Complex Reaction Time and General Intelligence: A Refinement

College students (N = 28) completed a reaction-time task that yielded decision times for simple and complex conditions. Each student was also administered the revised edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS-R). Decision-time parameters generally correlated negatively with WAIS subscales. These correlations reached significance, however, mainly with timed performance subscales. The results were consistent with Vernon's (1983) results.     

An Experimental Investigation of Efforts to Improve Sales Students' Moral Reasoning

This article reports the findings of a study that attempts to determine if sales students' moral reasoning skills (Level of Cognitive Moral Development) can be improved through training. A pretest-treatment-posttest design is used. Furthermore, an examination of gender differences in moral reasoning is conducted.

The results indicate that students' moral reasoning can be improved with classroom exercises. Evidence also suggests that females reason at higher levels of moral development than do males, though there appears to be no differential effect of ethics training on the moral reasoning skills between males and females. Implications are provided for both higher education and sales organizations.     

Creativity inside out from theory to practice

Abstract:

A theoretical rationale is presented for a creativity program. This program targets the creativity of teachers, capitalizes on the intrinsic motivation of both teachers and students, includes elements of playfulness and fun, and utilizes multiple intelligences. It consists of a three volume spiral curriculum for kindergarten through the 8th Grade. This curriculum elevates creativity studies to a central position for organizing and demonstrating knowledge across the curriculum. Creativity is defined as self‐expression inherent in all children, predicated upon their ability to access and express a unique personal and cultural vantage point. Pilot work conducted in Lawndale, California, is also detailed. This included an intensive teacher in‐service training, with questionnaires about the program administered at the middle and end of the training. Results support the integration of creativity studies into the basic elementary school curriculum.     

Psychological States Following Resistance Exercise of Different Workloads

This experiment was designed to examine the effect of resistance exercise of different workloads on subsequent psychological states. Participants, 54 undergraduate students (34 male, 20 female), were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) low workload resistance exercise (50% of 1 RM), (b) high workload resistance exercise (80% of 1RM), or (c) a no exercise control. Resistance exercise consisted of three sets of five repetitions for three free-weight exercises: the bench press, overhead press, and dumbbell row. Psychological state was indicated by the Exercise-Induced Feeling States Inventory (Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) and was assessed prior to exercise and at 10, 25, and 40 min post exercise. Data were analyzed via a 3 (group) x 4 (time) ANOVA with repeated measures on the second factor. All exercise participants experienced an increased sense of revitalization, which persisted for a greater extent in low rather than high workload participants. None of the groups reported changes over time in positive engagement or tranquility. In addition, while exercise groups did report a reduction in physical exhaustion during recovery, this improvement did not differ from no exercise controls nor did it differ between exercise groups. Thus, weight lifting appears to result in a sense of revitalization, an effect whose duration may be impacted by exercise workload.     

Contributions to the history of psychology: CXVII. Who's who in American psychology: a citation study of introductory psychology textbooks

The author indexes of 15 introductory psychology textbooks were surveyed to identify the authorities cited most frequently. The five names cited most often in descending order were Freud, Bandura, Skinner, Piaget, and James. Differences from earlier comparable citation studies are discussed.     

Neural correlates of Pavlovian conditioning in components of the neural network supporting ciliary locomotion in Hermissenda

Pavlovian conditioning in Hermissenda consists of pairing light, the conditioned stimulus (CS) with activation of statocyst hair cells, the unconditioned stimulus (US). Conditioning produces CS-elicited foot shortening and inhibition of light-elicited locomotion, the two conditioned responses (CRs). Conditioning correlates have been identified in the primary sensory neurons (photoreceptors) of the CS pathway, interneurons that receive monosynaptic input from identified photoreceptors, and putative pedal motor neurons. While cellular mechanisms of acquisition produced by the synaptic interaction between the CS and US pathways are well-documented, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for the generation or expression of the CR. Here we show that in conditioned animals light reduced tonic firing of ciliary activating pedal neurons (VP1) below their pre-CS baseline levels. In contrast, pseudorandom controls expressed a significant increase in CS-elicited tonic firing of VP1 as compared to pre-CS baseline activity. Identified interneurons in the visual pathway that have established polysynaptic connections with VP1 were examined in conditioned animals and pseudorandom controls. Depolarization of identified type I_e interneurons with extrinsic current elicited a significant increase in IPSPs recorded in VP1 pedal neurons of conditioned animals as compared with pseudorandom controls. Conditioning also enhanced intrinsic excitability of type I_e interneurons of conditioned animals as compared to pseudorandom controls. Light evoked a modest increase in IPSP frequency in VP1 of conditioned preparations and a significant decrease in IPSP frequency in VP1 of pseudorandom controls. Our results show that a combination of synaptic facilitation and intrinsic enhanced excitability in identified components of the CS pathway may explain light-elicited inhibition of locomotion in conditioned animals.