A comparison of three predictors of an individual's memory performance: the individual's feeling of knowing versus the normative feeling of knowing versus base-rate item difficulty

Distinctions are drawn between different predictors of an individual's memory performance, with emphasis on the notion of privileged access to idiosyncratic knowledge. Research is reported in which undergraduates attempted to recall the answers to general-information questions, then made feeling-of-knowing judgments on nonrecalled items, and subsequently had a criterion test (relearning, perceptual identification, or one of two versions of recognition). For predicting an individual's criterion performance, the individual's own feeling-of-knowing predictions were intermediate between two kinds of normative predictions: The individual's feeling-of-knowing predictions were more accurate than predictions derived from normative feeling-of-knowing ratings but were less accurate than predictions derived from base-rate item difficulty (normative probabilities of correct recall). Subsidiary analyses showed that factors other than unreliability are responsible for the partial inaccuracy of the individual's feeling of knowing. Ramifications are discussed for possible ways to improve the accuracy of an individual's feeling-of-knowing predictions.     

Spontaneous alternation behavior in animals: A review

Factors affecting spontaneous alternation behavior (SAB) in animals, for example, age, gender and species studied; type of apparatus and cues employed; and neuro-anatomical, neuro-chemical and motivational status of the organism, were reviewed. Despite a myriad of experiments showing interesting main effects of such variables, little research has been performed assessing the interactive affects of these factors on alternation behavior. For example, psychologists test rats in central nervous system (CNS) lesion studies, whereas psychopharmacologists tend to assess SAB in mice. Most importantly, studies have not been reported investigating the possible interactions among species, brain lesions and drugs. This is an unfortunate omission since several important alternation models include propositions relating to cholinergic and/or serotonergic coding in the hippocampus. Examination of behavioral studies revealed the primary cue for alternation among invertebrates to be body turn, whereas vertebrates rely primarily on directional and odor cues. Reference to the seeking of stimulus change remains the most compelling motivational account of why animals manifest this ubiquitious and reliable behavior pattern. This review and the unpublished studies were supported by Research Grants MH16962, MH21288, and MH36491 from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund.     

Parent and actometer measures of motor activity level in the young infant

Motor activity level is one dimension of infant temperament for which parental judgment can be validated against a truly independent criterion. Two studies were conducted, the first involving a 27-min sample of behavior in a structured, attention-getting situation, and the second involving a 24-hr sample of in-home behavior. In both studies, parent perception of the 3- or 4-month-old as measured by the Activity Level (AL) scale of the Rothbart Infant Behavior Questionnaire was compared to the composited readings from four mechanical motion recorders (actometers) worn, one per limb, by the infant. The AL scale did not correlate with the actometer measure, r=.05 and R=.00, and the expected convergence of the 3-month version of the IBQ activity scale with its mechanical counterpart was not found. In the 24-hr study, birth order and ponderal index were significantly correlated with 24-hr actometer scores; first-borns and thin infants were most active.     

Cast of characters work: Systemically exploring the naturally organized personality

Cast of Characters Work conceives of the personality as a naturally organized unique group of characters who, together, function in an internal system. All characters bring their own histories, perceptions, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors to life's situations. Their survival strategies and interrelationships are felt as anxiety, conflict, ambivalence, or confidence. Heightening awareness of these multiple, simultaneous events increases access to the actual living process. The complex inner world of individuals, couples, and families can be precisely explored by working directly with each character and their relationships. Objectives are accountability and more functional, flexible, and satisfactory arrangements among characters internally and in couples and families.Also in private practice at 2 Pine Circle, Urbana, IL 61801.     

Innovations in marriage counseling

Love is the result of reciprocity of one's deepest desires and needs (DDN) being met to a reasonable degree. Marriage is the legalizing of the relationship, with the understanding that the contract to satisfy each other is binding and modifiable from time to time. Marital therapy proceeds in an orderly and logical fashion. The mutual complaints are listed in some detail. To reduce the list as much as possible is the goal of therapy. Some complaints are learned to be ignored, others require confrontation. If comfort is not achieved with these options, separation or divorce is the most frequently used option and calls for RET techniques to reduce reliance on neurotic methods. Several strategies crucial to facilitate change are discussed.     

Minicomputer-administered tasks in the study of effects of sustained work on human performance

Six tasks administered on a MINC-11 minicomputer were used in studying the effects of long, continuous work periods and fatigue on physical and cognitive task performance. Submaximal physiological workload measurement was done during one of these tasks for a subject walking on a treadmill. The MINC-11 system is described, as are the six tasks programs. Four of these tasks measured various types of reaction times, another involved complex information processing, and one appraised moods, physical symptoms, fatigue, and the physiological status of subjects.     

Secobarbital and perceptual processing

An experiment which employed each of 18 subjects in four days of testing was used to examine acute secobarbital dose treatment effects on choice reaction time in a Cooper and Shepard (1973) character recognition task. Manipulations of visual stimulus degradation, character difficulty, 180 degree rotation, and mirror-image reversal were included in order to evaluate the hypothesis that the drug affects performance by disrupting early stimulus input processing. The results indicate significant increases in the effect of secobarbital on reaction time and errors under conditions of visual stimulus degradation. The effects of the drug, however, were not changed by 180 degree rotation of the target character or by the other task variables. The results were interpreted to indicate that secobarbital impairs performance primarily by placing selective stress on hypothetical early encoding activities and that later processing operations (associated with use of an internal representation of the target character) are not affected by the drug. Strengths and weaknesses of the two-stage model of visual stimulus processing are discussed and implications of the model for future drug research are indicated.     

Selective attention and rehearsal in the auditory short-term memory task performance of poor and normal readers

The performance of poor and normal sixth-grade readers was compared on an auditory short-term memory task in two studies. In the first study, the effects of distraction, list length, and speed of stimulus presentation were investigated to test the hypothesis that the performance of the poor readers is affected by deficits in selective attention. Group differences in performance, however, were obtained for both distraction and no-distraction conditions. The second experiment examined the hypothesis that group differences may reflect differences in the use of rehearsal. In the second experiment, half the reading-disabled children and half the controls were provided with rehearsal training prior to completing the same short-term memory task a second time. Rehearsal training resulted in improved performance relative to children who were not trained; however, there was no rehearsal training x reading group interaction. The poor readers continued to show deficits in performance relative to the performance of control children. The results of these two studies suggest that deficits observed for poor readers on short-term memory tasks may reflect processing difficulties in some area that precedes rehearsal and affects performance under both distraction and no-distraction conditions.The authors wish to express their thanks to the Sachem School District and Betty Gould, Nicholas Opinanate, and Guy Barber for their unlimited cooperation, and to John Neale for very helpful discussions of a number of issues in this paper.