A response time model for choice behavior

A subject in a two-choice situation characteristically makes several observing responses before performing the final choice. This behavior can be described by means of a random walk model. The present paper explores some possibilities as to how this model can be extended to include choice time. The assumption is made that the duration of each step in the random walk is a random variable which is exponentially distributed. With this assumption, one can predict the probability distributions of the choice times as well as the moments of these distributions.The author gratefully acknowledges his debt to W. K. Estes and C. J. Burke. This study was initiated while the author held a USPHS postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University.     

A NOTE ON INTEROCULAR TRANSFER AND THE COLOUR OF VISUAL AFTER-IMAGES

Following monocular fixation of a red stimulus figure on a grey background, a projection field having the same colour as the stimulus figure was viewed either with ( a ) the stimulated eye, or ( b ) the non-stimulated eye. In case ( a ) the after-image appeared grey on a red background, but in case ( b ) green or blue, on a red background. In the latter case the brightness and to some extent the hue of the after-image varied when the amount of light coming to the originally stimulated eye varied. The data are in agreement with the assumption that after-images are primarily retinal.     

Delayed reinforcement and runway performance

The Psychological Record -     

ON THE ONTOGENETIC DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL CRITERIA

Changes in the dimensionality of the moral criteria, i.e. of those aspects of an action-sequence to which a person pays attention when judging how good/bad (nice/naughty) the agent is, were studied with 7-, 10-, and 13-year-old girls and adult subjects. Action sequences varying in respect to potential moral criteria were presented as cartoons. A proximity setting technique and Kruskal's (1964) method of analysis were used. In the younger age groups a remorse-spite-dimension was obtained, the motive criterion becoming more dominant and differentiated with age. Methodological problems are discussed.     

Problems of Work Evaluation

In reviewing the history of the development of techniques of work evaluation, four different approaches are appraised: (1) the mental testing approach, (2) the job analysis approach, (3) the work-sample approach, and (4) the situational assessment approach. Each of these sets of methods is found to arise from somewhat different sectors of society, to serve differing interests, and to have differing objectives. After examination of the merits and limitations of each of the four approaches, the conclusion is drawn that “no one of these four methods can do everything; each deals with a restricted facet of a many-faceted problem.” Attention is called to the general need for validation through professional observation in unprotected industrial settings.     

Individual response patterns in binary choice tasks with nondiscriminable stimuli

The present experiment sought to determine whether individual Ss tend to employ repeatedly the same response patterns in binary choice tasks containing nondiscriminable stimuli and, if so, whether the response sequences when used to constructstimulus sequences improve the performance of other choice tasks. Information and frequency analyses of the response sequences of 48 Ss showed moderate consistency of patterning within a light and within a tone task. Performance of a card task following the light and tone tasks was closely related to the task (light or tone) from which the stimulus sequence was obtained. The frequency analysis showed that repetition patterns were preferred by most Ss but at the expense of alternation responses. The presentation of reinforcement in the card task did not improve performance over that observed in the light and tone tasks.     

A word from the Publisher

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science -     

Frequency distribution of interresponse times during VI and VR reinforcement

A detailed analysis was made of the interresponse times (IRTs) of two rats under both a VI 40-sec and a VR 15-sec schedule. Except for the latency of the first response after a reinforcement, the mean IRTs of all further responses differed little. Similarly, the frequency distributions of the successive IRTs did not vary greatly, but were of no simple form. Sequential dependencies between successive IRTs were small, never accounting for more than 1% of the variance.     

Meinungsänderung durch eigenes Handeln Die Rückwirkung einstellungskonträrer Agitation

Zusammenfassung Zur Klärung der Frage, ob und unter welchen Umständen einstellungskonträre Agitation auf den Agitator zurückwirkt, wurden Gruppen- und Einzelversuche durchgeführt. Als Versuchspersonen dienten insgesamt 409 männliche und weibliche Oberschüler und Studenten. In allen Versuchen mußten die Versuchspersonen Reden erfinden und halten. Die Messung der Meinungsänderung und einiger hypothetischer Variablen wurde mit Fragebogen vorgenommen, zum Teil wurden nach den Versuchen Interviews durchgeführt.Wir erhielten folgende Hauptergebnisse: Erfinden und Vortragen von Argumenten für einen zudiktierten Standpunkt führen, unabhängig voneinander und von der im Vortrag enthaltenen Argumentation, zu einer Meinungsänderung. Ihre Richtung und ihr Ausmaß sind außerdem abhängig vom Verhältnis der zudiktierten Stellungnahme zu anderen, bereits vorhandenen psychischen Inhalten — starke Verankerung der ursprünglichen Meinung führt zur Meinungsänderung im Gegensinne der Agitation (Bumerang-Effekt) — sowie vom Grad der Willentlichkeit der Handlung: bereits die Entscheidung, einen einstellungskonträren Standpunkt nach außen zu vertreten, kann zu einer Meinungsänderung führen. Das Lernen der Argumente, die Bewertung der eigenen Leistung, des Versuchs und Versuchsleiters sowie Eigenschaften eines Themas für sich erweisen sich nicht als alleinige Bedingungen der Meinungsänderung.Diese und andere, weniger wichtige Ergebnisse werden diskutiert. Die Theorie der kognitiven Dissonanz wird als beste einheitliche Erklärungsgrundlage der empirischen Befunde angesehen.

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Summary Experiments with groups and single persons were conducted to test the effect of persuasive behaviour on the communicator. 409 male and female high-school and university students served as subjects. In all experiments the subjects had to invent and verbalize speeches contradicting their own opinion. Opinion change and some hypothetical variables were measured by questionnaires, the sessions were partially followed by interviews.Main results: Inventing or speaking of arguments in favour of an appointed opinion lead, independently of each other and of the informational content of the arguments, to opinion change the direction and magnitude of which are, in addition, dependent on the relation of the argument to previously existent mental contents (if the original opinion is strongly anchored, the persuasive behaviour results in a boomerang effect), as well as the degree of volition of the subject's persuasive behaviour. (Already the decision to defend a point of view contrary to one's own may lead to opinion change). Learning of arguments and evaluation of own achievement, of the experiment and the experimenter as well as the qualities of a topic in itself cannot be shown to be the only conditions of opinion change.These and other, less important results are discussed; the theory of cognitive dissonance is considered the best uniform explanation of these empirical results.

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Diese Arbeit wurde von der philosophischen Fakultät der Ludwig Maximilians-Universität in München als Dissertation angenommen.Die referierten Versuche wurden durch das Yale Communication and Attitude Change Programme und die Gesellschaftder Freunde der Wirtschaftshochschule Mannheim e.V. finanziell gefördert. Der Verfasser dankt den genannten Institutionen für ihre Unterstützung.