Intelligence and the processing of stimulus structure

It has been demonstrated in a number of experiments that the difficulty level of several performance type intelligence test tasks is determined directly by stimulus and task variables that vary the information to be processed. The variables are quantifiable. The implications of these findings for intelligence and the problems of an experimental approach to the measurement of intelligence are discussed.     

Consistent occupational preferences and personality

This study explored the differences on personality variables between upperclass students who made congruent and incongruent occupational choices. The personality variables were operationally defined by the California Psychological Inventory and the Omnibus Personality Inventory. Congruent and incongruent current occupational choice groups were defined operationally using the Self Directed Search. The analysis of variance revealed the main effect of groups to be significant for nine personality variables. The test for the main effect of sex was found to be significant for seven personality variables. The test for interaction was found to be significant for three personality variables. Findings suggest that students in the congruent male group tend to report better maintenance of personal and vocational stability and greater satisfaction than students in the incongruent male and female groups.     

Reaction times of severe Broca's aphasics to monaural verbal stimuli

Reaction times of nine subjects with severe Broca's aphasia were measured to verbal stimuli presented monaurally to their left or right ears. The aphasic subjects showed left-ear advantages in reaction times to verbal stimuli, paralleling dichotic findings among aphasic patients. The results are interpreted as consistent with right-hemisphere language processing.     

The multiple roles of Broca's discovery in the development of the modern neurosciences

Using the classical clinico-anatomical correlation method of the French clinical school, Paul Broca confirmed the localization of "language" in the frontal lobe. He actually discovered the lateralization of language in the left hemisphere. These contributions eventually led to the demise of the older concept of the "sensorium commune," because Broca's ideas implied the presence of motor functions in the hemispheres. Although Broca worked within the theoretical motif of the "faculty" psychology, the reflex-oriented "associationist" psychology soon became the predominant theoretical framework of localization, because it accommodated the motor aspect of hemispheric function. Since Broca's time, the study of the biology of language has proceeded along two parallel but sometimes separate lines in the experimental and clinical traditions.     

On the inconclusiveness of “crucial” cognitive tests of dissonance versus self-perception theories

Several recent experiments are claimed to have tested conflicting predictions of cognitive dissonance and self-perception theories. It is argued that these claims fail to take into account the capacity of each formulation to account adequately for results “predicted” by the other. This argument is then continued, at a metatheoretical level, to reach the conclusion that the two theories are not capable of producing unequivocally contradictory predictions of cognitive consequences of experimental procedures.     

The “magic” paradigm revisited

The “magic” paradigm was devised to assess conservation of number in young children. Previous results with the paradigm have suggested that children acquire the ability to conserve number by 3 years of age. Because these results indicate a very precocious development of number conservation relative to performance on the classic conservation task, a comparison of these two procedures was made. Several differences which might account for the superior performance with the magic paradigm were noted: The arrays are presented successively rather than simultaneously, the arrays are presented side by side rather than parallel to one another, and the displacement is performed surreptitiously rather than openly. In the present research the magic paradigm was modified in several steps so that these differences between procedures were removed. None of the changes had an impact on the performance of 3-year-olds. It was concluded that insofar as small numbers are concerned, young children treat displacement as irrelevant to number. In regard to the question of whether young children are capable of conserving small numbers, it was concluded that no answer can be given. Basically, the problem is that we lack sufficient information on how young children solve the magic paradigm.     

Anomie and vocational-technical education

Graduates from a public, postsecondary vocational-technical school are compared with a control group of individuals without such education in order to assess differences in level of anomie (via Srole Scale).While differences in some cases were minimal, vocational-technical graduates generally revealed a more positive attitude about the present and future. It is suggested that since their education is more job-centered, and they have already experienced some occupational “success”, they are more likely to have internalized and reflect traditional societal norms. The control group, while possessing similar demographic backgrounds, still are in transition-attending college, looking for work, etc.     

Extinction of avoidance behavior and the problem of residual fear

According to two-factor theory, avoidance responding is predicated on a conjoint relationship between Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. Recently a variety of evidence has indicated that these processes are independently subject to experimental manipulations, both during acquisition and extinction. The latter finding is paralleled in the clinicial literature by the observation that the elimination of an avoidance response does not adequately reflect concurrent changes in autonomic and verbal behavior. These findings suggest the need for multiple measures of anxiety in assessing the effect of experimental and therapeutic operations on avoidance behavior. This paper also calls attention to the discriminative and reinforcing properties of the CS in an attempt to account for these findings.     

Retrieval processes in fifth graders and adults

This research was concerned with retrieval processes which underlie conceptual clustering. In a free recall task with categorized lists, fifth graders' and adults' retrieval was examined temporally by means of interword response times. List organization and retrieval cue factors were manipulated in order to assess the developmental relevance of an hypothesized three component retrieval model. The results indicated that both age groups used a qualitatively similar retrieval strategy, involving search for and decoding of higher-order memory units. Providing retrieval cues eliminated the category search component, but also increased the likelihood of exhaustive recall attempts under random presentation conditions. The results were discussed in terms of the inter-relationships between storage and retrieval strategies. Age-related differences in retrieval time were attributed to insufficient reorganization during input and failure to attempt to recall all of a category's members.