Issue Salience, Perceived Efficacy and Perceived Risk: A Study of the Origins of Anti-Nuclear War Activity

One hundred eleven college students participated in this two-session experiment designed to explore the origins of anti-nuclear war activism. In Session 1 participants completed questionnaires assessing a number of background characteristics and attitudes, the most important of which for this study's purpose was a measure of perceived political efficacy in the nuclear realm. One week later both the salience of the nuclear weapons issue and participants' sense of personalized risk were experimentally manipulated in a 2 × 2 × 2 (salience × risk × measured efficacy) design. Dependent measures were a behavioral intentions questionnaire and an actual opportunity to sign a petition which participants did not recognize as part of the experiment. High salience significantly increased both anti-nuclear war behavioral intentions and actual behavior as predicted. Individuals who felt highly efficacious were also significantly more likely to take action than others as predicted. A similar relation between efficacy and behavioral intentions was not found, although a salience by efficacy interaction was. Personalized risk influenced only behavioral intentions. Finally, the relative impact of these three variables and of other background and attitudinal variables measured in the first session was explored using regression techniques.     

Convergence of multiple sources of information on infant individuality: neonatal behavior,infant behavior,and temperament reports

To shed light on the notion of enduring individual infant characteristics, convergence of three presumably interrelated measures of infant individuality was examined. Data collected included standardized behavioral assessments of the newborn (NBAS), maternal reports of infant temperament (at 3 and 9 months), and naturalistic observations of infant behavior at 1, 3, and 9 months. Infant temperament reports were significantly stable from 3 to 9 months; observed infant fussiness was significantly stable from 1 to 3 and 3 to 9 months; observed altertness/social responsiveness was not stable over time. Analyses of convergence of neonatal and infant behavior revealed that 9-month infant alertness/social responsiveness was significantly correlated with neonatal habituation. Similar analyses of neonatal behavior and reported temperament revealed that 3-month reported dullness was significantly correlated with neonatal habituation and range of state. At 9 months, temperament ratings of infant fussiness and unpredictability were significantly correlated with autonomic stability; fussiness was also significantly correlated with regulation of state. Finally, no significant relationships were observed between reported temperament and observed infant behavior. These results fail to support a simple notion of enduring individuality in infants over their first year of life.     

Unmasking the magnitude estimation response

The fuzzy judgement model of Ward (1979) predicts an inverse relation between the amount of stimulus information available to subjects and the magnitude of sequential dependencies on previous stimuli and responses in psychophysical scaling tasks. Ward confirmed this prediction for magnitude estimations of interdot distance for previous responses but not for previous stimuli, although the inverse relation has been repeatedly reported for both the previous stimuli and responses in absolute identification (e.g., Mori, 1989). This paper further explores this seemingly puzzling contradiction. A magnitude estimation of loudness experiment was conducted in which the amount of stimulus information available to subjects was manipulated by a modified version of informational masking (Watson, 1987). An absolute-identification-with-feedback experiment was also conducted to check the effectiveness of the informational masking in reducing the amount of stimulus information. The results of the magnitude estimation experiment show a striking similarity with those of Ward and generalize the failure of sequential dependencies on previous stimuli to vary inversely with stimulus information. An additional assumption that judgement strategies are altered under low-information conditions is necessary to explain this result.     

Handedness as a function of sex and age in a large population of Lemur

A population of 194 lemurs (Lemur spp.), 116 males and 78 females, from 1 to 30 years of age, was assessed for lateralized hand use in simple food reaching with a minimum of 100 reaches per animal. A hand preference was present in 80% of the population with a bias for use of the left hand that was most characteristic of male lemurs and young lemurs. The results confirm the presence of lateralization in prosimians, and we interpret the sex and age differences in relation to current theories of neural lateralization.     

Analytic and holistic modes of learning family-resemblance concepts

Three studies examined how individuals learn concepts structured according to family-resemblance principles. The materials were cartoon faces varying in the attributes of hair, mustache, ears, and nose. In contrast to previous studies purporting to show holistic modes of learning family-resemblance concepts, the present studies indicate that many individuals learn such concepts by an analytic, attribute-plus-exception rule. The attribute-plus-exception rule characterized the learning shown by adults under both intentional (Studies 1 and 2) and incidental (Study 3) learning conditions and by children under intentional learning conditions (Study 2). There was no evidence to indicate that a holistic mode is a more primitive one, since it did not occur more frequently among children or adults under incidental learning conditions. It is suggested that the extent to which holistic or analytic modes of learning are observed will be found to depend on an interaction among stimulus, task, and observer factors.     

Repeated magnitude estimations with a variable standard: Sequential effects and other properties

Twelve Ss made magnitude estimations of the loudness of each one of a sequence of pure tones according to the rule R(N) = R(N - 1) · [S(N)/S(N - 1)], where R(N) is the response on Trial N, R(N - 1) is the response on Trial N - 1, and S(N)/S(N - 1) is the judged ratio of the “loudness” of the pure tone presented on Trial N to that of the pure tone presented on Trial N - 1. It was found that these magnitude estimations were assimilated toward the immediately preceding stimuli as far as five trials back in the sequence of stimuli. In addition, ratio judgments were consistently asymmetric and the data displayed a form of “time order error.” In all cases, there are similar effects displayed in category judgment data. These and other data imply that at least some kinds of magnitude estimations may involve a judgment of the “difference” or “distance” between pairs of stimuli as a first step in the production of the response required by the judgment situation.