Factors Related to Inconsistent Career Preferences

A sample of entering college freshmen was divided into 2 groups on the basis of the consistency or inconsistency of their first and second career preferences. The two groups were compared on several family and personal factors in order to identify variables that are related to inconsistencies in career preferences. The groups were observed to be somewhat different in the general level of their academic ability and the degree to which their interests were supported by SVIB results. No significant family differences between the two groups were observed. These findings were tentatively interpreted as implying that the inconsistency of career preference was more likely to be the result of the student's recognition of his limited abilities than the other variables examined in this study.     

The Kuder-Richardson formula (21) as a split-half coefficient,and some remarks on its basic assumption

Case IV of the Kuder-Richardson series, their formula (21), is derived as a generalized split-half Spearman-Brown coefficient. The basic assumption employed is shown to be sufficient to justify the various assumptions used in derivations by other authors. Some of the implications of this assumption are discussed.     

On methods in the analysis of profile data

This paper is concerned with methods for analyzing quantitative, non-categorical profile data, e.g., a battery of tests given to individuals in one or more groups. It is assumed that the variables have a multinormal distribution with an arbitrary variance-covariance matrix. Approximate procedures based on classical analysis of variance are presented, including an adjustment to the degrees of freedom resulting in conservativeF tests. These can be applied to the case where the variance-covariance matrices differ from group to group. In addition, exact generalized multivariate analysis methods are discussed. Examples are given illustrating both techniques.We are indebted to Mrs. Norma French for performing all the calculations appearing in this paper.     

Conceptual transfer insimple insight problems

Three experiments explored the conditions under which information presented in the first part of an experiment facilitates the subsequent solving of simple insight problems. We argue that previous unsuccessful attempts to obtain such facilitation are attributable to the experimenters’ failure to present this information in a form that induces the conceptual operations needed to solve the problem. Substantial facilitation is obtained if the information is presented in a form that induces a few seconds of puzzlement and then a clue is presented that leads to an appropriate reconception; if identical information is presented without such a period of puzzlement and reconception, no facilitation is observed. The results demonstrate that conceptual processing operations, not merely informational content, must be relevant if conceptual transfer is to occur. One possible mechanism involved in such transfer is the indexing of concepts such that they contain pointers to conceptually anomalous episodes     

The consequences for memory of imagining in another person’s voice

Subjects listened to and imagined words and then attempted to discriminate words they had heard from words they had imagined. Discrimination was better when subjects imagined themselves saying the words (Experiments 1 and 2) than when subjects imagined the words in the speaker’s voice. Subjects also had more difficulty discriminating imagined from perceived words when they imagined in the speaker’s voice than when they imagined words in a voice other than their own or the speaker’s (Experiment 1). The results are consistent with the idea that reality monitoring is affected by the degree of similarity in sensory characteristics of memories derived from perception and from imagination (Johnson & Raye, 1981).     

Application of a Temporal Persistence Model to Community Residents' L]ong-Term Beliefs about the Three Mile island Nuclear Accident1

Little is known about the conditions under which beliefs and attitudes about an issue or event will persist over time. The present research took advantage of a “natural experiment”, namely, the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear accident, in order (a) better to understand the nature of individuals' b]eliefs about a major event to which they were exposed and (b) to evaluate a conceptual formulation developed from laboratory-based experimental literature concerning when beliefs and attitudes are likely to be temporally persistent. Data were collected over a 3-year period following the accident from two samples of community residents: mothers of young children who lived within a 10-mile radius of TMI and TMI nuclear power plant employees. Samples of mothers and workers from a western Pennsylvania comparison site were also included in the study design. Results supported the persistence model in several respects. First, TMI subjects' b]eliefs, although more extreme than comparison subjects' v]iews, showed virtually no change during the study period. Second, the factors that the model suggests should account for the observed persistence were indeed consistently important predictors of TMI subjects' b]eliefs over time. Implications of the results for future applied work on long-term reactions to major events are discussed.     

The Edinburgh Masker: A clinical analog study

This article will describe the effects of instructions and practice on the vocal intensities of normal speakers and stutterers while reading in the presence of masking moise generated by the Edinburgh Masker. Both the normal speakers and the stutterers reacted in similar ways: They increased vocal intensity with the introduction of the noise, reduced vocal intensity in the presence of the noise, given instructions and practice, but failed to reduce vocal intensity to pre-noise reference levels. While these results are hardly reflective of long-term change in clinical behavior, a recommendation is made for a reexamination of the role of the increased vocal intensity as at least one factor, of perhaps many, responsible for whatever the long-term clinical effectiveness of the Masker.     

Effects of modeling and videotape feedback with knowledge of results on motor performance

On the basis of social learning theory it can be hypothesized that information acquired through model observation can provide as rich a basis for a cognitive representation as that acquired by means of the usual KR procedure. A source of external information similar to that of model observation is videotape feedback (VTFB). Therefore, it was the purpose of this study to test the potency of these two sources of information with KR. The design was a 4 (groups) × 10 (blocks) factorial ANOVA with repeated measures on the last factor. Both immediate transfer and 48-hr retention effects were assessed. The immediate transfer analysis indicated a significant main effect for group. This effect appeared to be due to the poor performance of the VTFB group. The same effect approached significance after the 48-hr retention. Subsequent variance analysis indicated significant differences between transfer and retention within all conditions except modeling.