Effects of component length and of the transitions among components in multiple schedules

Pigeons received equal variable-interval reinforcement during presentations of two line-orientation stimuli while five other orientations appeared in extinction. Component duration was 30 seconds for all orientations and the sequence was arranged so that each orientation preceded itself and each other orientation equally often. The duration of one component (0°) was shortened to 10 seconds and the other (90°) was lengthened to 50 seconds. All animals showed large increases in response rate in the shortened component and this increase was recoverable after an interpolated condition in which all components were again 30 seconds in duration. This effect was replicated in a second experiment in which component duration was changed from 150 seconds to 50 seconds and 250 seconds. An examination of local contrast effects during the first experiment showed that the shortened component produced local contrast during subsequent presentations of the lengthened component, just as would a component associated with more frequent reinforcement. When the presentation sequence was changed so that the lengthened component was always followed by the shortened component, response rates generally increased during the lengthened component. When the sequence was arranged so that the shortened component always preceded the longer component, response rate decreased in the former. These effects, as well as the increases in response rate following change in component length, seem not to be the product of local contrast effects among components.     

An alternative perspective on sex differences in organizational settings: The process of legitimation

This article takes a sociological approach to a problem that has usually been considered as a psychological phenomenon. It addresses the problem of male—female interactions in work situations utilizing the organizational concepts of division of labor and legitimacy. Traditional explanations evoking sex-role socialization are reviewed and rejected for purposes of experimentation and intervention. An alternative argument, focusing on the structural arrangements of organizational settings, is presented as an explanation for behavioral effects previously attributed to inherent sex differences. The results of a pilot study are briefly described, and directions for further experimentation and possible intervention strategies are suggested.The bibliographic search and initial conceptualization of this research was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation under the auspices of the Center for Research on Women at Stanford University. We are grateful to Miriam Rosen for much of the bibliographic work. The pilot study was supported in part by funds from the Guggenheim Foundation and by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. We also wish to thank Richard Torres and Christie Timberlake for their invaluable assistance on this project.     

Selective attention by children and adults to pictures specified by color

Four conditions were used to investigate developmental trends in the ability to establish and use a color set to direct the selective processing of pictures. In three conditions, 6-year-old, 9-year-old, and adult subjects viewed a series of pairs of pictures, with one red and one black line drawing in each pair. Subjects were asked to look either at the red pictures only, the black pictures only, or both pictures. In a fourth condition, subjects viewed a series of singly presented red and black pictures. Pictures of both colors were included in a subsequent recognition memory test. At all ages recognition memory was comparable for pictures of each color in the both and single conditions but was higher for pictures of the specified color in the selective red and selective black conditions. There was no evidence at any age that memory for pictures of the specified color was decreased by the presence of the second picture. These results, showing roughly comparable selectivity at all ages, were discussed in relation to findings of developmental trends in selective attention on more “traditional” central-incidental learning tasks.     

Role perceptions: Variations by sex and roles

A Role Perception Scale utilizing a combined projective-objective methodology was developed to assess female and male perceptions of each of three single roles — work, marriage, and parent — and two combined roles — work-marriage and work-parent. Research participants were 134 college students, 88 females and 46 males. Factor analysis of the objective scale, the only part to be scored, resulted in two major orthogonal factors labeled role engagement and competition factors. Sex and role differences for each factor were analyzed using 2×5 split block analysis of variance design with repeated measures. On three out of the five single and combined roles women perceived more engagement than men. In general males perceived roles as more competitive. These sex differences and patterns identified in within-sex analyses across roles are discussed.Parts of this paper were presented at the American Psychological Association Convention, Washington, D.C., September 1976. Research was supported in part by the Dean's Development Fund, New York University, School of Education, Health, Nursing, and Arts Professions. Both authors are senior authors. The order of names is randomly determined. The authors wish to thank Philip Merrifield and Barbara Hummel-Rossi for their statistical assistance in data analysis.     

Sex differences in knowledge of occupational dimensions across four age levels

The purpose of the present study was to better understand the development of children's occupational knowledge, as assessed by their ability to give ratings to jobs along various dimensions that were similar to ratings given by adults, and to investigate differences in boys' and girls' ratings. Overall, younger students gave higher ratings to the jobs pictured than did older students. Also, females gave higher ratings to three of the four dimensions investigated. Girls rated traditionally female jobs higher on respect and service, while boys rated traditionally male jobs higher on respect and service. Both males and females agreed that more education would be required for the female jobs pictured, but that males would be paid more money for the male jobs pictured.     

The empirical study of teenage work: A behavioral code for the assessment of adolescent job environments

Policy recommendations that adolescents supplement their experience in school with experience in the workplace have been made in the absence of objective data on the nature of most adolescents' activity on the job. This paper presents a coding system for chronicling a variety of microbehaviors in sequence, as they occur, in adolescent job environments. Three elements of each of approximately 100 behaviors performed by a targeted teenage worker are recorded by an on-site observer who enters appropriate code numbers into a portable event recorder: (1) the social context of the behavior; (2) the character of the behavior; and (3) the duration and concomitants of the behavior, when appropriate. Each of 97 working teenagers was observed continuously over a two hour period on the job. Interobserver agreement on the coding of worker behaviors and the social contexts in which they occurred averaged .86 and .97, respectively. In addition to its applicability in research on the effects of working on adolescent development, information obtained using the code can be helpful in the evaluation of youth employment programs, the vocational counseling of adolescents, and the validation of subjective worker reports of job attributes.     

Exercise, changes in aerobic capacity, and changes in self-perceptions: An experimental investigation

Subjects in an exercise training condition participated in a 10-week aerobic exercise class, whereas subjects in waiting-list control and independent control conditions did not. The results indicated that subjects in the training condition evidenced reliably greater improvements in physical fitness (aerobic capacity) and reported reliably greater improvements in their abilities and confidence in both the physical area (e.g., ability to run distances) and nonphysical area (e.g., frustration tolerance) than did subjects in the control conditions. On the other hand, improvements in physical fitness were not related to reported improvements in abilities and confidence. These findings are of interest because they indicate that some of the important personal changes that are associated with physical fitness training are not due to changes in fitness, but appear to be due to other factors (e.g., group participation and expectancies).     

Kanji reading by a prekindergarten language-disabled child: A pilot study

A , severely language-disabled boy was taught 250 words made up of one, two, three, or four Japanese/Chinese kanji. Many kanji words were learned and some ability to process these in simple sentences was observed. Acquisition of a word for meaning was not dependent on its visual complexity, but on the child's ability to grasp the meaning of the word. Results suggest that a whole-word method may facilitate very early reading acquisition and a possible neurophysiological correlate of this is proposed. Kanji or whole words may prove useful for language-handicapped individuals unable to process words phonetically.     

Sexual preference,feminism, and women's perceptions of their parents

In an attempt to clarify the relation between parental variables, sexual preference, and sex-role attitudes, three groups of women were studied: lesbian feminists, heterosexual feminists, and heterosexual traditional women. The women were asked about their perceptions of their parents when they were in high school. The groups differed more from each other with respect to their perceptions of their fathers than their mothers. The perceived attitudes of the father were much more important in differentiating lesbian feminists from heterosexuals than in differentiating heterosexual feminists from heterosexual traditionals. Both the heterosexual groups (feminist and traditionals) reported having a more affectionate and involved father who also encouraged them more in the expression of anger than the lesbian feminists reported. The results suggest women's father relationships must not be obscured in research and support Johnson's hypothesis that the father relationship is more central than the mother relationship in sex typing and especially in the specifically sexual aspects of sex typing.