Relative competence,reinforcement and conformity

Forty male inmates from an adult correctional training centre participated in a 2 × 2 factorial design with subject correctness-incorrectness and group agreement-disagreement constituting the classification factors. A modified Asch procedure was used to manipulate a S's prior experience of correctness and agreement (Part 1) and to assess subsequent conformity to 3 male confederates (Part 2). The female experimenter served as the source of reinforcement and group correctness. Ss responded to a (two part) 26 verbal and perceptual item scale, including 11 conformity items. Subject correctness and group agreement interacted, for perceptual items only, so that subjects who were more competent than the group or equally incompetent to the group conformed less than those who were less competent than the group, who in turn conformed less than those who were equally competent to the group, where both the subjects and the group were correct. Subjects conformed more to difficult verbal items than to perceptual items, and unsuspicious subjects conformed more than suspicious subjects. Both relative competence, mediating the effects of prior experience, and the situational factor of reinforcement affect conformity to perceptual tasks.     

Reaction time and short-term memory: Implications of repetition effects for the high-speed exhaustive scan hypothesis

Recognition memory for sub-span digit sequences was investigated using Stern-berg's varied-set RT technique. Two experiments studied memory for sequences containing repetitions (e.g. 9 1 9 3) and observed faster recognition of repeated items. Experiment I also showed serial position effects with faster responding to more recent items. Neither of these effects is predicted by Sternberg's highspeed exhaustive scanning hypothesis. Several alternative hypotheses are considered, including two models based on the concept of trace strength, which appear to merit further investigation.     

Seven types of data from computer-controlled experiments

Seven types of data often need to be accessed from a computer-controlled experiment. Some of them involve only a single word and must be available within a fraction of a second; others may involve hundreds of thousands of words, but need not be available until a few hours after an experimental session. A time-sharing program for on-line control of psychological experiments should have the facilities for dealing with all seven types of data.     

The influence of examiner race on the cognitive functioning of urban and rural children of different races

Urban and rural girls enrolled in second grades of a school system in the South were randomly assigned to black and white examiners to be tested on an individually administered intelligence test. The interaction of race of examiner, race of subject, and location of subject's home on test performance was investigated using a factorial design employing analysis of covariance. This interaction was not significant. However, as found in other studies, the white children as a group scored significantly higher than the black children. A discussion of conditions in which an interaction relationship may result is presented.     

Prevarication: Reasoning from false assumptions

This paper examines the strategies t~sed in solving prevaricative reasoning problems. The task consisted of a noncontradictory set of propositions followed by an assumption that introduced an inconsistency. Ss were required to restore consistency by assigning truth values to propositions. When reasoning from false assumptions, Ss exhibit a specific strategy in assigning truth values: If forced to choose between the truth of a generality (e.g., All As are Bs) and that of a particular fact (e.g., This Y is a Z), the Ss assign the generality TRUE and the fact FALSE. Affirmative generalities are assigned TRUE more often than are negative ones, and those expressing class inclusion are assigned TRUE more often than those expressing property assignment. The data show that the selection of a “path” through this hypothetical reasoning problem cannot be attributed to either the syntactic form or the preexperimental credibility of the propositions. A generality coding model was discussed in terms of strategies sho~ in prevaricative reasoning problems as well as in other inference tasks.     

An informational analysis of absolute judgments of torque

Five male Ss participated in seven experiments involving absolute judgments of stimuli selected from a continuum of torque. Experiment 1 required Ss to make judgments on the intensity of 16 stimuli separated by equal intervals. These results were used in the construction of individual scales of equal discriminability. These scales were then used to select the stimuli for the remaining six experiments, in which 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 stimuli, separated by subjectively equal intervals, were used. An informational analysis was performed to determine the capacity of the kinesthetic system to transmit information derived from the inducement of torque. Maximum values of 1.680, 2.050, and 2.524 bits of information transmitted were obtained when the response was considered the output, and the input variables were, respectively: the stimulus; the stimulus and the S; the stimulus, the S, and the previous stimulus. These results were discussed in relation to information theory and the use of torque information in closed-loop control of movement.     

Effect of different delayed auditory feedback intervals on a music performance task

The effects of 12 different delay intervals were studied in a musical task involving performance on an electronic organ. Disruption was found to occur to a degree comparable to similar studies involving verbal and rhythmic tasks under DAF. Maximal disruption was found with a delay of 0.27 sec, a value rather greater than that typically found to be most disruptive in speech. Three of the 12 Ss showed speeded performance under part of the range of DAF intervals, as compared with performance under immediate feedback; however, their performance also reached a peak of slowing at a delay of about 0.27 sec. No significant differences were found between male and female Ss’ performance. These findings were discussed without the context of control processes operating in music performance, and compared with the possibly analogous mechanisms of speech.     

Relationships between exploratory behaviour and fear: a review

Two main theories of the relationship between exploratory behaviour and anxiety or fearfulness are: (a) ‘Two-factor theory’, according to which novel stimuli evoke both curiosity and fear/anxiety, with exploration as the outcome of competing tendencies to approach and avoid, and (b) the ‘Halliday-Lester theory’, where the fear aroused by novelty results in either approach (low fear) or avoidance (high fear). Relevant evidence comes from animal studies varying fear by manipulating either environmental or intrinsic factors. This evidence is largely compatible with the two-factor theory and some results which have been presented as critical support for the Halliday-Lester theory are actually equivocal.     

Controlled forgetting in the retarded

Three experiments investigated selective rehearsal by retardates in a serial memory task which was an adaptation of Bjork's (1970) paradigm involving instructions to forget a subset of the material presented. Since previous research indicated that retarded children do not selectively rehearse, and since Bjork's paradigm requires the use of a selective rehearsal strategy, it seemed likely that retardates would fail in this task. Experiment 1 showed that retardates could perform this task, and there was substantial evidence for cumulative rehearsal. The possibility of an averaging artifact in the data of Expt 1 was eliminated in Expt 2 by showing evidence of primacy and facilitation due to the forget instruction for individual Ss. Experiment 3 indicated that the facilitation due to the forget instruction was likely due to the effective use of a selective rehearsal strategy. These results contrast with other findings of no rehearsal in retarded children. It is suggested that response biases may be involved in previous studies of rehearsal.