Concurrent fixed-ratio fixed-interval performances in adult human subjects

Two undergraduate males worked for money on a button-pressing task associated with concurrent fixed-ratio fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement. Manipulations of the fixed-ratio requirement produced an interaction between the various fixed-ratio and fixed-interval performances. When the fixed ratio was small, more fixed-interval responding occurred per interval than when the fixed ratio was large. In general, the data were similar to those obtained with lower organisms except that no post-reinforcement pause or ratio strain was seen.     

Stimulus factors in aversive controls: conditioned suppression after equal training to two stimuli

Pigeons trained to peck a key for food were periodically presented with tones ending with electrical shock until tone presentation consistently suppressed ongoing pecks. Shock was then discontinued and gradients of stimulus generalization were assessed by presenting tones with frequencies above, below, and at the frequencies of those used to develop conditioned suppression. When the training tones had frequencies at 670 and 1500 cps, resulting gradients were bi-modal with peak suppression at 670 and 1500 cps. Of the other test tones, 1000 cps produced the most suppression. When the training tones had frequencies at 450 and 2250 cps, bi-modal gradients were again obtained with peak suppression to the 450 and 2250 cps tones. Of the other test tones, 1000 cps produced the least suppression. These results support the hypothesis that generalized response tendencies summate.     

Adult age comparisons in the processing of event frequency information

The usual superiority in frequency-of-occurrence judgments of younger vs. older subjects was hypothesized to result from greater strategic encoding of the materials conveying frequency information. A subject-paced, visual search task was designed to control nontarget word encoding. Relative frequency judgments for the nontarget word pairs were equally accurate for younger and older subjects, and performance of both groups was above chance. Results suggest that strategic cover-task encoding can induce age differences in incidental frequency processing. Consistent with a nonoptimal as opposed to an optimal view, automatic processes require only minimal capacity for above-chance performance, but additional strategic resources can increase performance. When such additional resources are used more by younger than by older subjects, the former are better in frequency performance.     

A cognitive development framework

Prominent stage theories of cognitive development show evidence of a structure in which each stage contains a number of subsidiary levels. Comparisons of the stages in these theories have commonly been made through the established links with stages of Piaget’s theory. In response to Kagan’s criticism of Piaget’s theory, features of these developmental theories were used in this paper as the basis for a general framework of interactive stages and levels of cognitive operations. Some implications of the proposed framework in relation to cognitive development theories and directions for further research are examined. Further application of this framework could help to identify commonalities in cognitive operations across different contents, contexts and cultures.     

What does the cook and medley hostility scale measure? Affect, behavior, and attributions in the marital context

The Cook and Medley (1954) Hostility (Ho) scale has been used in several important studies evaluating potential health consequences of hostility. A relative lack of compelling information about the construct validity of the Ho scale, however, has raised concerns about the appropriate interpretation of previous research. In this study, 60 married couples discussed a low conflict topic, a high conflict topic, and then a second low conflict topic. High Ho men responded to the high conflict topic with significant increases in self-reported anger and anxiety and overt hostile behavior, but low Ho men did not. Furthermore, compared to low Ho men, high Ho men blamed their wives more for their usual disagreements on the high conflict topic and saw their disagreement-engendering behavior as more intentional. Among women, Ho scores were weakly related only to overt hostile behavior. Finally, couples consisting of two low Ho persons displayed a uniquely agreeable interactional style.     

Tweaking the lexicon: organization of vowel sequences into words

The ability of listeners to distinguish between different arrangements of the same three vowels was investigated for repeating sequences having item durations ranging from 10 msec (single glottal pulses) up to several seconds/vowel. Discrimination was accomplished with ease by untrained subjects at all item durations. From 30 through 100 msec/vowel, an especially interesting phenomenon was encountered: The sequences of steady-state vowels were organized into words, with different words heard for the different arrangements of items. In a second experiment, repeating sequences of random arrangements of 10 40-msec vowels were employed. When sets of four such sequences were presented to listeners, distinctive words were heard, which permitted each arrangement to be discriminated from the others. In addition, minimal differences (reversing the order of a single contiguous pair of vowels) in the 10-item sequences could be detected via verbal mediation. Hypotheses are offered concerning mechanisms responsible for these results.