Implicit learning: An analysis of the form and structure of a body of tacit knowledge

Subjects learned implicitly the underlying structure of an artificial language by memorizing a set of representative exemplars from the language. The form and structure of their resulting knowledge of the language was evaluated and analyzed over a four day period by several procedures: (a) solving anagrams from the language, (b) determining the well-formedness of novel letter strings, and (c) providing detailed introspective reports. Several important implications about implicit acquisition of a novel complex system emerged. First, the memorial representation of a structured system is acquired through the dual operations of a differentiation-like process based upon relational invariances and a configurational process based upon overall structure. Second, the form of tacit knowledge is an abstract representation of the intrinsic structure of the stimulus field. Third, while the ability to make explicit what is known implicitly increases with performance levels, the conscious apprehension of structure always lags behind what is known unconsciously.     

The development of equivalence rules for visual configurations

The use of discrete and relational aspects of visual configurations in making similarity judgments was compared in 3-, 4-, 5-, and 8-year-old children and adults. The subjects were asked to match line drawings, which were similar in color, form, or spatial arrangement of the components, in a forced-choice task. There was a shift, with age, toward increased use of spatial arrangement as the basis for the equivalence judgment and toward greater consistency of choice. An analysis of patterns of response suggested the operation of underlying equivalence rules, which change with age from a limited form rule to more extensive rules, which incorporate a form rule as well as a spatial arrangement rule. We proposed a model of rule development that is hierarchical and involves the subordination of earlier rules to later emerging rules.     

A follow-up developmental study of hypothesis behavior among mentally retarded and nonretarded children

To clarify the roles of IQ and mental age (MA) in hypothesis behavior, MA-matched subjects at three levels of IQ (70, 100, and 130) and three levels of MA ($\text{5}\text{1}\text{2}\text{, 7}\text{1}\text{2}\text{,}\text{and}\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}\text{years}$) received blank-trial discrimination learning problems using procedures designed to discourage position-oriented responding. With position responding discouraged, earlier findings were contradicted in that no hypothesis measure showed a main effect of IQ. This suggest that previously reported IQ group differences in hypothesis behavior may not reflect cognitive deficits inherently linked to low IQ, but instead may reflect the influence of specific methodological factors. The finding and interpretation are consistent with Zigler's (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 536–556) “developmental” theory of retardation and inconsistent with the general “difference” position. In additional findings, the predictions that subjects at all three MA levels would use hypotheses, and that retarded children from special-education classes would use hypotheses more often than retarded children “mainstreamed” in classes for the nonretarded were confirmed.     

Achieving consistency: A Study of basketball officiating

This study investigates the characteristics of professional basketball referees which can account for their successful or unsuccessful performance on the court. Several role inactment skills such as achievement via independence contribute to the prediction of this performance. The main determinant identified, however, is at the group or organizational level. Superior referees have less interindividual variance than do average or relatively unsuccessful referees. This result is discussed in terms of the role requirements of performance in this case. Interpersonal consistency of judgment is relied on for matters permitting only consensual validity. Extensions of these findings to other role enactments are suggested.     

A comment on Koriat,Averill, and Malmstrom's “individual differences in habituation”

The paper considers the issues, raised by Koriat et al. (1973), of the consistency and reliability of measures of habituation currently used in personality research. It is argued that the problem of reliability is not as serious as Koriat et al. proposed and that specificity of measures of habituation is a theoretical rather than a methodological problem. It is proposed that ambiguity in the literature on the personality correlates of habituation is more likely to be due to the failure to consider the effects of stimulus conditions on habituation than to the problems of reliability and specificity.     

An analysis of two central stages underlying responding to personality items: The self-referent decision and response selection

A technique for isolating substages in a processing sequence (Sternberg, 1969) was used to examine two central stages in a postulated model of responding to personality items. The Self-Referent Decision (SRD) stage, where item content is compared to stored memory elements, and the Response Selection Stage, where the output of the SRD is mapped into available response alternatives, were analyzed to determine if they could be seen as separate stages. Results indicated that a modular model that viewed these two stages as being separate was supported. These results were also discussed in relation to existing models of item responding processes and the dichotomous/Likert response format issue.     

On the relationship between the psychological environment and the development of individual differences in abilities

Some previous attempts at dimensionalizing human psychological environments are briefly considered. The problem is reformulated within the context of the development of dimensions of individual differences in abilities. The human psychological environment is viewed within the context of general systems theory. The latter permits an integrated view with respect to dimensions of the psychological environment and dimensions of individual differences within a developmental context. Critical in this formulation is the idea that, within the framework of the development of individual differences, it is of value to postulate the dimensions of the psychological environment as isomorphic to dimensions of individual differences.