A multivariate comparison of the intellectual performance of black and white children matched on four demographic variables

This study investigated the performance of 285 matched pairs of Black and White children from the standardization sample on the 12 subtests and 3 IQ scales of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC-R). The children were matched on four demographic variables found in a previous (Reynolds and Gutkin, 1979) study to be significantly related to WISC-R performance: sex, socioeconomic status as determined by the occupation of the head of household, region of residence in the U.S. and urban vs rural residence. Multivariate analysis of variance comparing performance across race on the 15 dependent variables revealed that Whites exceeded Blacks on all tasks except Digit Span—a test of rote memory. Results were also related to the evaluation of the Spearman hypothesis.     

On putting apples into bottles — A problem of polysemy

An experiment was designed in such a manner that a sentence could be recalled given a certain cue only if the subject's encoding of the sentence included details and involved distinctions in the senses of words which could not have been part of the correct dictionary readings for these words. The most plausible interpretation of the results is that comprehension of a sentence entails constructing a particularized and elaborated mental representation, and that this process depends more heavily on knowledge of the world and analysis of context than is generally appreciated. It is claimed that existing associative or semantic network theories would be strained to accommodate the data.     

Mediators between frustration and aggression in a field experiment

To assess some of the mediators between a frustrating incident and subsequent aggressive behavior in a field situation, 320 male and female subjects were assigned to one of 32 experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design. Either a male or female experimenter, saying “Excuse me” or not, dressed in high or low status clothing, cut in line in front of the subject, who was standing near the front or back of the line. Verbal and nonverbal aggressiveness were coded and summed to measure total aggression. Subjects near the front of the line or interacting with a low status experimenter were more aggressive than those at the back of the line or seeing a high status experimenter. Less aggression was directed against the female experimenter or one who said “Excuse me,” and there was a strong tendency for subjects to be more aggressive to a same-sex experimenter. It was suggested that further research on instigators to aggression be carried out in such field situations.     

A theoretical analysis of the PAN ambiguous-cue problem

The PAN ambiguous-cue problem consists of three stimuli: P, the positive (consistently rewarded) cue; N, the negative (consistently nonrewarded) cue; and A, the ambiguous cue which is negative (nonrewarded) when paired with P, but positive (rewarded) when paired with N. This paper demonstrates how the finding of superior performance on the NA trials as compared to the PA trials (with stereometric objects) can be rigorously derived from a recent extension of Hull-Spence discrimination learning theory, the Stimulus Interaction Hypothesis. It is also shown how this theory can account for the converse outcome of better performance on PA than on NA trials when planometric plaques are used as stimuli. Finally, alternative explanations of the findings are described and evaluated.     

An adjusted measure of achievement motivation for males and females and effects of future orientation on level of performance

An adjusted measure of achievement motivation was devised with the combined use of the Mehrabian Achievement Scale (Educational and Psychological Measurement, 1968, 28, 493–502) and the Mandler and Sarason (Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1952, 47, 166–173) Test Anxiety Questionnaire. Contingent instructions, in which Ss were told success on a test was necessary to qualify for opportunities to succeed on subsequent tests, were contrasted to performance in equivalent noncontingent situations and relative to adjusted achievement motivation for both male and female subjects. In noncontingent situations Ss were told performance on any one test did not affect their opportunity to take subsequent tests. Support was obtained for the use of the above mentioned scales as a predictor of performance for both sexes but not for the Mehrabian by itself. Both male and female Ss high in achievement motivation consistently scored significantly higher than Ss low in achievement motivation in all conditions. The expected interactions between treatments and motive groups were not found but t tests between extreme motive groups within conditions revealed significant differences in the expected directions. These results do not provide statistically reliable support to the elaborated theory of achievement motivation.     

Process assessment: An examination of reinforcer effectiveness and predictive validity

This research describes an assessment procedure based on measures of actual learning. First-grade children (N = 120) learned five sight vocabulary words under feedback only, and were then assigned to one of five conditions where they learned five additional words either under feedback, praise, candy, praise and candy, or reproof. In a sixth condition (reciprocal to the first treatment), students learned the first five works under praise and the second five under feedback only. Although results indicated no differences in learning rate under different reinforcement conditions, learning measures under feedback accounted for approximately 39% of the variance in achievement (r = .62), with combined reinforcement learning measures slightly improving prediction (r = .68). The order of treatments had no effect on learning rate. Implications for this process approach to assessment are discussed. Directions for future research are suggested.     

Distraction effects in tasks of varying difficulty: Methodological issues in measuring development of distractibility

Effects of distraction on 5- and 8-year-old children's performance on a short-term memory task were examined. Tasks at three difficulty levels were employed to determine whether a floor effect could account for the lack of an age difference reported in an earlier study. A floor effect does not appear to be a key factor; the absolute amount of performance decrement was roughly equal for the two ages here regardless of task difficulty, and performance was well above chance under all conditions. The children adapted somewhat to the presence of distraction as shown in greater performance impairment for the first trial under distraction than for remaining trials. Use of a proportional, rather than an absolute, decrement index was considered, and the relevance of the present data to this issue was discussed.     

Support and opposition to the Women's Liberation Movement: Some personality and parental correlates

This study examines eight hypotheses concerning personality and parental determinants of support and opposition to the Women's Liberation Movement. One hundred seventy-two male and female University sutdents who scored at the upper and lower quartiles of the Social Order Scale were administered the following tests: Personality Research Form, Pensacola Z, Rotter Locus of Control, and the Schaefer Parent Behavior Inventory. As predicted, opposers of both sexes score significantly higher on Authoritarianism, Harmavoidance, Social Recognition, and significantly lower on Understanding. Supporters of both sexes score higher on Autonomy. Fathers of opposers are perceived as significantly more Child Centered and Possessive, while fathers of supporters are higher on Inconsistency, Autonomy, and Hostile Detachment. These cognitive, motivational, and parental variables are interpreted in relation to the differing dispositions of each group toward the issues raised by the women's movement.     

The development of metacognitive awareness in memory,communication, and attention

Four- and six-year-olds were asked questions about hypothetical situations in which a child was to perform one of three cognitive activities: (1) to remember something, (2) to communicate a message, or (3) to attend to a visual array. Questions focused on the child's understanding of the following four facts about the variables under study: (1) that it is easier to cognize about a shorter than a longer list (length), (2) that it is easier to cognize in the absence of noise than in its presence (noise), (3) that an adult or older child will find a cognitive problem to be easier than will a younger child (age), and (4) that it is generally easier to cognize with more time than with less time (time). Results indicated that the pattern of understanding was the same across the different cognitive activities, that there was a higher level of accuracy in answering questions about length and noise than about age and time, and that, over all, the 6-year-olds were more accurate than the 4-year-olds.