The control of social attention from 1 to 4 months

The control of social attention during early infancy was investigated in two studies. In both studies, an adult turned towards one of two targets within the infant's immediate visual field. We tested: (a) whether infants were able to follow the direction of the adult's head turn; and (b) whether following a head turn was accompanied by further gaze shifts between experimenter and target. In the first study, 1‐month‐olds did not demonstrate attention following at the group level. In addition, those infants who turned towards the same target remained fixed on it and did not shift attention again. In Study 2, we tested infants longitudinally at 2–4 months. At the group level, infants followed the adult's head turn at 3 and 4 months but not at 2 months. Those infants who turned towards the same target at 3 and 4 months also shifted gaze back and forth between experimenter and target. By 3 months, infants seem able to capitalize on the social environment to disengage and distribute attention more flexibly. The results support the claim that the control of social attention begins in early infancy, and are consistent with the hypothesis that following the attention of other people is dependent on the development of disengagement skills.     

The community competence scale in the placement of the deinstitutionalized mentally ill

Little systematic research has been directed towards the determination of appropriate residential placements for deinstitutionalized psychiatric patients. A previous study suggested that the Community Competence Scale (CCS), a 124-item multiscale instrument, had potential utility for community placement decisions. In the present study, the CCS was administered to 52 deinstitutionalized patients placed in an urban boarding home, a rural boarding home, and urban apartments. No significant differences on the CCS occurred attributable to urban vs. rural setting; accordingly, the urban and rural boarding home groups were combined. The CCS discriminated between patients placed in boarding home and apartment settings after variability between the groups associated with age and diagnosis had been removed. The CCS discriminated more effectively between the groups than did prior hospitalization, subsequent rehospitalization, or the Social Competence Scale (SCS). The CCS was significantly positively correlated with the SCS and significantly negatively correlated with previous hospitalization and age.     

A confirmatory factor analysis of the structure of schizotypy

Recent research into schizotypal traits has been concerned with the number and nature of these personality dimensions. Earlier exploratory factor analytic work using a wide variety of scales (the CSTQ) has generated a four-factor solution but other solutions have been provided by other investigators. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis on a large sample to compare several plausible models of the relationships between scales. These models include a two-factor model separating ‘positive’ from ‘negative’ schizotypal features, a three-factor model including features of cognitive disorganization, and the four-factor model generated previously by exploratory factor analysis. Results offer support for the four-factor solution as the only structure meeting multiple criteria for goodness of fit. The relevance of Eysenck's dimensions, and the P scale in particular, to the results is discussed. Attention is drawn to the possibility that the factors describe predispositions of risk of psychotic disorders beyond that of schizophrenia.     

Common reasoning about admissibility

We analyze common reasoning about admissibility in the strategic and extensive form of a game. We define a notion of sequential proper admissibility in the extensive form, and show that, in finite extensive games with perfect recall, the strategies that are consistent with common reasoning about sequential proper admissibility in the extensive form are exactly those that are consistent with common reasoning about admissibility in the strategic form representation of the game. Thus in such games the solution given by common reasoning about admissibility does not depend on how the strategic situation is represented. We further explore the links between iterated admissibility and backward and forward induction.     

Dyslexic and normal readers' eye movements

Dyslexic and normal readers' eye movements were compared while tracking a moving fixation point and in reading. Contrary to previous reports, the dyslexic and normal readers did not differ in their number of saccades, percentage of regressions, or stability of fixations in the tracking task. Thus, defective oculomotor control was not associated with or a causal factor in dyslexia, and the dyslexics' abnormal eye movements in reading must be related to differences in higher cognitive processes. However, individual differences in oculmotor efficiency, independent of reading ability, were found within both the dyslexic and normal groups, and these differences were correlated in reading and tracking tasks.     

Achievement and affiliation motivation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women

The purpose of this research was to investigate the possibility of an interaction between need for achievement and need for affiliation in career-oriented and homemaking-oriented college women. In the first study, scores on the appropriate scales (Achievement and Affiliation) of the Adjective Check List were obtained for 250 female college students, who were also classified as career or homemaking oriented on the basis of their responses to a questionnaire concerning postcollege plans. No significant differences were found between the career- and homemaking-oriented groups on Achievement and Affiliation; but, as predicted, a significant interaction occurred between the two variables. A second study, involving 257 college women and employing the same procedures and analysis, replicated the results of the original study: no main effects, but a significant interaction between Achievement and Affiliation. Implications of the findings for female career development and the counseling of women are discussed.     

The effect of verbal reinforcement on career choice realism

Twenty-four male undergraduates viewed 102 slides containing occupational titles and stated whether or not each represented a realistic career choice. Each subject was given three trials, with the experimental subjects receiving positive verbal reinforcement on the second trial for realistic responses. (If the choice was congruous with the individual's occupational type, as determined by the Vocational Preference Inventory, it was scored as realistic.) The results of the research revealed a tendency for all subjects to increase in career choice realism as a function of participation in the experiment, with significantly (p < .05) more experimental subjects than control subjects demonstrating an operant pattern of responses. Implications of the findings for counselors were discussed.     

Acquisition, extinction and reacquisition of a conditioned response in the cockroach: The effects of orotic acid

Cockroaches can be trained to keep their metathoracic leg out of a saline solution. Isolated metathoracic ganglia learnt faster than headless animals, which in turn learnt faster than intact animals. Extinction took longer in the isolated ganglion than in the other two preparations. Extinction times increased with increasing dose of orotic acid, a precursor of RNA. Orotic acid did not systematically affect the times for acquisition and reacquisition of the learnt response.