The effect of deprivation level during noncontingent pairings and instrumental learning on subsequent instrumental performance

In Experiment 1, rats received either response-noncontingent pairings of a tone stimulus with food or response-contingent instrumental training during which only responses in the presence of the tone were reinforced. During this training rats were maintained at either 70 or 90% of their growth-adjusted predeprivation body weights. In a subsequent test phase, one-half of the subjects in each training condition were tested under either 70 or 90% body weight. Subjects which had received response-contingent instrumental training under 70% body weight responded significantly faster to presentations of the tone than did 90% body weight-trained subjects, regardless of test deprivation condition. There was no effect of the deprivation level in effect during response-noncontingent pairings. In Experiment 2, rats received noncontingent tone-reward pairings or nonpairings under either 70 or 90% body weight. In a later test phase under 90% body weight, instrumental responding to the tone was significantly faster for subjects which had received the tone-reward pairings. Deprivation level during the pairings again produced no effect. These results support two conclusions. First, the expectancy learning process appears to be relatively independent of deprivation conditions in effect when such learning takes place; and secondly, deprivation conditions in effect during instrumental learning affect the strength of S-R associative bonds formed.     

Competence and processing in children's grammar of relative clauses

We report two toy-manipulation experiments investigating 4–5-year-old children's interpretations of relative clauses. In the first experiment we show that the frequency with which relatives modifying the matrix direct object are interpreted as referring to the matrix subject is sensitive to the nature of the material in the relative. Animacy of the relative direct object leads to an increase in subject coreference errors for relatives; a similar effect of animacy was not found for infinitival complements. We propose that such errors arise when the child's sentence processor is taxed. In our second experiment we compare children's interpretations of relatives to their interpretations of temporal participial complements. Children eschewed coreference between the complement and the object of a passive prepositional phrase in the case of temporal participials but not in the case of relatives. We interpret this result as evidence that children are capable of analyzing relatives as constituents of the NP node, and hence that this node is recursive in their grammars. We discuss the results of both experiments in the context of a two-stage parsing model, arguing that our data fit a picture of children's linguistic abilities in which the 4-year-old has a sophisticated competence grammar and a parsing mechanism of essentially the same structure as the adult's. We compare our approach to a number of other approaches to children's relative clause interpretations in the literature, arguing that these alternatives are too structure-specific and can lead to underestimations of the child's competence grammar. We conclude that our analysis is compatible with a picture of acquisition in which the child's competence grammar of relatives is not qualitatively different from the adult's.     

Learning the functional significance of mnemonic actions: A microgenetic study of strategy acquisition

How children learn to use memory strategies in a microgenetic investigation of learning and metacognition is examined. Seven- and eight-year-olds were given two memory trials with 24 pictures on each of 5 consecutive days. Days 1 and 2 were baseline, practice trials; Day 3 included strategy training; and Days 4 and 5 were unprompted tests of strategy maintenance. All children were taught how to label, rehearse, and group the pictures as well as to self-test their own memories and use blocked recall. Half of the children were shown the actions and told to do them; the other half received elaborated feedback on the usefulness and appropriateness of the techniques for remembering. The elaborated instructional group exhibited significantly greater recall, clustering, strategic study behavior, and metamemory regarding the mnemonic techniques than the other group. Path analysis provided evidence of a causal role of training and metacognitive awareness that mediated the use of sorting and higher recall. The study illustrates how learning the significance and utility of mnemonic techniques can influence children's acquisition of the tactics as self-controlled strategies. In addition, the microgenetic method affords patterns of data across time and experience that permit richer interpretations of strategy learning and memory development.     

Sentence comprehension by Broca's aphasics: Effects of some suprasegmental variables

Three subtests of comprehension (one of varying sentential stress, one of shifting juncture, and one of applying emphatic stress to functors) were administered to eight Broca's aphasics and eight controls to determine the effects of stress and juncture on disambiguation of these sentences. Data indicated that the aphasic group performed significantly worse than the normals on all three subtests of comprehension. In addition, there was a strong positive correlation between severity of aphasia and error scores for all three tests. Results are discussed in relation to intact-vs.-disordered comprehension.     

Ability factors and cognitive processes

Several measures of the speed of information processing were related to ability factors derived from the Cattell-Horn theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Ninety-one college students took a battery of paper and pencil tests designed to measure four ability factors: fluid intelligence (Gf), crystallized intelligence (Gc), spatial visualization (Gv), and clerical perceptual speed (CPS). They also performed paper and pencil and computerized versions of three information processing tasks: mental rotations, letter matching, and sentence verification. Correlations among the ability measures, among the information processing measures, and between the two domains were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. The four ability factors were found to be largely independent in this college population. Speed of letter-matching and sentence verification were highly correlated, but neither was related to speed of mental rotation. Mental rotation speed was strongly correlated with Gv; letter matching speed was correlated with CPS; and sentence verification speed was correlated with both Gc and CPS.     

Verbal contingent stimulation of stuttering in laboratory and home settings

The effect of verbal contingent stimulation for stuttering behaviors was examined during changes of stimulus delivery mode and experimental setting. In Experiment I, contingent stimuli were delivered in the laboratory setting with the experimenter and subject in a face-to-face arrangement versus presentations by the experimenter from a control room via a headset arrangement. In Experiment II, contingent stimulation of stuttering was examined in the laboratory and home setting. Findings revealed that stuttering frequency was reduced in all conditions of both experiments. However, the only significant reductions occurred under the headset delivery conditions in the laboratory setting.     

The fit between Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory General Occupational Themes and Holland's hexagonal model

Using a multidimensional scaling procedure, the present study examined the fit of Holland's RIASEC hexagon model to the internal relationships among the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) General Occupational Theme scales. SCII intercorrelation matrices for both sexes as reported in the SCII Manual were submitted, separately for each sex, to TORSCA 9 nonmetric scaling analysis. The Wakefield and Doughtie procedure was used to compare obtained TORSCA coordinates with expectations from Holland's hexagonal model. As a comparison, identical analyses were performed on Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) scale intercorrelation matrices, these data having originally served as the basis for advancing the utility of the hexagon model. For females, the SCII-hexagon fit was not good, with a near reversal of the Social and Enterprising scales. For males, the SCII-hexagon fit was good. For either SCII or VPI scales, the female data met expectations from Holland's model less often than the male data. A replication study on SCII data for 305 female clients of a vocational assessment clinic confirmed the previously observed sex differences. Sex differences in the structure of vocational preferences are discussed.     

The influence of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of college students

The effects of a career group experience on the vocational maturity of theoretically grouped college freshmen and sophomores were investigated using Super's Career Development Inventory as the dependent measure. The dimensions of consistency/inconsistency and differentiation/nondifferentiation, as identified utilizing Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, were investigated along with the dimensions of treatment/nontreatment and interaction effects. Predictions related to change in vocational maturity as a result of treatment were made for each dimension. The analysis sample was a group of 68 volunteer freshman and sophomore college students. Results indicated that students did significantly increase their vocational maturity as a result of the group experience. Furthermore, it was found, as predicted, that within experimental groups inconsistent and nondifferentiated students improved significantly more on some vocational maturity measures than consistent or differentiated students. Students who were both inconsistent and nondifferentiated showed consistently greater increases on virtually all vocational maturity measures than all other theoretical groups.