Emotional stimulation, defensive orientation, and hemispheric activation

Lateral eye movements (LEM) were measured for 32 right-handed subjects while responding to questions rated for verbal and visual-spatial cognitive content and for varying levels of emotionally stimulating content. The results indicated that eye movements were distributed to the right and left in response to verbal and spatial items, respectively, and that emotional content enhanced leftward responding. In addition, the defensive style of subjects, as measured by a defense mechanism inventory, interacted with the cognitive and affective dimensions of questions and was a determinant of LEM.     

Effects of a brief stimulus accompanying reinforcement on instrumental responding in pigeons

The responding of pigeons on a variable interval schedule of reinforcement was investigated in four experiments. In some conditions in each experiment reinforced keypecks were accompanied by a brief (0.5-sec) flash of the houselight. This procedure resulted in a low rate of response in comparison with that found in conditions when response-contingent light flashes occurred uncorrelated with reinforcement (Experiments 1 and 2) or when no light flash was presented (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 allowed a comparison between the effects of a signal accompanying the reinforced response and one accompanying the delivery of “free” food. Signaling the delivery of earned food produced a lower rate of response than did signaling the delivery of free food. The role of stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer associations in producing these effects is discussed.     

Self-directed career exploration: A comparison of CHOICES and the Self-Directed Search

This study compared student satisfaction ratings for CHOICES, an interactive computer-based career guidance program, and the Self-Directed Search,a pencil-and-paper career planning guide. During the first testing session, subjects (N = 75) completed a biographical data sheet and were alternately assigned to either the CHOICES or the SDS treatment. Later, each subject completed the other treatment and two research instruments designed to assess their reactions to both treatments. Results indicated a user preference for CHOICES over the SDS, although both programs received positive ratings. The findings were discussed in terms of user reactions to career guidance programs and the selection of the most cost-effective treatment.     

Career maturity aspects of the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey

The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (1979) (KOIS) is used in counseling services as an aid in career counseling, but the KOIS does not have a measure of career maturity. The purpose of this study was to determine if selected scores from the KOIS could be indicative of client career maturity. The data for each subject included three scores from the KOIS and one measure of career maturity. The three scores from the KOIS included the highest Occupation score, the highest College Major score, and either the Father score for male subjects or the Mother score for female subjects. Career maturity was assessed with the Career Maturity Inventory Attitude Scale (1973) (CMI). The three scores from the KOIS were correlated with the score from the CMI to determine the relationship between the KOIS and career maturity. t tests were used to test for significant differences between men and women on the four measures. Significant correlations were found between the KOIS scores and career maturity, supporting the statements in the KOIS manual regarding the relationship between high KOIS scores and maturity. There was no significant difference between females and males on the CMI, Occupation, or College Major scores, but females scored significantly higher on the Mother scale than males did on the Father scale. Implications for career counseling were discussed.     

Information availability,goodness of outcome,and attributions of causality

H. H. Kelley's (American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 107–128) framework for studying attribution processes is introduced as a means of accounting for characteristic asymmetries in success/failure attributions. It is argued that while success/failure asymmetries should occur in the presence of single-observation information, asymmetries should be eliminated when individuals are allowed to observe the covariation between their own actions and outcomes. Subjects participated in a 15-trial stock market simulation in which type of information (single-observation or covariation) and goodness of outcome (relative success or failure) were manipulated. The obtained results supported the experimental hypotheses. Given single-observation information, subjects were more likely to accept personal responsibility for good than for poor outcomes. However, subjects' attributions were not affected by goodness of outcome when they were provided with covariation information. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the current debate between motivational and information-processing explanations of asymmetries in success/failure attributions.     

Attribution bias: On the inconclusiveness of the cognition-motivation debate

Social psychologists have given considerable theoretical and research attention to whether motivational variables bias the attributions people make for behavior. Some theorists maintain that motivational constructs must be invoked to explain certain attributional phenomena; other theorists maintain that information-processing variables can adequately explain these phenomena. The present article critically examines existing cognitive and motivational approaches to attribution and analyzes the assumptions underlying the cognition-motivation debate. We argue that cognitive and motivational theories are currently empirically indistinguishable. In particular, its is possible to construct information-processing explanations for virtually all evidence for motivated bias. We conclude by examining the implications of this indeterminacy of cognitive and motivational explanations. Future research in the area can most profitably be addressed to improving the specificity of cognitive and motivational theories rather than to resolving the between-theory confrontation.     

The bias of an estimate of coupled slack in stochastic PERT networks

An earlier paper presented a method for using response times to construct a PERT network representing the mental activities in a task. A key role in this method is played by parameters called coupled slacks. The magnitudes of the coupled slacks are used to test the validity of a PERT model and to deduce aspects of the structure of the network. In a stochastic PERT network, the usual estimate of coupled slack based on the mean completion times can be biased. Distribution-free upper and lower bounds are derived for the bias, and it is shown that the bias approaches zero as the probability of relatively long prolongations increases. It is also shown that the expected value of the estimate of coupled slack between two activities is negative only if the two activities are in a Wheatstone bridge. Finally, an estimate of the increase in completion time due to prolonging an activity, given that the prolongation did in fact increase the completion time, is derived.