Varying temporal placement of an added stimulus in a fixed-interval schedule

One paradigm for exploring stimulus effects on behavior is defined for steady state experiments. The paradigm is illustrated by a 60-sec fixed-interval reinforcement schedule wherein a 6-sec light is introduced into each interval. The temporal relation of this stimulus to the reinforcer is the independent variable that is systematically explored. Two experiments studied this temporal relation under two parametric conditions: (a) when the 6-sec light occurs once in each 60-sec interval, (b) when the 6-sec light occurs twice in each interval, the second time always during the 6 sec immediately preceding the reinforcer. Functions are presented showing the effect of the 6-sec light on responding at all points in the fixed-interval.     

The use of rats as discriminative stimuli

A FREE OPERANT PROCEDURE WAS USED TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT ONE RAT COULD DISCRIMINATE: (1) between the presence and absence of a second rat, and (2) between two other rats of the same species and sex. The subjects were four male Wistar rats. The discriminatory response was a bar press and food was used as reinforcement during training. Although there were wide individual differences in rate of learning, all subjects learned to make both discriminations.     

Investigations of a mirror-image transfer effect in pigeons

In two separate experiments, pigeons trained binocularly to peck a key on which an oblique line (e.g., 60 degrees counter-clockwise rotation from horizontal) was projected yielded bi-modal angularity generalization gradients in extinction, with peaks of responding at both the training stimulus and its mirror image (in this case 120 degrees ). This mirror-image transfer effect may be analogous to an "octave effect" in auditory generalization, but Mello's finding of a mirror-image reversal transfer effect following monocular training in pigeons suggests an alternative interpretation.     

Changes in Academic Performance in the Junior High School

This study was designed to determine the relationships between changes in academic performance and intellective and non-intellective factors. Seventh grade students attending five junior high schools, who had attended selected elementary schools, were tested with the Personal Values Inventory (PVI), a test of academic motivation, shortly after the first seventh-grade marking period. School marks at that marking period and those received the previous year were procured from a self-report included in the PVI. All students had taken the California Achievement Test Battery and Mental Maturity Test as well as the Scholastic Testing Service Work-Study Skills Test in the sixth grade. Factor analysis identified four factors in both boys and girls: intelligence-achievement, academic motivation, academic plans, and youth-culture involvement. While intelligence was found to be mainly unrelated to the criterion, the non-intellective factors, especially academic motivation, bore significant relationships to the changed performance.     

Attitudes of American Secondary School Students Toward the Use of Intelligence Tests

A national sample of about 5,000 public, 2,600 parochial, and 1,200 private secondary school students were asked whether they thought it fair to use intelligence tests to help make decisions in educational, occupational, and other areas. Results indicated that: (1) anti-test sentiment is neither ubiquitous nor consistent. A considerable number of respondents were in favor of testing, the proportion of respondents favoring tests varied greatly as a function of test context, and some favored tests in one context but disapproved of them in another. (2) Social background and individual difference variables interacted with test contexts. Given two test contexts, these variables may have different effects for each in determining the respondent's approval or disapproval of test usage.     

An Existential View Of Vocational Development

The paper is an attempt to point out that the literature of existential philosophy has produced a meaningful theory of vocational development. The theory not only appears to be cogent, but also lines up closely with current thinking in the field. The contrast with various authors is an attempt to illucidate through similarity the ultimate ramifications of the existential theory. An equally important aspect of this theory is that within it one discovers an explanation of work alienation. Finally, there is every reason to believe that the existentialists have produced only a small portion of the potential theoretical model.     

Superior Students' Occupational Preferences and Their Fathers' Occupations

The relationship between the occupational preferences of 147 superior students and their fathers' occupations was traced over the 4-year period that the students attended high schools in Wisconsin. Analysis of the data indicated that both male and female superior students tended to state vocational preferences at the professional level early in high school and to maintain this preference throughout. Their occupational preferences were generally at a higher level than those of their fathers. There was no trend away from general preferences for work at a professional level toward naming of specific occupations within that level. The results suggest that theories of vocational development that imply that stages are passed through during later adolescent periods do not apply to the superior student population of this study.