Laterality differences and practice effects under central backward masking conditions

Two experiments were conducted to examine laterality differences and practice effects under various central backward masking conditions. Critical stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was determined for subjects on 3 consecutive days using single letters as target stimuli (TS) and a pattern masking stimulus (MS). There was a right visual field (RVF) advantage on Day 1 but no difference between the visual fields on following days. The decline in the RVF advantage appeared to be dependent upon prior experience with laterally located letters, to be independent of initial experience with a particular set of letters, and to be more pronounced for females than for males. In addition, large improvements in performance were found, particularly between the first and second testing sessions. These practice effects were discussed in terms of the possible development of strategies for enhancing TS features or attenuating MS features.     

Measuring circadian cycles: A simple temperature recording preparation

While measurement of temperature as an index of circadian rhythmicity is not a difficult task with infrahuman subjects, long-term monitoring of deep body temperature with human subjects poses numerous measurement and safety problems. A preparation is described that is highly accurate, inexpensive, chronic, comfortable, and eliminates safety problems associated with more traditional methods of temperature measurement.     

Children's attention to stimulus components with variation in relative salience of components and degree of stimulus integration

A total of 400 children at ages 5, 9, and 12 years were given a component selection task with stimuli differing in color and shape. Relative salience of these two stimulus components was manipulated across subjects in two ways: the standard shapes and colors from previous studies were compared with standard shapes in fluorescent colors, and the latter materials were compared with nonsense shapes in fluorescent colors. While fluorescence of color had little effect, the replacement of standard shapes with nonsense figures caused attention to be redirected from shape to color as the primary cue for learning. This effect was more pronounced at age 9 than at age 5. Apparently there is a greater tendency for older than for younger children to withdraw attention from a normally dominant component such as shape, when it is advantageous to adopt another feature such as color as the primary functional cue. An additional variable was integration of components (color within shape vs color as background for shape). Integration produced generally greater attention to color but did not affect the general pattern of salience effects.     

Memory and frequency estimation processes in a decision task

Two experiments examined the role of information storage and frequency estimation processes in a simple decision task. On each trial from one to five simultaneous sequences of information were presented, and subjects were required to monitor and respond to each sequence. In one study independent groups of subjects gave decisions, recognition responses. or frequency judgments. In a second study recall responses were obtained from subjects as part of the decision and frequency judgment tasks. Changes in performance as the number of simultaneous sequences increased suggested an independence of decisions from memory for specific information. Performance on the decision and frequency judgment tasks exceeded at times that which was possible on the basis of specific information available. Other data suggested that subjects in the frequency estimation tasks maintained an accurate frequency count when possible, but in the decision task kept little more than a record of their currently favored hypothesis. When direct counting was prevented in the second experiment. performance in the two tasks was not significantly different, suggesting that the two processes are very similar under such conditions.     

Delayed effects of practiced versus unpracticed responses after observation of movie violence

University men participating in an ostensible study of “impression formation” first received either an insulting or neutral evaluation of themselves from their supposed partner and then watched either a prize fight or an exciting but nonaggressive scene. After this, they either had an opportunity to evaluate their partner right away or they had to wait an hour before evaluating him. On scoring the subjects' written statements about the partner (to be seen by him and the experimenter), it was found that (1) for those given the immediate opportunity to be aggressive, the violent movie increased the strength of the angered subjects' initial attack on their partner over that displayed by the similarly insulted men shown the nonaggressive film; (2) if the angry subjects had to wait an hour before evaluating their partner, there was no difference between the aggressive and nonaggressive movie groups; (3) the aggression-heightening effect of the violent scene did carry over the intervening hour, however, if the insulted men had been given the earlier opportunity to evaluate their partner. It is suggested that the performance of an aggressive response soon after seeing an aggressive film increases the persistence of the aggressive reactions over time.     

Physical attractiveness and its relationship to sex-role stereotyping

On the basis of recent findings showing that physical attractiveness serves as an important evaluative cue in person perception, the present paper reviews evidence which indicates that physical attractiveness differentially affects the judgments of males and females. Recent research seems to indicate that the physical-attractiveness stereotype — which holds that attractive individuals are more positively evaluated across a wide range of dimensions than unattractive individuals — is more potent when applied to women than to men. The origins of this differential stereotyping are discussed in terms of the historically defined roles of men and women in our society. In addition, the paper discusses the implications of the physical-attractiveness stereotype for the general problem of sex-role stereotyping.