Development of a Spanish version of the Participation Motivation Inventory for young competitive swimmers

The present study examined the validity of a Spanish version of the Participation Motivation Inventory, modified for swimming by Gould, Feltz, and Weiss in 1985, and investigated whether young swimmers differing in sex and age vary in their objectives for participation. Swimmers (204 boys and 224 girls, ranging in age from 8 to 22 years) were administered the inventory. Factor analysis with varimax rotation identified seven factors fairly consistent with previous research. Differences were found across age and sex. Females placed greater emphasis than males on Friendship and Fun and indicated lower importance rating to Status. Younger children (8-10 years) rated Fun/Friendship, Competition/Skills, Significant Others, and Status significantly higher in importance than did the other age groups.     

An associative framework for probability judgment: an application to biases

Three experiments show that understanding of biases in probability judgment can be improved by extending the application of the associative-learning framework. In Experiment 1, the authors used M. A. Gluck and G. H. Bower's (1988a) diagnostic-learning task to replicate apparent base-rate neglect and to induce the conjunction fallacy in a later judgment phase as a by-product of the conversion bias. In Experiment 2, the authors found stronger evidence of the conversion bias with the same learning task. In Experiment 3, the authors changed the diagnostic-learning task to induce some conjunction fallacies that were not based on the conversion bias. The authors show that the conjunction fallacies obtained in Experiment 3 can be explained by adding an averaging component to M. A. Gluck and G. H. Bower's model.     

Dogs (Canis familiaris) learn from their owners via observation in a manipulation task

Eighty-seven pet dogs (Canis familiaris) were involved in an experiment in which they had to solve a task to obtain a ball. After witnessing a full demonstration by their owner (10 times pushing the handle of the box, which released a ball), most dogs preferred to touch the handle sooner and more frequently in comparison with other parts of the box, and they used the handle to get the ball. In contrast, dogs in 3 control groups developed their own respective methods. The lack of emergence of the ball and playing after the demonstration did not affect the learning performance strongly. This suggests that in dogs the outcome of a demonstration plays only a restricted role in the manifestation of social learning.     

The early origins of goal attribution in infancy

We contrast two positions concerning the initial domain of actions that infants interpret as goal-directed. The 'narrow scope' view holds that goal-attribution in 6- and 9-month-olds is restricted to highly familiar actions (such as grasping). The cue-based approach of the infant's 'teleological stance', however, predicts that if the cues of equifinal variation of action and a salient action effect are present, young infants can attribute goals to a 'wide scope' of entities including unfamiliar human actions and actions of novel objects lacking human features. It is argued that previous failures to show goal-attribution to unfamiliar actions were due to the absence of these cues. We report a modified replication of Woodward (1999) showing that when a salient action-effect is presented, even young infants can attribute a goal to an unfamiliar manual action. This study together with other recent experiments reviewed support the 'wide scope' approach indicating that if the cues of goal-directedness are present even 6-month-olds attribute goals to unfamiliar actions.     

Pavlov in America: a heterodox approach to the study of his influence

This work presents a critical analysis of Pavlov's influence that goes beyond the conventional view: that which reduces his influence in American psychology to the behaviorism of Watson and Hull. In order to understand the nature of the Russian physiologist's influence in American psychology, we propose a distinction between three approaches to it: 1) the symbolic approach, on representing a model of the possibility of constructing an objective psychology; 2) the methodological approach, given the importance of the technique of conditional reflexes; and 3) the theoretical approach, which is derived from his theory of higher nervous activity. This perspective permits us to suggest that most of Pavlov's influence on behaviorism was of a symbolic and methodological nature--though the methodological influence also reached other authors that did not belong to the behaviorist traditions, as was the case of Mateer. As far as the theoretical influence is concerned, our work proposes that it is more visible in authors such as Gantt and Liddell, or even in authors such as Boldirev, Director of the Pavlovian Laboratory at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. The case of Gantt is especially interesting because, in addition to his important contributions, he played an essential role in the foundation of the Pavlovian Society, and the journal Conditional Reflex. What our work proposes is that to understand the nature of Pavlov's influence in American psychology it is necessary to take into account the very characteristics of that psychology: its pragmatic interests, its methodological rigor, the dominant systems of neo-behavioral theory and the changes that occurred after the Second World War.     

Nyíri,J.C., Tradition and Individuality: Philosophical Essays, “Synthese Library”; Nyíri,Kristóf,A hagyomány filozófiája (The Philosophy of Tradition); Neumer,Katalin, Gondolkodás,beszéd, írás (Thought,Language, and Writing)

Studies in East European Thought -     

The Rediscovery of the Human Mind: The Discursive Approach

The demise of behaviorism was followed by a period of cognitive model building, on Cartesian lines, invoking unobservable cognitive processes, then "mind behind the mind". This has been followed by a second cognitive revolution which emphasizes the idea that mind is a flow of private and public symbolic patterns, created according to local norms. Basing psychology on this insight requires the preservation of the psychological concepts of ordinary languages as part of the basis for scientific psychology. The concept of 'skill' can be used to link individuals with the matrix of interpersonal symbolic and practical interactions. The second revolution can be illustrated by recent work on emotion displays as discursive acts, and by studies on the role of pronouns in the expression of a sense of personal identity.     

Interactive learning in the paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis): an ethological interpretation of the second-order conditioning paradigm

This study was aimed at the examination of ‘mental construction’ in paradise fish by interactive learning, which is suggested as an alternative hypothesis for backward or second-order conditioning. Avoidance of goldfish was established in paradise fish by presenting a harmless goldfish (a novel stimulus) after an aversive event (mild electric shocks) in the dark compartment of a shuttle tank. It was found that this avoidance depended on context pre-exposure. Experiment 1 was designed to study the effect of mild shocks on shuttling activity in a familiar context. Experiment 2 aimed at establishing fear-conditioning to the goldfish in a higher-order conditioning paradigm. In the course of training, unpaired stimuli were presented in the dark compartment of the shuttle tank in such a manner that the presentation of mild shocks (20 mA) preceded the encounter with a harmless fish (goldfish). Experiment 3 demonstrated the role of context pre-exposure in interactive learning. Results indicate that (1) while 60 mA shocks resulted in avoidance of the dark compartment, the 20 mA mild shocks affected exploratory behaviour; (2) after pre-exposure to the training environment, paradise fish avoided the dark compartment containing goldfish provided that subjects had previously encountered mild, explorative shocks there; (3) this conditioned fear, a ‘mental construction’ of a potential danger, was proved to be transferable to another context and was consequently aimed specifically at the goldfish, a living being, rather than the training context; (4) the pre-exposure to the shuttle tank was an important part of this training procedure, that is, only subjects habituated to the shuttle tank avoided the goldfish. Results are discussed in the framework of the Interactive Learning Hypothesis, which has been developed as an ethological approach to a higher-order conditioning paradigm. Received: 15 January 1999 / Accepted after revision: 18 August 1999     

Analyzing Models of Career Decision Self-Efficacy: First-Order,Hierarchical, and Bifactor Models of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale

The goal of the study was to examine the dimensionality of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale Short Form (CDSES-SF, Betz et al. 1996). Integrating several previous findings from different cultures, we found that the bifactor structure of the CDSES-SF on a Hungarian sample of 649 respondents showed the best model fit. This structure includes a general CDSE factor covering 15 items and the original five specific factors (self-appraisal, occupational information, goal selection, planning, and problem solving) covering three items each. This short form of CDSES shows an acceptable model fit and appropriate reliability in terms of the Cronbach’s alpha and omega values. Regarding career decision self-efficacy, a large proportion of variance was explained by the general factor and to a smaller extent by the specific factors. These results can be considered as a first step in resolving the paradox of the dimensionality of CDSES-SF.