under subject control) was a linear decreasing function of rectangle height. This function was interpreted as evidence for a hypothetical addition/subtraction strategy for maintaining equality in area between the comparison rectangle and the standard square. As a test of this hypothesis, in a second experiment the subjects were denied access to their immediately previous response, and in a third study they were also unable to observe the rectangle as it was altered by the experimenter between trials. The purpose of these changes was to remove the information necessary for readily implementing an addition/subtraction strategy. In both studies, area matches seemed to be based on a side-matching strategy, such that subjects matched one dimension of the rectangle to one side of the standard square. It was suggested that young children use different cues or strategies with different variants of the matching task because they do not possess a fixed, specific concept of area.     

Toward a multimethod approach to assessing the effects of social support

Two studies were done to assess the direct and stress-buffering effects of social support on psychological symptoms of college students. Three conceptually distinct measures were used to assess different aspects of social support: receipt of supportive transactions, satisfaction with support received, and social support network characteristics. The results indicated a significant direct and stress-buffering effect for support satisfaction in reducing psychological symptomatology. Two measures of support network size were used: number of people who were both a source of supportive and of upsetting interactions (conflicted support network), and number of people who were only mentioned as a source of support (unconflicted support network). Conflicted network size was positively related to symptomatology and increased the relationship between stress and symptomatology. No direct or interaction effects were obtained for unconflicted network size in predicting symptomatology.     

Information integration in price-quality tradeoffs: The effect of missing information

Support for averaging processes in information integration has relied on experimental designs in which the amount of information to be integrated was varied. The usual interpretation is that subjects balance the values of the various stimuli presented on a given trial. An alternative interpretation is that subjects may use their perceptions of the relationship between stimulus dimensions to infer the value of missing information. In the present study, subjects were asked to rate their expected satisfaction with purchases of ground beef on the basis of quality and/or price information. The responses of some subjects appeared to be based on the inference that high prices imply high quality and low prices imply low quality when no quality information is given. Other subjects appeared to assign a constant value to missing information. An averaging model that incorporates inferred as well as presented stimulus values is proposed.     

Amplitude discrimination of sinusoids and narrow-band noise with Rayleigh properties

The ability of human observers to discriminate differences in the amplitude of sinusoids and narrow-band noises was measured by the rating method of detection theory. Although each sinusoid (always 1000 Hz) was presented at a fixed amplitude, its amplitude on any trial was drawn from one of two Rayleigh probability distributions that differed in mean amplitude: a signal distribution and a noise distribution. Similarly, the amplitudes of the narrow-band noises were distributed as the Rayleigh distribution by virtue of the reciprocal relation between their bandwidth (100 Hz centered on 1000 Hz) and duration (10 msec). The obtained psychometric functions showing the area under the ROC as a function of signal-to-noise ratio were similar for both kinds of signals and were displaced, on average, about 4 dB from an ideal observer’s function. The slopes of the obtained functions were similar to those of an ideal observer using 1 degree of freedom—half the number available in Rayleigh noise.     

Amplitude discrimination of sinusoids and narrow-band noise with Rayleigh properties.

The ability of human observers to discriminate differences in the amplitude of sinusoids and narrow-band noises was measured by the rating method of detection theory. Although each sinusoid (always 1000 Hz) was presented at a fixed amplitude, its amplitude on any trial was drawn from one of two Rayleigh probability distributions that differed in mean amplitude: a signal distribution and a noise distribution. Similarly, the amplitudes of the narrow-band noises were distributed as the Rayleigh distribution by virtue of the reciprocal relation between their bandwidth (100 Hz centered on 1000 Hz) and duration (10 msec). The obtained psychometric functions showing the area under the ROC as a function of signal-to-noise ratio were similar for both kinds of signals and were displaced, on average, about 4 dB from an ideal observer's function. The slopes of the obtained functions were similar to those of an ideal observer using 1 degree of freedom--half the number available in Rayleigh noise.     

Hypothetical and real consequences in experimental auctions for insurance against low-probability risks

Laboratory experiments have provided useful information about how people behave in risky situations. In particular, such experiments have allowed for the observation of many deviations from the predictions of expected utility theory. There is some dispute, however, over the effect of the use of real versus hypothetical money in these experiments and over the impact of experience. In this paper we describe auction experiments in which subjects faced a low-probability risk with either hypothetical or real-money consequences and varying amounts of experience. Using hypothetical payoffs resulted in behavior that provides a reasonable qualitative prediction of behavior with real consequences, but that seems to indicate a less diligent altitude toward spending the money as well as less concern about the risk.     

Concomitants of social support: Attitudes, personality characteristics, and life experiences

Determining the extent of social support and its consequences and personality correlates has been of increasing interest to researchers. The two studies reported here deal with the possibility that people low in social support are characterized by rigid, authoritarian personality characteristics and a lack of confidence in the support that informal social networks can provide. Groups differing in social support were compared on scales measuring attitudes toward mental illness and personal feelings of anomy. Subjects high in social support had more benign attitudes concerning the mentally ill and felt less anomy than did subjects low in social support. They also perceived their own early relationships with parents as being more positive. The findings are in agreement with several hypotheses about individual differences related to social support differences, and suggest that studies geared toward understanding the causal relations involved would be both theoretically and practically valuable.     

Test anxiety, stress, and social support

Three experiments examined the relationships among test anxiety, stress, and social support. In the first experiment, social support was defined in terms of the opportunity for social association with peers. In the second, it was defined as contact with an experimenter who displayed acceptance and empathy. The dependent measure was the ability to solve difficult intellective problems. In the third, measures of both performance and self-preoccupation were obtained for groups differing in access to social association. Social support had an especially positive effect on the performance of highly test-anxious subjects and seemed to reduce self-preoccupation. The results were discussed in terms of the role played by social support in the ability to cope with stress.