A functional measurement analysis of the development of dimensional coordination in children

The development of children's dimensional coordination was investigated using kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth grade subjects (Ages 5, 7, 9, and 11 years, respectively), and an adult sample, by means of a perceptual estimation task requiring the subjects to match in total area a stimulus rectangle to an adjustable square stimulus. The problem was formulated using information integration theory, and the procedures and techniques of functional measurement were used in the analysis. Dimensional coordination was found to develop from a stage of total centration on one dimension to a stage of total decentration with equal weighting applied to both dimensions.Contrary to extant hypotheses, the vertical dimension was not the salient dimension for single dimension centerers. Rather, the spatial axis on which the compared-objects were placed determined the displacement of attention. When this frame of reference effect was controlled, the longer of the two dimensions was the salient dimension for centering subjects.     

Transfer of compounds and components in the discriminative learning of retardates

The discriminative learning and transfer of compound and component problems were assessed in retarded subjects at two levels of intelligence. It was found that brighter subjects (MA = 10 years) found the component problems relatively easier than the compound problems to a greater extent than did the less developed subjects (MA = 5 years). The learning of compound solutions was shown to transfer positively to other compound problems and negatively to component problems. Component solutions were found to transfer positively to other component solutions and negatively to compound solutions. These dimensional transfer effects were interpreted to mean that both compound and component solutions were mediated and conceptual in nature. The developmental differences in relative usages of compound and component aspects of stimuli were viewed as the result of differences in direction of attention rather than of differences in complexity of processing.     

A test of the self-perception explanation of the effects of rewards on intrinsic interest

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that rewards undermine or enhance intrinsic interest in a task to the extent that individuals interpret their behavior as being motivated by the reward. It was predicted that when subjects were denied the opportunity to develop and confirm this attribution, rewards would not produce an undermining effect, but rather would enhance dispositions and behavior. Subjects were recruited to evaluate a new sugar-free soft drink. Two levels of incentives (reward-no reward), two levels of examination (opportunity-no opportunity), and three levels of outcome (good-neutral-poor) were employed. The results support the prediction that an incentive's effect depends on the examination opportunity. In the examination condition, rewarded subjects attributed their behavior more to external factors than did unrewarded subjects, but gave more negative product evaluations only after tasting it. In the no examination condition, there were no differences in the attributions made by rewarded and unrewarded subjects, and rewarded subjects were more positively disposed toward the product both before and after tasting it. These results are explained as a consequence of two properties of rewards, enhancement through reinforcement and undermining through discounting, and of hypothesis-testing processes.     

Social influence on attitudes and on anchoring of congeneric attitude scales

Criteria for distinguishing between attitude and response scale effects in “after-only” studies of source-recipient discrepancy were developed and applied in two experiments. These criteria refer to congeneric scales (i.e., multiple measures of the the same property, which may differ in origin, unit, and reliability). Persuasive information may function as a scale anchor, in which case it is expected to affect only that response scale to which it directly pertains. Alternatively, it may convice recipients to change attitudinal positions, and produce effects on all congeneric scales. In one experiment, the self-proclaimed leniency-sternness of a presiding judge in a manslaughter case was varied along with the sentence he imposed and his trustworthiness. In the second study, only the sentence was manipulated, while both leniency ratings and sentencing were measured as dependent variables. Both analyses revealed support for the response scale interpretation, in that effects were observed only on those scales that were directly manipulated.     

The order of continuous,partial and nonreward trials and resistance to extinction

In the first experiment rats were given either 16 or 48 nonrewarded or continuously rewarded trials prior to 24 continuously or partially rewarded trials, followed by extinction. Increased resistance to extinction was found for increasing numbers of nonrewarded trials when they were followed by partial reward, but not when followed by continuous reward. Similarly, more continuously rewarded trials followed by partial reward tended to increase resistance to extinction. Because of the theoretical importance of the effect of continuous reward followed by partial, a second experiment was performed where the range of the number of continuously rewarded trials was extended to 0, 48, and 96. Contrary to many theoretical predictions, resistance to extinction increased as a function of increasing amounts of continuous reward.     

Male-female differences in sexual fantasy

A questionnaire about thoughts and ideas during sexual activity was returned by 51 females and 50 males in a random sample of college undergraduates. A high response rate (91%) and the similar sexual experience of male and female respondents make possible a strong conclusion about the college population sampled: Males are thinking more about past experiences and current behavior, while females are thinking more of imaginary experiences. This difference occurs for thoughts during masturbation as well as for thoughts during heterosexual activity. It appears that females prefer a different kind of sexual fantasy than males, rather than being generally less interested in sexual fantasy as claimed by Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, and Gebhart (Sexual behavior in the human female, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1953).     

Prediction as a means of inducing tolerance

Female subjects were exposed individually to the attitude item responses of a similar or dissimilar stranger. They were asked either to copy down the stranger's attitudes or to predict (with accurate feedback) how the stranger answered each item. Predict subjects were found to be more tolerant of the dissimilar stranger than were Copy subjects, while both groups were equally attracted to the similar stranger. It was suggested that training people to anticipate disagreements may be a useful way of fostering tolerance.     

Effects of attack and uncontrollable noise on aggression

After being either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by an experimental confederate, male subjects shocked the confederate while being stimulated by loud noise. Among previously attacked subjects, possession of control over offset of the noise led to the delivery of shocks significantly shorter in duration than those given by subjects who did not have control. Mere predictability of noise offset did not have the same effect. Subjects who could control the noise did not differ from those who heard no noise with respect to the duration of shocks given. Noise had no effect on shock duration among nonattacked subjects. In a follow-up study subjects who were given bogus information that they were aroused by noise were less punitive toward an attacking confederate than subjects given no such information. The overall conclusion is that noise facilitates aggression in subjects who have been instigated to aggress to the degree that noise-produced arousal is misattributed to the instigating stimulus.     

Evaluation and recall of evidence: Authoritarianism and the Patty Hearst case

By using the Patricia Hearst case as the stimulus material, two experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between authoritarianism and recall of evidence. In Experiment I it was found that high authoritarians recall more prosecution evidence than defense evidence. This was not the case for the low authoritarians. Results concerning the hypothesis that high authoritarians would recall more character information than low authoritarians were equivocal. In Experiment II a trend indicating that high authoritarians draw more direct inferences from incriminating evidence than do low authoritarians or an attorney was obtained. The results are discussed in terms of previous findings, authoritarian theory, and characteristics of the Patricia Hearst case.     

Visual field differences in verbal tasks: Effects of task familiarity and sex of subject

Four experiments using normal subjects investigated differences in magnitude of the right visual field (RVF) superiority as a function of word material (frequency and concreteness/imageability status), nonword letter strings (some of which were homophonic with nonpresented real words), and type of task (overt naming or lexical decision with discriminatory manual responses) as well as sex of the subject and the subject's familiarity with the material. Both latency and error measures showed that RVF superiority was more consistent when overt naming was required and with male subjects. For female subjects engaged in lexical decisions, a left visual field (LVF) superiority was often apparent, especially in the first half of an experimental sequence; when actually naming the items aloud, they showed field asymmetries similar to males. Except from an analysis of errors, there was little evidence to support differential right hemisphere mediation of high frequency concrete/imageable materials. It is suggested that in females, right hemisphere space normally reserved for visuospatial processing may have been invaded by secondary speech mechanisms. These mechanisms appear to operate at an essentially lexical level and may act in a supportive or auxiliary capacity for difficult or unfamiliar material; they seem to be equally concerned with both phonological and graphological processing and may account for the well-known female superiority in verbal tasks and inferiority in visuospatial tasks. Other findings are discussed such as the degree of consistency of the field differences, both for the same subjects and for the same stimulus materials under different task requirements and experimental conditions.