Graphics in written directions: Appreciated by readers but not writers

This series of studies investigated the ability of literate adults to exploit communications options that are available to writers but have no counterpart in speech. Specifically it examined people's use of sketches when giving written directions to help a stranger cross town. When writing an informal letter to a friend most directions were given in prose paragraph style (Experiment 1). Almost no-one included a sketch, even if given a street map as an aid. Yet most subjects could draw adequate sketch maps (Experiment 2), and everyone said yes when asked whether they would include a sketch in a letter. So the previous choices were not constrained either by graphic skill or by judgements concerning the appropriateness of a sketch, When people were asked to 'design' the back page of a leaflet they still did not include a sketch (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 showed that any bias in the instructions was towards rather than against the use of sketches. The need to generate the sketch was removed in Experiment 5 where subjects composed the leaflet page from pre-formed sections that included alternative routes in both words and diagrams. Nearly all subjects now included a sketch in their directions. In case subjects previously, in haste, had not considered the possibility of including a sketch map, they were made aware of the drawing option by rating the usability of route information in a variety of communication styles immediately before writing their own directions (Experiment 6). People rated directions that included diagrams as significantly more usable, but still most subjects did not include a sketch in the directions they gave. So the communication styles that readers recognized as successful were not determining their choices as writers. It is suggested that, when giving written directions, inexperienced writers rely too heavily on how they would respond as speakers.     

Grammatical determinants of ambiguous pronoun resolution

Crawley et al. (1990) argue for the primacy of a subject assignment strategy for pronoun assignment during reading, and against the notion of parallel function (Sheldon, 1974). However, most of their items deviated from parallel structure, and none included subject pronouns. In four experiments with subject and nonsubject pronouns, strong parallel function effects emerge when a potential antecedent has the same syntactic role as the pronoun and when the two clauses have the same attachment site and constituent structure. Attachment nonparallelism causes the greatest ambiguity, while the other types lead to more subject assignment overall, although there is always an overlaid parallel function effect. These observations support a model of pronoun assignment according to which potential antecedents are checked for morphological, syntactic and semantic feature matches with the pronoun, and priming/reactivation of syntactic structure across clauses facilitates parallel assignment.This research was supported in part by research grant 410-89-0395 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. A preliminary version of the paper was presented at the 1992 meetings of the Canadian Linguistic Association in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I would like to thank Elizabeth Cowper, Keren Rice, Rosemary Stevenson, and an anonymous reviewer for their comments.     

Temporal discrimination learning of operant feeding in goldfish (Carassius auratus)

Operant temporal discrimination learning was investigated in goldfish. In the first experiment, there was a fixed daily change in illumination. Eight subjects were trained to operate a lever that reinforced each press with food. The period during which responses were reinforced was then progressively reduced until it was 1 hr in every 24. The final 1-hr feeding schedule was maintained over 4 weeks. The feeding period commenced at the same time each day throughout. The food dispensers were then made inactive, and a period of extinction ensued for 6 days. The pattern of responding suggested that the fish were able to exhibit temporal discrimination in anticipation of feeding time. This pattern of responding persisted for a limited number of days during the extinction procedure. The second experiment produced evidence that operant temporal discrimination could develop under continuous illumination.     

CULTURAL VARIATION IN PROBABILISTIC THINKING: ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY*

This study reviews research on cultural differences in “probabilistic thinking” and presents some intra- and inter-cultural findings. Strong differences are shown to exist between people raised under Asian and British cultures on measures of this ability. These differences were found to out-weigh any influence of subculture, religion, occupation, arts/science orientation and sex. Generally, Asians were found to adopt a less finely differentiated view of uncertainty both numerically and verbally than did the British sample. Numerical probabilities assessed by the Asians were more extreme and less realistic than those assessed by the British sample. Possible antecedents of these differences are outlined, and cultural differences in probabilistic thinking are shown to be compatible with decriptions of cultural differences in business decision making. It is argued that there are qualitative cultural differences in ways of dealing with uncertainty.     

A comparison of Canadian and Israeli separation and divorce

A nonrandom sample of 86 cases of Israel separation and divorce cases is compared with a Canadian sample of 369 having this experience. Impacts of sex-role changes, jobs and careers, children and sexuality are compared in these two national cases which exhibit many similarities and many differences. Sex-role conflicts were more frequent in Israel as were violence in separation and divorce in the Israeli sample. Adultery, though problematic in both cases, was frequently cited as a cause of divorce. Social-structural restraints and freedoms in each case are discussed as well as historical-cultural differences that help explain differing expectations and outcomes in both Israel and Canada.     

Self-esteem and cognitive consistency effects on self-other evaluation

Reactions to bogus evaluations of one's self, either positively or negatively discrepant from one's own self-evaluation, were investigated among subjects differing in self-ideal discrepancy. All subjects exhibited greater acceptance of the source of favorable information than the source of unfavorable information, and changed their self-evaluation more toward the favorable than unfavorable position. However, among low self-ideal discrepancy subjects, the change in self-evaluation was accompanied by a similar change in friend evaluation, thereby maintaining their standing in relation to this friend after receiving either positive or negative evaluations. In contrast, high discrepancy subjects downgraded the friend more and upgraded the friend less than themselves, thereby enhancing their relative standing as a result of the feedback. These findings indicated that defensive or self-enhancing effects on self-evaluation processes are determined by self-ideal discrepancy.     

Robust estimation of ability in the Rasch model

Estimating ability parameters in latent trait models in general, and in the Rasch model in particular is almost always hampered by noise in the data. This noise can be caused by guessing, inattention to easy questions, and other factors which are unrelated to ability. In this study several alternative formulations which attempt to deal with these problems without a reparameterization are tested through a Monte Carlo simulation. It was found that although no one of the tested schemes is uniformly superior to all others, a modified jackknife stood out as the best one in general, it was also super efficient (more efficient than the asymptotically optimal estimator) for tests with forty or fewer items. It is proposed that this sort of jackknifing scheme for estimating ability be considered for practical work.This research was funded through a grant from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (78-NI-AX-0047) to the Bureau of Social Science Research, Howard Wainer, Principal Investigator. We would like to thank Ronald Mead, Anne Morgan and James Ramsay for kind, generous, and invaluable help at various stages of the project.     

Will both spouses have careers?: Predictors of preferred traditional or egalitarian marriages among university students

This study examined the significance of work preference variables, family preference variables, socialization influences, and needs for achievement and affiliation in predicting preferred traditional versus egalitarian marriages among university students. Results showed that, overall, male university students preferred traditional marriages while female university students preferred egalitarian marriages. Sex also interacted significantly with the following variables: desired family task involvement, desired job task involvement, and mother's family involvement. The data suggest that a perspective encompassing a wide variety of variables (including work, family, and socialization considerations) may be useful for conceptualizing individuals' preferences for traditional or egalitarian marriages. Implications of the results for management and career counseling are discussed.