Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments

According to a two-step account of the mere-exposure effect, repeated exposure leads to the subjective feeling of perceptual fluency, which in turn influences liking. If so, perceptual fluency manipulated by means other than repetition should influence liking. In three experiments, effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments were examined. In Experiment 1, higher perceptual fluency was achieved by presenting a matching rather than nonmatching prime before showing a target picture. Participants judged targets as prettier if preceded by a matching rather than nonmatching prime. In Experiment 2, perceptual fluency was manipulated by figure-ground contrast. Stimuli were judged as more pretty, and less ugly, the higher the contrast. In Experiment 3, perceptual fluency was manipulated by presentation duration. Stimuli shown for a longer duration were liked more, and disliked less. We concluded (a) that perceptual fluency increases liking and (b) that the experience of fluency is affectively positive, and hence attributed to positive but not to negative features, as reflected in a different impact on positive and negative judgments.     

Boys' Experimentation and Persistence in Developmental Pathways Toward Serious Delinquency

We expand on earlier work documenting developmental pathways in disruptive child behavior towards serious forms of delinquency in boys. Three pathways we hypothesized in our previous work: (a) An Authority Conflict Pathway prior to the age of 12, that starts with stubborn behavior, and has defiance as a second stage, and authority avoidance as a third stage; (b) A Covert Pathway that starts with minor convert acts, has property damage as a second stage, and moderate to serious delinquency as a third stage; and (c) An Overt Pathway that starts with minor aggression, has physical fighting as a second stage, and violence as a third stage. We now refine this work by distinguishing between boys who experiment and those who persist in disruptive behavior. Data are presented showing that the fit for the three pathways is better for persisters than for experimenters. Also, the proportion of persisters that enter each pathway at the first stage (rather than at later stages) is higher than that for experimenters. Penetration in each pathway was more common among boys who received a diagnosis of Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Boys' rate of offending increased with penetration into pathways and with persistence on more than one pathway. Boys' persistence and advancement in the Overt or the Covert Pathway was almost invariably accompanied by their advancement in the Authority Conflict Pathway. The classification of boys according to persistence and pathways accounted for the majority of high rate offenders, according to both self-report and court adjudicated offenses.     

Increasing achievement motivation and work productivity in a chronic psychiatric population

The major goal of this study was to determine if social reinforcement for behavior in a simulated work activity would increase achievement motivation, work interest, and simulated work activity production. Forty-five chronic psychiatric patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: work sample with praise, work sample without praise, and a no-treatment control group. A 3 (between) × 2 (within) analysis of variance was run for each dependent measure, that is, achievement imagery, work interests, and simulated work production. The main effect for the interaction between trials and treatment was significant on each dependent measure. Follow-up Duncan Multiple Range Tests indicated that the praise group showed a significant improvement on each dependent measure, pre to post, as well as significantly greater improvement than the no-treatment control group and/or the work sample without praise group. These results are discussed in terms of the procedure used as a method for increasing motivation and in terms of possible generalization of results to other treatment situations.     

Family interactions of assaultive adolescents,stealers, and nondelinquents

Eleven adolescent chronic offenders apprehended for assaultive crimes in the community were observed in their family homes. This group was matched with 11 adolescents apprehended for stealing and with 11 adolescents with no court contact. Assaultive adolescents, unlike their controls, ranked significantly higher among their own family members in terms of their total aversive behavior in the family home. The results support the notion that assaultive adolescents are more involved with fighting with their siblings in the family home and consequently have had more practice in fighting than their controls, thereby preparing them for assaultive behavior in the community. Assaultive adolescents had more female siblings than male siblings, whereas nondelinquent adolescents had more male than female siblings.     

Comparisons of stimulus learning and response learning in a punishment situation

These experiments use a procedure in which a rat is trained to make two topographically distinct responses on a single manipulandum, and then one of the responses is punished. Differential suppression of the punished response is taken as evidence of response learning, whereas the common suppression of both responses is attributed to stimulus learning or to general and nonassociative factors. Thus, this procedure begins the experimental separation of animals learning about the consequences of their behavior and animals learning what happens in a particular environment. A further separation is effected by using two such manipulanda; this procedure begins to distinguish between stimulus learning about the manipulandum and the more gereral factors that cause suppression. Some parameters affecting the relative importance of stimulus learning and response learning are examined.     

Formal and informal classroom settings: Effects on hyperactivity

The behavior of hyperactive children was compared to controls in two different classroom settings. One setting (Informal) involved choice and variety of tasks; the other setting (Formal) involved teacher specification of a small number of tasks. As assessed by a composite observational measure of hyperactivity, there were significant differences between the hyperactive and control groups in the Formal but not in the Informal setting. Analyses of five individual categories of hyperactive behavior showed that, with one exception, the hyperactive group tended to display higher frequencies of behavior than did controls in both settings. For two of the categories, the difference between the groups was significantly larger in the Formal than in the Informal setting. Finally, a modified observational code was suggested that differentiated hyperactives from controls equally in the two settings.     

Statistical evaluation of measures of fit in the Lingoes-Borg procrustean individual differences scaling

PINDIS, as recently presented by Lingoes and Borg [1978] not only marks the latest development within the scope of individual differences scaling, but, may be of benefit in some closely related topics, such as target analysis. Decisions on whether the various models available from PINDIS fit fallible data are relatively arbitrary, however, since a statistical theory of the fit measures is lacking. Using Monte Carlo simulation, expected fit measures as well as some related statistics were therefore obtained by scaling sets of 4(4)24 random configurations of 5(5)30 objects in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions (individual differences case) and by fitting one random configuration to a fixed random target for 5(5)30 objects in 2, 3, and 4 dimensions (target analysis case). Applications are presented.     

Sexual and Physical Abuse Among Adolescent Girls with Disruptive Behavior Problems

We examined the prevalence and age of onset of physical and sexual abuse in a clinic-referred sample of adolescent girls, as well as differences in diagnoses and symptoms among abused and non-abused girls. Forty-nine girls (aged 13–17 years) with disruptive behavior were interviewed along with their primary caretaker. Data were gathered through both a structured interview with the girl and her parent, as well as self and parent-report questionnaires. Findings indicated that the prevalence of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Major Depression were higher for abused girls. Somatoform Pain Disorder was significantly less likely for physically abused girls, compared to girls who were both physically and sexually abused. Of CD symptoms, truancy was twice as high for the physically and sexually abused group, compared to the prevalence for non-abused girls. Internalizing symptoms were also highest for the dual abuse group. Onset graphs show that the onset of sexual abuse usually occurred at an earlier age than the onset of physical abuse. Abused girls showed an earlier age of onset of CD symptoms. Results indicated that the experience of combined types of abuse is associated with a poorer psychiatric prognosis.     

Neuropsychology in Denmark

The origins and development of neuropsychology in Denmark are briefly overviewed, as are the education and training opportunities for Danish neuropsychologists. Areas of application and research are presented, and the role of the rehabilitation of brain injury is emphasized, with specific reference being made to the Center for the Rehabilitation of Brain Injury at Copenhagen University, wherein the rehabilitation program and pertinent research ensuing from the center is presented. Future trends in Danish neuropsychology are also considered.