Computer use in psychology instruction

This paper presents the ways in which psychology departments are using microcomputers for instruction, the types of facilities that they are using, and the varieties of hardware that they employ. These data are related to other data reported over the past 10 years. In addition, a summary of the types of software currently available in all areas of psychology is presented, and areas in which there is a need for further software development are identified. The information reviewed in this paper was compiled from the current software listings available through COMPSYCH, as well as the results of a survey distributed to registered users of COMPSYCH who hold academic positions.     

Ingroup Versus Outgroup Perceptions of the Characteristics of High-Risk Youth: Negative Stereotyping1

Adolescents tend to categorize themselves and their peers into discrete ingroups and outgroups. A comparison of ingroup versus outgroup perceptions of the characteristics of high-risk youth was investigated. Based on current stereotype research, we examined the perspective that outgroup members would hold a more extreme stereotype of high-risk youth compared to the perceptions of ingroup members. A total of 955 7th- and 10th-grade southern California adolescents completed a questionnaire regarding the characteristics of their own peer group and a high-risk group. Support was obtained for an extremity of judgement effect. Outgroup youth perceived that their high-risk peers engaged in fewer school and nonschool low-risk activities, more high-risk activities, and greater drug use than did ingroup members. Outgroup members also held perceptions of high-risk youth as less likely to hold a white-collar job than did the ingroup members. The perceptions that adolescents have of these groups may play major roles in their own social behavior. The implications of these results for future tobacco use prevention programs are considered.     

Towards a theory of algorithm-determined cognitive test construction

A rationale for, and data from, a trial of a theory of item generation by algorithms whose origins are cognitive models of task performance are presented. Since Spearman (1904), intelligence has been operationally defined and assessed in human subjects by administering identical test items whose content and order have been fixed only after empirical iterations. In our approach, intelligence is ostensively defined by theoretically determined algorithms used for item construction and presentation. Knowledge of what cognitive factors limit human performance makes it possible to vary within tightly specified parameters those features of the tasks that contribute to difficulty, which we call radicals, to let those components of the tasks that do not contribute to difficulty vary randomly, and to counterbalance aspects of answer production that might induce biases of response. Empirical data are based on the generation of five different short tests demanding only functional literacy as a prerequisite for their execution. Four parallel forms of each test were administered to young male Army recruits whose scores were collated with their Army Entrance Test results, which were not previously known to us. Results show that the parallel, algorithm-generated item sets are statistically invariant, which item generation theory demands; and that the individual tests differentially predict Army Entrance Test scores. We conclude that IQ test performances are parsimoniously explained by individual differences in encoding, comparison and reconstructive memory processes.     

Insulin and dextrose effects on fixed-interval behavioral thermoregulation in albino rats

This study is a systematic replication of the effects of insulin doses on operant behavior reinforced (in an earlier study) by fixed-ratio schedules of microwave (MW) reinforcement. In this study, insulin and dextrose doses were administered (ip) prior to fixed-interval 2-min. schedules of MW reinforcement in rats tested in a cold environment. Six Sprague-Dawley rats were conditioned to regulate their thermal environment with 5-sec. exposures of MW radiation (SAR = 0.34 Watts/kg/(mW/cm2) under the FI-2' schedules. Humulin-regular insulin and 50% solutions of dextrose were administered (ip) alternately with saline control sessions for 8-hr. durations. A within-subjects, repeated-measures 4 x 8 x 3 factorial analysis of variance design showed that insulin doses suppressed operant responding for heat, which confirmed the results of the earlier study under a different schedule. In addition, high doses of dextrose had similar suppressing effects on operant responding for heat. The data are interpreted in terms of the discriminative properties of increased thermogenesis produced by the insulin and dextrose doses. The suppressing effects were more pronounced for the first two hours, yet they persisted for approximately six hours of the 8-hr. sessions.