Examining views of self in relation to views of others: Implications for research on aggression and self-esteem

The traditional view holds that aggressive individuals have unfavorable views of self (i.e., low self-esteem), but recent studies indicate that the opposite might be true (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996). This debate may be informed by considering how individuals view others. Following relational schema theory (Baldwin, 1992), which suggests that the combination of self and other views is particularly important in predicting behavior in social situations, we examined self- and other-esteem, view of self in relation to views of others, and different forms of aggression among 125 young adults. Views of both self and others were associated with covert aggression (anger and hostility), whereas only views of others were correlated with overt aggression (physical and verbal). We also explored the discrepancy between views of self and other and found participants with more favorable views of self than others, and those who had equally unfavorable views of both self and others to be most aggressive. Findings suggest that views of both self and other and the relation among these views should be considered in future research on aggression.     

Eyewitness memory is still not common sense: comparing jurors,judges and law enforcement to eyewitness experts

Knowledge of factors affecting eyewitness accuracy was examined in a sample of jurors, judges and law enforcement professionals. Participants completed a survey in which they were asked to agree or disagree with 30 statements about eyewitness issues, and their responses were compared to a sample of eyewitness experts who completed the same survey. Participant responses differed significantly from responses of eyewitness experts. Jurors disagreed with the experts on 87% of the issues, while judges and law enforcement disagreed with the experts on 60% of the issues. The findings show a large deficiency in knowledge of eyewitness memory amongst jurors, judges and law enforcement personnel, indicating that the legal system may benefit from expert assistance in the evaluation of eyewitness evidence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

计算机通过样例学习解二元一次联立方程

本文介绍一个通过样例来学习解二元一次联立方程的计算机学习系统。系统根据人提供的各种样例,建立一系列产生式规则。这些规则组成了解方程组的知识,从而达到了学习和获得知识的目的。建立和应用产生式规则,也是人类学习和解决问题的一般形式。因此,关于计算机学习问题的研究,也将有助于理解人类学习的心理机制。     

A guide to norms,ratings, and lists

A catalog of 119 studies, mostly post-1960 except for a few important and well-controlled earlier ones, is listed. The studies provide norms, scales, ratings, or lists of verbal material for use in experiments investigating aspects of cognitive psychology, memory, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, etc. The catalog is preceded by an outline index.     

The information conveyed by varying the dimensions of features in human outline faces

Outline drawings of human faces were presented for rating as to a number of dichotomous attributes, while the dimensions of the four constituent features were varied sysrematically. It was found that people act in a regular and predictable fashion in attributing characterisrics to certain of these features. When independently significant features appear in combination, there is a lawful increase in such characterizing responses. Subsidiary findings related to a halo effect between certain attributes, differential employment of some attributes, and a difference in overall strength of effect between certain features.     

Serial,parallel, or holistic identification of single words in the two visual fields?

Subjects made timed manual responses in judging whether laterally presented four-letter words were identical to targets. In Experiment 1, nontargets differed by a single letter from targets. A right-field superiority occurred only for targets (which were detected fastest of all) and for nontargets where a letter changed at Position 2 or Position 3. Changes at initial and final positions were detected faster than the two middle positions, and there were no significant field differences. In Experiment 2, ascenders and descenders were controlled and changes were made in nontargets at all four letter positions, at Positions 1 and 4, at Positions 2 and 3, or at 2 alone. Response times for nontargets varied inversely with the number of differing letters, regardless of position. Significant field differences again only appeared for changes in the two middle positions. Letters at the beginning and end of a word seem to be processed faster than and differently from those within, where field differences are strongest. Vowel-consonant differences probably do not account for these effects, which are more compatible with some form of parallel, rather than either serial or holistic, processing.     

Effects of auditory feedback on a musical performance task

Two experiments examined the effects of various feedback conditions on performance by 12 Ss on an electronic organ. Playing time scores showed complete absence of auditory feedback to have little or no detrimental effect; in fact, some Ss played fastest under this condition. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF), as expected, caused considerable performance decrement when compared with immediate auditory feedback (IAF). Extraneous prerecorded input as a distractor in the absence of auditory feedback ranked between mixed DAF-with-IAF, and pure DAF, which showed the greatest disruption. The possible role of auditory imagery in musical performance was discussed, together with four components which perhaps contribute to the standard DAF effect: distraction, error repetition, conflict with expectancies and auditory imagery, and presentation of two competing and conflicting signals (IAF and DAF).     

A system for accurately measuring articulatory durations which is not reset by any included silent periods

A device is described that accurately measures duration of phonation or articulation without being reset by intervening silent periods or pauses, which may be within the range of 10 to 1,000 msec. Thus, it is possible to time the overall duration of single sounds, syllables, single or multiple words, even though periods of silence are included. Input can be direct or recorded, the ancilliaries being a voice-operated switch and a chronoscope.     

The effect of punishment on free-operant choice behavior in humans

During Phase I, three female human subjects pressed a button for monetary reinforcement in five variable-interval schedules specifying different frequencies of reinforcement. On alternate days, responding was also punished (by subtracting money) according to a variable-ratio 34 schedule. In the absence of punishment, response rates conformed to Herrnstein's equation for single variable-interval schedules. Punishment suppressed responding at all frequencies of reinforcement. This was reflected in a change in the values of both constants in Herrnstein's equation: the value of the theoretical maximum response-rate parameter was reduced, and the parameter describing the reinforcement frequency corresponding to the half-maximal response rate was elevated. During Phase II, the same five schedules (A) were in operation (without punishment), but in addition, a concurrent variable-interval schedule (B) of standard reinforcement frequency was introduced. On alternate days, responding in Component B was punished according to a variable-ratio 34 schedule. In the absence of punishment, absolute response rates conformed to equations proposed by Herrnstein to describe performance in concurrent schedules; the ratios of the response rates in the two components and the ratios of the times spent in the two components conformed to the Matching Law. When responding in Component B was punished, response rates in Component B were reduced and those in Component A were elevated, these changes being reflected in distortions of the matching relationship.     

Lexical discrimination and letter-string identification in the two visual fields.

Right-handed subjects were tachistoscopically presented three-letter words and nonword permutations in a single visual field for 20 msec. Although the subjects were unable to identify the stimuli at this exposure duration, their lexical decisions were better than chance, and were superior in the left visual field. When the exposure duration was increased, subjects demonstrated superior identification of the words in the right visual field. Results are discussed within an information processing framework.