Linear representation of temporal location and Stevens’s law

Ss were asked to indicate points 1 week, 7 months, 3 years, and 9 years in the past and future on two time lines representing birth to present and present to death. Data for 90 college-age Ss fit a psychophysical power function following Stevens’s law. with negatively accelerated growth indicating proportionately greater linear representation of periods nearer to the present. Variability was greater for the representations of the future than of the past, with monotonic increases in variability as distance from the present increased.     

The personal and marital adjustment of parents as related to observed child deviance and parenting behaviors

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship of parents' personal and marital adjustment to their own behavior as parents and the behavior of their children. A total of 31 families who had been referred for behavioral counseling regarding their male child's behavior problems were given a diagnostic battery which included home observations as well as administration to parents of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the LockeWallace Marital Adjustment Test. Results revealed consistent negative relationships between marital satisfaction and the observed level of child deviance. Similarly, there were consistent negative relationships between marital satisfaction and the level of observed “negativeness” to the child. Analyses using the MMPI indicated that a large number of the fathers ' MMPI scales were related to child deviance, but this finding was not replicated for mothers. Several MMPI scales were related to marital satisfaction for both parents. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment and treatment of families with a problem child.     

Feature saliency and recognition memory for schematic faces

Memory for schematic faces was studied using a recognition memory paradigm. Ss indicated whether two faces, separated by delays of 6, 12, or 18 sec, were the same or different. Theoretical interest centered on the effects of component feature saliency on response bias and detectability. The main results were that there were fewer misses and more false alarms on the more salient features. Analysis showed that the main effect of feature saliency was on response bias, not detectability.     

Apparatus conceptualization for psychopathological research inmonkeys

Investigation of psychopathology in monkeys requires analysis of multiple variables mediating specific behaviors. Assessment of both the relative contribution of each variable and the interactions among them is facilitated by the use of apparatuses whose designs permit separate or simultaneous manipulation of several variables. Three such devices, the pit, the tunnel of terror, and the standard living-experimental cage, each specifically constructed for the production of depression or despair in monkeys, are described.     

Detection and identification of geometric forms using peripheral and central viewing

Two tasks. using identical geometric forms. compared nasal peripheral. temporal peripheral. and central viewing. In the first task. using a yes-no confidence rating scale procedure, four Ss judged the presence or absence of a known geometric form (detection). In the second task. the same Ss judged which of several know forms was presented (identification). The major result is that nasal and temporal peripheral viewing are similar and that both peripheral regions differ from central viewing. Also, detection and identification are relatively independent processes; the ease of detection of a form does not predict the ease of identification of that form.     

GSR amplitude instead of GSR magnitude: Caveat emptor!

Size of GSR made by 300 Ss to 20 repetitions of a visual stimulus is presented as mean magnitude and mean amplitude, illustrating that the amplitude method (averaging only those responses which are greater than zero) is susceptible to distortion resulting from a systematic elimination of Ss who initially make small responses. From trial to trial, the amplitude function comes more and more to be due to the behavior of Ss who initially make large responses. Even though the latter Ss’ responses actually reduce across trials, the amplitude function rises. Magnitude (including zeroes) docs not suffer from this distortion. It is suggested that the definition of a zero response is the source of the problem.     

Paired comparison scaling of reaction potential in two different experiments on habituation

Thurstone’s method of paired comparisons was employed to obtain scaled values of reaction potential from two completely different experimental situations involving response decrement. The first was one in which the GSR was measured on 10 repeated presentations of a visual stimulus (N= 89). The second involved 80 presentations of ordinary visual scenes; the S looked at each scene as long as he wished before switching to the next (i.e., looking time was measured. N=80). Scaling reaction potential by Thurstone’s method provided a common operational definition for both sets of data and permitted their direct comparison in identical units. Both measures showed substantial decrement in reaction potential across stages, with the GSR scale values dropping steeply from the first to the second trial and. thereafter, following a course of decline similar to the looking time scale values. Tlie correlation of the two sets of scale values was essentially linear and equalled 0.90.     

Hierarchical clustering schemes

Techniques for partitioning objects into optimally homogeneous groups on the basis of empirical measures of similarity among those objects have received increasing attention in several different fields. This paper develops a useful correspondence between any hierarchical system of such clusters, and a particular type of distance measure. The correspondence gives rise to two methods of clustering that are computationally rapid and invariant under monotonic transformations of the data. In an explicitly defined sense, one method forms clusters that are optimally connected, while the other forms clusters that are optimally compact.I am indebted to R. N. Shepard and J. D. Carroll for many stimulating discussions about this work, and for aid in preparing this paper.