Children's understanding of the link between situation and emotion

Children of 6 and 10 years were assessed in three experiments for their insight into emotional reactions that are not directly linked to the current situation. Experiment 1 showed that both age groups know that emotion gradually wanes, after the precipitating situation. Experiment 2 showed that both age groups, but especially 6-year-olds, have difficulty in admitting that a single situation can provoke an emotional conflict between a positive and a negative emotion. Experiment 3 showed, on the other hand, that both age groups understand how an earlier situation can provoke an emotion that persists so as to eventually be concurrent with a later, conflicting emotion. Overall, the results show that both age groups understand that a person's current emotional state cannot be directly inferred from his or her immediate situation. Yet they have considerable difficulty in admitting that a single situation can sometimes provoke both a positive and a negative emotion.     

Contiguity and contingency in the acquisition and maintenance of an operant

Three experiments compared the effects of nondifferential and differential reinforcement of response location on a circular dimension. Rats were required to operate a vertical joystick to produce food. When food was delivered immediately after responses, but independent of response location, the spatial concentration of responding was low and no progressive changes were observed. Traditional and percentile schedules of differential reinforcement for response location produced highly reliable acquisition of spatially concentrated responding. Once concentrated responding had been established, nondifferential reinforcement was sufficient to maintain it in some subjects. Since only the differential reinforcement schedules established a contingency with respect to response location, it was concluded that this relationship was necessary for acquisition, but that response-reinforcer contiguity may be sufficient for maintenance. This conclusion is consistent with the view that operant conditioning is a contiguity-based process, but that contingencies are required to produce reliable contiguity between reinforcers and particular responses.     

The interaction of cognitive styles and classroom environment in determining first-graders' behavior

This study investigates the importance of two “person” variables, reflection impulsivity and divergent thinking, and one “situation” variable, the classroom climate of first-grade classrooms, for the classroom adaptation of first-graders. Three types of classrooms differing in classroom climate were selected: open, intermediate, and traditional. Subjects were the children (n = 189) in these classrooms. Classroom adaptation variables included self concept, school attendance, and teacher ratings of classroom behavior, overall academic rank, and personal preference. Both main effect and interactional relationships between “person” and “situation” variables and classroom adaptation were hypothesized. Classroom environment was found to affect degree of classroom disturbance manifested by the children with students in open classrooms exhibiting most and students in the intermediate classrooms exhibiting least. Boys in the open classrooms had higher achievement anxiety and lower teacher preference ratings than boys in traditional or intermediate classrooms. Reflective children obtained higher ratings as self-reliant learners and, for boys, reflection was related to low classroom disturbance and high achievement anxiety. Interactional relationships between classroom environment and reflection-impulsivity were also found for boys. Divergent thinking was not related to classroom adjustment for boys. Girls high in divergent thinking were higher in school involvement and achievement anxiety and more preferred by teachers.     

Some theorems in haploscopic vision

Three formal hypotheses are specified concerning the combination of neural signals from the two eyes. The hypotheses are (1) that a large uniform light presented to the opposite eye has no effect (independence), (2) that all information from one eye relevant to a given percept (for example, brightness) is encoded by a single neural signal (isolation), and (3) the mutually exclusive and exhaustive alternative to isolation (interaction). Though independence or isolation often has been claimed or simply assumed to hold, these hypotheses imply specific empirical relationships. These relationships are derived for brightness and for equilibrium colors. In addition, one model consistent with the interaction hypothesis is developed. The isolation hypothesis is important for generalizing results from monocular experiments to normal binocular vision. If it is false, monocular results can reflect a combination of one eye's neural signals that never occurs with binocular stimuli.     

How teachers use the group I.Q. test scores

Ninety elementary school teachers, grades 2–6, in two school districts in Ohio were interviewed to obtain information on how they used the results of group IQ tests. Twenty-seven of 90 teachers (30%) reported making “little or no use” of the test scores. Most of these teachers presumably had more faith in their own tools and observations than in the IQ test scores. However, 76 of 90 teachers (84%, including the ones who made little use of the test scores) stated that they used the test scores for one or more purposes. The four most frequently mentioned uses were: (a) “for discussion in parent conferences” (51%); (b) “to know a student's potential and/or determine ability-motivation discrepancy” (42%); (c) “to plan instruction” (39.5%) and (d) “for referral purposes” (29%). The instructional strategies mentioned by the teachers varied and were categorized into 21 categories.