Memory for news in young and old adults

Memory for news stories was studied in 48 young and 48 old adults (20-40 and 60-80 years of age, respectively). Three stories selected from actual news programs were presented in print, audio, and TV formats for study. Young adults recalled a higher proportion of news content than old adults and performed better on source recognition tests. Presentation of the information in a TV format led to better performance than in an audio format for both young and old adults. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that approximately 86% of the age-related variance in news recall was mediated by measures of sensory acuity and processing speed, and commonality analysis revealed that 75% of the age-related variance was mediated jointly by acuity and speed. Findings support common-cause and generalized slowing views of memory impairment in old age.     

Three Conceptions of Rational Agency

Rational agency may be thought of as intentional activity that is guided by the agent's conception of what they have reason to do. The paper identifies and assesses three approaches to this phenomenon, which I call internalism, meta-internalism, and volitionalism. Internalism accounts for rational motivation by appeal to substantive desires of the agent's that are conceived as merely given; I argue that it fails to do full justice to the phenomenon of guidance by one's conception of one's reasons. Meta-internalism explains this phenomenon by postulating higher-order dispositions, consitutive of (rational) agency itself, which causally interact with the agent's normative beliefs to produce corresponding motivations to action. I show that meta-internalism comes to grief over cases of akrasia, insofar as it leaves no room for the capacity for rational guidance when agents voluntarily act at variance with their judgments about what they have reason to do. Volitionalism, I contend, improves on both internalism and meta-internalism. Its distinctive feature is the postulation of a kind of motivation that is directly subject to the agent's control, and independent of the dispositions and desires to which the agent is passively subject.     

How one gambles if one must: Effects of differing return rates on multistage betting decisions

In the multistage betting game (MBG), a decision maker (DM) is provided with some capital x which he is required to bet over m (m > 1) mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive alternatives, each of which occurs with probability p_i (p_i > 0, i = 1,…, m; Σ_{i = 1}^mp_i = 1). If y_i is bet on alternative i (y_i ≥ 0, Σ_{i = 1}^my_i = x) and alternative i obtains, the DM's capital for the next stage is y_ir_i, (r_i > 0). The MBG lasts until either the DM loses his capital or N stages elapse, whichever comes first. Each of six subjects participated in six sessions consisting of several hundred 3-alternative MBG stages. A within-subject design assigned negative expected value (EV) bets to the first three sessions and positive EV bets to three more sessions. Significant effects were found due to return rate, capital size, homogeneous runs of either wins or losses, and individual differences. Four maximization of expected utility and two minimization of risk models were presented and tested. A modified logarithmic utility model is proposed, which provides the best fit to the data. The implications of the results and directions for further research are briefly discussed.     

The interaction of memories in the rat: Effects on short-term retention performance

In four experiments, rats were tested for short-term retention of a target spatial location either with or without prior exposures to alternate spatial locations in a T-maze. In all cases, exposure to alternate locations prior to exposure to the target location impaired retention of the target. This impairment increased as the number of exposures to the alternate location was increased, and the impairment decreased as the interval between alternate and target exposures was increased. In no case was the magnitude of the impairment found to increase as the retention interval was lengthened.     

Spatial direction and grammatical form of instructions affect the solution of spatial problems

One hundred and forty-eight undergraduate women were orally instructed to repeatedly and quickly draw circles in spatial relation to squares printed on sheets of paper. On each trial, the instructions required the circle to be drawn either above, below, to the right of, or to the left of the square. The instructions were expressed so that the circle was either the logical subject (e.g., "circle above square") or the logical object (e.g., "square below circle") of the statement. Each subject received all experimental conditions for a total of 24 separate drawings per subject. Analysis of variance of the total number of errors disclosed significant effects of all experimental variables. Performance was significantly more accurate when the circle was the logical subject, when the orientations were "above" and "right of" rather than "below" and "left of" and for the vertical dimension. The results are discussed in terms of current theories on "asymmetries" in information processing.     

On voluntary ocular accommodation

Young observers were challenged to induce a marked monocular accommodative response to a relatively weak accommodative stimulus by placing a-9 diopter contact lens on the eye. At first, observers could not produce the desired response, but with training, three of four subjects achieved criterion. Both a voluntary accommodative response and a response to an adequate accommodative stimulus were apparently involved. The voluntary component of the response could be demonstrated by having the observers repeat the task in total darkness.     

Men and women as computer-using teachers

Education is one institutional arena in which women professionals comprise a majority of adult computer users. Using data from a national survey of schools, it was found that women comprise two-thirds of the primary computer-using teachers (PCUTs) in elementary schools, and the proportion of women in this role in secondary schools is nearly the same as the proportion of women among secondary school teachers as a whole. Elementary schools whose primary computer-using teacher was a woman used their computer more for programming instruction and less as a drill-and-practice tool than where a man was the PCUT. Microcomputers were used for more hours of the day and with more positive consequences at elementary schools whose PCUT was a woman. In contrast, at the secondary level, schools with men PCUTs had more extensive programs of microcomputer use in nearly every aspect measured.     

Detection of coherence-disrupting and coherence-conferring alterations in text

In a study phase, subjects were presented with sentence pairs which were either coherent or anomalous. In a subsequent recognition test, each sentence pair was presented either in its original form or with one word changed. The changed word either disrupted the coherence of a previously coherent sentence pair or conferred coherence on a previously anomalous sentence pair. Alterations were more accurately detected if they were coherence-disrupting than if they were coherence-conferring. In a coherence-conferring alteration, the altered sentence can be assimilated to one of the abstract cognitive units activated by the studied sentence pair, whereas in a coherence-disrupting alteration, the altered sentence cannot be so assimilated. Analogous asymmetries have been observed for musical sequences that are coherent or anomalous with respect to tonality and rhythm. These parallels suggest that principles of cognitive organization that are responsible for our intuitions of coherence cut across propositional and nonpropositional domains.     

The professional liability of behavioral scientists: An overview

Issues regarding the question of what constitutes malpractice by psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals, are reviewed. The legal concepts of negligence, professional liability, and causation are explained and related subjects including the duty of mental health professionals and what constitutes a breach of that duty are discussed and illustrated. Guidelines for avoiding legal jeopardy are also presented.     

Self-esteem,need for approval,and reactions to personal evaluations

In accordance with theoretical predictions concerning the reactions of high and low self-esteem individuals, Ss with low self-esteem scores showed an increase in liking for a positive evaluator of self and a decrease in liking for a negative evaluator of self. Ss with high self-esteem scores and low Marlowe-Crowne scores did not show a significant change in liking for either a positive or negative evaluator of self. Ss with high self-esteem scores and high Marlowe-Crowne scores showed a pattern of reaction similar to that of low self-esteem Ss. It was suggested that a sizable percentage of high self-esteem scorers should be reclassified as low self-esteem. This subgroup seems to obtain high scores on a self-esteem inventory by presenting themselves in an overly favorable as opposed to honest manner (the defining characteristic of a high Marlowe-Crowne scorer) but shows behavior patterns similar to low self-esteem individuals.