Same/different abstract-concept learning by pigeons

Eight pigeons were trained and tested in a simultaneous same/different task. After pecking an upper picture, they pecked a lower picture to indicate same or a white rectangle to indicate different. Increases in the training set size from 8 to 1,024 items produced improved transfer from 51.3% to 84.6%. This is the first evidence that pigeons can perform a two-item same/different task as accurately with novel items as training items and both above 80% correct. Fixed-set control groups ruled out training time or transfer testing as producing the high level of abstract-concept learning. Comparisons with similar experiments with rhesus and capuchin monkeys showed that the ability to learn the same/different abstract concept was similar but that pigeons require more training exemplars.     

The dreamer's use of space

The dreamer often portrays wishes, conflicts, or current problems in terms of visual-spatial representations and metaphors.The spatial dimensions of dreams frequently signify important affective themes of the dream. In doing so, they serve to continue or reflect processes of self-recognition in relation to the environment, processes that began in early childhood, when the developing child's experience of movement through space played a central role in organizing affect and motivation systems that contribute to emerging schemata of the self. Representations of that movement through space gradually grow to serve a broader symbolic function, as may be seen in the spatial dimensions of both play and dreaming. Spatial relations then become building blocks for aspects of metaphoric and abstract thinking. The resultant personal "geography," a constellation of physical imagery of a body moving through space, retains an important place in mental life as development unfolds. It is complemented and enhanced by the achievement of language, but it never recedes as a core aspect of self. Developmental and neurobiological observations suggest the clinical usefulness of heightened attention to this spatial aspect of dreams. Clinical examples illustrate how attention to the spatial arrangements of a dream and the dreamer's movement through space can enhance access to the affective tone and meaning of the dream.     

All gifts large and small: toward an understanding of the ethics of pharmaceutical industry gift-giving

Much attention has been focused in recent years on the ethical acceptability of physicians receiving gifts from drug companies. Professional guidelines recognize industry gifts as a conflict of interest and establish thresholds prohibiting the exchange of large gifts while expressly allowing for the exchange of small gifts such as pens, note pads, and coffee. Considerable evidence from the social sciences suggests that gifts of negligible value can influence the behavior of the recipient in ways the recipient does not always realize. Policies and guidelines that rely on arbitrary value limits for gift-giving or receipt should be reevaluated.     

Racists or tolerant multiculturalists? How do they begin?

The author discusses how negative racial attitudes originate. First, she looks globally at how various theories have attempted to explain the origins of racism. Second, she reviews some research on this topic that she and her colleagues have completed with very young children. Both the theories and the studies have ramifications for how psychologists might reduce the possibility of children becoming racist.     

Gender roles and adjustment in elementary-school children: A multidimensional approach

The present study of fourth through sixth graders examined the relationships between their school adjustment and the extent to which their self-concepts conformed to stereotypic gender roles. Several dimensions of gender roles were assessed. Adjustments was assessed by teacher ratings of externalizing and of internalizing symptoms. Among boys, more stereotypic self-concepts were associated with high levels of externalizing symptoms. Among girls, stereotypy was associated with high levels of internalizing. Discussion emphasized the practical importance of these relationships between gender-role stereotypy and poor adjustment, since externalizing and internalizing symptoms constitute the most frequent reasons for clinical referral among boys and among girls, respectively. Further findings, however, indicated that conclusions about the unfavorable adjustment correlates of stereotypy should not be extended to the less gender-typical symptoms (i.e., neither to boys' internalizing nor to girls' externalizing symptoms). Implications of the findings were also discussed with regard to earlier results obtained with adults that suggest mental health advantages associated with higher levels of masculinity. It was suggested that the contradiction between adult and child results partially reflects an emphasis upon externalizing symptoms with children, while studies employing adults have emphasized internalizing ones.The authors acknowledge the assistance of the Jefferson County School District, and especially Ms. Diane Hill, Director of Research, for their assistance in this study. The following persons are thanked for their assistance in interviewing children and collecting data: Heidi Hauge, Carol Hathaway-Clark, Judith King, and Ed Priddy. The authors also wish to thank Drs. Ann Boggiano and William Hodges for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Conservatism of Israeli junior high school students: interethnic differences

The aims of the study were (a) to establish the factor structure characterizing Israeli junior high school students of Western and Oriental ethnic origin on the Children's Scale of Social Attitudes, (b) to compare the Israeli factor structure with those for school children from other societies, and (c) to examine whether the Israeli school children's factor structure resembled those for Israeli adults as well as for adults from other societies. Analysis indicated that Israeli junior high school children from both Western and Oriental ethnic groups were characterized by similar factors of general conservatism, namely, Religion, Antihedonism, and Punitiveness, although the Orientals were more conservative on these factors than the Westerners. In addition, the present factor structure resembled those for groups of school children as well as adults from other societies, reconfirming that factors of general conservatism have cross-cultural validity.     

Recognizing orally spelled words: an analysis of procedures shared with reading and spelling

Some investigators have suggested that recognizing orally spelled words is dependent on the same procedures ordinarily used in spelling, whereas others have viewed it either as dependent on reading procedures or as an independent ability. In the present study, a single subject with dyslexia and dysgraphia was examined on parallel tests of recognizing orally spelled words, reading, and spelling (writing), and a comparison was made of his performance on the three tasks. On both words and nonwords, the patient's errors in recognizing orally spelled words and in reading were alike, whereas his spelling errors were often different. The distinction between recognizing orally spelled words and spelling was further shown by his inability to recognize a set of orally spelled words that he could write correctly to dictation or on the basis of word meaning. These findings suggest that the procedures normally used for reading can accept sequences of letter identities as input when orally spelled words must be recognized.     

The influence of structure on computer program comprehension

Previous empirical studies that have relied on debugging (Lucas & Kaplan, 1974) and memory (Sheppard, Borst, Curtis, & Love, 1978) as measures of computer program comprehension have led to inconsistent results and conclusions regarding the benefits of structure. The present experiment utilizes a new technique for measuring comprehension that is sensitive to contextual factors that help the programmer to anticipate upcoming lines of a program. Subjects in this experiment were told the general purpose of a program written in English and asked to anticipate the subsequent lines. After the subjects entered their anticipated line, the actual line of the previously written program was shown. Subjects used the lines of the program shown as a contextual guide for their next anticipation. The percentage of correctly anticipated lines was greater for structured programs than for unstructured programs. However, the advantage of structure was more pronounced for long, complex programs than for short, relatively straightforward programs.     

The role of reality testing in psychoanalysis: followup of 22 cases

As part of a prospective, longitudinal study of psychoanalytic outcome, 22 patients were evaluated for changes in their level of reality testing. These patients had been accepted for supervised psychoanalysis with candidates in training by senior analysts who had diagnosed them as neurotic. Psychological tests given prior to the beginning of analysis indicated, however, that more than one third of our sample demonstrated serious distortions in their perceptions of reality. When psychological tests administered one year after the completion of analysis were compared with these pretreatment tests, no significant improvement was found in the level of reality testing for the group as a whole. However, when excluding two patients who had suffered major traumas in the year following psychoanalysis, significant improvement in reality testing was found for the remaining 20 patients. Post-treatment interviews with the treating analysts revealed that in the course of analysis itself, approximately one third of these patients showed some disturbance in reality testing; only three of these patients showed significant improvement in the level of their reality testing during treatment. These findings suggest that while patients may not present clinically with evidence of impaired reality testing, such evidence may be available in psychological testing, and may become apparent in the course of the treatment.     

Poetic comparisons: Psychological dimensions of metaphoric processing

A sample of 204 poetic metaphors was rated along 10 scales by 300 participants (30 different people for each of the scales). The scales were identical to ones previously used in a study involving ratings of artificially constructed metaphors, and were chosen on the basis of their relevance to current models of metaphor processing. Three major findings emerged. First, the overall pattern of findings was identical to the one obtained earlier using constructed metaphors, and aspects of it provided support for each major metaphor model without completely onfirming any one of them. Models that attribute an important role to perceptual like processes provided the most successful fit to the data. Second, all of the 10 scales were positively intercorrelated, although the correlations were generally moderate enough to permit independent experimental manipulations of the variables defined by the different scales. These results, too, are similar to those obtained earlier with constructed metaphors. Third, we identify and discuss some suggestive differences between the results of the two studies.