Threats and promises: Reputational consequences and transfer of credibility

This study was designed to investigate the reputational consequences of making threats and promises and how they affect subsequent credibility. Eighty-eight high school girls were given predetermined information about the past behavior of their pairmates prior to receiving influence attempts from them. Each first learned that her pairmate had (1) threatened or promised in the past and then learned whether she had (2) fulfilled or failed to fulfill her threat or promise. The subject herself then received a threat or promise from her pairmate. As anticipated, threateners were viewed less favorably than promisers. These impressions were maintained when it was learned that commitments had been fulfilled, but altered decidedly when it was learned that they had not. Credibility or lack of it was found to generalize from threats to promises and from promises to threats only under some conditions. It was concluded that the fit between existing impressions and proclaimed future activity, not a person's record for past reliability, is often the critical determinant of whether or not she is judged to be credible.     

Aversive CSs suppress lever pressing for food but not the eating of free food

Forty rats received CER acquisition, half “on the baseline” (response lever present), half “off the baseline.” During initial CER extinction, Ss received: (a) normal CER extinction (lever available), (b) free food during CSs only (no lever), (c) free food during non-CSs only (no lever), or (d) free food during both CS and non-CS periods (no lever). While normal extinction Ss were highly suppressed in the presence of the CS, all free food groups readily ate but did not differ in eating latencies. On subsequent CER extinction trials on the baseline, those Ss which received free food during the CSs were no less suppressed than other Ss. These data offer no support for Estes' (1969) reciprocal inhibition explanation of CER and punishment, nor do they support a fear interpretation of CER.     

Stimulus probability and prediction outcome as determinants of choice reaction time: Some procedural considerations

Effects of stimulus probability and prediction outcome on two-choice reaction speed (CRS) were determined when a frequency imbalance was reversed half-way through 300 samples of a 70/30 stimulus distribution and when the same 70/30 distribution was sampled for 1200 trials. Prior to each presentation Ss made a prediction; following each presentation Ss identified the stimulus by pressing a right-hand or left-hand trigger. CRS was faster to correctly predicted stimuli, and faster to the more probable stimulus. Ss who were informed of the frequency imbalance reacted significantly faster than Ss who were not. Both practice and boredom effects were demonstrated by using the extended number of trials. CRS was faster during the second session of 300 trials than during the first; after two sessions, CRS was slower during the second half of two additional sessions.     

The effects of classification structure on organized free recall in children

A sorting presentation procedure was used to study the effects of three classification schemes (self-generated, thematic, or taxonomic) on the organized free recall of second and fifth graders. Recall and clustering were significantly higher for subjects who used self-generated organizations than for subjects given the experimenter-prescribed taxonomic classification. The results indicated that memory performance benefitted when the organization of stimulus materials was consonant with children's personal classification structures.     

The effect of frustrative nonreward on the attractiveness of the omitted reward

Two experiments were performed to test the hypothesis that omission of a previously received reward is followed by greater motivation to obtain that specific reward, as compared with the case where the reward had been present. In Experiment 1, experimental rats regularly received food rewards (R_a) at one goal, followed by a choice between food and milk (R_b). Control animals received the same choice without food preceding it. Reward magnitudes were manipulated so as to produce a preference for R_b, and additional forced trials were given each day to equalise experience of the two rewards. In the test phase both groups received trials with R_a present (R) or absent (N) at the first goal. The experimental Ss shifted their choice towards R_a on N trials; the controls did not behave differently after R and N. Experiment 2 was similar, except that R_a was milk and R_b food. The same effect of N on experimental animals was obtained. It is argued that the results are relevant to the double-runway ‘frustration effect’, and cannot be explained by existing theories of frustration.     

The effects of aversive conditioned stimuli on the timing of unsignalled avoidance responding in rats

Rats received unsignalled avoidance training in a shuttlebox. After acquisition, classical conditioning sessions were administered. The Excitatory Group received signals paired with shock, the Inhibitory Group received signals explicitly unpaired with shock, while the Random Control Group received signals and shocks randomly in time. When subsequently superimposed on the avoidance baseline, the excitatory signal increased response rate, the inhibitory signal decreased rate and the random signal had no effect compared to signal-only control data. Unsignalled avoidance generates temporal gradients of responding; the major purpose of this study was to determine how these rate changes were reflected in the baseline temporal behavior. Very clear and simple summation rules emerged: In the presence of the excitatory signal, rats acted as if they were ahead of their actual location in the response-shock interval regardless of where the signal occurred; the inhibitory signal had the opposite effect while the random signal did not change the temporal behavior relative to signal-only control data. These results were interpreted within a motivational framework.     

Parental antecedents of need for approval—A longitudinal study

The present study examined the antecedents of the two components of need for approval (the approach component and the avoidance component) on a longitudinal basis. The subjects were approximately 31 years old and were the children of the original mothers interviewed by Sears et al. (1957) 25 years earlier. For females, the approach component of need for approval was found to be positively related to the mothers' use of the withdrawal of the love and the avoidance component was negatively related to mothers' encouragement of their daughters to fight back (reinforcement of cross-gender behavior). No significant results were found for males. It was suggested that use of withdrawal of love enhances fear of rejection and increases the girl's need for approval. It was further argued that reinforcement of cross-gender behavior teaches the girl to behave according to her own interests rather than according to others' expectations. Possible explanations are offered as to why no significant results were found for males.     

CT scan and neuropsychological correlates of Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease

"Cortical" and "subcortical" dementia syndromes differ in areas of primary neuropathology and clinical characteristics. Conventional CT scan interpretation, visual inspection of pictures, has not been useful in studying dementia. Recent studies of the digitally stored CT attenuation values have found systematic variations with normal aging and aphasia subtypes. In this study of numerical CT scan information in four Alzheimer's Disease and two Huntington's Disease patients, a double dissociation of frontal and temporal lobe density values was found, and a significant correlation was found between left temporal lobe density and verbal ability measures in the Alzheimer's Disease patients.