Discriminated interresponse times: role of autoshaped responses.

When discriminated interresponse-time (IRT) procedures have been used to assess preference relations among temporally extended operants, deviations from matching have been obtained. Using a yoked-control procedure, the present study found that key pecking in a discriminated IRT procedure has two sources of strength--that arising from the response-reinforcer contingency that is explicitly arranged, and that arising from a stimulus-reinforcer contingency that is a by-product of the explicitly arranged contingency. The key pecking of all lead birds, and that of 3 of the 4 birds exposed to a yoked autoshaping procedure, was controlled by the keylight that signaled the lead birds' criterion IRTs. Because stimulus control of key pecking by the keylight, whether autoshaped or discriminative, fosters deviations from matching, the discriminated IRT procedure does not provide an appropriate basis for conclusions about preference relations among IRTs.     

Dispositional and situational moderators of female and male causal attributions

To increase understanding of the relationships between gender and causal attributions, dispositional and situational variables were examined to determine if they affected causal attributions differently if the subjects were females or males. Four dispositional variables—locus of control, neuroticism, achievement motivation, and self-esteem—and five situational variables—expectancy of success, self-reported commitment, perceived productivity, perceived task complexity, and actual performance—were examined for their moderating effects on the gender-causal attributional relationships. The dispositional variables did not moderate any causal relationships. By comparison, four situational variables—performance, commitment, productivity, and complexity—moderated at least one of the gender-attribution relationships. It was concluded that more attention should be directed to the identification of situational moderators.     

Some effects of color on naming and recognition of objects

In this article, we investigated the role of color in the recognition and naming of everyday objects. In the first experiment we found that color pictures were named faster than black-and-white and that shape information did not facilitate color naming. Experiment 2 was carried out to determine at which stage of object processing the color facilitation occurred. We found that color had no effect on object recognition but did facilitate object naming, even when color was redundant for discrimination. This did not apply to naming abstract shapes. Experiment 3 replicated the findings of Experiment 2 using different objects and colors. The results showed that color could facilitate but not inhibit object naming and did not affect object recognition.     

The Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA): A study of reliability and validity

This study describes the development of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA), an instrument based on the short form of the Spence-Helmreich Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS). The AWSA has been tested in four samples of adolescents. Internal consistency estimates and test-retest stability indicated high reliability. Hypotheses formulated to test the construct validity of the scale were largely supported. AWSA permits the examination of how boys' and girls' attitudes toward women influence the life paths that adolescent girls begin to pursue.This research was supported by grants to A. Petersen from the Spencer Foundation, the National Institute of Mental health (MH 30252/38142), and the Judith Baskin Offer Fund.     

Attributes and roles assigned to characters in children's writing: Sex differences and sex-role perceptions

This research examined the creative writing of 180 elementary school children for evidence of sex difference and sex-role perceptions. Stories were analyzed for frequency of male and female characters, attributes, and roles. Writers were equally divided by sex and into three age groups—grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6. Results suggest that the total number of characters, roles, and attributes was equivalent. However, the distribution of male and female characters, roles, and attributes differed with male and female writers. Female writers included significantly more female characters and assigned more attributes and roles to these characters. Nevertheless, in the stories of both male and female writers, there was a predominance of male characters and assignment of attributes and roles to male characters. The findings support the development and implementation of a nonsexist curriculum.     

Woman and athlete: Toward role consistency

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of a general population toward female participation in sports and to replicate a previous study. The two areas investigated were (1) the perception of enhancement or detraction of femininity by girls' participation in athletics, and (2) whether different sports elicited different attitudes towards female participation in athletics. A town in Iowa was sampled. The results indicated that, in general, participation in sports neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. Furthermore, most of the people wanted their daughters to play basketball, even though it neither detracted from nor enhanced femininity. The data suggest that traditional, rigid sex-role stereotypes were transcended and the opportunity set was dominant.This study was partially funded by a grant from the University of Iowa Graduate School. Appreciation is expressed to Dr. Eldon Snyder for graciously sharing his instrument and recent work.     

How personality relates to intelligence test performance: Implications for a theory of intelligence,ageing research and personality assessment

Previously reported findings indicate that variation of EEG evoked potential parameters is strongly related to both personality and intelligence differences (Robinson, 1982a, b). These data and the associated theory imply that personality should relate to intelligence test performance. Results are described in this report which indicate that subtest profiles obtained with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) differ significantly for Ss scoring highest and lowest on the Extraversion (E) scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ); introverts tend to do better on the ‘Verbal’ subtests while extraverts tend to do better on the ‘Performance’ measures. Ss with middling scores on the E scale of the EPQ can also be distinguished in terms of specific WAIS profiles. In this case the results define two contrasting groups. Young male Ss with middling E scores tend to have high Psychoticism (P) and low Lie (L) scores on the EPQ as well as having distinctive WAIS profiles characterized by higher scores on subtests normally associated with a ‘Memory’ or ‘Attention-Concentration’ factor. Higher scores were also obtained by this subgroup on the Picture Arrangement and Block Design subtests which were previously shown to load a P + /L ? factor. The converse is true for older female Ss who also have middling E scores. As well as demonstrating a systematic relationship between personality and intelligence test performance these data provide some further support for a model of brain-behaviour relationships proposed by Robinson. Within this theoretical framework a neurophysiologically meaningful explanation can be provided for the three major factors that reliably emerge in factor-analytic studies of the WAIS. From an applied viewpoint, the data indicate that personality differences can be assessed from performance on tests such as the WAIS. On this issue the results are discussed with particular reference to Gittinger's Personality Assessment System. Implications for ageing research are also discussed.     

A paradoxical prediction from locus of control

Individual differences in attribution have been little researched. Beliefs about locus of control have been taken to be stable and important differences between people. They may provide some of the background assumptions on which people base their explanations of actions, especially insofar as these explanations imply that the cause of an action was within the agent or his environment, and that the action was or was not under the agent's control. Respondents were therefore asked to fill in Rotter and Levenson locus of control questionnaires and to provide explanations or ask questions about several actions. It was hypothesized that internals would be inclined to go for explanations which were personal and implied high control, while externals would not. However, what emerged was the paradoxical finding that internals provided explanations which implied that the causes of the actions lay outside the agent, while externals provided ones which implied that the causes lay within. This result is discussed in terms of the difference between actions and outcomes, and the possibility that an important difference between people may be in the rigidity and simplicity of their beliefs about causality.     

The pathological left-handedness syndrome

A clinical syndrome of pathological left-handedness (PLH) is proposed to identify the pattern of correlative changes in lateral development associated with early brain injury in some manifest left-handers. This syndrome is believed to be caused by a hemispheric lesion that is predominantly left-sided (or bilateral asymmetric), which onsets before Age 6, and which encroaches upon the critical speech zones of the frontotemporal/frontoparietal cortex. The pattern of changes may include any or all of the following features: shifts in manual dominance, trophic changes in the extremities, transfer of hemispheric speech, and/or intrahemispheric reorganization of visuospatial cognitive functions. Although some of these correlates of PLH have long been known, they have not been recognized as an interrelated pattern of traits that constitute a clinical syndrome. Identification of these individuals, all manifest left-handers, will be shown to have implications for diagnosis/remediation and for models of recovery of function.