Duration discrimination of filled and empty auditory intervals: Cognitive and perceptual factors

Adult subjects were presented with two auditory stimuli per trial, and their task was to decide which of the two was longer in duration. An adaptive psychophysical procedure was used. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, the base duration was 50 msec, whereas in Experiment 3, the base duration was 1 sec. In Experiments 1, 2, and 4, it was found that filled intervals (continuous tones) were discriminated more accurately than empty intervals (with onset and offset marked by clicks). It was concluded that this difference was perceptual rather than cognitive in nature, since performance on filled and empty intervals was not affected by increasing cognitive load in a dual-task procedure (Experiment 2) but was affected by backward masking (Experiment 4). In contrast, the results of Experiment 3 showed that duration discrimination of filled auditory intervals of longer duration was cognitively influenced, since performance was impaired by increasing cognitive load. Implications for notions of perceptual processing and timing mechanisms tanderlying differences in duration discrimination with filled and empty intervals are discussed.     

Factors affecting entrapment in escalating conflicts: The importance of timing

Entrapping conflicts are those in which individuals continue to invest their resources—even in seemingly losing propositions-in large part to justify previous unfilled expenditures. It has been demonstrated that individuals define their motivation for investing very differently at the various stages of an entrapping conflict. One implication of this motivational dynamic is that various factors may differentially affect degree of entrapment (i.e., amount invested), depending upon the point in time at which they are introduced. The present studies were designed to test this notion. All subjects were given an initial monetary stake and had the opportunity to win more by taking part in an entrapping investment situation. In Experiment 1, half the subjects were provided with a payoff chart that made salient the costs associated with investing (Highcost salience condition) whereas half were not (Low-cost salience condition). Moreover, for half of the subjects the payoff chart was introduced before they were asked to invest (Early condition) whereas for the other half it was introduced after they had invested a considerable portion of their resources (Late condition). Entrapment was lower in the High salience-Early than in the Low salience-Early condition. However, there was no difference between groups in the Late condition. In Experiment 2, the perceived presence of an audience interacted with personality variables related to face-saving to effect entrapment. When the audience was described as “experts in decision making,” subjects high in public self-consciousness (or social anxiety) became less entrapped than those low on these dimensions. When the audience consisted of individuals who “wished simply to observe the experimental procedure,” however, high public self-consciousness (or social anxiety) individuals were significantly more entrapped than lows. Moreover, these interaction effects occurred when the audience was introduced late, but not early, into the entrapment situation. Taken together, these (and other) findings suggest that economic factors are more influential determinants of behavior in the earlier stages of an entrapping conflict, whereas face-saving variables are more potent in the later phases. Alternative explanations are discussed.     

Holland high point social types: Is consistency related to persistence and achievement?

This study concerns Social personality types and assesses the relationship of Holland's secondary construct of consistency to persistence in college and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 211 Social subjects who completed the Self Directed Search (SDS) as college freshmen in 1970. Evidence of persistence/nonpersistence and cumulative grade point averages were determined from college records. Hypotheses concerned the relationship of consistency to (a) termination status (persistence/nonpersistence), and (b) cumulative grade point average, for both persisters and nonpersisters. Results indicate that the relationship between consistency and termination status was significant, with high- and medium-consistency subjects persisting in college at a higher rate than low-consistency subjects. The relationship between consistency and CGPA was also significant. Results indicate that for both persisters and nonpersisters in college, subjects with higher levels of consistency achieve higher CGPAs than do subjects with lower levels of consistency. Implications of these findings for academic retention and counseling, as well as for future research, are indicated.     

Discussion of “time and timekeeping in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy”

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

The dispositional shift in attribution over time

Two experiments examined the effect of time on causal attributions. In Experiment I, subjects who described themselves into a tape recorder assumed more personal responsibility for their behavior after 3 weeks' time than others who explained their behavior immediately after its occurrence. In Experiment II, actor-subjects took part in a getting acquainted conversation and explained their behavior more dispositionally and less situationally after 3 weeks' time than they had initially, while observer-subjects experienced no change over time. Results were interpreted in terms of an altered self-perspective in memory and the diminished salience of situational details over time.     

Retention of conditioned inhibition in a bar-press suppression paradigm

In three experiments, the retention of conditioned inhibition in rats was examined over long intervals. Retention deficits of conditioned inhibition were found at 21 days, although conditioned excitation was relatively stable over time. This loss of conditioned inhibition was demonstrated using both the summation and the retardation of learning techniques in a bar-press suppression paradigm. Furthermore, retention differences were found between within-groups and between-groups generalization tests of conditioned inhibition, using the summation procedure. These differences were interpreted within a retrieval-oriented model of memory.