Uncontrollable shock proactively increases sensitivity to response-reinforcer independence in rats

Learned helplessness theory predicts that animals exposed to inescapable shock acquire an expectancy of response-reinforcer independence, which proactively interferes with learning of response-reinforcer dependence. The theory also predicts that this expectancy can increase sensitivity to subsequent instances of response-reinforcer independence. These experiments test the latter prediction in a paradigm that minimizes the confounding effects of shock-induced activity deficits. Rats were trained to respond for food, then given either escapable, inescapable, or no shock. Subsequently, they received two sessions of response-contingent food followed by sessions of noncontingent food deliveries. During this phase, inescapably shocked animals decreased responding faster than did controls. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with a different schedule of food delivery and a procedure that more directly minimized the possibility that the outcome is due to either direct or indirect shock-induced activity changes. These results support the prediction that uncontrollable aversive events can increase an animal's sensitivity to noncontingent response-reinforcer relationships.     

Predicting school performance of preschool children from parent reports

Parents of 391 preschool children ages 49 to 64 months completed a brief developmental inventory as part of a preschool screening program operated by an urban school district. The 28-item developmental inventory assessed adaptive behavior and language development. In addition, preschool children were administered the Minneapolis Preschool Screening Instrument. Teacher ratings of kindergarten performance the following year provided criterion data to validate the screening measures. Correlations with the overall teacher rating [the mean of nine ratings] were .40 for the adaptive behavior scale and .57 for the language scale. Validity figures for the developmental inventory were significantly higher for low SES than for high SES children, for older children [57 to 64 months] than for younger children [49 to 56 months], and for firstborn children than for younger siblings. No effects were found by sex. While a positive relationship between parent reports of developmental functioning and early school performance was clearly established, validity levels did not justify use of parent information as a sole source of preschool screening information.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.     

Childhood aggression and social adjustment as antecedents of delinquency

A sample of 2,453 grade school children were followed into young adulthood through record sources. Teacher interviews provided information about low-peer-status children that was assessed in relation to subsequent delinquency for both sexes and young adult criminality for males. A multivariate design evaluated the joint effects of social class, a measure of family disturbance, and childhood problem behavior factors as antecedents of delinquency. Childhood aggression emerged as the most prominent antecedent factor for males but not for females. Social class and family disturbance were associated with aggression but did not have significant direct effects on delinquency. Aggression was related to severity of delinquency. Dispositional status, reflecting severity, was the best indicator of which delinquent males would have adult criminal records. A causal model is presented.The study was supported by a grant from the Scottish Rite Schizophrenia Research Program, N.M.J., U.S.A. Portions of the study were presented at the Life History Research conference in Monterey, California, 1981. The authors wish to thank June White, Cindy Hanson, and Ned Worell for their help in conducting this research. Data for this research was originally gathered by Merrill Roff. Follow-up data were contributed by Ronald Peek, Donald Bamber, Charles Watson, Shiela Makie, William S. Ward, Edward S. Posey, Chris Hemlabs, and Harriet Barnes.     

The case of the disappearing disagreements: A reply to Yussen

S. R. Yussen (1984, Developmental Review, 4, 139–144) and I have few disagreements. The major one seems to be in what the purpose of my article (R. J. Sternberg, 1984, Developmental Review, 4, 113–138) should have been. I believe the article fulfills my own purpose, if not Yussen's.     

Motor programme information as a separable memory unit

Summary Two experiments produced further evidence for the claim that motor programme information may be considered as a separate memory unit, partially independent of other memory representations. In Experiment 1, it was shown that for the comparison of shared movement components in two actions such as turning the handle and stirring the ingredients, the activation of their motor programmes is required. This is demonstrated by the finding that the execution of the first action, which preactivates its motor programmes, leads to shorter reaction times than under control conditions in which the verbally described action is only spoken. In Experiment 2, it was further shown that the execution of the action does not in every case expedite the assessment of a connection between a prime item and a target item vis à vis verbal repetition, but only where the task requires the activation of motor programmes.     

Effects of perceptual and conceptual similarity in semantic priming

Summary The study investigates the different contributions to semantic priming of two components of the semantic representation underlying a word. The two components are perceptually based information and conceptually based information. Perceptual information is based on physical attributes such as shape or color, while conceptual information consists of more abstract elements such as functional attributes. The question asked in this study was whether both components would produce an effect in semantic priming. Pairs of words either related because of a conceptual property (banana-apple), a perceptual property (ball-apple), or both because of a perceptual and conceptual property (cherry-apple) were presented as prime and target in a lexical decision and a word-naming task. The results showed independent contributions of perceptual and conceptual attributes to semantic priming.This research was supported by a grant from the Dutch Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO). All three authors are senior authors and have contributed to all parts of the project.     

Odor recognition: familiarity, identifiability, and encoding consistency

The investigation examined the association between the perceived identity of odorous stimuli and the ability to recognize the previous occurrence of them. The stimuli comprised 20 relatively familiar odorous objects such as chocolate, leather, popcorn, and soy sauce. Participants rated the familiarity of the odors and sought to identify them. At various intervals up to 7 days after initial inspection, the participants sought to recognize the odors among sets of distractor odors that included such items as soap, cloves, pipe tobacco, and so on. The recognition response entailed a confidence rating as to whether or not an item had appeared in the original set. At the time of testing, the participants also sought to identify the stimuli again. The results upheld previous findings of excellent initial recognition memory for environmentally relevant odors and slow forgetting. The results also uncovered, for the first time, a strong association between recognition memory and identifiability, rated familiarity, and the ability to use an odor label consistently at inspection and subsequent testing. Encodability seems to enhance rather than to permit recognizability. Even items identified incorrectly or inconsistently were recognized at levels above chance.