A review of observer reactivity in adult-child interactions

The present article reviews studies which have examined the question of observer reactivity in adult-child interactions. Seventeen studies were located. Studies were classified according to the paradigm used to examine reactivity, the setting in which the study was conducted, the identification of the child as a behavior problem, and the occurrence and direction (i.e., increases or decreases in the observed behavior) of reactivity. The results indicated that the awareness paradigm has been employed most frequently, the laboratory has been the primary setting utilized, and problem and nonproblem children have been employed with approximately equal frequency. Reactivity was reported in about three-fourths of the studies. For adults positive and neutral verbal and physical behaviors were more reactive than negative behaviors. The positive and neutral behaviors typically increased in the observer's presence. For children conclusions are not warranted at this time as too few studies have examined children's behavior.Preparation of this article was supported in part by NIMH Grant MH28859-01.     

The Relationship Between the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity and Measures of Intrinsic,Extrinsic and Quest Religiosity

A sample of 244 churchgoers completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity, together with measures of intrinsic, extrinsic and quest religiosity proposed by Batson. The findings support the view that, among a religiously committed sample, a positive attitude toward Christianity is associated positively with intrinsic religiosity and negatively with both extrinsic religiosity and quest religiosity. Pastoral Theology and Mansel Jones Fellow at     

Mapping of the Anatomical Circuit of CaM Kinase-Dependent Courtship Conditioning in Drosophila

Globally inhibiting CaM kinase activity in Drosophila, using a variety of genetic techniques, disrupts associative memory yet leaves visual and chemosensory perception intact. These studies implicate CaM kinase in the plastic processes underlying learning and memory but do not identify the neural circuitry that specifies the behavior. In this study, we use the GAL4/UAS binary expression system to define areas of the brain that require CaM kinase for modulation of courtship conditioning. The CaM kinase-dependent neurons that determine the response to the mated female during conditioning and those involved in formation and expression of memory were found to be located in distinct areas of the brain. This supports the idea that courtship conditioning results in two independent behavioral modifications: a decrement in courtship during the conditioning period and an associative memory of conditioning. This study has allowed us for the first time to genetically determine the circuit of information flow for a memory process in Drosophila. The map we have generated dissects the behavior into multiple components and will provide tools that allow both molecular and electrophysiological access to this circuit.     

Personality Type and Attitude toward Christianity among Student Churchgoers

A sample of 82 student churchgoers completed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data demonstrate that feeling types hold a more positive attitude toward Christianity than thinking types.     

Infants’ Use of Functional Parts in Basic-like Categorization

An experiment with the sequential touching technique investigated the role of object parts on 1- to 2-year-old infants’ ability to form basic-level categories (cows and cars) from two different superordinate domains. Using the novel task design developed by Rakison and Butterworth, infants were tested with normal category exemplars as well as modified versions that were made by removing or attaching object parts (legs and wheels). Results revealed a developmental trend whereby infants’ use of object parts in categorization decreased with age. Analyses of infants’ functional responses (e.g. jumping or rolling) suggested that they might initially associate different kinds of object movement with different kinds of parts.     

Colonic sensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome and normal subjects according to their hemispheric preference and cognitive style

According to our earlier results, non-painful, weak afferent visceral signals may exert a steady influence on brain processes, including cognitive functions. In the present series colonic impulses of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) subjects served as a model of chronic impact from the gut. Hemispheric preference, as well as cognitive style of information processing served as indicators of covert changes in brain functions. In twentyone IBS patients and in ten control subjects of both sexes, the thresholds of minimal colonic distension sensitivity has been measured following the determination of hemispheric preference and of advantage in verbal or spatial information processing of the subjects. In IBS patients distension thresholds proved to be higher in verbals than in spatials, whereas in healthy controls the relationship of colonic thresholds and verbal versus, spatial advantage was reversed. Among the normal controls with left hemisphere preference a significantly higher distension threshold has been observed than in those with right hemisphere preference, whereas in the IBS group such threshold-differences were not observable.     

Criterion Shaped Behaviour: Pitfalls of Performance Appraisal

Behavioural consequences of performance appraisal, of students, teachers, and schools, or of workers, managers, and offices, are analyzed in terms of a newly proposed theory of Criterion Shaped Behaviour (CSB). Unstated assumptions of advocates for the extensive use of performance appraisal, using performance-based rewards and punishments, are scrutinized, and many are found to be insupportable. CSB Theory predicts that numerous behavioural effects, not all of which are desirable, will be shaped by the use of rewards and punishments made contingent upon criterion measure scores. Using cognitive expectancy theories of learning and performance, in conjunction with traditional measurement theory, it anticipates the types of behaviour change likely to result from imposition of different performance appraisal systems, and suggests alternatives less likely to result in undesirable effects.     

Does “inhibition of return” occur in discrimination tasks?

When attention is drawn to a location and then withdrawn, responding to a stimulus at that location may be slower than to one at a new location. This “inhibition of return” (IOR) has not been reliably demonstrated in tasks that require discrimination of targets from nontargets. The present experiments replicated IOR in detection and localization tasks only when target/nontarget discrimination was not also required. When discrimination was required, a consistent samelocation advantage occurred for repeated targets. Changed targets may, however, induce a bias toward opposite responses. The results cast doubt on IOR as a general attentional phenomenon.     

Problem solving by reference to rules or previous episodes: The effects of organized training,analogical models,and subsequent complexity of experience

Subjects learned a microcomputer drawing package under different conditions of training organization and practice complexity. Training instructions were presented in either a random or an organized order, and with or without an analogical model of the software package. Practice trials varied in visual and logical complexity. Performance on paper-arid-pencil and problem-solving tests was better following the model than following the no-model condition when practice trials were logically complex; the reverse was true when they were logically simple. Performance on the test of problem solving was also better following organized training than following randomly ordered training when practice trials were visually complex; the reverse was true following visually simple practice. We propose that the subjects performed the tasks by engaging in either episodebased or rule-based processing, and that performance was optimized when the processing used at encoding and retrieval was the same. The acquisition of skill in solving real problems is explained as procedural compilation.