A Social Learning Approach to Increasing Blood Donations1

A field experiment conducted in high schools throughout the country was aimed at increasing the number of high school students who donate blood. Special interventions that emphasized psychological or educational approaches to heightening motivation to donate, as well as a combined intervention, were compared with the usual approach taken at blood drives. Psychological interventions in which social learning principles (modeling, perceptions of social norms) played important roles either alone or in combination with an educational (informational) approach were more successful in stimulating blood donations than either an educational approach alone or the approaches traditionally followed by the participating local blood centers. The results demonstrated that use of social learning principles in designing interventions to strengthen socially relevant altruistic behavior could be valuable both practically and theoretically.     

Duration of visible persistence in relation to stimulus complexity.

Visible persistence refers to the phenomenal impression that a stimulus is still present after its offset. A dispute exists whether visible persistence is due to temporal sluggishness in the visual pathway (neural hypothesis) or whether it is a byproduct of information-extraction processes under cognitive control (process hypothesis). This was investigated by manipulating stimulus complexity in five temporal integration experiments and one recognition memory experiment. According to the process hypothesis, complex stimuli should persist longer than simple stimuli because they require more information extraction. This prediction was not confirmed; in all six experiments, complexity was found to have no reliable effect on the duration of visible persistence. By contrast, and in accordance with earlier findings, complexity was shown to have a significant effect on a short-lived, nonvisible form of memory known as schematic persistenc. This pattern of results supports two major conclusions: First, that the effects of complexity reported in earlier research were probably on schematic--rather than visible--persistence; and second, that visible persistence must be regarded as a residual neural trace of an extinguished stimulus, rather than as a byproduct of information-extraction processes.     

Perceptions of date and stranger rape: A difference in sex role expectations and rape-supportive beliefs

The sex role expectations and rape-supportive beliefs which are differentially applied to date and stranger rape were assessed. A sample of 62 college females and 33 males read one of three rape scenarios which varied according to the victim-perpetrator relationship (steady dating partners/acquaintances on a first date/strangers). Then participants rated the extent to which several sex role expectations and rape-supportive attitudes were applicable to the assault. MANOVAS and univariate ANOVAS showed that females' and males' perceptions of date rape, more than stranger rape, incorporated sex role expectations and that rape-supportive beliefs, primarily of males, were stronger in relation to steady date than first date or stranger rape. These findings are discussed in the context of the sex role analysis of rape.This research was supported by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation Grant #1171-000-22-00215-35-760. The author thanks Laurin Hafner for his help with the data analysis.     

The job climate for women in traditionally male blue-collar occupations

Rapid growth has been observed in recent years in the number of women entering traditionally male blue-collar occupations, yet researchers have paid little attention to this pioneering group. The present study undertook a comparison of the job conditions of two groups of nontraditional women workers, tradeswomen (N=71), and transit workers (N=151); a third group, school secretaries (N=389), was studied as a comparison group of traditionally female workers. Results from a 16-page mail questionnaire revealed that women in traditionally male occupations encountered significantly more adverse working conditions than did their traditional counterparts, and, in addition, reported significantly less satisfaction and more stress at work. Tradeswomen were the most likely to experience sexual harassment and sex discrimination, and black tradeswomen to experience race discrimination. The degree of job satisfaction expressed by the secretaries was unexpected, since most evidence suggests that clerical workers lack autonomy, and encounter boredom and routinization on the job. These findings are discussed in terms of gender segregation and the need to focus future research efforts on specific occupational groups in order to make appropriate policy recommendations as well as to provide help for women in these jobs.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Grant No. 1 RO1 OH02162-01A1) and the College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University. The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Patty Lambert, Ming Qi Wang, Mary Harmon, Joseph Vasey, Gina Jay, Darrell Harvey, and Haleh Rastegary.     

Planning in the preschool years: The emergence of plans from general event knowledge

A framework for conceptualizing the relationship between event knowledge and planning is proposed, and two experiments are reported that examined children's ability to draw on event knowledge in planning. Preschool children were asked to plan and execute shopping trips to a pretend grocery store. Half of the children planned for two events on successive trials (Level 1, single-goal planning) and half of the children planned for two events simultaneously (Level 2, multiple-event planning). The amount of external support for planning was also manipulated. In Experiment 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were presented with either a clustered or interleaved display. In Experiment 2, 3- and 4-year-olds were given adult assistance in plan construction. Results indicated that children's planning becomes more complex and flexible with age. Older children also rely less on external supports for planning. However, when external support was provided, 3- and 4-year-olds displayed higher-level planning abilities. Results are discussed in terms of the roles of event knowledge and external support in the early development of planning skills.     

Perceived depth vs. structural relevance in the object-superiority effect

When subjects must identify a barely visible line in a briefly flashed display, their accuracy depends on the configuration of the context in which the target line appears. Weisstein and Harris (1974) found that accuracy is highest when the target is part of a pattern that resembles a unified, three-dimensional object, and lowest in a flat-looking pattern composed of disconnected lines; they labeled this phenomenon the object-superiority effect. In the three experiments reported here, identification accuracy was found to correlate highly and significantly (r =.78) with the judged depth of the patterns. Judged structural relevance of the target line to the pattern (McClelland & Miller, 1979) was uncorrelated with accuracy (r=?.28). Even when the target line appeared as an isolated fragment within the context pattern, a pattern perceived as three-dimensional yielded higher identification accuracy than one perceived as flat.     

Facial and vocal cues of deception and honesty

Facial expressions and vocal cues (filtered speech) of honest and deceptive messages were examined in posed and spontaneous situations. The question of interest was the degree to which nonverbal cues transmit information about deception. Results indicated that (a) for both the facial and vocal channels, posing (as compared to spontaneous behavior) produced a higher level of communication accuracy; (b) facial expressions of deceptive (as compared to honest) messages were rated as less pleasant, while vocal expressions of deception were rated as less honest, less assertive, and less dominant, particularly in the posed condition; (c) the sender's ability to convey honesty was negatively correlated with his/her ability to convey deception, suggesting the existence of a demeanor bias—individual senders tend to appear and sound consistently honest (or dishonest) regardless of whether they deliver an honest or a deceptive message; (d) in the posing condition, the sender's abilities to convey honesty/deception via facial and vocal cues were positively and significantly correlated, whereas in the spontaneous condition they were not; and (e) senders whose full (unfiltered) speech indicated more involvement with their responses were judged as more honest from both their vocal (filtered speech) and facial cues, in both the honest and deceptive conditions.     

TEACHING COIN EQUIVALENCE TO THE MENTALLY RETARDED1

A program was designed to teach coin equivalence to mentally retarded adolescents. Coin equivalence was defined as choosing several different combinations of coins to equal specified target values. A pretest-posttest matched-groups design was employed with an experimental group receiving the monetary training, and a no-training control group. A multiple baseline across coin-counting responses was also incorporated in the experimental group. Training was divided into six stages, each teaching one specific method of combining coins to equal 10 target values from 5¢ through 50¢. A three-component response chain was used, requiring (a) naming, (b) selecting and counting, and (c) depositing target monetary values into a coin machine. Experimental subjects improved significantly in coin equivalence performance and maintained their skill on follow up tests; control subjects did not.