Compounds,confounds, and models in developmental information processing: A reply to Trabasso and Foellinger

A point by point examination of Trabasso and Foellinger's paper shows their criticisms of my 1970 work to be based on errors of fact (regarding the data I reported) and errors of method (regarding proper procedures for model evaluation). Factual errors are refuted by summarizing crucial data reported in 1970 but ignored by my critics. Errors of method are refuted by contrasting my $\text{CSVI}\text{BE}$ model and data with Trabasso and Foellinger's model and data in the light of the scientific epistemology of model evaluation. The issues of “general” versus “local” models, their “empirical scope,” “number of empirical parameters,” and “simplifying assumptions” are examined. Five ways of evaluating models are distinguished, and in all five my 1970 model is shown to be superior to that of Trabasso and Foellinger. The 1970 data (in light of the controls built into the CSVI task) and new unreported data exhibiting developmental step functions confirm the model of a developmental growth of M (mental energy, working memory), which occurs concurrently with and independently from the growth of executive/control structures. Executive growth alone cannot explain the obtained results.     

Self-instructions as discriminative cues for rule-breaking or rule-following

This experiment examined the relationship between self-instructions and subsequent instruction-following performance, as a function of the history of the consequences for correspondence or noncorrespondence. Subjects were two groups of elementary school children (ages 7 and 8 years). In training, the two groups were exposed to different histories of congruence or noncongruence between self-instructions and consequences for performance. In the Congruent group, subjects were exposed to a series of stimuli to which they were trained to give self-instructions to make, or not to make, a key-pressing response. Reinforcement was given for self-instructing, and responding in accord with the self-instruction. Subjects in the Noncongruent group were trained to give the same self-instructions for the same stimuli, but reinforcement was given for counter-compliance. Subsequently, in a temptation situation, the experimenter gave an instruction not to press for a test stimulus; and subjects were trained to give the inhibitory self-instruction for this stimulus. Subjects in the Noncongruent group showed a high rate of rule-breaking. The effects on behavior of self-delivered instructions depend on the past relations between these events and the consequences for instruction-following. Implications are discussed for moral behavior and cognitively oriented therapy.     

Acquiring principles of semantic organization

One hundred and forty third and seventh grade children (ages 9 and 13 years) learned familiar animal terms organized and presented either hierarchically, in lists, or randomly. Following multitrial free recall of list items, subjects performed four sorting tasks with the same item set to test for transfer of the organizational principles employed in the original learning. A no-training group at each level also sorted. There was a training effect at both grade levels on the sorting tasks. Groups receiving structured presentations had essentially learned a new lexical organization for the items. As expected, older children applied the learned structures more spontaneously and more accurately than younger children in the same conditions. The importance of a transfer task in assessing changes in subjective organization is stressed.     

Newborns' central vision: Whole or hole?

We studied visual detection in 150 infants, 1- to 7-days old, by presenting single lines varying in width and location. We found that newborns detected a line only 8′ wide in the central visual field. Peripherally, they appeared to detect lines of 33′, 33′, and 1°6′ at 10°, 20°, and 30°, respectively. Thus, both the central retina and the peripheral retina appear to function at birth.     

Training the disturbed enuretic

Twenty-two disturbed enuretic children were treated for their bedwetting with training procedures. Eighteen of 22 (81.8%) reached the initial success criterion in an average of 57.5 days. Ten of the 18 (55.6%) met the retraining criteria of relapse, and 9 of the relapses were successfully retrained, while I stopped wetting spontaneously. As compared to non-relapsed children, relapsed children had a significantly higher number of initial symptoms checked. The results indicate that a training approach is effective for the treatment of enuresis in disturbed children, but the more disturbed have a greater likelihood of relapse.     

Quasi-statistical inference in rating behavior I. Preliminary investigations

Bem and Allen (1974) have suggested that trait consistency-ratings can function as a moderator variable, with regard to the cross-situational validity of trait position-ratings. The present study attempts to consider the relationship between these two types of self-ratings. A model of “man the quasi-statistician” was proposed which yields the predictions that (a) consistency-ratings will vary positively with the polarization-estimate from position-ratings and (b) the extent of correlation will be a function of the degree of polarization associated with a given class of trait.In two experiments, position-ratings and consistency-ratings were obtained over a series of dimensions. The predictions were confirmed in both studies. In addition, Experiment II provided evidence for a correspondence between intuitive and formal estimates of central tendency polarization, although this was not the case for dispersion. The results were discussed as bearing on the model and as relating to the findings of Bem and Allen (1974).     

Interhemispheric functional relationships in auditory agnosia : An analysis of the preconditions and a conceptual model

A statistical analysis revealed the following concerning auditory agnosia. (1) Bilateral temporal lobe lesions prevailed; in a minority of cases unilateral lesions were verified. (2) The syndrome occurred as a result of repeated insults. (3) There was a statistically significant correlation between the side of the first insult and the predilective type of the syndrome, i.e., agnosia preferably for linguistic with respect to nonlinguistic material. On the basis of these results we discuss the principle of contralateral compensation and the hypothesis of lesional interference. In doing so a conceptual model of interhemispheric functional relationships is developed. We made use of a set theory-oriented interpretation of Kinsbourne's “attention-model” (M. Kinsbourne, 1970, Acta Psychologica 33, 193–201).     

Defensiveness, intimacy, and heterosexual attraction

A previous study by Dion and Dion (1975) revealed that highly defensive individuals were less likely to report having experienced romantic love than less defensive persons. The hypothesis that this finding might reflect differential reactions to interpersonal intimacy was directly examined in the present study using a self-disclosure paradigm. To assess subjects' defensiveness, undergraduate women first completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. In a second session, subjects were exposed to high and low disclosing targets of the same and opposite sex and chose discussion topics for each target. On intimacy of self-disclosure, a “reciprocity effect” occurred: subjects chose more intimate topics for high vs low-disclosing targets. However, highly defensive women gave a less favorable self-presentation to male vs female targets. They also expressed less liking for high compared to low intimate targets and males vs females than less defensive subjects. The implications of these results for heterosexual attraction were discussed.     

Unclogging the bogus pipeline: A critical reanalysis of the Cherry,Byrne, and Mitchell study

The assignment of subjects to conditions on the basis of social desirability scores could not have been done in the manner described by Cherry, Byrne, and Mitchell (Journal of Research in Personality, 1976, 10, 69–75). Even if subject assignment procedures were not challenged the data do not support the authors' conclusions. Additional statistical analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses of the original study. It is concluded that either the demand cue manipulation was not successful or else paper-and-pencil and bogus pipeline measurement procedures are equally reliable measurement devices for the attitude similarity effect.     

Recall and recognition of order and item information in probed running memory, as a function of IQ

Two experiments were designed to test the possibility that correlations between IQ and probed serial running memory depend on IQ-related individual differences in the retention of order information in short-term memory. In Experiment I, correlations were obtained regardless of whether instructions emphasized serial recall or free recall. In Experiment II, a significant correlation between IQ and performance was obtained in a recognition test for very recent item information, but not in a recognition test for very recent order information. These data together with a theoretical analysis of the operations involved in the tasks, led to the conclusion that the correlations reflected individual differences in the capacity to access specified sets of items in very short-term memory.