The effect of suspense and its resolution on the appreciation of dramatic presentations

In a factorial design, degree of suspense (low, intermediate, high) of an adventure presented audiovisually was varied with resolution of the suspense (resolved, lingering). The variations were accomplished by producing different versions of the same program. Appreciation of the presentation was measured in the viewers' facial displays, in structured interviews, and in ratings. Consistently across measures, it was found that under conditions of resolved suspense, appreciation substantially increased with degree of suspense. Under conditions of lingering suspense, appreciation also increased with degree of suspense but to a significantly smaller extent. Excitatory responses were measured in skin temperature and heart rate. A significant differentiation of heart rate as a function of degree of suspense was observed. In addition, both skin temperature and heart rate disclosed sudden declines in excitation with the effective resolution of suspense.     

The motive to avoid success: A further examination

Horner's (1968) “fear of success” study was replicated and expanded. One hundred seventy-seven high school (HS) and college students wrote stories in response to the following cues: “After first-term finals, John (Anne) finds himself (herself) at the top of his (her) medical-school class.” Results indicated similarity of response of HS men, HS women, and college men, all of whom expressed more fear of success imagery in response to the Anne cue than to the John cue. College women did not conform to this pattern.     

LED-transistor optical vascular measure: Calibration,replicability, and comparability to strain-gauge measures

Recently, a LED-transistor optoelectronic package (Sensor Technology 850A) has been used to measure peripheral vascular responses. This report examines the calibration and measurement replicability of this device and relates device output to flow measures derived from venous occlusion plethysmography. Measures were taken from the thumbnails of 11 male volunteers. A correlational analysis of sequential amplitude readings compared calibrated and uncalibrated values. Calibration failed to increase the sensitivity of the measures. Replicability of measurement was assessed by removing and replacing the device five times. A correlation of .87 suggested that the readings are replicable. Finally, the amplitude of the optical signal was correlated to concurrent flow measures. Only modest correlations were observed as computed across time within individuals or between individuals. The optical device does not appear to be a direct measure of flow as assessed by venous occlusion plethysmography, rather, it may be heavily influenced by the mechanical motion of the vessel wall.     

When experiences of failure promote expectations of success: The impact of attribution failure to ineffective strategies1

This experiment examined the effects of attributing initial failure to ineffective strategies on performance expectancies. Subjects were induced to attribute performance at a persuasion task to either their strategies (a controllable factor) or abilities (an uncontrollable factor). Subjects then failed at their initial persuasion attempt. Following failure, strategy subjects expected more successes in future attempts than did ability subjects. Strategy subjects also expected to improve with practice, while ability subjects did not. Comparisons to control subjects, who received no attribution manipulation prior to success or failure, clarify these results. Findings suggest that subjects attributing task outcomes to strategies monitored the effectiveness of their strategies and concluded that by modifying their strategies they would become more successful. In contrast, subjects attributing task outcome to abilities failed to attend to strategic features and concluded that they could not improve. Implications of this overlooked factor for attribution theory and learned helplessness are discussed.     

Changes in alertness and processing capacity in a serial learning task

Second-to-second changes in processing capacity were examined using a concurrent task paradigm involving serial learning and simple reaction time (RT) in two experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrated the feasibility of combining probe RT with a slow-paced serial learning task including perceptually isolated items. Experiment 2 employed the same concurrent tasks to compare cardiac interbeat interval (IBI, the reciprocal of heart rate) with probe RT. Second-to-second changes during item processing were found consistently for both measures. However, these changes appeared to be more related to observing and response requirements than to the specific cognitive processes required by the tasks. Correctly anticipated items were associated with (l)RT changes, suggesting heightened allocation of capacity, and (2)a cardiac IBI response of episodic cardiac deceleration imposed upon the task-induced cardiac speeding. The probe RT and cardiac IBI measures showed reasonable convergence in assessing the allocation of processing capacity. The concept of the accessibility of allocated capacity was introduced in considering instances of the divergence of probe RT and cardiac IBI.     

Speed-accuracy tradeoff functions in choice reaction time: Experimental designs and computational procedures

The existence of tradeoffs between speed and accuracy is an important interpretative problem in choice reaction time (RT) experiments. A recently suggested solution to this problem is the use of complete speed-accuracy tradeoff functions as the primary dependent variable in choice RT ,experiments instead of a single mean RT and error rate. This paper reviews and compares existing procedures for generating empirical speed-accuracy tradeoff, functions for use as dependent variables in choice RT experiments. Two major types of tradeoff function are identified, and their experimental designs and computational procedures are discussed and evaluated. Systematic disparities are demonstrated between the two tradeoff functions in both empirical and computer-simulated data. Although all existing procedures for generating speed-accuracy tradeoff functions involve empirically untested assumptions, one procedure requires less stringent assumptions and is less sensitive to sources of experimental and statistical error. This procedure involves plotting accuracy against RT over a set of experimental conditions in which subjects’ criteria for speed vs. accuracy are systematically varied.