Consequence analysis: Its effects on verbal statements about an environmental project

Typically, citizens lack relevant information concerning possible consequences of proposed environmental projects. Despite federal requirements for citizen participation in decisions about proposed roadway projects, no systematic procedures exist for educating citizens as to the possible consequences of such projects. The effects of a consequence analysis procedure on community residents' verbal statements about the favorability of a proposed roadway project were assessed. The consequence analysis procedure involved asking residents to rate the desirability and magnitude of each of 48 possible consequences of the proposed roadway project. Following the intervention, overall ratings of favorability of the project changed for nine of ten residents. Community residents' ratings of the quality of participants' justifications of their position on the roadway issue provided evidence of generalization to this collateral behavior.     

Development of comprehension of sentences with “because” or “if”

The comprehension of sentences with “because” or “if” was investigated in children aged 2;9–11;11. Imitation, comprehension (choosing one of two picture sequences to go with a sentence), recognition (judging sentences with connective or structure differences as heard before or not), and synonymy (judging equivalence of meaning in sentences with different connectives or structures) tasks were administered, along with logical ordering, reversibility, and classification tasks. Above-chance responding in the comprehension task occurred by age 8, and in recognition and synonymy by age 10. Cognitive performance predicted 28.4% of the variance in the linguistic scores and cognitive success was concurrent with or preceded linguistic success. Comprehension of “because” and “if” appears to develop gradually, and is related to the development of certain operative rules.     

Active and passive observers' attraction to a self-disclosing other

Active observer (participant) subjects were induced to make either a high or a low intimacy disclosure about themselves to a partner. Their (videotaped confederate) partner then disclosed either intimately or non-intimately in return. The impressions and attributions of these subjects were compared to the predictions of passive observer subjects (non-participants) who were each furnished with the original instructions, heard a tape recording of a different active observer's disclosure, and watched the same videotape of the confederate that person had seen. As expected, both active observers' responses and passive observers' predictions indicated a preference for the intimate partner. In addition, passive observers' attraction predictions were less positive than active observers' reports. But contrary to the hypotheses, passive observers predicted that active observers would attribute the partner's disclosure more to personalistic causes than was actually the case, and guessed inaccurately that active observers would interpret the partner's intimacy as an indicator of attraction. The methodological implications of these active-passive observer differences for research in self-disclosure and relationships are discussed.     

Comments on John B. Carroll's “how shall we study individual differences in cognitive abilities?—Methodological and theoretical perspectives”

A critique by Carroll (1978) of a study by Jarman and Das (1977) is discussed in terms of the methodology and theory of the Jarman and Das study. Additionally, two general issues concerned with individual differences in cognitive processes, and strategic behavior, are elaborated beyond Carroll's discussion. It is suggested that the Carroll critique of the Jarman and Das research is incorrect in several respects, and the theory on which this research was based may contribute some needed conceptual and operational distinctions to future individual differences investigations.     

Affect and retrieval of personal memories

The relationship of pleasantness and intensity of affect to retrieval of reallife experiences was investigated in three experiments. Subjects reported the first specific personal experience that came to mind for a series of prompt words. Latency of report was regarded as a measure of memory accessibility. The first study compared retrieval time for prompts that sampled affects varying in pleasantness and intensity. Experiments II and III assessed the possible contributions of demand characteristics and implicit inferential processes to retrospective judgments of feelings. Judgments of the intensity of feeling engendered when the events occurred were inversely related to report latency. Results support the conclusion that intensity ratings were reliable indices of memory information rather than inferences or reconstructions mediated by report latency. Other characteristics of recollections such as pleasantness, recency, or relative frequency of the specific affects were not correlated with report latency. Two explanations of the findings are considered: an arousal hypothesis and an extent-of-processing hypothesis. The latter provides the most adequate account and relates the present findings to a more general theory of memory processes. The results are also relevant to investigations of mood-dependent retrieval.This is an expanded version of a paper presented in the Symposium on Naturally Occurring Memories, at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August 1978.     

Concepts of intellect in relation to learning and adult development

This article is a summary and integration of results from studies of the organization and development of human abilities. Several kinds of results are interpreted as converging toward support of theories stipulating a hierarchy of intellectual functions. Near the top of this hierarchy, most related to intelligence as this is usually conceived, are the two broad sets of abilities known as fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc). The major focus of the review is on the decline of Gf through the “vital years of adulthood,” from 20 to 60 years of age. Major conclusions are:1. Sensory detector functions, near the bottom of the hierarchy of intellectual capacities, decline with development through the vital years, but this kind of decline is not responsible for aging decline of the major features of fluid intelligence: keenness of sensory function is not of the sine qua non of mature expressions of human intelligence.2. Memory abilities are somewhat higher in the hierarchy of intellectual functions, and thus are more strongly related to intelligence, than are sensory detectors. With increase in time interval over which retention is required, there is increase in the relationship of memory to Gf and to decline of Gf over the vital years. Accompanying this increase is an increase in the extent to which memory is dependent upon adequacy of organization at the stage of encoding. This, in turn, reflects the adequacy of eduction of relations and correlates, which is an essential feature of Gf.3. To the extent that very short-term memory is implicated in fluid intelligence, and the decline of this, it is intimately related to either a capacity or inclination to maintain close attention under conditions of high demand for attention.4. The speed with which one obtains correct answers to difficult problems is not closely related to the number of correct answers obtained when all subjects attempt all items in fluid intelligence tests, but clerical/perpetual speed, as indicated in tasks of quickly finding a particular symbol among others or tasks of making same/different judgments, is related to aging decline of Gf. As with short-term memory, this form of intellectual speediness appears to be closely related to capacities (or inclinations) for maintaining attention, dividing attention, and holding things in mind while doing other things.5. Crystallized intelligence probably increases over the vital years. This reflects dynamic restructuring of knowledge systems. It appears that there is not only an aging increase in knowledge but also an increase in the accessibility of information, a result being that humans become more creative (in one sense) as age increases through the vital years.6. Results from multivariate cross-sectional studies of intelligence are seen to be consistent with comparable results obtained with other kinds of research strategies.     

The new experimental aesthetics—The beginning or the end?

In reference to recent work in aesthetics from a scientific perspective, Berlyne coined the phrase the new experimental aesthetics. Berlyne's contributions to this research area are discussed in terms of the philosophical, theoretical, and methodological issues central to the current literature. The paper concludes with a consideration of the future prospects for experimental aesthetics.This paper was presented at a symposium in honor of Daniel E. Berlyne at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 27, 1977. The presentation of this paper was supported by a grant from York University.     

A further analysis of the affective meanings associated with male and female sex-trait stereotypes

This study was concerned with the qualitative differences in the male and female sex-trait stereotypes. Previous research employing the item pool of the Adjective Check List (ACL) had indicated no relationship between the stereotype loading of the adjectives and their favorability ratings. In the present study, university students rated the ACL items for strength and activity, and these ratings were used to demonstrate that the male stereotype was appreciably stronger and more active than the female stereotype. It was found that the strength ratings were highly correlated with both activity and favorability ratings which were, themselves, unrelated. It was concluded that the principal qualitative difference between the stereotypes lay in the connotations of activity and passivity associated, respectively, with the male and female stereotype traits, and that any assertion of greater social desirability for the male stereotype was based on its greater activity and not, as is often supposed, on its greater favorability.     

Childrens' perceptions of parental expressiveness

While the literature suggests that males are less emotionally expressive than females, the issue has been informed by little systematic research. This article investigates the differences between sons' and daughters' perceptions of their mothers' and fathers' expressiveness of several emotions, both verbally and nonverbally. Using a sample of 1,245 students the dependent variable, perceived expressiveness of parents, was determined from responses to a 16-item Likert-type Perceived Parental Expressiveness Scale (PPES). It was hypothesized that fathers would be perceived to be less expressive than mothers. T tests were used to determine whether the mean differences are significant. The data indicate that fathers are perceived as less expressive of all emotions except physical anger. The ramifications of these findings for sex-role learning are discussed.The research reported in this paper is part of National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. 22156-01, The Inexpressive Male (Jack Balswick, Principal Investigator), University of Georgia. The authors wish to thank Dr. Charles W. Peek for his assistance in the revision of this article.     

A Developmental Approach to Outreach Services for Counseling Centers

Economics, pressure for accountability and changing student needs are forcing counseling centers to evaluate their services and methods of delivery. This article illustrates how a developmental, proactive, outreach approach can be an alternative to the traditional medical model.