Specificity and savings of behavioural habituation over a series of intra- and inter-modal stimuli

A series of four tone stimuli, differing either in tonal frequency or in melody, was presented at the rate of one presentation per day to a group of rats. Habituation was specific to the frequency of simple auditory stimuli and to the melody of patterned stimuli, as shown both by the distraction to stimulus change, and by the trials to habituate to the new stimulus. Savings in habituation occurred when a series of tone stimuli was presented, but was not found for a series of inter-modal stimuli.     

Shifts in deprivation level: Different effects depending on amount of preshift training

Seventy-two male albino rats were trained to perform an instrumental running response, half at high deprivation and half at low. At Trials 23, 75, and 105 a third of the animals from each of the original groups were shifted to the opposite deprivation level. All shifts from high to low deprivation produced a significant decrease in performance; all shifts from low to high, a significant increase. After the early shift, performance was characterized by a residual effect of preshift deprivation level in which shifted groups gradually approached the new levels. After each of the later shifts, performance levels diverged sharply in what appeared to be both positive and negative contrast effects. The results were discussed in the framework of incentive motivation theory.     

A comparison of French and American environmental behaviors,knowledge, and attitudes12

Matched samples of French (N = 56) and American (N = 112) adults were administered surveys assessing environmental behavior (recycling), knowledge, and attitudes, as well as more general attitudes and personality traits. While minimal differences were observed in recycling, the relationships of this behavior with other variables indicated differing conceptions between cultures. The Americans' environmental attitudes were more pro-ecological, were more internally consistent, and were more likely to be related to environmental behavior and knowledge and other attitudinal and personality variables. It was suggested that knowledge may act as a mediating variable between attitudes and behavior.     

Risk in a parent's eyes: Effects of gender and parenting experience

The present study is an attempt to investigate how sex of parent, parenting experience, and child's gender influence parents' reactions to risky and annoying behaviors of children. The subjects were 15 sets of expectant parents and 16 sets of parents from each of three other family configurations (one boy, one girl, or both a boy and a girl). The subjects viewed a 23-minute videotape composed of 22 videoclips. Each videoclip depicted a common activity for a 12- to-36-month-old child that could elicit parental intervention because of risk or annoyance or both. Fifteen scenes were acted by children who had been previously rated as gender ambiguous in appearance. The audio portion of the tape identified each genderambiguous child as a boy to some subjects and as a girl to others. The subjects were instructed to press buttons to indicate when they would respond and the types of response (physical or verbal) they would make. Analyses showed strong effects of parenting experience for latency and number of interventions. Generally, parents of one boy intervened most quickly, followed by parents of two children, parents of one girl, and expectant parents. The gender label manipulation showed effects only on the high risk tapes. Mothers responded more than fathers in situations that were annoying but not risky. Mothers and fathers agreed when children were engaged in risky behaviors. The use of videoclips to study parent socialization is a useful supplement to observations and self-report questionnaires.Preparation of the gender labeling tasks was supported in part by BRSG Grant 50 7RR07080 awarded by the Biomedical Research Support Program, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health. Part of the article is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author, presented to the Department of Psychology, University of Oregon. Data analyses and preparation of the article were completed while the third author was on a postdoctoral fellowship (Grant 1 T32 MH 16955-01) through the Oregon Social Learning Center.     

Context effects: Classroom tests and context independence

Contextual dependence has been hypothesized to influence classroom test performance such that taking a test away from the lecture room should lead to lower test scores (Abernethy, 1940). We studied the performances of students who took typical college tests in rooms different from the lecture rooms and made comparisons to classmates who remained in the lecture rooms. No statistically reliable effects were found in 21 such comparisons in seven courses. Although contextual dependence has been produced under laboratory control, college classes induce students to decontextualize information. The theoretical utility of contextual associations is based on simpler, more tightly controlled conditions, and generalization to representative situations is an empirical matter.     

Inferences of mental illness from noninvolvement

These studies continue the exploration of variables related to a person's use of the mental illness categorization. The central concern in the present studies was the effect of perceived variation in a target person's level of involvement in a social situation. While a low level of involvement, as portrayed in videotaped scenarios, prompts attribution of mental illness, other features of implicit personality theories also relate to greater or lesser attribution of mental illness. Those participants who gave evidence of having attributed lower levels of involvement, regardless of filmed information, also attributed higher levels of mental illness. Social workers, compared to general population participants, attributed higher levels of mental illness at all levels of target involvement. We discuss the implications of these findings for dissemination and assignment of the mentally ill role.     

Sex differences: A study of the ear of the beholder

Male and female adult Ss, while performing an unrelated task, heard a single infant awakening. The infant was labeled a girl or a boy. The dependent variable was how quickly Ss responded to the crying infant. Females responded more quickly to the girl than to the boy. Males responded equally slowly to boy and girl. A questionnaire on sex differences in fragility showed that females and males tend to disagree with the proposition that girls are more fragile than boys. Thus, the females' faster response to a crying girl cannot be accounted for by a belief in sex-differential fragility. Correlations between fragility beliefs and response times to an infant indicate that sex-differential belief-behavior relationships are not the same for males and females.