Mentally retarded individuals outperform college graduates in judging the nonconservation of space and perimeter

Most adults of average and superior intelligence incorrectly assume that in a two dimensional figure two attributes, area, and perimeter, are locked in a fixed relationship such that if one remains unchanged so does the other. Consequently, when they correctly conserve one attribute during shape transformation, they incorrectly conserve the other. Mentally retarded individuals assume no such fixed relationship but depend exclusively on perceptual information. Although this dependence adversely effects their judgment of conservation, it allows them to correctly judge the changed state of the nonconserved attribute.     

Values,preferences, needs,work ethics,and orientations to work: Toward a conceptual and empirical integration

There have been comparatively few attempts on either the conceptual or empirical level to integrate values, preferences, needs, work ethics, and orientations to work. A rationale outlining the way these concepts can be related to each other, is presented. It is maintained that these concepts are categories of relations between humans and work. These categories are qualitatively similar and differ principally in the level of generality of the characteristics of work considered. Complete-link cluster analysis is suggested as a method of analysis compatible with the proffered rationale. Two studies are presented with data gathered during the development of two versions of Work Aspect Preference Scale (WAPS). The samples for the two studies both comprised senior high school students, controlled for sex and age, who were administered the WAPS. Study 1 had a sample of 532 while Study 2 had a sample size of 482. Both sets of data were cluster analyzed. Results indicated a very substantial amount of agreement between the two samples, particularly at the more general levels of clustering. The bipartite and tripartite groupings of vocational needs suggested by L. H. Lofquist and R. V. Dawis (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1978, 12, 12–19) were confirmed as were the findings of J. Mortimer (Sociology of Work and Occupations, 1975, 2, 29–53). Other clusters were also identified with findings from previous research. It is concluded that the investigation of preferences at different levels of generality and the interrelation between these levels shows great promise for both the researcher and the counselor and therefore merits more research effort.     

Tower of Hanoi performance of retarded young adults and nonretarded children as a function of solution length and goal state

Three experiments were conducted with the Tower of Hanoi task to assess problem solving ability in 6-, 7-, 8-, and 10-year-old nonretarded children and mentally retarded young adults of varying maturational ages. In Experiment 1 we gradually reduced the number of moves required for solution until subjects could solve the 3-disk tower-ending problem. Although all groups experienced difficulty with the standard 7-move problem, all but the trainable retarded group readily solved the 6-move problem. The trainable group did not reach a comparable level of success until the 4-move problem. On the 7-move problem the retarded groups performed at the level of nonretarded groups that were maturationally $\text{1}\text{1}\text{2}$ to 3 years younger. An analysis of first moves indicated that subject groups differed in the strategies they used to solve the problems. In Experiment 2, practice effects were ruled out as a source of the superior performance on the 6- than on the 7-move problem. In Experiment 3, 7- and 10-year-old nonretarded children and mentally retarded young adults did not differ on 5-move problems in which configuration of the goal states was varied. A comparison of all 5-move problems judged to have the same depth of search requirements indicated that the tower-ending problems were significantly easier to solve than the partial-tower-ending problems, which in turn were easier than the flat-ending problems. A limited depth of search capacity sets boundaries on the use of sophisticated strategies and, to a large extent, accounts for the retarded groups' maturational lag.     

On the self-perpetuating nature of stereotypes about women and men

An experiment was conducted to investigate an interpersonal process that contributes to the perpetuation of stereotyped beliefs about women and men. Male-female pairs of unacquainted individuals interacted to negotiate a division of labor on a series of work-like tasks (that differed in their sex-role connotations) in a situation that permitted control over the information that male perceivers received about the apparent sex of female targets. The perceivers' beliefs about the sex of their targets initiated a chain of events that resulted in targets providing behavioral confirmation for perceivers' beliefs about their sex. Targets believed by perceivers to be male chose tasks relatively masculine in nature, and targets believed by perceivers to be female chose tasks relatively feminine in nature. Although this behavioral confirmation effect was initially elicited as reactions to overtures made by perceivers, it persevered so that eventually targets came to initiate behaviors “appropriate” to the sex with which they had been labeled by perceivers. The specific roles of perceivers and targets in the behavioral confirmation process are examined. Implications of these findings for the perpetuation of stereotyped beliefs about the sexes are discussed.     

Temporal stability and predictive validity of self-assessed hand preference with first and second graders

The test-retest reliability and predictive validity of a five-item hand preference questionnaire (writing, drawing, throwing a baseball, brushing teeth, and cutting with scissors) were investigated in a sample of 80 children attending first and second grade. After 1 month, 81% of the second choices were the same as the first choices. There were interitem differences in the reliabilities of the five items. Writing and drawing hand exhibited the greatest degree of temporal stability. Writing hand was the one task which was significantly related to visual field bias as indexed by a face perception task.     

Effects of live modeling, covert modeling and rehearsal on assertiveness in psychiatric patients.

The present study evaluated the effects of live modeling, covert modeling, and rehearsal in unassertive psychiatric patients. Psychiatric patients scoring 19 or below on the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Scale were assigned to one of five conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Test-retest (no treatment). (2) Live modeling plus rehearsal. (3) Live modeling without rehearsal. (4) Covert modeling plus rehearsal, and (5) Covert modeling without rehearsal. All subjects were videotaped (pre- and post-test) while responding to eight interpersonal situations (four training scenes; four generalization scenes) requiring assertive responses. Pre- and post-test responses for all subjects were rated independently by judges on several verbal and non-verbal components of assertiveness. The results indicated that live modeling and covert modeling effected improvements in the assertive behavior of the patients, but that the two treatments were not differentially effective. Generally, the addition of rehearsal to live or covert modeling failed to enhance treatment. But on two measures, the covert modeling plus rehearsal condition was superior to the other treatments. There was evidence for transfer of treatment effects from training to generalization scenes. No differences were found among the groups on the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Scale and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The results were discussed in light of prior findings with live and covert modeling procedures.     

Obsessional slowness: a meticulous replication.

The treatment of an apparently authentic case of obsessional slowness is described. The relationship between behaviour change and emotional events is discussed. The findings replicate those of Rachman (1974).     

A general scheme for the analytic decomposition of objective test scores: Illustrative demonstrations using the Rod-and-Frame test and the Müller-Lyer illusion

Objective tests of personality typically include a number of items or trials; the total score on the test is the sum of the subject's “correct” responses across all such trials. Normally, the trials are varied systematically across various facets of the test design, so that the total score represents a composite measure of accuracy averaged across these test facets. However, since only one score is computed for each subject, some potentially important kinds of individual differences—namely all those associated with each particular variation in the test design—are treated solely as measurement unreliability. Such a psychometric stance may serve to obscure more differentiated types of individual differences, with the result that composite scores from trials based on one type of experimental design may not be highly related to such scores from trials using a somewhat different design. The present paper presents a general procedure for scoring objective tests more analytically. To illustrate this general rationale, and to demonstrate its potential utility, data have been reanalyzed from two previous studies, one using the Rod-and-Frame test, the other the Müller-Lyer illusion. In both cases, the traditional global accuracy score did not correlate significantly with other theoretically related variables, while a number of component scores were quite highly related.