The identification and transfer of timesharing skills

Performance on two different task combinations was examined for evidence that timesharing skills are learned with practice and can transfer between task combinations. One combination consisted of two discrete informaion processing tasks, a short-term memory task and a classification task; the other consisted of two identical one-dimensional compensatory tracking tasks. Three groups of 16 subjects were employed in the experiment. The first received dual-task training on both combinations; the second received single-task training on the discrete-task combination and dual-task training on the tracking combination; the third received dual-task training on the tracking combination only. Evidence for distinct timesharing skills was found in both combinations using a new technique designed to separate improvements in timesharing skills from improvements in single-task performance. Transfer of timesharing skills also was found. Several fine-grained analyses performed on the data from the discrete task combination and a Control Theory Analysis of the tracking data indicated that skills in parallel processing were learned in each combination and transferred between them.     

Children's memory for line orientation: A reexamination of the “oblique effect”

A theory of orientation memory is advanced to explain why 5- and 6-year olds fail to discriminate between mirror-image obliques. It is argued that children can code the left-right orientation of an oblique line in relation to an adjacent reference feature, but are limited in their ability to recognize this stimulus-referent relationship when it is altered by changes in frame location. According to this view simultaneous presentation of the correct and incorrect comparison, typical of traditional testing paradigms, leads to failure because of trial by trial shifts in the frame location of the target orientation. The findings of the two experiments reported are consistent with this hypothesis. In Experiment 1 kindergarteners who performed poorly under the simultaneous condition discriminated oblique orientations with ease when stimuli were successively presented. Moreover, performance was not significantly affected by variations in the plane of presentation. In Experiment 2 children who discriminated successively presented obliques when stimuli were shown in a constant frame location had great difficulty when the left-right frame location of the stimuli was varied over trials.     

The propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks as a consequence of varying social relationships

Two laboratory experiments are reported. Each investigates the bias that social relationships exert on a subject's propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks. Using closed circuit television, subjects in both experiments observed a bogus other working on a set of puzzles. The person working completed only one-half of the puzzles. In three of the six experimental conditions in both experiments, subjects believed that the remaining puzzles could be completed at a later time. In the first experiment, a subject's relationship to the other was determined by cooperative, competitive, or individualistic economic incentives. In the second, the relationship was determined simply by their similarity or dissimilarity on a bogus personality test. Utilizing a combination of Lewinian assumptions and contemporary theory about memory, we hypothesized that the opportunity to resume work would result in an increased propensity to recall uncompleted tasks in the competitive (or dissimilar) conditions and a decreased propensity to do so in the cooperative (or similar) conditions. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Additional data in both experiments suggest that subjects' relationships with the bogus other altered the accessibility of this information. Theoretical implications of these findings and their relationship to research on prosocial behavior are discussed.     

Social comparisons and pay evaluations: Preferences for same-sex and same-job wage comparisons

This research examined women's and men's social comparison preferences when evaluating the fairness of pay. Subjects were assigned randomly to work on a job described as masculine, feminine, or sex neutral and were told that they would be paid for their work. After working on the job and privately receiving identical payment, subjects rank ordered their preference for seeing the average male, average female, and average combined-sex wage paid in each of the three jobs. Despite the availability of the combined-sex wage, subjects preferred to maximize similarity in their wage comparisons, with the majority choosing to see the pay of a same-sex and same-job group first. Regardless of the sex linkage of their job assignment, subjects selected a same-job comparison first. Sex linkage of job did affect same-sex preferences; whereas subjects in sex-appropriate and sex-neutral jobs showed a significant preference for seeing the pay of same-sex others first, subjects in sex-inappropriate jobs did not. Results also indicated that both men and women assigned to the feminine job expected somewhat less pay and thought their obtained pay was more fair than did those assigned to the masculine job. Furthermore, women thought they deserved less pay for their work than did men, regardless of their job assignment. Implications of these results for gender differences in outcome evaluations are discussed.     

Attitudes and behavior: An information integration perspective

The relationship between attitudes, beliefs, and behavior was investigated in the context of a behavioral alternative model of attitudes and Anderson's information integration theory. Forty teenagers indicated their attitudes toward using each of seven methods of birth control. The attitudes were used to predict self-reports of contraceptive behavior. Functional measurement methodology was applied to understand the informational bases of the attitudes. In general, the data were supportive of the theoretical framework.     

Free recall of concrete and abstract words in poor and normal readers

The present study compared poor and normal readers in second and sixth grade on free recall of concrete and abstract words. On the basis of the assumption that memory for abstract words relies more heavily upon linguistic coding ability than does memory for concrete words, it was expected that poor readers would have much greater difficulty on recall of abstract words than would normal readers, but would more closely approximate the normal readers on recall of concrete words. The hypothesis was confirmed at the second-grade level but not at the sixth-grade level, wherein the magnitude of group differences on concrete words was comparable to that on abstract words. Post hoc analyses of intrusion errors suggested that the linguistic coding hypothesis may be a viable explanation of reader group differences on memory tasks only at lower age levels.     

On the development of color naming in young children: data and theory

Among the semantics of different common attributes of the environment, consistent and correct color naming seems to develop paradoxically late in children, for even young infants discriminate and categorize colors well, color is a salient feature of the child's world, and children are aware of color as a separate domain, know color terms, and respond to color questions with color names. Several specific anomalies characterize early linguistic development in this domain: Errors in beginning color naming are perseverative or random, there seems to be a minimum age for correct and consistent color naming, developmental rate shows wide individual differences, and acquisition among girls is generally faster than among boys. This essay reviews data that support these observations, and evaluates three traditional explanations for them--including the perceptual salience of color for children, experience and learning in the child, and cognitive development--against a fourth new possibility. It is hypothesized that appropriate color naming may depend on the maturation and integration of specific cortical neurological structures; among several interpretations, the neurological one accounts best for diverse characteristics of early color naming.     

Semantic priming effects for stimuli presented to the right and left visual fields

Studies that have addressed the possibility of hemispheric differences in semantic priming effects have yielded contradictory results. This paper reports the findings of two experiments intended to shed greater light on the issue of hemispheric differences in semantic priming. Experiment 1 used a hemiretinal paradigm and examined manual response latency and response accuracy to four types of word pairs; categorically related, syntactically related, unrelated, and pairs containing a nonword member. Experiment 2 examined the effects of unrecognized, disambiguating flank words on verbal responses to a centrally presented homograph. Experiment 1 yielded no significant visual field differences in magnitude of priming effects when response latency served as the dependent measure, although categorical relatedness facilitated response accuracy for left but not right visual field stimuli. In experiment 2, the disambiguating words had a significant effect on meaning interpretation of the homographs that was independent of visual field of presentation. Taken together, the results of these studies are interpreted as indicating that semantic aspects of linguistic input are automatically processed and can influence the content and latency of subsequent responses, whether presented to the left or right visual field.