Ignoring famous faces: category-specific dilution of distractor interference

The extent to which famous distractor faces can be ignored was assessed in six experiments. Subjects categorized famous printed target names as those of pop stars or politicians, while attempting to ignore a flanking famous face distractor that could be congruent (e.g, a politician's name and face) or incongruent (e.g., a politician's name with a pop stars face). Congruency effects on reaction times indicated distractor intrusion. An additional, response-neutral flanker (neither pop star nor politician) could also be present. Congruency effects from the critical distractor face were reduced (diluted) by the presence of an intact anonymous face, but not by phase-shifted versions, inverted faces, or meaningful nonface objects. By contrast, congruency effects from other types of distracting objects (musical instruments, fruits), when printed names for these classes were categorized, were diluted equivalently by intact faces, phase-shifted faces, or meaningful nonface objects. Our results suggest that distractor faces act differently from other types of distractors, suffering from only face-specific capacity limits.     

ON THE EFFECTS OF NONCONTINGENT DELIVERY OF DIFFERING MAGNITUDES OF REINFORCEMENT

We conducted a parametric analysis of response suppression associated with different magnitudes of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR). Participants were 5 adults with severe or profound mental retardation who engaged in a manual response that was reinforced on variable-ratio schedules during baseline. Participants were then exposed to NCR via multielement and reversal designs. The fixed-time schedules were kept constant while the magnitude of the reinforcing stimulus was varied across three levels (low, medium, and high). Results showed that high-magnitude NCR schedules produced large and consistent reductions in response rates, medium-magnitude schedules produced less consistent and smaller reductions, and low-magnitude schedules produced little or no effect on responding. These results suggest that (a) NCR affects responding by altering an establishing operation (i.e., attenuating a deprivation state) rather than through extinction, and (b) magnitude of reinforcement is an important variable in determining the effectiveness of NCR.     

Abstraction and Individual Style in Syllogistic and Heterogeneous Reasoning

Syllogistic reasoning can be modelled with mental models. Heterogeneous reasoning brings together propositional and visual information, and in the Hyperproof logic-teaching system, the visual can act as a model for the propositional. Both mental models notation and Hyperproof’s visual representations allow abstractions of a limited kind. Individual differences in reasoning performance have been found in both domains. We suggest that at least some of the differences can be attributed to students’ differing ability to manipulate abstractions.     

Distinguishing genetic from nongenetic medical tests: Some implications for antidiscrimination legislation

Genetic discrimination is becoming an increasingly important problem in the United States. Information acquired from genetic tests has been used by insurance companies to reject applications for insurance policies and to refuse payment for the treatment of illnesses. Numerous states and the United States Congress have passed or are considering passage of laws that would forbid such use of genetic information by health insurance companies. Here we argue that much of this legislation is severely flawed because of the difficulty in distinguishing genetic from nongenetic tests. In addition, barring the use by insurance companies of a genetic test but not a nongenetic test (conceivably for the same multifactorial disease) raises issues of fairness in health insurance. These arguments suggest that ultimately the problems arising from genetic discrimination cannot be solved by narrowly focused legislation but only by a modification of the entire health care system.     

The personal style inventory: Preliminary validation studies of new measures of sociotropy and autonomy

We conducted five studies with depressed patients, demographically matched controls, and college students to develop and psychometrically evaluate new measures of concerns about interpersonal relationships (sociotropy) and autonomous achievement (autonomy), constructs that have been proposed to confer vulnerability to depression. The final version of the Personal Style Inventory (PSI) Sociotropy and Autonomy scales showed a good factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest stability, a low correlation with each other, and weak or no gender differences. Convergent and discriminant validity were examined with respect to depressive symptom levels, the Dependency and Self-Criticism scales of the Revised Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and a social desirability scale and were generally acceptable. Further evaluations of the construct validity of the PSI are indicated.     

THE MODIFICATION OF LEISURE BEHAVIOR IN A HALF-WAY HOUSE FOR RETARDED WOMEN1

A multi-element baseline design combined with a multiple-baseline design, was used to investigate the effect of availability of materials, prizes for participation, and instruction on the leisure behavior of 14 mentally retarded women in a half-way house. A leisure program was conducted on weekday evenings, during which residents could choose to participate in any of six activities offered: puzzles, card games, clay, painting, weaving, and rug making. It was found that instruction in weaving and rug making significantly increased the percentage of residents participating in these activities, and that following instruction, prizes were not necessary to maintain high levels of participation. In contrast, prizes were more effective than mere availability of materials in maintaining participation in the other activities.