Detection of extraneous signals during sentence recognition

In two separate experiments, 40 Ss were presented with recorded sentences during each of which a click occurred. Ss had to depress a key as soon as they heard the click. RTs were f aster when the click was located at the major syntactic break of the sentence compared with RTs to clicks not at a break. This confirmed the hypothesis that processing load is a function of the surface structure of sentences, although the role of minor breaks was not clear. A second finding was that RTs were slower when the click was in the first rather than in the second half of the sentence. This can also be explained in terms of differential processing loads.     

Schematic concept formation: Feature measures and constraint redundancy as predictors

Constraint redundancy (R_c) was varied in order to manipulate the statistical structure of sets of patterns. Measures of pattern features and R_c were related to the categorization by Ss who had experienced different types of preexposure to sets of patterns from the same stimulus domain. Both R_c and pattern measures were related to the categories produced by Ss in a schematic-concept-formation (SCF) task.     

Recognition assessed by D' and by a non-parametric alternative (the A-index) as a function of the number of choices

Freedom from restrictive assumptions and ease of psychological interpretation are two basic criteria for a satisfactory measure of recognition performance. The A-index (Brown, 1965a) comes close to fulfilling these criteria. It is based on the proportion of wrong choices rejected in a multi-choice test as revealed by the number of choices required to select the correct choice. It can be transformed into the d' measure of signal detection theory (SDT) if the standard assumptions of this theory hold, but not in general. Two experiments on the recognition of words-in-noise are described. In the first there were 3, 5, 8 or 16 choices. They were typed on a card which was displayed to the listener during the presentation of a word. On both measures 5-, 8- and 16-choice recognition did not differ significantly, while 3-choice recognition was slightly, but significantly, superior. The second experiment concerned the effect of delaying the display of the card until 2 sec. after presentation. No evidence for an effect was obtained. In both experiments, there was suggestive but not conclusive evidence that the d' measure tended to overestimate recognition efficiency.     

Signalled and unsignalled free-operant avoidance in the pigeon

Pigeons were trained to depress a lever to avoid electric shock under free-operant avoidance schedules without a warning signal, or with a warning signal that could be terminated only by a response. Most birds in the signalled avoidance procedure terminated more than 50% of the warning signals before shock. In the unsignalled avoidance procedure, several birds formed a temporal discrimination and received relatively few shocks; other birds responded only in post-shock bursts, and received many more shocks.     

Management skill in student organizations

Seventy-two social fraternities were studied to discover some reasons for the variation in the degree of success attained by these student organizations on a college campus. The specific factors studied were management practices that could be employed by the groups. Analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between success as a fraternity and the use of certain management practices, and it identified several individual practices or characteristics highly associated with more successful groups. This article proposes that student organizations would find such practices influential in their future survival and success.     

Ethics and Counseling Decisions

Although some behavioral scientists and practitioners contend that man has no genuine moral choices to make, common sense and philosophical reflection ineluctably affirm the moral nature of man. When young people are faced with moral decisions, they often seek the assistance of a counselor. Although such counselors are routinely expected to aid clients in making decisions about their education and their careers, there is considerably less agreement about their responsibility for helping students to make moral choices. The central thesis of this article is that a knowledge of ethical theories, the practical principles which flow from them, and the method of decision-making which they indicate will enable the counselor to assist his clients with their moral problems.     

Need for approval and counseling outcomes

The intent of this study was to determine the effects of a clients' need for approval on the outcomes of counseling. The expectation was that clients who have a high need for approval by others would cooperate more with the counseling process and would more often be successful in the sense of being rehabilitated. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was administered to 167 applicants at a state rehabilitation agency immediately after the initial interview. It was hypothesized that successfully rehabilitated clients would obtain significantly higher social desirability scores than those clients who were not successful. The results confirmed the hypothesis at the .01 level of significance.     

Technology and guidance: a balance

The following symposium discusses the place of technology in guidance and some of the concerns involved. Tiedeman, a leading authority on technological applications in guidance, takes the position that guidance technology is an important new development. Schmidt, who has written widely in the areas of psychology and counseling, questions the place of technology in guidance and society and underlines some of the concerns related to the adoption of technology. The authors' discussions of “one-way” versus “two-way” thinking and the problem of control over the technology should be of interest to readers concerned with applying technology in guidance.