A comparison of children who receive and who do not receive permission to participate in research

In a study examining children's social competence in elementary school settings, the authors had the opportunity to compare children who received parental permission to participate to children who did not receive permission. Results indicated that children who were not involved in the study were more likely to be viewed by teachers as having unsatisfactory relationships with peers than children who were in the study. The present results suggest that investigators begin reporting the number of children who do not participate in a given study and begin examining whether minors who receive parental permission differ on important dimensions from minors who do not receive such permission. Ethical considerations of the present study are discussed.     

The decrement in conditioned fear with increased trials of simultaneous conditioning is not specific to the simultaneous procedure

Three experiments using a conditioned punishment paradigm with rat subjects examined the possibility that the nonmonotonic acquisition function previously found to characterize simultaneous conditioning was due to the noninformative nature of the conditioned stimulus (CS). In Experiment 1 the suppressive effects of a CS previously presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) in a simultaneous and forward (informative) manner were compared following 20 and an additional 60 conditioning trials. Excitatory conditioning similarly diminished with increased trials for both the simultaneous and forward procedures. Experiment 2 employed a between-groups design. Simultaneous, forward, and trace conditioning procedures were compared following 20 or 100 trials. Each of the three 100-trial groups showed less resistance to extinction than their 20-trial counterparts. Experiment 3 determined that the decrement in excitatory conditioning for the 100-trial groups was not due to the greater number of US presentations, per se, but rather to the number of CS-US pairings. The nonmonotonic acquisition function observed with all three conditioning procedures indicated that informational factors were not responsible for the decrement observed in simultaneous conditioning. The pattern of results suggested that subjects receiving extended conditioning trials were better able to discriminate between training and testing.     

Tachistoscope simulation package

A system of FORTRAN-callable subroutines is described that enable a PDP-11/20 computer to function as a multichannel tachistoscope. Features of the system include multiple display buffering, dynamic buffer allocation, control of character size and density, provisions for user-generated characters and symbols, and routines for recording of both vocal and buttonpress responses.     

NOVA SKED: A behavioral notation language for Data General minicomputers

A state notation language (NOVA SKED) for the experimental control and collection of data from operant behavior experiments by Data General NOVA series minicomputers is described. NOVA SKED is based on the SKED system written for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP8 series of minicomputers. The NOVA SKED state notation syntax enables diagramming experimental procedures directly and precisely by the operant experimenter, who need not be familiar with computers. This syntax can then be compiled by the computer into programs that operate under the SKED run-time system (RTS). The SKED RTS operates in a timesharing mode that allows up to 16 experimental stations to function simultaneously and independently from each other. NOVA SKED is a “stand-alone” system that collects and stores data on digital magnetic tape.     

Individual differences in cognition: Relationship between verbal ability and memory for order

The crucial role of order information in language has led to the suggestion that psychometrically measured verbal ability may be related to memory for order. The literature pertaining to this hypothesis is briefly reviewed and various methodological difficulties discussed. The results of three experiments indicated that (a) order and item information may be retained separately; (b) verbal ability is related to the short-term recall of order; (c) verbal ability is unrelated to memory for order when testing involves recognition rather than recall; and (d) the relationship between verbal ability and memory for order is most pronounced when the originally presented order must be transformed at output (as in the “digits backward” task). An output process in which material is decoded and held in an output buffer until decoding is complete is viewed as the most likely locus of the verbal ability-memory for order relationship.