The movement-activated recording monitor: A third-generation motor-activity monitoring system

The movement-activated recording monitor (MARM) is a small noninvasive device that continuously detects, accumulates, and stores the amount of motor activity produced during sequential time intervals of designed duration. If motor activity totals are recorded every 15 min, the MARM is capable of calculating and storing 96 data points/day for 5.33 days. The MARM employs large-scale-integrated complementary-metal-oxide integrated circuits. To date, application has been primarily limited to psychiatric investigations, but the MARM is readily applicable for other time-motion studies of human or animal subjects.     

A computer-compatible multichannel event counting and digital recording system

An inexpensive multichannel event counting digital recording system has been designed for compatibility with automated data analysis equipment. For as many as 16 channels, events are simultaneously summed over preselected repetitive time intervals and recorded. Each data entry is marked with the time of day and a code identifying each channel’s data. The data is formated to be computer compatible and is logged on inexpensive readily available digital magnetic tape cassettes.     

Experimental design as a source of sex bias in social psychology

In order to determine whether there is evidence for sex bias in experimental design, abstracts of 312 experiments on interpersonal attraction and 244 experiments on aggression which used only male or only female subjects were coded according to types of variables studied. Results indicate that when females are subjects in experiments the independent variable manipulation is less likely to involve the active treatment or arousal of the subject and the dependent variable measurement is less likely to involve the active behavior of the subject, than when male subjects are used. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for how sex differences should be studied.Portions of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, September 1974. The authors would like to thank Howard Ehrlichman for his valuable comments.     

Juror Responses to Direct and Mediated Presentations of Expert Testimony1

One hundred twenty-one King County (Washington) jurors viewed one of four videotaped versions of medical testimony relevant to the determination of a claim for damages against an employer in an industrial accident case. Two versions presented the claimant's physician (direct testimony), and two presented an attorney reading the physician's testimony verbatim (mediated testimony). Two professional actors (one female, one male) portrayed the physician in one version and the attorney in the other. Videotape presentations were introduced by written material and followed by a questionnaire in which Ss answered a number of legal, attitudinal, and factual questions. Responses to direct testimony differed from those to mediated testimony on several dimensions: number of items listed as significant to the determination of a cash award, estimates of sufficiency of material presented to determine an award, estimates of physician's competence, estimates of confidence in ratings of physician's competence, and number of correct items in a factual retention test. Significant correlations were found between scores on some of these dimensions and number of dollars awarded as compensation. Differences between the actors produced no significant effects, nor were there any significant interactions. It is concluded that, ceteris paribus, direct testimony is to be preferred to mediated testimony.     

Distraction effects in tasks of varying difficulty: Methodological issues in measuring development of distractibility

Effects of distraction on 5- and 8-year-old children's performance on a short-term memory task were examined. Tasks at three difficulty levels were employed to determine whether a floor effect could account for the lack of an age difference reported in an earlier study. A floor effect does not appear to be a key factor; the absolute amount of performance decrement was roughly equal for the two ages here regardless of task difficulty, and performance was well above chance under all conditions. The children adapted somewhat to the presence of distraction as shown in greater performance impairment for the first trial under distraction than for remaining trials. Use of a proportional, rather than an absolute, decrement index was considered, and the relevance of the present data to this issue was discussed.     

A dual scaling analysis for paired compositions

A paired composition is a response (upon a dependent variable) to the ordered pair <j, k> of stimuli, treatments, etc. The present paper develops an alternative analysis for the paired compositions layout previously treated by Bechtel's [1967] scaling model. The alternative model relaxes the previous one by including row and column scales that provide an expression of bias foreach pair of objects. The parameter estimation and hypothesis testing procedures for this model are illustrated by means of a small group analysis, which represents a new approach to pairwise sociometrics and personality assessment.This study was supported by Grant Nos. MH 12972, MH 10822, and MH 15506 from the National Institute of Mental Health, U. S. Public Health Service. Computing assistance was obtained from the Health Sciences Computing Facility, UCLA, sponsored by N.I.H. special research resources Grant RR-3.The motivation of this effort has been enhanced by Gerald Patterson and his associates, who have kindly provided the illustrative data at the end of the paper. The author would also like to express his appreciation to Wei-Ching Chang of the Oregon Research Institute and the University of Oregon for his substantive contributions to the paper, and to William Chaplin and Mark Layman of the Oregon Research Institute for the programming of the data analytic method. FORTRAN IV program listings for this analysis are available upon request to the author.     

BELIEFS ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT FOR CHILDREN

A 24-item scale was developed to measure Beliefs about the Consequences of Maternal Employment for Children (BACMEC), including beliefs about both benefits (13 items) and costs (11 items). Studies of five samples ( n = 375) demonstrate that the total BACMEC scale and its subscales are highly reliable and have good convergent, divergent, and con-current validity. Scores on the Costs Subscale predicted greater sex-role traditionalism, women's employment status (not employed), and an older age of child at which mother's employment was deemed acceptable. Benefits scores predicted women's employment status (employed) and work hours (longer), younger age of child when maternal work is accept-able, and greater support for policies to aid working parents. The scales were not susceptible to a social desirability bias. Suggestions are provided for the use of the BACMEC scale in future research concerning employment and families.