Recall of rapidly presented random chess positions is a function of skill

A widely cited result asserts that experts’ superiority over novices in recalling meaningful material from their domain of expertise vanishes when they are confronted with random material. A review of recent chess experiments in which random positions served as control material (presentation time between 3 and 10 sec) shows, however, that strong players generally maintain some superiority over weak players even with random positions, although the relative difference between skill levels is much smaller than with game positions. The implications of this finding for expertise in chess are discussed and the question of the recall of random material in other domains is raised.     

Psychoticism and signalled versus unsignalled reaction time

Considering the findings that schizophrenics have been found to show relatively slow reaction times (RTs), and often do not benefit from ordinarily helpful information (e.g. a warning signal), the present study investigated the relationship between these variables and psychoticism (P). One hundred and three male Ss were administered a questionnaire which provides a measure of P. In addition, all Ss were tested on an RT task under unsignalled (i.e. no warning signal) and signalled conditions. The results showed that the expected improvement in reaction speed with a warning signal was of a lesser magnitude for those high on P. Furthermore, the difference was due to the faster RTs for high P scorers in the unsignalled condition. The data suggest that high P scorers are like schizophrenics in that they show less benefit from a warning signal, but are dissimilar in terms of reaction speed in an unsignalled task.     

Depth of processing: When the principle of congruity fails

Two factors, level of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972) and congruity (Schulman, 1974), known to have large effects on the recall of experimenter-provided responses to questions, were examined in a series of five incidental learning experiments using subject-generated responses. The data show that manipulation of level of processing has the same effect on recall of subjectgenerated responses as it does on experimenter-provided responses. However, the effect of congruity is reversed for subject-generated responses. The data suggest that the difficulty of generating unrelated responses (“incongruous“ items) may account, at least in part, for the failure of the “principle of congruity“ with subject-generated responses.     

REM motivation induced by brief REM deprivation: the influence of cognition, gender, and personality.

Prominence of the brain's right-hemisphere information processing and intensity of dream experience are two theoretically related constructs that have been proposed as important psychological aspects of REM sleep. Either view is consistent with the prediction that the effect of REM deprivation will depend in part on the nature of cognitive activity that is initiated at the onset of each REM period and that "substitutes" for the interrupted REM process. In the present study, the effect of REM deprivation was more striking for female subjects given a digits task than for female subjects given a fantasy-reporting task during awakening used to induce REM deprivation for the first 6 hours of the night. High neuroticism appeared to exaggerate the effect. No corresponding pattern was observed for the male subjects. These preliminary finding may be exaggerated by cognitive activity that is functionally incongruent with those processes. The results also raise interesting questions about individual differences.     

Observing behavior in monkeys (Macaca arctoides): Support for the information hypothesis

A single lever, discrete-trials observing procedure was used with stumptailed monkeys (Macaca arctoides). Lever-presses during a trial produced colored key lights (IS⁺ and IS^?) which signaled whether the trial would end with response-independent food or without food. During the baseline period, both IS⁺ and IS^? were produced on a variable-interval (VI) 15-sec schedule which began operating at the onset of the trial. The two experimental conditions involved a combination of this VI schedule and a DRL schedule. In one of these conditions, only a response that both met the VI requirement and was preceded by at least 6 sec of nonresponding could produce IS^? on nonfood trials, while the schedule for IS⁺ on food trials remained VI 15 sec. In the other experimental condition, the schedules for producing the two stimuli were the reverse. All subjects eventually learned to produce either IS⁺ or IS^? on the combined VI-DRL schedule. These data support an information hypothesis of observing in monkeys and contrast with data from pigeons which support a conditioned reinforcement hypothesis.     

Effect of compatibility of S-R mapping on reactions toward the stimulus source

This research was concerned with separating the effects of three varieties of S-R compatibility: reactions toward the stimulus source, compatibility of S-R mapping, and display-control arrangement correspondence. In experiments 1 and 2, subjects pressed a green or red key located on the left and right in response to the onset of a green or red stimulus presented in a left or right window. Half of the subjects pressed the key which corresponded to the color of the stimulus (compatible S-R mapping) while the other half pressed the alternate colored key (incompatible S-R mapping). In the compatible mapping task, reactions were faster when location of stimulus and response corresponded than when they did not while, in the incompatible task, reactions were faster when location of stimulus and response did not correspond. This apparent reversal in the tendency to react toward the stimulus source was attributed to display- control arrangement correspondence rather than to logical recoding of the directional cue. Experiment 3 established that faster reactions toward the stimulus source occured only under compatible mapping instructions.     

Drug effects on repeated acquisition: comparison of cumulative and non-cumulative dosing

Pigeons acquired a different four-response chain each session by responding sequentially on three keys in the presence of a sequence of four colors. The response chain was maintained by food presentation under a fixed-ratio schedule. Errors produced a brief timeout but did not reset the chain. Each day there were four 15-minute sessions, with a 10-minute inter-session interval. Cumulative dose-effect curves for phencyclidine, pentobarbital, and d-amphetamine were obtained by giving an injection before each of the four sessions; successive injections increased the cumulative dose in equally spaced logarithmic steps. For comparison, non-cumulative doses of each drug (i.e., doses not preceded by other doses on the same day) were also tested. As the cumulative dose of each drug increased, the overall response rate decreased, the percent errors increased, and there was less within-session error reduction (acquisition). With phencyclidine and pentobarbital, the rate-decreasing and error-increasing effects tended to be greater with a non-cumulative dose than with the corresponding cumulative dose. In contrast, with d-amphetamine, the effects were considerably greater with the cumulative doses. The results indicate that although the cumulative-dosing procedure saved a substantial amount of time in determining dose-effect curves, there were quantitative differences in effects between cumulative and non-cumulative doses.     

The contribution of music vs instructions in the Musical Mood Induction Procedure

The relative contribution of the instructions and the music to the effects of the Musical Mood Induction Procedure (MMIP) were investigated. Using an experimental procedure which minimised covert experimenter bias, subjects performed under both elation and depression mood inductions in one of four conditions: music present or absent by mood change instructions present or absent, using a crossover design. Results indicated that instructions were both necessary and sufficient to produce change on mood sensitive measures. Mood change effects were reduced by controlling for the effect of subjects who responded so as not to ‘louse-up’ the experiment. The MMIP seems to be much less musical than the name implies. Further research is needed to determine which aspects of the instructions contribute most to the changes on mood sensitive measures.     

Visuospatial ability, accuracy of size estimation, and bulimic disturbance in a noneating-disordered college sample: a neuropsychological analysis

The relationship between visuospatial ability and size accuracy in perception was assessed in 69 normal college females. In general, correlations indicated small associations between visuospatial defects and size overestimation and little relationship between visuospatial ability and level of bulimic disturbance. Implications for research on the size overestimation of body image are addressed.