Luminous targets: Visibility fluctuations modified by similar verbal responses

Ss reported visibility fluctuations in a luminous target consisting of small, medium, and large circles. Each S had previously learned a response to each of the three circles. The experimental group learned two words which were free associates of each other and a third unrelated word. The control group learned three unrelated words. Concurrent visibility for the pair of circles associated with related words was greater than for the pairs associated with unrelated words. Thus word associations influence perception of stimuli for which the words are responses.     

Coding modality vs. input modality in hypermnesia: Is a rose a rose a rose?

Recent experiments indicate that recall of pictures, unlike recall of words, may increase (hypermnesia) with time and effort. This study demonstrates that by recoding word inputs into ‘mental pictures’, i.e., images, subjects can transform inert word lists into hypermnesic ones. Thus, when word inputs are recoded into images, recall increases over time, and resembles in other respects the recall of pictures.     

Facilitation of attention to number and conservation of number

This study examined the relation between number conservation and attention to number, density, and length or area in kindergarteners (age 5 years, 8 months) and third graders (age 8 years, 11 months). Attention was assessed by the dimensional preference technique, using triads. Both the attention and conservation tasks included stimulus factors known to facilitate or hinder conservation: small or large numbers of objects, nonlinear or linear arrays, and trials ordered from easiest to hardest, hardest to easiest, or randomly. The number of objects and type of array affected both tasks similarly and there was an order effect in the attention task. There was an increase in attention to number from kindergarten nonconservers to kindergarten conservers to third-graders. Possible developmental interactions between attention and conservation were suggested.     

Perceptual supports for one-to-one correspondence in the conservation of number

This study compared provoked and spontaneous one-to-one correspondence along with two tasks having more perceptual support for correspondence. These four levels of correspondence appeared in a conservation of number condition and two conservation-related conditions (a partially static array or a static array). There were two sets of stimuli (toy animals or corks) in each condition. In opposition to Piaget's predictions, the four levels of correspondence did not differ in difficulty for kindergarteners. There was a strong order effect (p<.001) in the direction of increasing conservation over the eight trials. There was some evidence that the standard conservation condition was easier than the other two conditions. Implications for Piaget's theory are discussed.     

Learned helplessness,depression and the perception of reinforcement

Depressed and nondepressed subjects were given escapable, inescapable, or no noise. Then, their perceptions of reinforcement contingencies in skill and chance tasks were assessed. Depressed-no noise and nondepressed-inescapable noise subjects exhibited smaller decreases in expectancy following failure in skill, but not in chance, than nondepressed-no noise subjects. So, depression and inescapable noise both produced perception of failure in skill as response-independent. Contrary to predictions, neither depression nor inescapable noise had a significant effect on increases in expectancy after success. These results partially support the learned helplessness model of depression which claims that a belief in independence between responding and reinforcement is central to the etiology and symptoms of depression in man.     

Method factors associated with assessment of child behavior: Fact or artifact?

A sample of 64 phobic children between the ages of 6 and 16, with their general population matched controls, were rated by parents on the Louisville Behavior Check List and Louisville Fear Survey and by teachers on the School Behavior Check List. The analysis of ratings by factor analysis revealed three instrument factors while a multiple discriminant analysis elicited a multidimensional phobic trait that crossed observers, situations, and instruments. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for multivariant analysis of behavior change as well as for classification of psychopathological disorders of childhood. The thesis is advanced that instrument factors elicited by factor analysis in psychotherapy change studies are statistical artifacts and that a multiple discriminant analysis is a more appropriate technique for the study of change as well as for classification.This study is one aspect of a psychotherapy research project on phobic children which was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. MH 13219.