Vision following extended congenital blindness

Animal studies suggest that early visual deprivation can cause permanent functional blindness. However, few human data on this issue exist. Given enough time for recovery, can a person gain visual skills after several years of congenital blindness? In India, we recently had an unusual opportunity to work with an individual whose case history sheds light on this question. S.R.D. was born blind, and remained so until age 12. She then underwent surgery for the removal of dense congenital cataracts. We evaluated her performance on an extensive battery of visual tasks 20 years after surgery. We found that although S.R.D.'s acuity is compromised, she is proficient on mid- and high-level visual tasks. These results suggest that the human brain retains an impressive capacity for visual learning well into late childhood. They have implications for current conceptions of cortical plasticity and provide an argument for treating congenital blindness even in older children.     

Cultural contributions to constructing locus-of-control attributions

Locus of control attribution patterns have been demonstrated to predict a variety of behavioral and adaptational characteristics in a number of societies. As a consequence, questions concerning the comparability of those attributions across cultures have been of interest to social and personality theorists as well as to their more action-oriented colleagues. In the present study, the processes used by Indian college students to form those attributions have been studied and compared with those used by a similar sample in the United States. A structure-factor approach was used, because it allowed for a comparison of attribution patterns within and between cultures as well as the drawing of inferences about locus-of-control attributions that are theoretically and practically important. Results supported the utility of such an approach, identified culturally syntonic patterns in both samples, and also identified cross-cultural similarities and differences in locus-of-control attributions.     

THREE TYPES OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION: A STUDY AMONG THE JAUNSAR-BAWAR SOCIETY*

The study examines the influence of family structure and family experiences on psychological differentiation in children. Three types of families, viz., monogamous, polyandrous and polygynandrous were selected from the polyandrous society of Jaunsar-Bawar in the Cis-Himalayan region of India. 175 boys and girls of age groups 7-9 and 13-15 years, belonging to the three types of families, were administered the Story-Pictorial EFT, Indo-African EFT and BD tests. Family experiences of the child were assessed through ratings and interview. A 2×3×2 ANOVA performed on differentiation scores revealed significant age and sex effects. Family effect was not statistically significant. But the data suggested a strong trend in the expected direction. The findings have been discussed in terms of the characteristic family patterns of Jaunsar-Bawar and acculturation factors.     

Examining the Relationship Between Personality and Work Values Across Career Stages

The study examines the strength of association between personality and work values, and their variations across career stages of exploration, establishment, and maintenance. The results showed that the executives in exploration stage were lower on needs of altruism and economic returns as compared to executives from establishment and maintenance stages, but higher on neuroticism and conscientiousness dimensions of personality. Neuroticism negatively predicted creativity and aesthetics; and conscientiousness negatively predicted management. Security was positively predicted by extraversion, but negatively predicted by openness. However, the variance explained was very weak, indicating that these constructs could be independent or unrelated. The implications have been discussed in the study.     

Emotional agency appraisals influence responses to preference inconsistent information

Bringing together the literature on emotional appraisals and the literature on biased processing in judgment, two studies investigate how incidental emotions varying in valence and agency influence decision making after exposure to preference consistent vs. inconsistent information. We show that emotions differ in their response to preference inconsistent information due to their differences in self vs. other agency appraisals, whereas no emotional differences were found in response to preference consistent information. Negative emotions associated with other agency appraisals increase resistance to preference inconsistent information whereas negative emotions associated with self agency appraisals encourage acceptance of preference inconsistent information relative to neutral conditions. We show this pattern reverses for positive emotions. These effects were driven by changes in confidence after exposure to inconsistent information and reflected in evaluative judgments. We discuss the significance of these findings for the emotions, preference consistency, and decision-making literatures.     

Interactions between Learning Sets in Monkeys

Relationships between stage of moral judgment and antecedent social experiences are presented for a non-Western sample of young adults. Cross sectional data are presented for two groups of Kenyan students: 52 University of Nairobi students; and 40 fourth form secondary school Ss. Critical variables are (a) family modernization, (b) attending ethnically pluralistic secondary schools, and (c) living independently away from home. The correlations between moral judgment stage and these three variables are controlled for, and compared to, correlations between stage of moral judgment and age, sex, race, and academic ability (as measured by standardized achievement tests or by grades). The evidence demonstrates associations between moral stage and all three critical variables, though in different ways for the two age levels of Ss.     

Delayed,But Not Immediate,Feedback After Multiple-Choice Questions Increases Performance on a Subsequent Short-Answer,But Not Multiple-Choice,Exam: Evidence for the Dual-Process Theory of Memory

Three experiments, two performed in the laboratory and one embedded in a college psychology lecture course, investigated the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback following a multiple-choice exam on subsequent short answer and multiple-choice exams. Performance on the subsequent multiple-choice exam was not affected by the timing of the feedback on the prior exam; however, performance on the subsequent short answer exam was better following delayed than following immediate feedback. This was true regardless of the order in which immediate versus delayed feedback was given. Furthermore, delayed feedback only had a greater effect than immediate feedback on subsequent short answer performance following correct, confident responses on the prior exam. These results indicate that delayed feedback cues a student's prior response and increases subsequent recollection of that response. The practical implication is that delayed feedback is better than immediate feedback during academic testing.