Holland's personality types applied to the SVIB Basic Interest Scales

The possible relationship between Holland types and the Basic Interest Scales of the SVIB was explored. The VPI and the SVIB were administered to 432 male freshmen at the University of North Dakota. Each subject was classified into one of the six types on the basis of his highest VPI T score.Scores on the twenty-two BIS were analyzed for differences among the six personality types by means of a multiple regression equivalence of the one-way analysis of variance. Twenty-one of the 22 F tests and 19 of the Scheffe multiple Comparisons among the means were significant. The results support both Holland's typology and his hexagonal model of relationships among the types and suggest their use in the interpretation of the BIS.     

Modification of behavior problems in the home with a parent as observer and experimenter

Four parents enrolled in a Responsive Teaching class carried out experiments using procedures they had devised for alleviating their children's problem behaviors. The techniques used involved different types of reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. One parent increased the frequency of the wearing of an orthodontic device during five daily time checks by making an immediate monetary payoff contingent on wearing the device. A second parent increased the number of points earned for doing daily household tasks by providing back-ups for which the points could be exchanged. The parents of a 4-yr-old boy decreased the frequency of whines, cries, and complaints by removing social attention when such behavior occurred. A mother decreased the duration of time it took for her 5-yr-old daughter to get dressed by making permission to watch television contingent on dressing within 30 min of the time she got up in the morning. Brief reversals of contingencies were used to show causal relationships between the procedures used and the changes in behavior. Checks on the reliability of measurement were made by persons present in the home.     

Generation of multiple ratio scales with a fixed stitnulus attribute

Psychophysical theories differ in the relative weight given to sensory and cogruuve variables. Two opposing theories are described and tested in an experiment designed to vary a cognitive factor while maintaining a constant sensory factor. The method of magnitude estimation was used with the constant stimulus attribute of line length. The cognitive factor was varied by providing Ss with different feedback concerning the numerical values assigned to the largest and smallest lines in the series. This procedure led to multiple ratio scales for the same stimulus attribute. It is argued that these results support a theory which stresses both cognitive and sensory variables in the explanation of psychophysical functions.     

The effects of visually represented cues on learning of linear function rules

The effects of visually represented weight (absence or presence of a series of five weights: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 g) and context cues (verbal alone, verbal plus graphic, or verbal plus pictorial) for a concrete weighing operation on the acquisition rate of three linear function rules were investigated along with a nonspecific transfer control condition in a rule learning paradigm. Multivariate analyses of variance of the time, instance, and error measures indicated that the graphic and pictorial context combined with the weight cue were more effective for the faster acquisition of the coefficient rule (a·F = S) than other conditions; that the weight and the context cues were independently effective for the faster acquisition of the coefficient rule (F + b = S); and that the observed effects diminished when transferred to the last complex linear function rule task (a·F + b = S), although training on the first two rules facilitated the acquisition of the last one as compared to the control. The findings were interpreted in terms of the notion of vividness of the image mediators the fourth-grade Ss apparently developed and utilized for the acquisition of the first two rules.     

Components of the High School Environment

A principal components analysis was conducted on the scale scores of Stern's High School Characteristics Index (HSCI). Nine factors accounted for slightly more than two-thirds of the variability of the instrument. The lack of similarity of the HSCI factors and those reported for the College Characteristics Index was noted. The most significant factor was labeled Intellectual Self-Expression and resembled a factor derived from earlier analyses of the scale.     

Detection theory,micromatching, and the constant-ratio rule

The conformance of detection theory and micromatching with the constant-ratio rule (CRR) was determined by calculations for sets of three stimuli and subsets of two stimuli. For an arbitrary selection of sets, the CRR would be expected to hold quite well if either detection theory or micromatching lay behind the responses. For specific stimulus configurations, however, detection theory and micromatching differ considerably from one another and from the CRR. These configurations are found particularly for the univariate distributions, and this corresponds to empirical findings that the CRR holds better for multidimensional than for unidimensional stimuli. It is shown how the differences between the three theories in the implied constancies of ratios can be used in diagnosis of the basis ofempirical confusion matrices.     

Children's interpretation of adult nonreaction: A trial-by-trial self-report assessment and evidence for contrast effects in an observational context

The study investigated children's interpretation of blank reaction (nonreaction) from one adult to another as a function of its pairing with positive or negative overt feedback. Each child watched through a one-way mirror as an evaluating adult provided feedback to a second adult who was performing on a two-choice discrimination task. After six initial blank reaction trials, children observed one of four types of feedback combinations over 60 experimental trials: (a) right feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (b) wrong feedback on some trials and blank reactions on others, (c) right, wrong, and nonreaction on different trials, or (d) nonreaction on all trials. There was little evidence that children consistently interpreted blank reaction as meaning right independent of feedback combination. In contrast, in the Right-Blank and Wrong-Blank feedback combinations, children interpreted blank as meaning the opposite of the overt feedback it was paired with on over two-thirds of the trials, with no sex differences or test anxiety effects.