A revised model of learned helesspleness in humans1

The present paper presents a revised model of learned helplessness in humans. The conditions under which performance deficits (helplessness) or enhanced performance (facilitation) will result from exposure to objective noncontingency are defined by a number of variables that have been shown to have an impact on human helplessness. The reformulated model specifies the operation of moderating variables as they affect a number of relationships: that between objective noncontingency and the perception of noncontingency; that between the perception of noncontingency and the future expectancy of response-reinforcement independence; and finally that between the expectancy of response-reinforcement independence and the behavirol deficits associated with learned helplessness. It is argued that exposure to noncontingency can affect both the value of future reward and the perceived probability of obtaining it. Performance deficits or enhanced performance will result from the perception of noncontingency depending on the nature of this double-edged effect of exposure to noncontingent delivery of reward.     

Beliefs,personality, and person perception: A theory of individual differences

The hypothesis tested was that we attend to aspects of our interpersonal environment that correspond to prominent features of our own personality. One hundred fifty-four men and women rated the way in which they typically communicate and interact with significant other people (e.g., mother, father, lover) on 11 bipolar adjective scales and the way in which those other people interact with them. An individual differences multidimensional scaling analysis of interstimulus distances among the significant other people based on the ratings of the subject's interaction with those other people indicated that subjects who weighted a particular dimension tended to think they possessed a personality trait corresponding to the dimension. Reasons for the individual difference hypothesis were given.     

Latent trait models in the study of intelligence

This article examines the potential contribution of latent trait models to the study of intelligence. Nontechnical introductions to both unidimensional and multidimensional latent trait models are given, and possible research applications are considered. Latent trait models are shown to resolve several measurement problems in studies of intellectual change, including ability modification studies and life-span development studies. Furthermore, under certain conditions, latent trait models are found useful for construct validation research, since they can represent an individual differences model of cognitive processing on ability test items. Multidimensional latent trait models are shown to be especially useful as processing models, because they can be used to test alternative multiple component theories of test item processing. Furthermore, multidimensional models can be used to decompose test item difficulty into component contributions and estimate individual differences in processing abilities.     

Saccade latency and warning signals: Stimulus onset,offset, and change as warning events

Two experiments investigated saccade latency to a peripheral target under various warning signal conditions. In Experiment I, the effects of warning stimulus onset, change, and two offset conditions were compared at warning intervals of 0, 100, 300, and 600 msec. Warning stimulus onset, change, and offset were all effective in reducing saccade latency as compared to a no-warning control condition, but warning stimulus offset resulted in shorter saccade latency than onset or change at all warning intervals. Experiment 2 compared onset and offset warning conditions at ?300-, ?250-, ?200-, ?150-, ?100-, ?50-, 0-, and 50-msec intervals. Responses following onset were slower than those following offset at the latter five intervals, while warning onset resulted in slower saccades than no-warning control conditions at ?150-, ?100-, and ?50-msec intervals. These results indicate that the onset of a visual warning signal can have an interfering effect on the programming or execution of a saccade.     

Some psychological correlates of generalized and focal epilepsy in children

School-aged children with two types of epilepsy, generalized and focal, were compared with normal children of the same age, sex, and IQ on measures of cognitive style, attention, motor control, and behavioral pathology. Epileptic children were found to employ less efficient cognitive strategies and to have longer reaction times and poorer control of fine motor movements than have normal children. Children with generalized epilepsy were more impaired than were normal children when sustained motor performance was required. Mothers of children with generalized epilepsy reported more behavior problems than did control mothers on an objective checklist. These results suggest special educational methods for the treatment and education of epileptic children.The research reported in this paper was supported by Grant No. MA-45O5 from the Medical Research Council of Canada. Grateful thanks are extended to Dr. Katherine Metrakos, Director of the Convulsive Disorder Clinic, Montreal Children's Hospital, who screened epileptic subjects and gave us her enthusiastic support. The Diagnostic Test Center was most helpful in providing blood serum levels on the clinical sample. We wish to thank the Notre Dame de Grace and Westmount branches of the Y.M.C.A. for access to control subjects.     

Syntactic complexity and information transmission in first-graders: A cross-cultural study

Some differences between child and adult communication are due to general developmental immaturity and some to language-specific factors. The Piagetan concept of syncretism exemplifies an hypothecated universal of psycholinguistic development, and it results in child texts characterized by minimally structured temporal, causal, and logical connections. A different sort of problem is that, within a specific language, certain syntactic items may fail to mature in children at the expected rate, because of structural oddities of the constructions. English has several such constructions, generally peculiar in their conflict between surface- and deep-structure subject of the main verb. It is predictable that a syncretistic child attempting to deal with such items in a text will analyze them according to the surface-structure analogic method which defines verbal syncretism, and so will fail to make sense of them. Finally, cutting across these child language features are others peculiar to the language of specific groups of children, such as the putative communication impairment of the disadvantaged black child, whose language has been described by some researchers as less efficient and slower to mature than that of others. Clearly, if this is so, then black children's language should at any young age show more evidence of syncretistic communicative immaturity as well as slower development of adult syntactic patterns. The present paper, then, investigates on a cross-cultural basis the dual hypotheses of syncretism and faulty mastery of difficult syntax, by means of an experimental story-repeating format first used by Piaget. Hypotheses are examined for the cause of children's distinctive communication technique, and the whole question of the significance of black/white differences in communicative style and verbal maturity is discussed.     

Position constancy and binocular convergence

The position constancy during head movement of a luminous spot in a dark room depends in part on the convergence state of the eyes. This supports a modified form of the theory that an optical-motion/head-motion comparator contributes to constancy. By incorporating convergence information, the comparator can allow [or the effect of parallax on the optical-motion/body-motion ratio.     

The Junior College Student

Using data obtained by Project TALENT, a nationwide study of high school youth, the authors describe the junior college student. The junior college, non-college, and college students have been compared along six measures of information and eight of general aptitude and ability. Through the use of a six-group discriminant analysis, it was found that junior college students have a tendency to be more like non-college students in terms of ability. However, sex differences on the ability measures were greater than the differences among the three college-planning groups. Although the junior college student looks more like the non-college student in terms of ability, he appears to be more like the college student in terms of socio-economic factors.     

Prediction and judgment as indicators of sensitivity to covariation of continuous variables

The present study used both judgments of strength of relationship and measures of the ability to predict one variable from another to assess subjects’ sensitivity to the covariation of two continuous variables. In addition, one group of subjects judged strength of relationship after merely observing the presentation of 60 pairs of two-digit numbers, and a second group made strength judgments after being actively engaged in predicting one member of a pair when given the other. The prediction and judgment data provide different pictures of subjects’ sensitivity to covariation. The subjects were quite poor at estimating strength of relationship but, by some measures, good at predicting one variable from another. Judgments were not strongly influenced by whether subjects had previously engaged in overt prediction. The implications of these results for the literature on covariation estimation are discussed.     

TRAINING PROSOCIAL BEHAVIORS TO YOUNG CHILDREN: AN ANALYSIS OF RECIPROCITY WITH UNTRAINED PEERS

We examined the effects of a social skills training package on the play behaviors of three young girls. Two children were taught to invite their peers to play and to use social amenities during their conversations with other children. A combined reversal and multiple baseline across responses design demonstrated that both children directed more social behaviors to their classroom peers after training and that these two children's play invitations were maintained in the later absence of experimental contingencies. In addition, both target children received a greater number of play invitations from their peers during the free play periods. In contrast, a third child's play invitations were not reciprocated by peers; her invitations subsequently decreased in rate after training was discontinued. An interdependent group contingency produced a reciprocal exchange of invitations between this child and her classroom peers. A reversal design demonstrated partial maintenance of subject-peer exchanges after the group intervention was discontinued. The results obtained with the three target children suggest that peer reciprocity may facilitate the maintenance of children's play invitations over time.