Mental rotation: effects of dimensionality of objects and type of task

The original studies of mental rotation estimated rates of imagining rotations that were much slower when two simultaneously portrayed three-dimensional shapes were to be compared (R. Shepard & J. Metzler) than when one two-dimensional shape was to be compared with a previously learned two-dimensional shape (Cooper and her associates). In a 2 X 2 design, we orthogonally varied dimensionality of objects and type of task. Both factors affected reaction times. Type of task was the primary determiner of estimated rate of mental rotation, which was about three times higher for the single-stimulus task. Dimensionality primarily affected an additive component of all reaction times, suggesting that more initial encoding is required for three-dimensional shapes. In the absence of a satisfactory way of controlling stimulus complexity, the results are at least consistent with the proposal that once three-dimensional objects have been encoded, their rotation can be imagined as rapidly as the rotation of two-dimensional shapes.     

Sex role orientations of male and female collegiate athletes from selected individual and team sports

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the sex role orientations of male and female collegiate athletes were more similar in team sports than in individual sports. It was predicted that females in masculine-oriented team sports (basketball and volleyball) would exhibit sex role orientations more similar to those of their male counterparts than would females in individual sports (track/field and swimming). To test this notion the S. L. Bem (The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1974, 42, 155–167) Sex Role Inventory was administered to 381 athletes from 37 National Collegiate Athletic Association institutions. The median-split procedure (S. L. Bem, On the Utility of Alternative Procedures for Assessing Psychology Androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1977, 45, 196–205) was used to classify subjects as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. Separate Gender × Sex Role Orientation chi square tests were performed on the frequency data of team and individual sport athletes. The results indicated no significant differences in the sex role orientations of male and female team sport performers, with the greatest proportion (66%) having a masculine (33%) or androgynous (33%) orientation. For individual sports there was a significant difference in the sex role orientations of males and females. The highest proportion of females were classified as feminine (37%) and the lowest proportion were classified as masculine (11%). Individual sport males were somewhat evenly distributed among the four sex role orientation categories, with the highest proportion classified as undifferentiated (36%). It was concluded that sex role orientation of elite female athletes may be associated with the male appropriateness of the sport in which they participate.     

Perceptual organization of acoustic stimuli by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus): III. Contact calls

We trained budgerigars by operant conditioning to discriminate among a set of contact calls in a same-different task and analyzed response latencies from this task by using multidimensional-scaling (MDS) and cluster-analysis procedures. Humans listened to the same calls and indicated the similarity between pairs of calls by a direct rating procedure. An MDS program (sindscal) was used to arrange these complex acoustic stimuli in multidimensional space reflecting perceptual organization. Multiple regression techniques were used to identify the acoustic characteristics of contact calls that were correlated with the perceptual dimensions obtained from MDS. A number of spectral characteristics (e.g., peak frequency, rate of frequency modulation, and concentration of spectral energy) emerged as important for both budgerigars and humans, but the relative salience of these cues differed for the two species. Additional tests with two groups of budgerigars--cagemates and noncagemates--showed that experience with calls can change the salience of various acoustic characteristics used for perceptual organization and individual recognition.     

Expert knowledge as mnemonic cues

It is proposed that expert knowledge can operate as a cognitive cueing structure for the acquisition and retention of new information in memory. Two experiments are reported which demonstrate that expert knowledge about football and clothing can act as mnemonic cues for the recall of information newly associated with that knowledge. In Experiment 1 expert terms from the domains of football and clothing and those neutral nouns paired with them were both better recalled by experts than by non-experts. In Experiment 2 passages containing information contrary to factual knowledge about football and clothing were recalled better by experts than by non-experts, in spite of the fact that information in the passages contradicted what the experts already knew. The results of the two experiments were interpreted as showing that expert knowledge provides mental cues that have desirable mnemonic properties such as constructibility, associability, discriminability and invertibility. Also, the interpretation of expert knowledge as a cognitive cueing structure is compared to Ausubel's ideas regarding advance organizers.     

Counselor Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure in the counseling-therapy relationship has been an important area of research and study, with considerable emphasis placed on counselor self-disclosure. This study was initiated to explore further the phenomenon of counselor-therapist disclosure through direct assessment of potential clients' desires for disclosure and through development of a measure of counselor disclosure. Implications for counselor disclosure and for the counselor-client therapy relationship are discussed.     

A survey of psychologists employed in business and industry

Responses to a questionnaire from 78 members of the Metropolitan New York Association for Applied Psychology provided the following results. A majority of respondents found their first jobs as applied psychologists through informal networking techniques such as personal recommendations or self-starter methods such as sending out resumes. Over 75% of the respondents rated their graduate institutions as good or excellent. However, an increase in the applied focus of these programs was strongly urged, and opinions about graduate faculties were mixed. Obtaining applied work experience or relevant internships was the most often mentioned advice for seekers of similar positions.Appreciation is expressed to Harold Takooshian of Fordham University who first aroused our interests in this topic as an area for research and to Bruce Biskin of AICPA, Dennis Hawver and Tony Zinsser of the Hawver Group, Ted Grant and Michael Secunda of Manufacturers Hanover, and Tom Novak of Young & Rubicam for serving as pre-test subjects for the questionnaire of this study.     

Personal Versus Vocational Focus in Career Counseling: A Retrospective Outcome Study

In this archival study the authors sought to determine the relationship, if any, between counseling outcomes and the topical focus in career counseling. Twenty-two counselors saw 46 adult clients at a community-based clinic for an average of eight sessions. Counseling outcome and topical focus (the extent to which the actual content of counseling sessions reflected relatively more vocationally or personally focused topics) were assessed from follow-up questionnaires to former career clients and from trained raters' evaluations of the counselors' written progress notes. Results showed that, from the counselors' perspective, outcomes were better when the focus of the sessions was relatively more vocational than personal and when relatively more interviews were held. Client satisfaction, on the other hand, was predictable only from the counselor's level of experience. Satisfaction with occupational status was not associated with any of the client, counselor, or treatment factors. Discussion focuses on the contribution of the results to career counseling practice and on the feasibility and validity of retrospective, archival research.     

Norm-of-reaction: definition and misinterpretation of animal research

The development of a phenotype is due to an interaction of the genotype with the environment. Two terms have been used to describe the outcome of this interaction, the norm-of-reaction and the reaction range. The first represents the theoretically limitless distribution of the phenotypes that may be expressed by a given genotype. The reaction range implies an upper and lower limit for phenotype expression possible from a given genotype. A critical distinction between the reaction range and the norm-of-reaction is that the norm-of-reaction is a statement of the conceivable interactions found but does not imply any predictability other than that within the conditions previously tested experimentally, that is, the tails of a normal distribution are infinitely variable, whereas the concept of reaction range implies a limitation inherent in the genotype, that is, a finite range. Empirical support for the reaction-range concept is questionable. Animal studies cited in support of the reaction range have been inappropriately and incorrectly interpreted.