Flashbulb memories

Flashbulb Memories are memories for the circumstances in which one first learned of a very surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) event. Hearing the news that President John Kennedy had been shot is the prototype case. Almost everyone can remember, with an almost perceptual clarity, where he was when he heard, what he was doing at the time, who told him, what was the immediate aftermath, how he felt about it, and also one or more totally idiosyncratic and often trivial concomitants. The present paper reports a questionnaire inquiry into the determinants of such memories by asking about other assassinations, highly newsworthy events, and personally significant events. It is shown that while the Kennedy assassination created an extraordinarily powerful and widely shared flashbulb memory, it is not the only event that has created such memories. The principal two determinants appear to be a high level of surprise, a high level of consequentiality, or perhaps emotional arousal (assessed by both rating scales and ethnic group membership). If these two variables do not attain sufficiently high levels, no flashbulb memory occurs. If they do attain high levels, they seem, most directly, to affect the frequency of rehearsal, covert and overt, which, in turn, affects the degree of elaboration in the narrative of the memory that can be elicited experimentally. Parallels are made explicit between the behavioral theory and a less elaborated, speculative neuro-physiological theory of which R. B. Livingston (1967) is the proponent Finally, an argument is made that a permanent memory for incidental concomitants of a surprising and consequential (in the sense of biologically significant) event would have high selection value and so could account for the evolution of an innate base for such a memory mechanism.     

Inferences,affects, and intentions in a model of paranoia

Models of psychopathologies can be construed as modifications to the normal purposive behavior of an organism. The particular elements of purposive behavior to be emphasized here are (1) deriving facts about the environment (inferences), (2) attending to the self's needs, desires, and interests (affects), and (3) choosing directions and goals to fulfill these interests (intentions). A series of processes in a model of paranoia which performs these tasks will be described. We also describe the modifications made by the paranoid processes to the normal processes. A computer simulation has been constructed to test the model.     

Patterning,partial reinforcement,and N-length effects at spaced trials as a function of reinstatement of retrieval cues

Four experiments are reported which demonstrate the importance of the reinstatement of retrieval cues in partial-reinforcement experiments using spaced trials. Reinstatement occurs when the goalbox and startbox are of the same brightness (gray). Nonreinstatement occurs when the goalbox and startbox are of different brightnesses (black-and-white striped vs gray). Under reinstatement conditions, both a partial-reinforcement effect (PRE) and N-length effects were observed whether small reward or large reward was used. Under nonreinstatement conditions, a PRE was observed when large reward was used but not when small reward was used; N-length effects were not observed either with large or small reward. Finally, using a 24-hr intertrial interval, single alternation patterning was found only with a group receiving large reward, a long nonreward confinement duration, and reinstatement. These results are not consistent with the notion that massed and spaced trials are governed by separate mechanisms, and support an explanation of both massed and spaced trials based on E. J. Capaldi's sequential theory.     

Spatio-temporal probing of apparent rotational movement

A visual bar alternately presented in vertical and horizontal orientations appeared to rotate 90° through one of two pairs of opposite quadrants. Subjects judged whether a probe dot, interjected at some delay and angular deviation from the vertical bar, appeared before or after the bar “passed through” the corresponding angular orientation. When the motion was perceived in the probed quadrant, percent “before” responses dropped abruptly from near 100% to near 0% as delay increased, and the drop occurred at longer delays for probes at larger angular deviations. Under physically identical conditions, when the motion was perceived in an unprobed quadrant, percent “before” responses varied much less with delay and insignificantly with angular position. The accuracy of the judgments in the first case suggests the internal generation of an ordered sequence of intermediate representations during each apparent rotation.     

What's what: talkers help listeners hear and understand by clarifying sentential relations

It was predicted that a talker would clarify the sentential relations of an utterance if a listener indicated difficulty in hearing and understanding. Subjects read syntactically clear and distorted sentences to a listener (experimenter) in an adjoining room. The experimenter often asked “What?” Subjects changed distorted versions to clear versions, while repeating clear versions essentially as first read. Other subjects were asked to make the sentences clear and simple to understand. The same basic results were obtained. Talkers thus seem to interpret a “What?” partly as a request for clearer sentential relations and respond accordingly. The results indicate that talkers have knowledge of underlying structure. Several alternate explanations can be rejected. A relative derivational theory of complexity is presented.     

Pair discrimination for a continuum of synthetic voiced stops with and without first and third formants

Phoneme labeling and discrimination experiments were conducted with a continuum of voiced stops produced by a Terminal Analog Speech Synthesizer. The stops ranged from |b| to |d|. Only second formant (F₂) transitions changed from one sound to another. (A formant is energy concentrated in a narrow frequency range.) In the labeling experiment conducted to locate the phoneme boundary, subjects identified the individual stimuli as |b| and |d|. In discrimination, difference and identity pairs were presented, with alternative responses of same and different. This allows separate consideration of discrimination (different/Different) and recognition (same/Identity) hits, and also analysis of the data in accordance with the theory of signal detectibility. The sounds were discriminated with and without F ₁ and F ₃ which contained no discriminatory information, but are responsible for perceived similarity to speech. With F ₁ F ₃ , sensitivity (d) was highest at the |b-d| boundary, but without F ₁ F ₃ this was not true. Spectral analysis of the sounds both with and without F ₁ F ₃ revealed a phonemic energy discontinuity for the 1/3 octave around the F ₂ steady-state frequency (1250 Hz). It therefore seems probable that subjects listened to frequencies which contained phonemic information when F ₁ F ₃ were included, but not when they were omitted. In spite of the high sensitivity at the |b-d| boundary, recognition hits (same /Identity) were lowest the boundary had to sound less like a difference to be called different than a pair away from the boundary.Indications, then, are quite strong that auditory-frequency selection helps the perception of speech, and it is clear that a strategy of criterion lowering helps it.     

Studies in group decision I: Social space,patterns of communication and group concensus

The discovery of the effects of risky shift focusses the interest on the study of decision processes. Nevertheless the researches carried on until now have always shown confusion between the theoretical and experimental analysis of these processes and the risk-related behavior. In the first part of the article the authors try to clear this confusion as well as to define the conditions of a systematic study of the mechanisms of decision leading either to an averaging or to a polarization of individual views. The authors insist on the necessity to compare groups rather than individuals to groups. To start with, one hypothesis concerning the effects of group organization on the degree of polarization of views is proposed. The experiment described in the second part of the article confirms the hypothesis: A group in which individuals have the possibility to communicate with each other and to interact directly take more extreme decisions than a group deprived of this possibility. It is presumptuous and inexact to state that groups take more extreme risk than individuals whereas it is right to say that certain groups take risks when circumstances are favorable.     

Use of the conditional reflex to assess the temporal characteristics of curarization effects on heart rate responding

A Pavlovian methodological counterpart to the use of druginduced changes in operant rates of responding was used to assess the temporal characteristics of d-tubocurarine chloride effects on the heart rate conditional reflex in rats. After a stable conditional reflex had been established, the base heart rate, as well as the unconditional and conditional reflex, was monitored during administration of the drug. A sizable behavioral effect was reflected in all three measures, including a temporary abolition of the conditional and unconditional reflexes. An interpretation of these results was discussed, and further development and application of this specific methodology was explored.     

The effects of computer-mediated vocational guidance procedures on the appropriateness of vocational preference

To assess the effectiveness of vocational guidance procedures proposed for inclusion in a computer-based vocational exploration system, 139 eleventh-grade male subjects were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and a control group. One group was given a computer-generated accuracy of self-knowledge feedback, another group was taught an occupational classification scheme, a third group experienced both. Utilizing a method of explicit comparison between students' measured characteristics and the measured characteristics of occupational norm groups, the results showed students in the groups receiving feedback increased in the appropriateness of the occupational level of their first occupational choice. In addition, students in the combined treatment group increased in the appropriateness of the level of their total occupational preferences. A delayed posttest indicated that these increases persisted.