A scale for the measurement of role-playing ability

A convenient paper-and-pencil measure of acting or role-playing ability was constructed, validated, and compared to a variety of theoretically and methodologically similar and dissimilar scales, including a specially designed improvisational situations test. Results indicate that the new scale provides both a reliable and valid screening device for the study of role-playing ability.     

Effect of preacquisition UCS exposure on classical conditioning of the rabbit's nictitating membrane response

Conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response was found to be inversely related to the number (0, 50, 200, 350) and intensity, (0, 1, 3, 5 mA) of preacquisition UCS exposures and directly related to the interval between preexposure and acquisition (0 or 24 hr). The results were discussed in terms of sensory adaptation, habituation, blocking, and emotional reactivity.     

A test of causal sequences in two models for development of career-orientation in women

To evaluate the tenability of two causal orderings of variables in the development of career-orientation, responses of 92 college senior women to Need Achievement, Dating Frequency, and Career-Orientation items were analyzed. The postulated orderings were derived from two models: a compensatory model implying that failure in a woman's heterosexual affiliation leads to high nAch which, in turn, produces high C-O; an enrichment model suggesting that a woman's high nAch may lead to high C-O which, in turn, decreases heterosexual affiliation. Criteria for temporal sequences as per the Simon-Blalock correlational procedures rendered the enrichment model more tenable.     

Psychological reactivity to discrepant events: Support for the curvilinear hypothesis

80 male and 60 female infants were observed under 5 a priori judged levels of discrepancy to assess whether sustained attention was linearly or curvilinearly related to degree of discrepancy from an experimental standard. Following habituation, $\text{7}\text{1}\text{2}$-month-old infants were exposed to either the repetition of the standard, a minimal, first- or second-level moderate discrepancy, or a novel stimulus having no relation to the standard. The related stimuli, varying in elongation, were sphere, pear, club, and cylinder-shaped objects; the novel stimulus was a different colored, tooth-like object. 80 infants observed the sphere as the standard and the cylinder as the second-level moderate discrepancy; 60 infants were exposed to the reverse order with the cylinder as the standard. The use of different stimuli at each discrepancy level controlled for specific stimulus effects. Habituation and recovery of responding were observed in an operant paradigm. Lever pressing, fixation, and vocalization increased most to the second-level moderate stimuli and decreased most to the familiar and novel objects; fretting was highest to the redundant stimuli and lowest to the moderate objects. There were no stimulus main effects or interactions. The results support the hypothesis of a curvilinear relation between stimulus discrepancy and sustained attention, excitement, and preference.     

Influence of aging on recovery from aphasia in polyglots

We analyzed patterns of recovery, according to the rules of Pitres [1895, Revue de Medecine (Paris), 15, 873–899] and Ribot (1881, Les Maladies de la Memoire, Paris: Libraire Germer Baillere et Cie, pp. 146–147), in polyglot aphasics divided into subgroups by age. The rule of Ribot did not apply predictably for any age group. Pitres' rule clearly applied, but only for the nonelderly groups. Aging and its concomitant deterioration of recent memory seem to influence patterns of recovery from aphasia in polyglots.     

The translation effect in memory search

The function relating recognition reaction time to the size of a memorized set of items is steeper when the memorized items and the probe are in two different categories, related by a memorized translation scheme, than when they are in the same category. Experiment 1 demonstrates that this “translation effect” is obtained for both familiar and unfamiliar translation schemes and further demonstrates that the zero-intercepts of the functions are lower when the probe differs from the memorized items in category than when it does not. Experiment 2 demonstrates that the slopes of the functions relating negative RT to memorized set size when probe and set are the same in category are steeper than the slopes of the corresponding positive functions just in case subjects are aware that the probe and set categories may differ. Experiment 3 demonstrates that the translations between memorized items and a probe that differ in category are done during the rehearsal of the memorized set, not after the probe is presented. Arguments are presented that rehearsal strategy determines memory comparison time, presumably through a hypothetical memory strength variable, but that direct-access strength theories that deny a memory scanning process are inadequate to account for the data.     

Instrumental learning in preschool children as a function of type of task, type of reward, and some organismic variables

The effects on instrumental behavior of differences in type of task, type of reward and three organismic variables were investigated in preschool children. The main results were that: (a) an imitative task was acquired in fewer trials than a nonimitative task; (b) social reward in acquisition led to greater resistance to extinction; (c) a history of frequent social reinforcement from peers led to persistence in responding during extinction for boys only; (d) extraversion was found to interact with the variables of task and reward in errors made during extinction; and (e) intelligence was not found to be a reliable predictor of main acquisition and extinction measures or related errors. Detailed analysis of the different types of errors contributed directly to the interpretation of these findings.     

Novelty as a reinforcer for position learning in children

The stimulus-familiarization-effect (SFE) paradigm, a reaction-time (RT) task based on a response to novelty procedure, was modified to assess response for novelty, i.e., a response-reinforcement sequence. Ninetysix kindergarten children were familiarized on one of two colored lights. Then Ss were confronted with a simple position discrimination task in which they could choose between two response buttons which produced either the previously familiarized light or a new (i.e., novel) light. Results showed that the choice response for the novel stimulus (NS) was facilitated by three variables: number of exposures to and duration per exposure of the familiar stimulus (FS), and degree of change provided by the NS relative to the FS. The parallel between the effective variables of this study and those which produce the SFE was noted, implicating an attention interpretation of the function of novelty as a reinforcer. The potential implications of attention for reinforcement theory and learning in general are discussed.     

The role of the right hemisphere in the apprehension of complex linguistic materials

To secure information on which aspects of linguistic functioning might be mediated by the nondominant hemisphere, a test battery assessing sensitivity to narrational and humorous materials was administered to a population of right-hemisphere-damaged patients, as well as relevant control groups of normal, aging, and aphasic individuals. While elementary linguistic functioning was adequate, the right-hemisphere-injured groups exhibited consistent difficulties in respecting the boundaries of a fictive entity, assessing the plausibility of elements within a story or joke, selecting the appropriate punch line for a joke, and integrating elements of a story into a coherent narrative. Certain elements—specifically emotional content and noncanonical facts injected into a narrative—also posed characteristic difficulties for these patients. The results suggest that, in contrast to the other populations, right-hemisphere patients exhibit special difficulties in processing complex linguistic entities and in utilizing the surrounding context as they assess linguistic messages.