Academic achievement: An examination of Holland's congruency,consistency, and differentiation predictions

This investigation tested three predictions derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development regarding academic achievement. Groups of 392 male and 424 female entering college freshmen were typed using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, and differentiation. Freshmen with congruent college major choices or with definite majors but indefinite Holland orientations enjoyed greater academic success than students who specified incongruent choices or no definite major choice. Students with personality codes of high or low consistency outperformed students with moderately consistent codes. Freshmen males with differentiated personal orientations achieved higher grade point averages than males having nondifferentiated personality profiles. For females, differentiation was not significant. In all sex comparisons female trends paralleled male trends and females generally outperformed males. Implications for vocational development and counseling were discussed in the context of Holland's theory.     

The role of R-S1 expectancy in discrimination and discrimination reversal learning

Four experiments assessed the role of response-reinforcement (R-S¹) expectancy as rats either learned a discrimination or a discrimination reversal. Experiment 1 showed that the higher the percentage of reinforcement during nondiscriminative pretraining the more quickly a subsequent discrimination is learned. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the overlearning reversal effect (ORE) can be obtained even though the overtraining phase consists of responses to a single neutral card. In Experiment 3 subjects were again overtrained on a single neutral stimulus under conditions of varying reinforcement. ORE was apparent under reinforcement of a high percentage of responses but was not apparent under reinforcement of a low percentage. Experiment 4 revealed that the fewer errors a subject makes prior to reversal the better its reversal performance is. Results of these studies were discussed in terms of generalized attention theories and the expectancy notions of Bolles (Psychological Review, 1972, 79(5), 394–409.     

Motivated remembering efforts during tip-of-the-tongue states

Hart (1965) argues that the feeling of knowing in tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states monitors memory content and motivates retreival efforts. Although a number of studies have examined the memory-monitoring accuracy of feelings of knowing and not-knowing, no studies have focused directly on the hypothesized motivational function of these feeling states. This second function of memory feeling states is investigated in this study by assessing the degree to which TOT and Don't Know (DK) states interfere with a subject's ability to perform well on a concurrent task. Subjects studied a list of arbitrary word pairs for 3, 5, or 7 seconds and then provided Recall, TOT, or DK reports in an immediate recall test. Performance on the simple number-probe task that followed each memory report was poorer on TOT trials than on DK trials. This effect did not vary as a function of encoding time. Since covert memory searches were possible on both TOT and DK trials, it is concluded that the performance decrement observed on TOT trials is due to the fact that covert TOT target searches command processing capacity that might otherwise go to the concurrent number-probe task. The absence of an encoding time effect suggests that TOT states do not monitor the associative strength of target traces as Hart (1967) has proposed. The findings in this study are interpreted as providing support for the proposition that the feeling of knowing in the TOT state influences the setting of capacity-allocation priorities in the memory system.     

Determinants of social perception in a naturalistic setting

Based upon the assumption that personality traits exist more in the eye of the observer than is actually reflected in the actions of the actor, Jones and Nisbett have proposed that a negative relationship exists between familiarity with an actor's behavioral history and the tendency to attribute traits to that individual. An alternative viewpoint is suggested by the present research. Members of a college fraternity attributed more personality traits to themselves than were attributed to them by their fellow members. In addition, the fraternity members tended to offer more dispositional attributions to other members with whom they were more familiar. Furthermore, evidence is presented that is suggestive of the validity of these attributions. It is concluded that the attribution of personality traits provides attributors with information that is both veridical and useful in guiding social interactions.     

Dichotic testing of cerebral dominance in stutterers

Matched groups of right-handed male stutterers and controls received dichotic presentations of CVs and melodies on two occasions. Right ear advantages were obtained for CVs and left ear advantages for melodies, without significant differences between groups. However, a significantly greater number of stutterers than controls consistently failed to show the expected ear laterality for either type of material.     

Perceptual, cognitive and linguistic development after early hemispherectomy: two case studies.

Longitudinal data on perceptual-motor, cognitive, and linguistic functioning is reported for two children: one with right hemispherectomy and one with left hemispherectomy. Both levels of functioning and specific profiles of abilities within an area of function are evaluated. The subjects both show effects from damage to the brain: shortened memory span, general perceptual and motor disabilities, and somewhat depressed general intellectual functioning. Areas of comparative strength and weakness in functioning in the two subjects are suggestive of adult patterns of hemispheric specialization, despite the young age of the subjects at the time of brain damage.     

Access to attitude-relevant information in memory as a determinant of persuasion: The role of message attributes

Recipients with access to attitude-relevant information in memory were thought to draw on these beliefs and prior experiences to evaluate the validity of message arguments. Consistent with this idea, persuasion for these recipients was largely a function of the perceived validity of message content: Messages containing high-quality arguments were more persuasive than messages containing lowquality arguments, whereas variations in a structural attribute of the message (its length) proved to have little impact on opinion change. In contrast, people who tend to retrieve little attitude-relevant information were believed to be less able to evaluate the validity of message arguments in terms of information accessed from memory. Instead, it was anticipated that they would base their opinion judgments on a more superficial analysis of persuasion cues, focusing on attributes like message length. Consistent with this reasoning, these recipients were more persuaded by long than short messages. Recipients with moderate levels of retrieval functioned much like the high-retrieval subjects.     

On the nature of processes governing defensive burying of aversive flavors and odors in rats

Four experiments are reported which investigated the processes which contribute to the failure of rats to bury fluids that have acquired aversive properties through pairings with lithium chloride toxicosis. Fluids that failed to provide strong olfactory stimulation were avoided but not buried. These solutions, however, produced higher order conditioning of odor-bearing solutions which were buried readily. Various control experiments indicated that these effects depended upon the odorous qualities of the stimulus and not upon simple novelty effects or changes in gustatory stimulation. These data indicate that the inability of aversive gustatory cues to produce burying reflects a constraint on motivational or S-R learning processes.