On the acquisition of pattern encoding skills

These experiments evaluated two potential sources of developmental changes in pattern encoding: advances at a perceptual level enabling better representation of the spatial relations among elements, and acquisition of metaperceptual knowledge supporting a deliberate search for distinguishing features. Children 6, 10, and 12 years old, as well as adults encoded high level distortions of random dot configurations. These materials were originally used by Posner and Keele (1968). In the first experiment, subjects matched exemplars to their prototypes. In two other experiments, subjects learned to categorize distortions under two different training conditions—one designed to focus attention on individual exemplars, the other designed to facilitate comparison of exemplars within and across categories. Following training, subjects classified new instances into the learned categories. The same pattern of developmental change was found in the matching task and in the classification task: major gains between ages 6 and 12 and continued gains to adulthood. Several aspects of the results identify change at a perceptual level after age 10 as a source of this development, independent of possible contributions from metaperceptual advances.     

Simple circuit for grating contrast adjustment

A multiplication circuit that can facilitate generation of variable-contrast luminance gratings via a microcomputer is described. The circuit is inexpensive and easy to build.     

Occupational interests: Male-female or high level-low level dichotomy?

The relation between occupational level and masculine and feminine interests was investigated to determine whether sex differences in interests would be minimized at the high end of the occupational continuum and dichotomized at the low end. Subjects were scored on four experimental scales derived from Kuder OIS scales-Male, Female, High Occupational Level, and Low Occupational Level. Scores were subjected to several analyses, including comparisons of mean differences within and across groups, and an errors of classification study. In general, results were consistent with the proposed hypothesis. A strong, unpredicted relation, for the two male groups, between high occupational level and female interests was hypothesized to be the result of a verbal factor common to both sets of interests.     

CHILDREN'S VERBAL RESPONSES TO PHONETICALLY DIFFERENT AUDITORY STIMULI1

L'expérience a été réalisée à Belgrade avec des enfants serbo-croates, monolingues de 6 ans (N = 20). La moitié des sujets étaient normaux quant à L'articulation et L'intelligence (performance à un test); les autres a vaient des difficultés d'articulation et des résultats faibles au test. On leur demandait de répéter des stimulus verbaux qui étaient présentés dans la structure phonologique du serbo-croate ou de L'anglais: dix mots anglais dont les éléments et les groupements présentent phonologiquement plus ou moins de ressemblance en serbo-croate et en anglais sont utilisés comme stimulus. Les réponses verbales sont notées selon quatre qualités phonétiques: temps (ou durée), accentuation (ou intensité), tonalité (ou mélodie du mot), qualité de la prononciation. Les réponses des enfants normaux diffèrent significativement de celles des enfants déficients dans les quatre modalités, pour sept des stimulus. Les différences qui sont dues à la structure phonologique ne sont pas significatives pour ce qui est du temps, de L'accentuation et de la tonalité pour huit stimulus, mais sont significatives pour ce qui est de la qualité de la prononciation pour six stimulus. En se basant sur la comparaison entre les résultats obtenus avec des stimulus présentés selon une structure phonologique familière (ou conditionnée) et ceux qu'on obtient avec des stimulus présentés selon une structure phonologique non familiàre (ou non-conditionnée), on peut penser qu'il existe des structures acoustiques plus spécifiques et plus complexes qui seraient impliquées dans la qualité de la prononciation et des structures plus simples et plus générales qui seraient impliquées dans la durée, L'accentuation et la tonalité.     

The economics of science

Increasing the “truth per dollar” of money spent on science is one legitimate long-run goal of the economics of science. But before this goal can be achieved, we need to increase our knowledge of the successes and failures of past and current reward structures of science. This essay reviews what economists have learned about the behavior of scientists and the reward structure of science. One important use of such knowledge will be to help policy-makers create a reward structure that is more efficient in the future.     

A developmental view of therapeutic bonding in the family: treatment of the disconnected family

Data from an ongoing research study have been used to identify a subgroup of families of severely ill, young adults who present formidable treatment challenges to the family therapist. The disconnected family is characterized by disturbances in attachment between one or both parents and the patient. In many cases, disturbances in attachment and caretaking in the family of origin are reported for the parents in these families. Disconnected families that also have intense emotional styles of relating are particularly difficult to treat. A treatment model that focuses on intergenerational attachment issues is described.     

Effects of Probabilistic Rewards on Recycling Attitudes and Behavior1

Two studies compared the attitudinal and behavioral effects of certain rewards and lotteries. In a laboratory experimental study, lotteries produced significantly more attitude change than cash payments. The greatest attitude change occurred among lottery winners. In a quasi-experimental field study, subjects rewarded with lottery tickets recycled glass and newspaper more frequently than subjects receiving other individual or group rewards. Attitude change was not affected by the type of reward Implications for the design of incentive programs to increase prosocial behavior are discussed     

The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study

The purpose of this study was to determine someof the factors that influence outside reviewers andsearch committee members when they are reviewingcurricula vitae, particularly with respect to the gender of the name on the vitae. The participants inthis study were 238 male and female academicpsychologists who listed a university address in the1997 Directory of the American PsychologicalAssociation. They were each sent one of four versions of acurriculum vitae (i.e., female job applicant, male jobapplicant, female tenure candidate, and male tenurecandidate), along with a questionnaire and aself-addressed stamped envelope. All the curricula vitaeactually came from a real-life scientist at twodifferent stages in her career, but the names werechanged to traditional male and female names. Althoughan exclusively between-groups design was used to avoidsparking genderconscious responding, the resultsindicate that the participants were clearly able todistinguish between the qualifications of the jobapplicants versus the tenure candidates, as evidenced bysuggesting higher starting salaries, increasedlikelihood of offering the tenure candidates a job,granting them tenure, and greater respect for theirteaching, research, and service records. Both men andwomen were more likely to vote to hire a male jobapplicant than a female job applicant with an identicalrecord. Similarly, both sexes reported that the male job applicant had done adequate teaching,research, and service experience compared to the femalejob applicant with an identical record. In contrast,when men and women examined the highly competitive curriculum vitae of the real-life scientist whohad gotten early tenure, they were equally likely totenure the male and female tenure candidates and therewas no difference in their ratings of their teaching, research, and service experience. There was nosignificant main effect for the quality of theinstitution or professional rank on selectivity inhiring and tenuring decisions. The results of this study indicate a gender bias for both men and womenin preference for male job applicants.