Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness

According to the logic of the attribution reformulation of learned helplessness, the interaction of two factors influences whether helplessness experienced in one situation will transfer to a new situation. The model predicts that people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to global factors will show helplessness deficits in new situations that are either similar or dissimilar to the original situation in which they were helpless. In contrast, people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to only specific factors will show helplessness deficits in situations that are similar, but not dissimilar, to the original situation in which they were helpless. To test these predictions, we conducted two studies in which undergraduates with either a global or specific attributional style for negative outcomes were given one of three pretreatments in the typical helplessness triadic design: controllable bursts of noise, uncontrollable bursts of noise, or no noise. In Experiment 1, students were tested for helplessness deficits in a test situation similar to the pretreatment setting, whereas in Experiment 2, they were tested in a test situation dissimilar to the pretreatment setting. The findings were consistent with predictions of the reformulated helplessness theory.     

On the nature of the probe reaction-time task to uncover the attentional demands of movement

McLeod (1980) reported some findings which showed that no phase of a movement was more attention-demanding than the other phases, contrary to all the results previously reported (e.g., Ells, 1973; Glencross, 1980). However, McLeod used a paradigm in which the two tasks were serial. Each task consisted of a series of 50 reaction time (RT) trials and/or 50 aiming movement trials. In addition to this, the interval of time between a response and the following signal within each series was constant. In order to try to replicated McLeod's findings, two experiments were conducted in which the response-signal interval was manipulated. The hypothesis was that time certainty associated with a constant interval would facilitate the allocation of time and would thus artificially reduce the interference between tasks. In Experiment 1, manual responses were used for the RT task; in Experiment II, they were vocal. Manipulation of the response-signal interval does not change one of the conclusions reached by McLeod: when the RT task involves vocal responses and the results on the RT task are analyzed in terms of response rather than stimulus arrival during the movement, then there is no phase of the movement which is more attention-demanding than the other phases. However, the results of Experiment II in which both the vocal RT task and the movement task significantly deteriorated in the dual-task condition were taken as an indication that the movement studied involved central attentional demands.     

Maternal interactive behaviour towards children with and children without cleft lip and palate

The present study examined qualitative and quantitative differences in maternal interactive behaviour towards infants with and without cleft lip and palate (CLP). Thirty-three mother-child pairs with CLP and 34 pairs without CLP were videotaped at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age in two sorts of play situations at home. In addition, the mothers were questioned by letter about their ability to recognize and interpret the child's signals; their willingness to respond to such signals; and the duration of shared daily activities in the context of feeding and play. The results showed that mothers of CLP children are somewhat less sensitive than other mothers. In addition, it appeared that CLP children play less with other people. Longer feeding times for CLP children appeared to be restricted to the age of 3 months. It is suggested that mothers of CLP children may be comparatively directive and stimulating because of uncertainty about additional deficiencies. Furthermore, they may be inclined to keep their children away from the outside world.     

Counting knowledge and skill in cognitive addition: a comparison of normal and mathematically disabled children.

The relationship between counting knowledge and computational skills (i.e., skill at counting to solve addition problems) was assessed for groups of first-grade normal and mathematically disabled (MD) children. Twenty-four normal and 13 MD children were administered a series of counting tasks and solved 40 computer-administered addition problems. For the addition task, problem-solving strategies were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis. Performance on the counting tasks suggested that the MD children were developmentally delayed in the understanding of essential and unessential features of counting and were relatively unskilled in the detection of certain forms of counting error. On the addition task, the MD children committed many more computational errors and tended to use developmentally immature counting procedures. The immature counting knowledge of the MD children, combined with their relatively poor skills at detecting counting errors, appeared to underlie their poor computational skills on the addition task. Suggestions for future research are presented.     

New measures for assessing alcohol and drug abuse with the MMPI-2: The APS and AAS.

We introduce two new scales for assessing substance abuse problems with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2): the Addiction Potential Scale (APS), a 39-item empirically derived scale, developed by contrasting the responses of a large residential substance abuse sample with responses from both normative and psychiatric control groups; and the Addiction Acknowledgement Scale (AAS), a 13-item face-valid scale, constructed rationally and with attention to internal consistency. Both new scales are shown to discriminate well between groups and substantially better than other selected substance abuse scales. Covariation between the scales and joint effectiveness are examined. Finally, limitations for their practical utility are expressed, and considerations for future research are identified.     

Visual scanning with or without spatial uncertainty and divided and selective attention.

An experiment was conducted to address the relation between theories of selective attention and theories of divided attention by examining the pattern of task interference between visual scanning as a sequential and selective attention process and other concurrent spatial or verbal processing tasks. A distinction is proposed between visual scanning with or without spatial uncertainty regarding their possible differential effects on interference with other concurrent processes. The experiment required the subjects to perform a primary tracking task, which was concurrently performed with a secondary spatial or verbal decision task. The relevant information that was needed to perform the decision tasks was displayed with or without spatial uncertainty. The results provide evidence that visual scanning as a spatial exploratory activity produces greater task interference with concurrent spatial tasks than with verbal tasks. Furthermore, spatial uncertainty in scanning is identified to be the crucial factor in producing this differential effect.     

Anxiety and color saturation preference.

The relationship between personality characteristics and color preference was investigated. Of 49 women and 17 men, 30 individuals scoring above the mean on an anxiety scale preferred significantly less saturated colors than 36 individuals scoring below the mean.     

Role of the inertia tensor in perceiving object orientation by dynamic touch.

Ss wielded an occluded L-shaped rod and attempted to perceive the direction in which the rod was pointing with respect to the hand. The pattern of the rod's different resistances to rotation in different directions, quantified by the inertia tensor, changes systematically with the rod's orientation. Perception of orientation by wielding is possible if the tissue deformation consequences of the rod's inertia tensor are detectable. It was shown that perceived orientation was a linear function of actual orientation for both free and restricted wielding and for rods of different-size branches. The eigenvectors of the inertia tensor were implicated as the basis for this haptic perceptual capability. Results were discussed in reference to information-perception specificity and its implications for effortful or dynamic touch.     

The role of psychosocial context, age, and intelligence in memory performance of older men.

The hypothesis that psychosocial contextual factors contribute to developmental changes in memory was examined using 326 male World War II veterans. Availability of young adult intelligence scores made it possible to separate the contributions of contextual variables and age to maintenance of general intelligence from their direct contributions to performance on 4 memory tasks. Being younger, healthier, more educated, more introverted, more intellectually active, and more satisfied with social support predicted less intellectual decline and, indirectly, better memory performance. Age, personality, locus of control, and extent of social support directly contributed to performance on 1 or more memory tasks. Age contributions were consistent with Craik's (1986) proposed continuum of task demands for self-initiated effort. Possible elaborations of Craik's hypothesis to accommodate contextual variables are suggested.     

Decelerative cardiac responsiveness to acoustical stimulation in the near term fetus.

Human fetal cardiac responses (36-39 weeks gestational age) to brief, repeated vocal stimuli (male or female voice uttering the same sentence), given at 90-95 dB SPL ex utero (around 20-30 dB less in utero) during a state of low fetal heart rate (FHR) variability, were examined using highly conservative statistical criteria taking into account each subject's prestimulus FHR variability. Subjects exposed to either of the two stimuli displayed significantly more decelerative heart rate (HR) changes compared to control subjects receiving no stimulation. The decelerative changes started during the first seconds following the onset of stimulation and reached their amplitude peak within 10 or 20 sec, depending on the subject. The direction--HR acceleration or deceleration--and the amplitude of the response depended on prestimulus HR variability only, not on prestimulus level. No major difference was found between the effects of the two voices. The data are compared to previous studies demonstrating fetal decelerative changes to acoustic stimuli of less than 105 dB SPL. The choice of an objective criterion to define an HR response and the possible orienting response nature of the decelerative change are discussed.