The role of dissimulation and social desirability in the measurement of moral reasoning

A series of studies investigating the psychometric and conceptual properties of the Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA), a paper-and-pencil measure of moral reasoning, is reported. The results of these studies indicate that the scale is clearly susceptible to the influence of response dissimulation in the form of both role-playing and impression management, and is also confounded with sources of stylistic variance in the form of social desirability. Previous proposals concerning the relationships among moral development, moral reasoning, and personality structure are reviewed in light of these findings, and an alternative conceptualization of the measure in terms of political and social attitudes is offered.     

Monocular asymmetries in recognition after an eye movement: Sighting dominance and dextrality

Although monocular recognition scores for targets presented immediately after an eye movement do not differ, the two eyes show marked recognition asymmetries when both eyes are receiving inputs but a specific target is only presented to one. In general, the right eye performs better than the left, although there are interactions with sighting dominance and the direction of eye movement.     

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.     

The effects of delayed auditory feedback on the overt behaviors of stutterers

This study investigated the differential effect of delayed auditory feedback (DAF) upon general (e.g., repetitions) and specific (e.g., repetitions of initial, medial, and final syllables) overt types of dysfluent behaviors. Ten moderate to severe stutterers performed an oral reading task under both NDAF and DAF (200 msec). DAF resulted in a significant increase in the total number of dysfluencies but had a differential effect upon certain general and specific behaviors. Blocks decreased significantly, prolongations increased significantly, and repetitions and interjections did not change significantly in frequency of occurence. To a limited extent, DAF had a differential effect on specific behaviors. All specific prolongation behaviors increased significantly while only one specific block behavior (ddelays in starting words) decreased. The authors discuss these results in terms of the vocal changes that occurred under DAF and speculate as to their importance in establishing fluency. DAF is viewed as promoting prolongations and prolongations are viewed as inhibiting excessive stoppages of the breathstream, thus promoting fluency (e.g., delays in starting words).     

A simple technique for correlating film and EMG in locomotion studies

Two recurring problems hampering investigations of muscular activity patterns during locomotion are electrical “noise” and movement artifact in the electromyographic (EMG) signal and proper synchronization of behavioral events to the EMG. A relatively simple technique for achieving these ends is presented. Vigorous locomotor movements of unrestrained animals are recorded on 16-mm film and synchronized with one or more EMGs from selected muscles with little electrical noise or movement artifact interference. The system employs telemetry which is compared to hardwire techniques.     

Judgment of duration relations: Simultaneous and sequential presentation

Four groups of subjects gave category ratings of total duration, average duration, or difference in duration of pairs of temporal intervals presented either simultaneously or successively. The results indicated that temporal information is combined in very different ways, depending on whether the members of the pairs must be monitored in parallel or sequentially. While judgments of successively presented intervals were reasonably consistent with the predictions of the appropriate linear models, judgments of simultaneously presented intervals were not. The latter judgments conformed more closely to the predictions of a vector sum model. These results appear to be in conflict with a model of duration perception recently proposed by Eisler (1975) based on the assumption that judgment of temporal intervals involves a simultaneous monitoring of two intervals even when the intervals to be compared are presented successively.     

BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS APPLIED TO ENVIRONMENTAL/ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS; A REVIEW1

Recent applications of operant technology, including the manipulation of environmental conditions and response consequences, have been directed toward the improvement of man-environment relations. This document summarizes the research designs, procedures, results, and conclusions of these recent behavioral interventions for ecological rebalance. Each of the 32 studies reviewed was undertaken since 1970; all studies were relatively successful in changing the probability of an ecology-related response; all studies incorporated basic methodologies applicable for large-scale, community programs; most of the investigations were conducted in field settings (e.g., college campuses, grocery stores, mobile-trailer parks, homes, movie theaters, public campgrounds, and a football stadium). Several of the studies are as yet unpublished. Sources for receiving documentation of the unpublished research are provided in this document. About 50% of the investigations reviewed were designed to influence behaviors related to environmental litter; the others were of behavior-modification programs that substantially increased bus-ridership, decreased lawn-trampling, promoted the purchase of drinks in returnable rather than throwaway containers, initiated a recycling process, or reduced energy consumption. Essentially, the interventions were either preventive in nature (i.e., designed to discourage environment-destructive behaviors before they occur), or remedial (i.e., designed to encourage behaviors that correct an existing environmental problem). Usually, the preventive measures emphasized responses priming (or prompting), while the corrective measures applied some form of positive reinforcement. Response priming was accomplished with modelling techniques, or with written and/or verbal prompts presented either publicly or on a personal, one-to-one basis. Among the positive reinforcement procedures were field applications of token economies, lottery systems, feedback programming, and intergroup contests, as well as individual contingency contracting. Some experimental designs provided for comparisons between the behavioral effects of response priming and positive reinforcement.     

MODIFICATION OF THE EXCESSIVE INAPPROPRIATE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OF TWO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS USING HOME-BASED CONSEQUENCES AND DAILY REPORT-CARD PROCEDURES1

Two experiments investigated home-based reinforcement contingencies to control excessive behavior in normal classrooms. Subjects were, respectively, a 12-yr-old fifth-grade boy and a 9-yr-old fourth-grade boy, each in a separate classroom and with a different teacher. Following baseline observations in which observers recorded several categories of student behavior and teacher-student interaction, separate conferences were held including parents of the two children, the principal, teachers, and experimenters. A daily report-card procedure was agreed on, stipulating a one-day suspension from school following three successive “undesirable” daily report cards as well as the supervision of home-based privileges and other reinforcers usually contingent on satisfactory daily reports. Measurements of daily rates of teacher attention indicated no important change in this variable throughout the various experimental conditions. The daily report procedure significantly reduced disruptive classroom behavior. In a second experiment, a teacher-operated timer cued her own time-sample observations. Reliability measures revealed that the teacher could accurately measure the child's behavior while she was teaching the class. The procedure was ultimately successfully expanded to the teacher's total contact hours each day.