Interaction of stimulus dimensions in concept and choice processes

Four major types of interaction of stimulus dimensions based on perceptual research are described: integral, configural, separable, and asymmetric separable. Implications of these interactions for concept and choice processes are discussed. With regard to concept learning, it is argued that integral or configural interactions are desirable within the set of relevant and within the set of irrelevant dimensions used to generate stimuli, but that relevant dimensions should be separable from irrelevant dimensions. With regard to choice processes, integral or configural dimensions produce choices based on ordinary distance relations or equivalent parallel processing of dimensions. With separable dimensions, however, serial processing is at least possible; and such processing can lead to choices in which the subset of stimuli and the order of processing of dimensions affects the choice outcomes.     

Effects of uncertainty,delay, and focus of attention on reactions to an aversive situation

The hypotheses of informational cognitive control, based on the idea that being able to predict the occurrence of an unpleasant event facilitates a reduction of its impact, has not received clear support in previous research. The present experiment investigated the effects of three variables on subjective reactions to mild electric shock: (1) temporal uncertainty about when the shocks would occur, (2) the period of delay before the shock, and (3) attention to either the sensory properties of the shocks or emotional reactions to them. The results showed that low temporal uncertainty and short periods of delay led to reduced anxiety during the period preceding the shock but did not reduce the reported intensity of the shocks themselves. Higher ratings of both shock intensity and distress were obtained when the focus of attention was on the sensory properties of the stimuli rather than on the affective reactions to them. It was concluded that (i) the attentional focus of the subject is an important determinant of rated stimulus effects, and (ii) prediction, though it may reduce prestimulus anxiety, has no real effect on the impact of the stimulus itself.     

Developmental changes in the lag effect: An encoding hypothesis for repeated word recall

A differential encoding hypothesis for the lag effect in free recall was tested developmentally. Fourth- and eighth-grade children and college adults were shown a list of words, with some repeated at various lag intervals. Lag functions in repeated word recall were found to vary with age. An encoding hypothesis, modified to provide specificity for the time at which differential encoding takes place, was used to account for the results. Finally, it was suggested that the lag paradigm could be utilized to assess developmental differences in processing strategies, as perhaps a more sensitive, and general, alternative to the overt rehearsal technique.     

Density,perceived choice,and response to controllable and uncontrollable outcomes

Two experiments were designed to consider the effects of chronic high residential density on responses to choice and controllable and uncontrollable outcomes. In the first study, children responded to obtain candy as reinforcement and, during certain phases of the procedure, were able to select a schedule, if they chose, which allowed them to pick their own candy rather than having the experimenter select candy for them. Children who lived in high residential density were significantly less likely than children from less dense homes to try to control the administration of available outcomes. In the second study, children were preexposed to a solvable or unsolvable cognitive learning task and tested for how well they subsequently learned a solvable problem. Children from high density homes did significantly more poorly than less crowded children when the first problem was unsolvable. It was suggested that chronic density limits prediction and control in the home environment and consequently leads to the development of decreased expectancies for contingency between response and outcome in other control-relevant situations.     

Effects on retroactive of the learned strength of interpolated material

Twelve moderately retarded children were trained on 2-choice visual discrimination problems with interpolation of another item between training and retention tests. The retroactively interfering property of the interpolated items was reduced as it became well-learned. The effect was interpreted to mean that well-learned items are rehearsed less. The results were found to be consistent with predictions from theory.     

Affective state and preference for immediate versus delayed reward

Fifty-two 9-year-olds were randomly assigned to success and failure treatment conditions involving acceptance or rejection of a drawing made for an art show. In a pilot study, this treatment was shown to influence significantly subjects' affective states. Just after treatment, subjects were presented with choices between pairs of small immediate and large delayed rewards. As predicted, subjects who had experienced success chose more often the large delayed reward than those who failed (p < .02). Prior expectancy for success and sex were not significantly related to choice behavior. The influence of affective state on various parameters of the choice paradigm was discussed, and other evidence was cited indicating that affective state is a major determinant of self-gratification behavior.     

Natural, unnatural, and supernatural concepts

Five experiments investigating information-processing consequences of concept naturalness and unnaturalness are reported. In particular, an attempt is made to examine the separate and joint effects of simplicity and entrenchment upon reasoning with natural and unnatural concepts. The experiments employed four variants of a concept-selection task in which subjects characterized the state of an object at some future time on the basis of information about the object at that time and at some earlier time. In all five experiments, both simplicity and entrenchment affected ease of information processing. The last two experiments showed that the effect of simplicity was greater than that of entrenchment. An informationprocessing model of task performance provided a very good account of the latency and error data. Scores from the concept-selection task correlated with scores from a set of psychometric inductive-reasoning tests; indeed, the correlations were higher than those usually found between cognitive task performance and psychometrically measured intelligence. Processing of nonentrenched concepts may provide a useful means for studying the nature of intelligent performance.     

A typology of mid-life career changers

This study examines the motivations for and the outcomes of mid-life career change among a sample of 73 men who had left professional and managerial careers between the ages of 34 and 54. Measures of personal desire for change and external pressure to leave were dichotomized to produce a typology of career changers: Drift-outs, Opt-outs, Force-outs, and Bow-outs. The four types of changers were found to differ on a number of variables, including: amount of education completed, additional schooling undertaken to change careers, time taken to make the change, radicalness of change, and the importance of personal values in deciding to leave their former careers. Overall, respondents were found to be highly satisfied with their career redirection.     

Cognition in music

A cognitive/constructive view of music is put forth that diverges from traditional conceptions of music (e.g., music as sound; music as behavior; music as communication). The present view attempts to be compatible with the evidence of historic style changes that have occurred in the notated repertory of Western music. Two levels of cognitive processing are proposed: processes on the level of particular styles (germane to a certain period, culture, or community) and processes that are generic, universal, or cross-stylistic. Twelve such generic processes are described in detail. Several problems in the research stemming from earlier definitions of music are explored. In particular, attention is given to the artifacts of theoretical analysis (e.g., scales, chords, and discrete pitches) and their influence on music-psychological research.