Behavioral consequences of song learning: Discrimination of song types by male white-crowned sparrows

The functional significance of learned population differences in male song in the white-crowned sparrow was explored in natural populations using playback tests. Laboratory results have shown that learning of the population-specific song seems to take place in early life and is strongly dependent upon the nature of the auditory experience at that time. However, the varied results of recent studies make it difficult to reach a confident conclusion about the ecological functions of song learning. The present research took advantage of naturally occurring variation in the differences between songs of adjacent populations to determine a function relating degree of difference in song to intensity of territorial singing elicited. Applying a typological evaluation of syllable structure to the four segments of the song allowed a crude quantitative ranking of the differences between local songs and playback stimuli. These results, together with those of other studies, suggest a unimodal aggressive response function of males to songs of other males. A maximum response to songs slightly different from the local song environment suggests that male exclusion based upon acquired song components may contribute to the maintenance of discrete and stable song dialects.     

Realism,instrumentalism, and the intentional stance

One of Dennett's principal arguments for an instrumentalistic construal of intentional attributions (e.g., attributions of belief, etc.) is that such attributions are environment relative. I argue that one can and should adopt a realist perspective toward such attributions, but accommodate their environmental relativity by treating intentional properties as relational properties. By doing so one acquires a useful perspective on experimental cognitive psychology; in particular, one can overcome the temptation to treat ecological accounts and information processing accounts as incompatible alternatives and come to see them as mutually supportive. Treating intentional properties as relational may be counter-intuitive, but I provide examples of how other sciences have had to treat what seem to be intrinsic properties as relational.     

The effects of feedback consistency and feedback favorability on self-perceived task competence and perceived feedback accuracy

The present study, employing a 2 × 2 true-experimental design and regression analyses assessed the main and interactive effects of feedback consistency (consistent vs inconsistent), and feedback favorability (acceptable vs superior), for feedback given at two time periods on measures of perceived feedback accuracy and self-perceived task competence. Among the study's findings were that (a) the perceived accuracy of feedback at the second period was a function of the favorability of feedback received at the first time period, (b) the self-perceived task competence levels of subjects were jointly determined by the favorability of feedback received at both time periods, and (c) the perceived accuracy of feedback was a function of its consistency. Organizational implications of the study's results are offered.     

The web of work for technical and managerial employees

This study examines aspects of the job and off-job lives of technical and managerial employees. A framework for studying parallel dimensions in these two life spheres is developed. Variables include alienation—powerlessness and meaninglessness—and activities—variety, control, social interaction, and purpose. Findings show strong interaction between alienation from work and that experienced from life off the job. Limited relationships between activity dimensions were found. Overall, results suggest that employees' feelings of alienation carry over strongly between the two life spheres but that only limited carry-over occurs between job activities and those away from work. Findings give no support to the compensatory view of relationships between employees' job and off-job lives.     

The stability of status orientations among young,white, rural women from three southern states

This paper reports the results of a panel study of young, white, rural women from Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas (N = 138). The study was primarily concerned with how social origin variables affected early educational and occupational orientations and how early states of these orientations affected the orientations themselves at a later point in time. The results indicated that mother's education had a greater effect than father's education, but in either case the effect is mediated by intervening influences such as early aspirations and expectations. These young women held very traditional status orientations (with 60% projecting the occupations of beautician, nurse, stenographer, or school teacher), and their orientations were quite stable between their sophomore and senior years in high school. Since there has been so little work reported on the status attainment process for women, and rural women in particular, this study does offer a limited insight into this phenomenon.     

Reduction of sadistic sexual arousal by olfactory aversion: a case study

A sexual sadist was treated by an olfactory aversion procedure for eight weeks. Pre-treatment assessment of sexual arousal showed high levels of response to sadistic stimuli as well as high arousal to non-sadistic heterosexual stimuli. In treatment the inhalation of the gas of an odoriferous chemical agent, valeric acid, was paired with slide presentations of sadistic materials while penile erection was monitored. The aversive stimulus immediately and permanently suppressed the response for the duration of treatment. In separate measurement sessions, with valeric acid absent, deviant response remained suppressed and nondeviant response was unaffected. Post-treatment reassessment revealed very low levels of response to sadistic stimuli. Follow-up sessions showed that the deviant response was absent eight months following the conclusion of treatment.