Increasing and decreasing intrinsic interest with contingent rewards: A test of cognitive evaluation theory

The study examined Deci's (Deci, E. L. Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum Press, 1975) hypotheses regarding the effects of contingent rewards on intrinsic task interest. Seventy-two male university students worked on a series of puzzles and were given either a high value reward ($1.50) or a low value reward ($.45). The money was given either contingent upon the simple execution of the task (task-contingent), contingent upon the ostensible attainment of a performance criterion level (criterion-contingent), or noncontingent and unexpected (control). Compared to the high payment control subjects, subjects who received the task-contingent high reward rated the task as less interesting, while subjects who received the criterion-contingent high reward rated it as more interesting. Also, subjects expressed less interest in the task after receiving the high task-contingent reward than the low task-contingent reward, but indicated greater interest after receiving the high criterion-contingent reward than the low criterion-contingent reward. It was concluded that substantial support was obtained for Deci's (1975) cognitive evaluation theory.     

Resistance to satiation of consummatory and instrumental performance

In three experiments rats received training in a straight alley under high hunger and then were tested satiated. Both eating and running continued to occur under satiation, but the two responses were not completely correlated, and continued running did not depend upon continued eating. Further, groups differed in their eating behavior, although all experienced the same satiation procedure, suggesting that eating under satiation is not just a reflection of incomplete satiation. Resistance to satiation of the running response was greater following partial reward than following consistant reward and tended to be greater following small reward training than large reward training, regardless of schedule of reward. Eating during satiation was greater following partial than following consistent reward and was greater if the same reward magnitude was given in satiation as in acquisition than if a different reward magnitude was given. It was suggested that resistance to satiation is an associative phenomenon. Eating and running occur during satiation because the stimuli present during satiation continue to elicit them. The differences between results using rewarded satiation and results using high drive extinction as measures of persistence were attributed to satiation being nonfrustrating.     

Response conflict theory,error rates and hybrid processing: A reply to McLeod

McLeod (1977) has proposed a parallel processing model of the psychological refractory period quite similar to an earlier model most recently adumbrated by Kantowitz (1974a). This article corrects some erroneous statements made by McLeod about the testability of the response conflict model and emphasizes the importance of error data in distinguishing among conceptually similar models of the PRP effect.     

Expressed and inventoried vocational interests as predictors of college graduation and vocational choice

This is a follow-up study of 195 agricultural students originally tested when they entered college in 1970. Students whose Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) patterns were consistent with their stated choice of major were the congruent sample. Students whose SVIB patterns were inconsistent with their stated choices of major were the discrepant sample. A follow-up was made on graduation rates, eventual major, and job placement. Discrepant subjects changed major more often but graduated at the same rate as congruents. The SVIB did not seem to add anything to the student's expressed interests in predicting college continuation. There was a trend for congruent graduates to more frequently take jobs which matched their majors.     

Speech disturbances in presenile dementia related to local cerebral blood flow abnormalities in the dominant hemisphere

Ten female patients, age 50–70 years, suffering from presenile dementia and showing signs of defective speech function were analyzed. All patients underwent measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) by the xenon clearance technique using a 32-detector piece of equipment, and all showed a marked reduction of the hemisphere mean blood flow level. In addition, regional decreases of blood flow of the gray matter was demonstrated. Patients with a marked reduction in the temporo-parieto-occipital regions showed signs of receptive aphasia including alexia and agraphia. Patients with a marked frontal reduction showed signs of expressive aphasia of various types including stereotyped language, voluble speech, echolalia, and mutism in later stages. The results give further support to our previous conclusion that subsymptoms of presenile dementia, apparently also speech disturbances, can be related to local degenerative changes in the brain, which in their turn are accompanied by local reductions of the blood flow of the gray matter. There is pathoanatomical evidence to support this conclusion.     

Speech dominance and handedness in the normal human

Spectral analysis was used to measure the coherence or similarity of form between occipital and temporal evoked potentials. In both right- and left-handers, coherence was greater in the left hemisphere for click stimuli and in the right hemisphere for flash stimuli. Similar asymmetries occurred in left but not right speech dominant patients whose speech lateralization has been determined by the intracarotid amytal test. Right-handers and males, however, showed significantly larger amplitudes of auditory responses in the right hemisphere. Left-handers and females reversed this pattern. It was concluded that within a basically left speech dominant organization, males and right-handers would emphasize the verbal, temporal structure of auditory information and the nonverbal, spatial structure of visual information. Females and left-handers would tend to reverse this emphasis.     

A Plumber's friend in need is a Plumber's friend indeed

In response to the critique of Gaes, Quigley-Fernandez, and Tedeschi (Journal of Research in Personality, 1978, 12, 189–192) it was acknowledged that the cell Ns were incorrect as originally reported, and the weakness of a postexperimental division of subjects was reaffirmed. Emphasis was placed on the comparability of a simple rating scale and an elaborate bogus pipeline in measuring attraction. The need for determining the way in which the bogus pipeline functions prior to its uncritical adoption in any given experimental situation was stressed as a point of agreement.