Attitudinal Consequences of the Preemployment Polygraph Examination1

An important factor concerning the use of the polygraph in employment settings has been overlooked: How does the polygraph experience affect a new employee's work-related attitudes? In two experiments, subjects were exposed to different hiring scenarios-one included a polygraph examination, the other did not—and then responded to a questionnaire of work-related attitudes. Results indicated that preemployment polygraph examinations may induce negative work-related attitudes. These findings suggest that the polygraph experience acts as a symbolic communication from the employer to the prospective employee, imparting information that may induce feelings of distrust and dislike. Moreover, the polygraph experience may be interpreted by prospective employees as evidence of high levels of employee theft, thus establishing a new (higher) norm of peer theft behavior.     

Orientation effects on contour interaction in the Zöllner illusion

The magnitude of the Zöllner illusion was measured as a joint function of the angle of intersection between inducing and test contours and the orientation of the complete display. The intersect angle at which judgmental error was maximal varied as the display was rotated from 0 to 90 deg. An explanation of the Zöllner illusion in terms of selective adaptation of neural orientation specific detectors accounts for the interactive effects of display orientation and intersect angle if it is assumed that different orientation detectors have different tuning characteristics.     

Word frequency and age of acquisition as determiners of picture-naming latency

In multiple-regression analysis of picture-naming latencies from an experiment modelled on Oldfield and Wingfield's (1965), with 94 stimuli and 37 adult subjects, two word frequency measures had insignificant beta weights, while two measures estimating age at which the word was learned had highly significant weights. Objects whose names were learned early were named faster. This result may have important implications for the interpretation of studies using word frequency as a critical variable. It is suggested that word retrieval may be a one-stage process that depends upon the age at which a word was learned.     

Spatial-frequency specificity in visual masking

Visual masking between nonoverlapping gratings depends on the similarity of their spatial frequencies. In a metacontrast experiment, bar gratings of 6 and 12 cycles/deg were masked by flanking gratings of various spatial frequencies. For three observers, masking was greatest when the masking frequency was approximately equal to the masked frequency. The results are interpreted in terms of a theory of reciprocal inhibition among frequency-specific neural units.     

Seeing with the skin

A system for converting an optical image into a tactile display has been evaluated to see what promise it has as a visual substitution system. After surprisingly little training, Ss are able to recognize common objects and to describe their arrangement in three-dimensional space. When given control of the sensing and imaging device, a television camera, Ss quickly achieve external subjective localization of the percepts. Limitations of the system thus far appear to be more a function of display resolution than limitations of the skin as a receptor surface. The acquisition of skill with the device has been remarkably similar for blind and sighted Ss.     

Risk taking as a predictor of adolescent sexual activity and use of contraception

A hypothesis of high-risk behaviors associated with adolescent sexual activity and lack of contraceptive use was tested in a longitudinal random sample of both male and female youths. The data were part of the Rutgers Health and Human Development Project. 1380 subjects were ascertained by random telephone calling were given self-report questionnaires and personality profiles including the Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale, and Jackson's Personality Research Form in 1979 and 1981. Incidence of sexual activity and use of contraceptives increased with age from age 12-21. Cohort effects were apparent with use of some contraceptive methods. Of the variables indicating risk- taking, disinhibition, impulsivity and experience seeking, there were significant associations between sexual activity and disinhibition and experience seeking, for females. There were no significant associations between these variables and sexual activity in males. Contrary to the hypothesis, there were no relationships between either consistency of birth control use or reliability of the method used and behavioral indicators of risk-taking. Thus this 1st study in the field that included both males and females from the general population, as opposed to college students, found that sexually active adolescents were higher risk-takers than virgins, but no relationship between risk-taking and effectiveness of contraception was observed.