Male alcoholics,secondary psychopathy and Eysenck's theory of personality

The scores of several samples of male alcoholics and others on the MAC Scale (an MMPI-derived scale for the differentiation of male alcohol abusers from non-substance-abusing male psychiatric outpatients) are summarized, and the responses of the false negatives and false positives from the scale's standardization samples are analyzed. The following 7conclusions were reached: (1) There are two broad classes of male alcoholics—those who fall into the E + N + quadrant of secondary psychopathy and those who fall into the E - N + quadrant of neurotic introversion; (2) Unselected runs of male alcoholics populate these two quadrants in a quite stable ratio of 17 to 3, respectively; (3) Pari passu, Eysenck's placement of alcoholics in the E + N + quadrant will be upheld in approximately 85% of the cases while those who hold that alcoholics are ‘dysthymics who also drink too much’ will find themselves in error in approximately similar degree.     

Nonverbal categorization in fluent and nonfluent anomic aphasics

This study aimed to demonstrate that the naming difficulties of a particular group of aphasics, namely, fluent aphasics, are related to an underlying inability to organize feature set information. In order to test this hypothesis, the performance of fluent aphasics, nonfluent aphasics, and a nonaphasic brain-injured control group, was examined on a nonverbal categorization task, which was carefully structured in terms of instance typicality. Scores of visuoperceptual and naming tests were correlated with categorization task errors. As predicted, fluent aphasics showed a significant deficit in performance on the categorization task in comparison with other subjects. Differences in the nature of the errors the fluent aphasics made suggested that their problems were related to difficulties in abstracting the prototype for each category and in sorting category members with reference to these prototypes. For fluent aphasics, but not other subjects, a significant correlation was found between categorization task performance and naming ability.     

Memories of Morocco: The influence of age,schooling, and environment on memory

To what extent are models of memory general, in that they may be applied to children or to other cultural groups? In an attempt to answer this question, two experiments were undertaken in Morocco to investigate various cultural and experiential antecedents to memory development. A total of 384 children and young adults, ranging in age from 6 to 22 years, were tested in a design that contrasted schooled and nonschooled children in urban and rural environments. Three additional groups of subjects—Koranic students, Moroccan rug sellers, and University of Michigan students—were also studied because it was hypothesized that each might have particular “culture-specific” memory skills as a function of previous experience.A serial short-term recall task was used in Experiment I. Results showed that the recency effect or short-term store was generally invariant with age or experience. Control processes appeared to be a function of age, but only when coupled with schooling, and, to a lesser extent, urban environment. In Experiment II, a continuous recognition memory task was given with black and white photographs of Oriental rugs as stimuli. Forgetting rates were generally invariant with age and experience, while the acquisition parameter seemed to vary as a function of specific cultural experiences. Data from the three additional groups were useful in supporting the hypothesis of culture-specific memory skills.From Experiments I and II, and previous research, it was hypothesized that structural features of memory (e.g., short-term store and invariant forgetting rates) may be universal, while control processes or mnemonics in memory are probably culture-specific, or a function of a variety of experiential and cultural factors that surround the growing child.     

Health-related information seeking as a function of health-related locus of control and health value

Two studies were conducted testing the hypothesis that health-related information seeking is a joint function of a person's locus of control beliefs and the value placed on health. Using a health-related measure of locus of control, internal subjects who valued health highly relative to other terminal values (cf. Rokeach, 1973) chose more pamphlets about the particular health condition, hypertension, than did internal-low health value subjects or externals regardless of their health value. Little evidence was found to support the proposition that subject differentially chose pamphlets according to author characieristics (i.e., male or female, doctors or nurses).     

Marginal maximum likelihood estimation of item parameters: Application of an EM algorithm

Maximum likelihood estimation of item parameters in the marginal distribution, integrating over the distribution of ability, becomes practical when computing procedures based on an EM algorithm are used. By characterizing the ability distribution empirically, arbitrary assumptions about its form are avoided. The Em procedure is shown to apply to general item-response models lacking simple sufficient statistics for ability. This includes models with more than one latent dimension.Supported in part by NSF grant BNS 7912417 to the University of Chicago and by SSRC (UK) grant HR6132 to the University of Lancaster.We are indebted to Mark Reiser and Robert Gibbons for computer programming. David Thissen clarified a number of points in an earlier draft.     

Operantly conditioning a negotiator's concession making

This study investigated the effects of a bargaining strategy that rewards the opponent's concessions. The first of four experiments revealed that a negotiator's utilization of this reward strategy resulted in large concessions by and quick agreement with the opponent. The second experiment demonstrated that the large concessions continue after the rewards cease and the third, that two previously rewarded negotiatiors subsequently make large concessions to each other and reach quick agreements. Finally, the fourth experiment added strength to a reinforcement explanation of the results by eliminating an interpretation based upon a reciprocity effect.