The temporal structure of motivation. V. A within-episodes analysis of priming and provocation

Rats provided with chronic, continuous access to intracranial self-stimulation (ICS) exhibit discrete episodic response patterns. Response episodes under two conditions were examined for systematic trends in the spacing of times between successive responses (interresponse times; IRTs) to better identify the motivational bases of ICS. Three trends were observed in self-initiated and experimenter-provoked episodes. First, initial responses of spontaneous episodes typically had declining interresponse times. Second, this trend was not present when responses were provoked rather than spontaneous. Third, absolute times between responses varied across conditions, with provoked behavior having significantly lower initial IRTs. The findings suggest that for spontaneously initiated responding a transient facilitatory process cumulates at the beginning of ICS episodes. For provoked responding, it is possible that a manipulation which increased the initial probability of responding over time may have done so by maximizing an initial phasic priming process. At their onset, spontaneous and provoked episodes may be characterized by quantitatively differing motivational profiles.     

Theoretical functions in physical science

The aim of this paper is to give an account of theoreticity which captures the preanalytic conception of a theoretical function, which is precise and yet which expresses what is significant about theoretical functions. The point of departure for this account is a recent discussion of the topic by Balzer and Moulines. On the basis of criticism of this discussion and on the basis of an examination of laboratory measurement, an account of theoreticity is proposed.I am grateful to the members of the philosophy seminar at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, to Barbara Davidson and particularly to Wolfgang Balzer and this journal's referee for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Subfertility among the very intelligent: An examination of the American Mensa

Recent data on post-war birth cohorts in the U.S.A. show a negative relationship between IQ and fertility, both actual and expected. Previous investigators (e.g. Bajema, the Reeds and Waller) had found a slightly positive relationship for certain pre-war birth cohorts. This secular change in the relationship between IQ and fertility is replicated here for data on the membership of the American Mensa. Members born before the war exhibit a fertility below but close to that of the equivalent cohorts in the nation as a whole. Members born during and after the war exhibit a fertility that is substantially lower than that of the equivalent national cohorts. Apparently, rising fertility, which characterized the period in which the pre-war birth cohorts bore their children, causes a convergence in birth rates across IQ classes. Declining and/or low fertility, which characterizes the period in which the post-war birth cohorts are bearing their children, has the opposite effect, i.e. a divergence in birth rates across IQ classes, with the lower birth rates in the higher-IQ classes. The membership of Mensa may not be a representative sample of the high-IQ population as a whole, as it seems to attract a disproportionate number of low procreators even for this population. However, there is no reason to believe that changes in fertility rates across cohorts within Mensa, relative to changes in the national fertility rates, do not reliably reflect changes in fertility rates across cohorts within the high-IQ population of the U.S.A. as a whole, again relative to those of the nation, though these rates may be fluctuating around different means.     

Age norms for impulsiveness,venturesomeness and empathy in children

A total of 1505 children (633 boys and 872 girls) completed the I₆ Impulsiveness Questionnaire. Reliabilities, scale intercorrelations and means and standard deviations are given after slight modifications were made to the original scoring key on the basis of factor analyses. Age means for both sexes are also given.     

When celebrities talk,children listen: An experimental analysis of children's responses to TV ads with celebrity endorsement

Two studies tested the effects of TV ads with celebrity endorsement on the product preference and understanding of 8- to 14-year-old boys. Study 1 compared two ads for a model racer. One had celebrity endorsement (by a famous race driver) and footage of real automobile racing featuring the celebrity (live action); the second had neither feature. Study 2 employed one ad for a different brand of model racer edited to generate a 2 (endorser presence) by 2 (inclusion of live racetrack action) factorial design. A total of 415 boys were exposed to one of the experimental ads or a control ad, embedded in a new animated children's adventure program. Preference for the advertised brand of model racer (pre- and postviewing) and a number of cognitive variables were assessed. Exposure to endorsement led to increased preference for the toy and belief that the celebrity was expert about the toy. Live action led to exaggerated estimates of the physical properties of the toy and the belief that the ad was not staged. The 8- to 10-year-olds associated the glamour of the endorser with the toy and were more reliant on his advice than were 11- to 14-year-olds. However, the two age groups were not differentially affected by the ads. Contrary to the speculation of many researchers, understanding about advertising intent and techniques and cynicism about ads had almost no influence on product preference after viewing.     

Development of differences in response latencies to right and left visual fields

Robust lateralization developed in right-handed adults who were asked to judge letter pairs as "same" or "different" during 4608 trials. By the end of the first two blocks (768 trials) "same" responses were favored when presented in the RVF (transmitted directly to the left hemisphere) and "different" responses were favored when presented in the LVF (transmitted direction to the right hemisphere). This gradually reversed over sessions with "same" responses becoming faster for letters presented in the LVF, and "different" responses becoming faster for stimuli presented in the RVF. The laterality acquired under these conditions was cumulative and reproducible, appeared in all 16 subjects, and was preserved between sessions a week apart. The data suggest that laterality is a flexible and reversible characteristic of the human brain even when stimulus and task remain constant.     

Gobal-local precedence in picture processing

Summary Previous investigations of the global precedence hypothesis (Navon, 1977) have utilized compound letter stimuli. In these stimuli there is no predictive relationship between the global and local levels. Pictorial stimuli, however, contain mutually predictable global and local levels. This study investigated the global precedence hypothesis with pictorial stimuli using a Stroop-like interference task similar to that used by Navon. Subjects were required to respond either to the global (e.g., beach or farm) or local (e.g., boat or tractor) level of a scene. The display size and consistency of the global and local levels were varied. Response latencies supported global precedence for small scenes (4°) but local precedence for large scenes (16°). The results are interpreted by a model in which the priority of processing is determined by a critical spatial frequency sampling bandwidth.Portions of this research were presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Minneapolis, November, 1982. The authors with to express their sincere appreciation to Tom Petros for his assistance in data analysis. Requests for reprints should be addressed to James R. Antes, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202.     

The influence of information redundancy upon the use of traits and persons as organizing categories

The following question is addressed: How do multiple, simultaneously present cognitive structures influence the representation and recall of social information? In an empirical study examining both free and cued recall, we found the variable information redundancy to influence both the organization and accuracy of subjects' recollections of trait-related behaviors. Redundancy was defined in terms of the degree of person/trait overlap in a social information ensemble. Some evidence indicated that this effect is attributable to an increase in the discriminability of the organizational structures during encoding. The implications of these findings for understanding the formation of integrated cognitive representations of individuals and the spontaneous use of traits in social information processing are discussed.     

The effects of recency and story content on children's moral judgments

Sixteen stories were read to children at ages 4, 7, and 11 years and to college freshmen (n = 24 per age level) to investigate the effects of recency and specific story content on the development of moral reasoning. The stories consisted of either positive or negative intention and either positive or negative consequence in one of four situations: rule breaking, property damage, property damage with peer interaction, or injury to a person. At each age level, half of the subjects heard the stories with the intention first and the consequence second, and half heard them in the reverse order. Analyses confirmed that in general younger children judged on consequence, whereas older children utilized intention, and that on stories containing intentional injury to a person, the younger child took intention into account. Recency effects were evidenced for both the 4- and 7-year-olds. In the 4-year-old group, however, the recency effects failed to override the salience of negative consequence in contexts of positive intention and negative consequence. This suggests that preschool children may respond primarily to the negative aspect of the story, whether intention or consequence.     

Causal attribution and dispositional inference: Evidence of inconsistent judgments

Two experiments examined whether individuals who ascribe the disparity in the performances of two actors to situational constraints adequately adjust their dispositional inferences to reflect their own perceptions of causality. Using the quiz-game format of L. D. Ross, T. M. Amabile, and J. L. Steinmetz (1977, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 485–494), the effects of the subjects' awareness of the role-determined, self-presentation advantage of the questioner on their dispositional inferences concerning the quiz-game participants are noted. It is hypothesized that subjects who indicated full awareness of the determining force of the situation would nevertheless draw more favorable dispositional inferences about the questioner than about the contestant. The prediction is confirmed. Although the situationally aware subjects rate the questioner and contestant more similarly than do the other subjects, they still rate the questioner higher in knowledge, memory, and education. The results of Experiment 2 indicate that increasing the salience of the subjects' assessment of the situational advantage of the questioner does not eliminate the disparity. It is proposed that the fudamental attribution error represents more a failure to adjust trait inferences for causal attributions than a misperception of causality. Implications concerning the relationship between knowledge of causality and social judgment and the utility of the distinction between “perceived causality” and “higher order causal inferences” are discussed.