Exceptions to the Rule: The Effects of Remorse,Status, and Gender on Decision Making1

One of several general rules suggested by past work is that it is advantageous to exhibit remorse when one has committed a transgression. A pair of experiments searched for the boundary conditions of this rule. In Experiment 1, mock jurors rated a remorseful defendant as more guilty when the law was fair than when the law was unfair. In contrast, an unremorseful defendant was viewed as equally guilty under both fairness levels. Study 2 conceptually replicated this result, and revealed a 3‐way interaction among remorse, status, and gender. It is argued that these findings illustrate the importance of violation of expectations on evaluation and judgment, inside the courtroom and elsewhere.     

Motivation gains in performance groups: paradigmatic and theoretical developments on the Köhler effect

In contrast to many demonstrations of social loafing, relatively few studies have documented group motivation gains. One such exception was O. K?hler's (1926, 1927) finding that team members working together did better at a taxing persistence task than would be expected from their individual performances, particularly when there was a moderate discrepancy in coworkers' capabilities. In Experiment 1, we developed a paradigm within which K?hler's overall motivation gain effect could be replicated, although the discrepancy in coworkers' capabilities did not moderate these motivation gains (after statistical artifacts were taken into account). Experiment 2 indicated that this motivation gain occurred under conjunctive but not under additive task demands, suggesting that the instrumentality of one's contribution to valued outcomes is a more likely explanation of the K?hler effect than social comparison processes.     

Effect of subgroup ratio on stereotyping

Male and female subjects observed a discussion by a group with one of three sex ratios (9M-IF, SM-SF, 1M-9F) and in which the male contributions were expressed in a more or less stereotype consistent manner. The results indicated that male speakers were stereotyped less than females and that male compared with female speakers were stereotyped increasingly less as the number of like speakers in the group increased.     

Specific and diversive curiosity and depression in junior high school students of divorced and nondivorced parents.

124 junior high school students (Grades 5 to 8) from a small school district in north central Kansas completed the Beck Depression Scale, the Maze test, and the Which-to-Discuss test. Background information, such as age, sex, grade, and marital status of parents, were also collected. There were no significant differences between boys and girls of divorced and nondivorced parents or across grades for scores on the Which-to-Discuss (specific curiosity) and depression, but boys scored significantly higher on the Maze test (diversive curiosity). No differences were noted between the students of divorced and nondivorced parents or across grades. Scores on Which-to-Discuss test and Maze test were not significantly correlated, but scores on one Maze test and depression correlated positively and significantly. When these students scored as more depressed, although in the normal range, they tended to score higher on diversive curiosity.     

Independence of Multiple Verdicts by Jurors and Juries1

An assumption underlying the common practice of permitting a juror to serve on more than one jury is that jurors can and will reach multiple verdicts independently. Two studies were carried out to examine this assumption. The first experiment had mock jurors consider several cases in succession. Subjects exhibited a clear contrast effect on the strength of evidence; those subjects who initially saw strong prosecution cases were less likely to convict in a moderate test case than those who had initially seen wcak prosecution cases. In the second study, the contrast hypothesis was tested for actual juries' verdicts through archival analyses. The results of this field study paralleled those obtained in the experimental study. The discussion focused upon alternative theoretical explanations for these results, implications for trial practice, and the strengths and weak-nesses of the methodologies applied in these studies.     

The effects of thematic context and presentation mode on memory for sentence voice

A sentence in discourse may appear in the passive voice to emphasize the logical object rather than the logical subject when it is thematically more important. Two experiments are reported that explore the impact of this textual function of voice on sentence memory. The first experiment required subjects to listen to prose passages and then recall them. Sentences were recalled predominantly in the active voice regardless of voice or thematic focus in the prose passage, showing that the English-language bias for the active voice was a more important determinant of sentence reconstruction than was the experimental manipulation of thematic context. The second experiment required subjects to listen to or read either prose passages or lists of unrelated sentences and then to try to recognize key sentences that were either unchanged or changed lexically, semantically, or in voice. Recognition, both overall and specifically for voice, was better for sentences that were read than for those that were heard, and recognition for semantic change was consistently higher than for any other. Only when passages were read was there evidence in support of a thematic textual influence on memory for sentence voice.This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant 32063.     

Diving, adaptation, and Fitts law

To assess Welford's dual controlling factor interpretation of Fitts' law, 20 scuba divers performed a reciprocal tapping task. In an attempt to separate the two factors, the subjects were tested on land and underwater. This does not change the basic parameters of the task but does put the subjects under informational stress, in that underwater the movement is less ballistic in nature and should require the processing of more information (feedback) in each tap. On land, the contributions of movement amplitude and precision were approximately equal. However, the relative changes in contribution of these factors to movement time underwater suggests that these parameters do in fact represent separate controlling factors.