Cognitive changes associated with social skills training

Changes in locus of control and self-esteem during social skills training and at 6 month follow-up were investigated. Forty-four adolescent, male offenders were randomly assigned to a social skills training, attention-placebo, or no-treatment control procedure. The results showed that pre- to post-training increases in self-esteem were produced for both the social skills training and attention-placebo control groups, but not for the no-treatment control group. These increases did not continue during the follow-up phase; the social skills training group, which showed the greatest improvement during training, displayed a decrease in self- esteem during follow-up.The locus of control measures showed a statistically significant shift towards internality for the social skills training group during training, which was not found for the attention-placebo and no-treatment controls. During the follow-up phase, all three groups showed a statistically significant shift towards externality, suggesting a tendency for boys to view their behaviour and consequences as being under the control of chance factors or powerful others, during institutionalization. This effect was partly reversed during training for the social skills training group, but the effect was not long lasting. It seems therefore that social skills training is effective in producing an increase in self-esteem and a shift towards internal locus of control. These changes are, however, of short duration and the self-esteem shift may be the result of increased staff contact or other non-specific therapy factors.     

Occupation,Competence, and Role Overload as Evaluation Determinants of Successful Women1

In order to determine what variables contribute to or detract from the inter- personal attraction of a successful career woman, 80 male and 80 female introductory psychology students at a large western state university viewed one of eight different videotapes of a female stimulus person discussing aspects of her career and homelife. Two levels of occupation (traditional vs. nontraditional), two levels of competcnce (high vs. low), and two levels of role overload (high vs. low) were factorially varied for each videotape. The Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) was used as a covariate, thereby equalizing attitudes between the sexes. A multivariate analysis of covariance was performed on the data. Results indicated that all main effects-competence, role overload, occupation, and sex of subjects-were significant. Also significant was a sex of subject by occupation interaction and two three-way interactions. These results were discussed in the context of how they increase our understanding of college students' perceptions of successful career women.     

A simple LSI-11 system for real-time control,interevent time storage,and data analysis

A simple laboratory computer system based on a Digital Equipment Corporation LSI-11, floppy disk, DRV11 parallel input-output board, and the RT-11 operating system is described. Interface to experimental devices is provided through a lab-built relay driver and relay closure sensing interface. An extensive high-level software package provides an easy-to-use control language (e.g., stimuli can be controlled with a simple “TURN ON” or “TURN OFF” instruction) and easy-to-use FORTRAN subroutines for data exploration (e.g., “IFIND” searches a data file for a particular event). The control software automatically generates, codes, and stores a complete log of every input and output event and its time of occurrence in each of five simultaneously running experiments. This provides the capability to reanalyze data in light of hypotheses not available when the experiment was designed. The FORTRAN subroutine library for data exploration provides a conditional and iterative search facility to sift out events or sets of events from the data file for analysis. Standard FORTRAN statements perform arithmetic operations on the resulting data.     

Tactual and visual alphanumeric suffix effects

Two experiments tested the effects of suffixes on the recall of tactual and visual sequences of alphabetic characters presented at 19 letters per min. Scoring techniques allowed for the differentiation of losses of item and order information. In Experiment I performance decrements were found for both modalities, which were mainly caused by item loss at the more recent part of the serial position curve in the suffix conditions. In Experiment II, these effects were replicated and a non-alphabetic suffix led to greater decrements for both modalities than an alphabetical suffix. While a suffix effect based on the loss of item information is consistent with a sensory trace interpretation of the suffix effect, the presence of a visual suffix effect with slow stimulus presentation is not. Additionally, the greater effect of the non-alphanumeric suffix challenges attentional interpretations. Some possible explanations are proposed.     

Observing behavior in monkeys (Macaca arctoides): Support for the information hypothesis

A single lever, discrete-trials observing procedure was used with stumptailed monkeys (Macaca arctoides). Lever-presses during a trial produced colored key lights (IS⁺ and IS^?) which signaled whether the trial would end with response-independent food or without food. During the baseline period, both IS⁺ and IS^? were produced on a variable-interval (VI) 15-sec schedule which began operating at the onset of the trial. The two experimental conditions involved a combination of this VI schedule and a DRL schedule. In one of these conditions, only a response that both met the VI requirement and was preceded by at least 6 sec of nonresponding could produce IS^? on nonfood trials, while the schedule for IS⁺ on food trials remained VI 15 sec. In the other experimental condition, the schedules for producing the two stimuli were the reverse. All subjects eventually learned to produce either IS⁺ or IS^? on the combined VI-DRL schedule. These data support an information hypothesis of observing in monkeys and contrast with data from pigeons which support a conditioned reinforcement hypothesis.     

Word-finding as a function of stimulus context: Children compared with aphasic adults

A study of object naming in 202 children, aged 5–11 years, demonstrated that varying the stimulus context affected the level of response accuracy. From age 6 to 10, completing a sentence with a noun (auditory) yielded the lowest error scores, naming objects upon hearing a definition (also auditory) produced most errors, while responding with names to pictured objects was of intermediate difficulty. This is the same order of object naming difficulty found in adult aphasic patients. Children older than 10 do not appear to be affected by stimulus context in their object naming. Results are discussed in terms of the relative syntactic difficulty of the two auditory conditions, the unexpected sex differences, and the “aphaseoid” naming errors of children.     

Predictors of turnover of female factory workers

This study examines predictors of turnover of female factory workers in a multivariate framework. Findings indicate that organizational, job, and personal characteristics are equally important in explaining turnover. Variables significantly related to turnover were tenure, cycle time, peer leadership, communication flow, training time, family income, and satisfaction with pay. The AID technique was demonstrated as a means of identifying interaction effects.     

Saccade latency and warning signals: Effects of auditory and visual stimulus onset and offset

Previous studies have found that a nonspecific visual event occurring at the fovea 50–150 msec after the onset of a peripheral target delayed the initiation of the saccade to that target. The present studies replicated and extended this finding by studying the effects of both visual and auditory warning signals, by examining the effects of onset and offset warning on manual response latency, and by investigating the effects of presenting the warning events in the periphery of the visual field. The results indicated that the interfering effects occur with visual but not auditory stimuli, with saccades but not motor responses, and when the visual warning event occurs either foveally or in the subject’s periphery. Implications for the processes involved are discussed.     

Life structure decisions: Factors related to career-marriage priorities in college youth

The present research conceptualizes life structure, or the pattern of life, as the ordering of priorities among competing alternatives. Intentions to emphasize career, marriage, or both were investigated for college students. Variations in these intentions were seen as resulting from differences in two classes of variables: (a) the perceived consequences of emphasizing the alternative; and (b) perceived normative pressures. A subjective probability model of the relationship between beliefs and behavioral intentions was used as a framework for determining the importance of these factors. The considerations identified as most likely to have a direct impact on life structure dealt primarily with interpersonal relations, particularly marriage and family. In general, the data suggested that the subjective probability model may be useful for further understanding of life structure decisions.