William Nathan Schoenfeld (1915-1996): innovative scientist, inspiring teacher, relentless questioner, complicated man.

The scientific and academic contributions of the late William N. Schoenfeld (1915–1996) are large and, together with his personal qualities as a researcher, thinker, and teacher, supply the themes for this memorial essay on his work and life.     

Variables affecting establishment of schedule-induced attack on pictorial targets in White King pigeons.

White King pigeons exposed to food schedules before introduction of a colored photograph of a pigeon showed sustained schedule-induced attack on that image; additional birds given an early introduction to both the photograph and the schedule subsequently attacked the image at lower rates. Other pigeons attacked a second photograph of a pigeon regardless of whether it was introduced early or late. The late-introduction procedure was also effective in establishing attack on a projected image of a conspecific. The combined results showed that 14 of 17 White King pigeons given a late introduction to a pictorial target exhibited sustained attack against it and that a pigeon's initial reaction to a photograph of a conspecific when introduced early was a good predictor of subsequent schedule-induced attack on it.     

Beyond Secondary Gain

Research suggests that a conscious desire for external illness gain can have internal unconscious effects, in that subjective symptoms can be heightened by external reward. This mechanism can be explained on the basis of Freud’s later work, in which he mentions two types of resistance, which resemble each other — the need to be punished and the need to be ill. The concept of the need to be ill can explain why in modern society, with its established systems of support, regulations, and procedures that are conducive to illness behavior, patients who consciously strive for external gain can experience strengthening feelings of being ill and even deterioration without being aware of this process.     

Sharing is caring for developmental psychology

Many of us, especially in the more experimental tradition, are used to doing it all ourselves: we don't know better than to collect our own data for every new study. We invest considerable amounts of time and resources in designing experiments, ethical review applications, participant recruitment, finding and training measuring assistants, and writing data management plans. And after all the hard work we end up with a sample size that hardly ever meets current standards. What if we could skip, or outsource some of these study aspects, allowing us to devote more of our time, energy, expertise, and experience to data analysis, reading, writing, and theory development? We argue that sharing data, expertise, and infrastructure could contribute to improving the credibility of research results, and to practicing more sustainable developmental science. In addition, we discuss several reasons that we believe may (currently) dissuade researchers from considering such sharing.     

Solidarity across group lines: Secondary transfer effect of intergroup contact,perceived moral distance,and collective action

We tested, in three studies, whether the generalization of contact effects from primary to secondary outgroups—the secondary transfer effect (STE)—occurs for collective action. The results supported a serial mediation model: contact with immigrants by advantaged group members (Italians: Study 1, N = 146, 121 females, M_age = 28.31 years; Study 3, N = 406, 239 females, M_age = 36.35; British people, Study 2, N = 160, 113 females, M_age = 32.31) was associated with lower perceived moral distance toward primary outgroups, which in turn was associated with more positive attitudes and greater collective action intentions toward primary outgroups, and lower perceived moral distance toward secondary outgroups. Lower perceived moral distance toward secondary outgroups and stronger collective action intentions toward the primary outgroup were associated with higher collective action intentions toward secondary outgroups (results were inconsistent for attitudes). We discuss the findings with a focus on how a consideration of perceived moral distance extends current theorizing, and the relevance of generalized prejudice for the STE.     

Secondary generalization and categorization in pigeons

In Experiment 1, one group of pigeons learned to classify a set of stimuli into the human language classes cat, flower, car, and chair (categorization); another group learned to classify the same set into arbitrary classes (pseudocategorization). Then, both groups were trained on a new categorization task and their performance compared to that of a control group that had no initial classification training. Hull's (1943) notion of secondary generalization (generalization that is not based on physical similarity but on mediating associations) predicts that categorization experience will facilitate the learning of a new categorization task, whereas pseudocategorization experience will impair it. However, in Experiment 1, performance on the new categorization task was not differently affected by prior experience. In Experiment 2, pigeons initially trained to classify a set of 48 stimuli (original training) were later trained to classify a subset of four of these stimuli using new responses (reassignment training). Then, they were tested on the 44 remaining stimuli. Performance better accorded with original than with reassignment training, indicating that categorization training did not lead to the formation of equivalence classes of stimuli, in which the equivalence relationship is mediated by secondary generalization. The lack of evidence of secondary generalization implies that our pigeons failed to meet Lea's (1984) criterion for conceptual behavior.     

Bifactor Models of Personality and College Student Performance: A Broad Versus Narrow View

Research in the area of personality traits and academic performance has been supported by consistent meta‐analytic evidence demonstrating positive relationships between Conscientiousness and grade point average (GPA). However, academic performance is not solely a function of GPA but also a number of other important intellectual, interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviours. This wider criterion space opens up the possibility for many personality factors and their underlying facets to relate to academic performance. Using bifactor latent variable modelling, the current study investigates the six‐factor HEXACO model of personality, along with their 24 underlying facets, for predicting students' academic performance. Model results reveal interpretable and meaningful relationships between both broad factors and narrow personality facets in predicting college student outcomes. Implications for measurement, modelling and prediction are discussed. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

教师职业认同与情感承诺的关系：工作满意度的中介作用

基于社会认同理论,采用教师职业认同量表、工作满意度量表和情感承诺问卷对234名中学教师进行调查,考察教师职业认同与情感承诺的关系,以及工作满意度在这一关系中的中介作用。结果表明：（1）职业认同、工作满意度和情感承诺均呈显著正相关;（2）职业认同可以正向显著地直接预测情感承诺,同时又通过工作满意度的中介作用对情感承诺产生间接的预测作用。     

Conceivability and possibility

We often decide whether a state of affairs is possible (impossible) by trying to mentally depict a scenario (using words, images, etc.) where the state in question obtains (or fails to obtain). These mental acts (broadly thought of as ‘conceiving’) seem to provide us with an epistemic route to the space of possibilities. The problem this raises is whether conceivability judgments provide justification-conferring grounds for the ensuing possibility-claims (call this the ‘conceivability thesis’). Although the question has a long history, contemporary interest in it was, to a large extent, prompted by Kripke's utilization of modal intuitions in the course of propounding certain influential theses in the philosophy of language and mind. The interest has been given a further boost by the recent two-dimensional approach to the Kripkean framework. In this paper, I begin by providing a detailed examination of a most recent attempt (due to Chalmers) to defend the thesis and argue that it is unsuccessful. This is followed by presenting my own gloss on Kripke's explanation of the illusions of contingency and I close by raising a general problem intended to undermine the prospects for a successful defense of the thesis.     

Peer Aggression by Secondary School Learners in a South African School Setting: Effects of Race,Ethnicity, and Gender

This study reports the experience of aggression by secondary school learners attending a South African school. There were 14 participants ranging in age from 16 to 19 years (Gender: 6 young women and 8 young men; Ethnicity: 7 Black; 3 Coloured; 2 Indian and 2 White). Data were collected using open ended interviews and analysed using Tesch's (1990) thematic panning method. The findings suggest these learners have little understanding or appreciation of diversity in their multicultural schools. Consequently, they experience negative interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. The accompanying aggression they experience and display has racial and gender overtones that are shaped by the violence in their communities.