The self-attention-induced feedback loop and social facilitation

It has been proposed that self-directed attention leads to the engagement of a cybernetic feedback loop, by which discrepancies between present behavior and a standard of comparison are reduced. This analysis is applied to performance facilitation effects, which are more typically explained in terms of drive theories. Though these two approaches to motivation make similar behavioral predictions in this context, they assume different mediating states. Support is noted for the assumptions that mirror presence and audience presence induce self-focus, and that they lead to comparison with salient behavioral standards. Support for the assumption that these manipulations increase arousal is also reviewed, and is challenged on methodological grounds. The attentional analysis is used to derive predictions regarding changes in physiological state over the course of a typical social facilitation procedure. An experiment is reported which confirmed these predictions. Discussion centers on how to interpret physiological changes in terms that are compatible with control theory, how to account for social impairment phenomena in terms of the present model, and the conceptual relationship between mirror presence and audience presence as experimental manipulations.     

Socially mediated fear reduction in rodents: Distraction,communication, or mere presence?

Two studies investigated why the presence of conspecifics reduces open-field fear. In Experiment 1 rats paired with another experimentally naive rat were not less fearful than alone controls. However, rats paired with a partner who had been preexposed to the open field exhibited fewer fear responses than alone controls. Since preexposed companions appeared to initiate more social interactions than nonpreexposed companions, it was argued that the preexposure effect could be the result of preexposed companions distracting actor rats from threatening stimuli. Experiment 2 tested this explanation by pairing socially sated or socially deprived rats with a socially sated or socially deprived companion. In accord with a distraction hypothesis, pairing two socially deprived rats produced the greatest fear reduction effects and also led to more social interaction than pairing socially sated rats. Alternative explanations involving conditioning and communication are discussed.     

Alexia and agraphia with spared spelling and letter recognition abilities

A patient with alexia and agraphia had intact spelling and comprehension of spelled words and used a letter-naming strategy to read and write. We propose that there is a graphemic area important for distinguishing graphemic features and for programming movements used in writing. In this patient this area was not functioning or did not have access to the area of visual word imagés. Therefore, he used an ideographic letter-naming strategy to verbally circumvent his disability and gain access to the area of visual word images.     

Constructive Logic with Strong Negation is a Substructural Logic. II

The goal of this two-part series of papers is to show that constructive logic with strong negation N is definitionally equivalent to a certain axiomatic extension NFL _ew of the substructural logic FL _ew . The main result of Part I of this series [41] shows that the equivalent variety semantics of N (namely, the variety of Nelson algebras) and the equivalent variety semantics of NFL _ew (namely, a certain variety of FL _ew -algebras) are term equivalent. In this paper, the term equivalence result of Part I [41] is lifted to the setting of deductive systems to establish the definitional equivalence of the logics N and NFL _ew . It follows from the definitional equivalence of these systems that constructive logic with strong negation is a substructural logic. Presented by Heinrich Wansing     

Decrements in children's responses to big and tall: A reconsideration of the potential Cognitive and Semantic causes

The potential causes of decrements in children's understanding of big and tall (Maratsos, 1973, Maratsos, 1974, 10, 367–375) are reconsidered. On the basis of data from English-speaking children, two of these hypotheses, the Strong Cognitive Hypothesis and the Strong Semantic Hypothesis, offer equally plausible explanations for those decrements. However, data from Arabic-speaking children between 2;9 and 6;3, who do not show a similar decrement in their understanding of kabiir, support the Strong Semantic Hypothesis that decrements in English-speaking children's understanding of big and tall are due to their positing semantic features such as [+ Vertical] for one word and overgeneralizing them to related words. This, in turn, supports Carey's (M. Halle, J. Bresnan, & G. Miller (Eds.), Linguistic theory and psychological reality. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1978. Pp. 264–293) theory that features are abstracted out for words after children are able to use those words correctly on the basis of stored haphazard examples. Further, the results support the view that children at least sometimes posit features for a word on the basis of its individual privileges of occurrence, rather than on the basis of what that word contrasts with.     

Reinforcement magnitude effects in first- and second-order conditioning of directed action

Three experiments investigated the effects of reinforcement magnitude on conditioned key pecking in pigeons. Experiment 1, which included between-groups and within-subject designs, yielded significant effects of unconditioned stimulus (US) magnitude on the within-conditioned stimulus (CS) distribution of key pecks and on choice behavior, but no effect on the overall rate of key pecking. Experiment 2 employed a larger US-magnitude difference in a within-subject design. This manipulation resulted in differential rates of key pecking as well as a significant choice effect and differential within-CS key-peck distributions. A second-order conditioning procedure was used in Experiment 3, in which diffuse, visual stimuli (S1's) served as Pavlovian reinforcers for two key-light S2's. The S1 previously paired with a large US was more effective in conditioning second-order key-peck behavior to an S2 than was the S1 paired with a small US. The results of these experiments demonstrate that the associative effects of US magnitude can be expressed in the strength of CS-directed motor responding. The distinctive within-CS key-peck distributions in first-order conditioning suggests an interaction between CS- and US-directed responses.     

Impact of adults' appeals for sharing on the development of altruistic dispositions in children

Third- and fourth-grade boys and girls (mean age 7 years, 10 months) were directly instructed to share half their winnings from a bowling game under one of three types of verbal appeal: a power assertive appeal emphasizing punitive consequences for noncompliance, an inductive appeal emphasizing the child's potential contribution to the well being of another person, or a neutral appeal. While they complied with this request, half the children were monitored by television camera; the other half were not. A measure of generalized sharing (noninstructed sharing under anonymous conditions) was then collected. It was predicted that generalized sharing would be greater for children who had heard the inductive appeal than for children who had heard the power assertive appeal and would be greater for children who had shared without television surveillance than for children who had shared under survellance. As predicted, generalized sharing was highest among children who had received the inductive appeal. However, prior surveillance depressed noninstructed sharing only for girls who had received the power assertive appeal. There was one additional and unexpected finding: when children were asked to reinforce themselves for having shared in the instructed sharing phase, boys who had shared in compliance with a power assertive appeal indulged themselves more than children in any other condition.     

Divergent influences of private and public self-consciousness in a compliance paradigm

A study was conducted to test the reasoning that two types of dispositional self-consciousness would be associated with two different influences on compliance behavior. The study utilized a paradigm in which subjects are induced to make incorrect responses on a perceptual task by means of simulated group pressure. Based upon results of previous research, the following predictions were made: that private self-consciousness—the disposition to be conscious of one's thoughts, feeling, and covert self-aspects—would be inversely correlated with compliance; and that public self-consciousness—the disposition to be conscious of one's social self-aspects—would be positively correlated with compliance. The data from the study provided support for both of these predictions. Discussion centers on the theoretical implications of these findings.