Judging psychopathology: Expectation and contrast

An experiment was performed to assess the role of expectations in psychosocial contrast effects. Subjects were initially presented with a series of word definitions that were either high or low pathology; their task was to indicate those definitions that had been produced by schizophrenic (vs nonschizophrenic) patients. After this “induction” series, subjects were presented with a common “test” series that included both definitions and handwriting samples; they evaluated the degree of psychopathology that was implied by each item. Some subjects were required to state their expectations in connection with the test items. First they attempted to guess the percentage of schizophrenics in the overall test series; second, before being presented with each test item, they guessed whether the patient in question was (or was not) schizophrenic. Subjects' expectations were consistent with the induction series to which they were assigned; those assigned to the high-pathology induction expected the test series to include more schizophrenic patients than those in the low-pathology group. Nonetheless, despite these expectations, subjects showed a contrast effect in their evaluations of the test definitions (but not in evaluating the handwriting samples). That is, subjects from the low-pathology induction group rated the test definitions as being more pathological than did those in the high-pathology condition. Within-group correlations indicated that the subjects' expectations were directly related to subsequent judgments. A two-path model is discussed, relating (a) the respondents' induction group assignment, (b) his/her expectations, and (c) subsequent test judgments.     

Mental age and cognitive stage in young handicapped and at-risk children

This research addressed the question of whether stage-related patterns of early cognitive development, reported for normally developing children in the first two and a half years of life, may also characterize the development of at-risk and handicapped children when mental age rather than chronological age is used to organize the data. Performance on a psychometric infant test and two neo-Piagetian-based stage measures was assessed for 95 at-risk and handicapped children. Mental age predicted cognitive level of performance for levels 1 to 3, representing the first year and a half of development, but did not predict the highest level, symbolic functioning. In addition, transition points between levels were observed at mental ages similar to the chronological ages when these transitions have been reported for normally developing infants, for all but the last level. The significance of the correspondence between the psychometric measure and the stage measures is discussed and several alternatives for the breakdown at the highest level are considered.     

Absence of a sex difference in algorithms for spatial problem solving

Pairs of stimuli taken from a pscyhometric measure of spatial aptitude were shown to 36 college men and 32 college women. The stimuli in pairs were (a) either identical or mirror images, and (b) presented in orientations that differed by 0–135 deg. Individuals judged, as rapidly as possible, if the stimuli in a pair would be identical or mirror images if presented at the same orientation. Replicating previous work, there was a sex difference in the speed with which problems were solved. Of greater interest was the fact that men and women were quite alike in the frequency with which they used different algorithms to solve the problems. Most individuals solved the problems using an algorithm in which an individual encodes the stimuli in working memory, mentally rotates one stimulus to the orientation of the other, compares both determine if they are identical, and responds. Two variants of this algorithm were also used by some subjects. In one variant, if comparison revealed that the stimuli were dissimilar, individuals did not respond immediately but continued processing until a self- imposed deadline was reached. In another variation, subjects only rotated the comparison stimuli when their orientations exceeded a critical angle.     

Jensen's reaction-time investigations of intelligence: A critique

Jensen has reported a series of reaction-time studies which lead him to conclude that various parameters correlate significantly with IQ. Certain of these parameters are especially emphasized because of their theoretical background and the resulting theoretical light they shed upon the nature of intelligence. Two of the lime-lighted parameters are slope of RT across set size and increasing correlations of RT with IQ as set size increases. I review these studies in detail. I conclude that Jensen's claims are unwarranted. There are many difficulties in his approach that cover the entire gamut from method to data to theory. Some original reseach of my own is reported to illustrate the methodological problems with Jensen's procedure. The data that he alludes to often do not support his claims. The theory that he applies does not fit his paradigm. My conclusion: such research is not easy.     

The effects of verbal feedback and listener type on the speech of preschool children

The present study simultaneously assessed the relative contributions of feedback indicative of comprehension and the apparent age of the listener, either an adult or a doll which resembled a toddler, in a 2 (listeners) × 2 (types of feedback, C = comprehension, NC = noncomprehension) design. Two groups of children, a 3-year-old (N = 13, 7 boys, 6 girls) and a 5-year-old group (N = 12, 6 boys, 6 girls) were asked to tell stories to both the adult and doll in both C and NC conditions. The doll was constructed with an internal speaker such that it could actually carry on a conversation with the children. The conversations were taped, transcribed, and scored for mean length of utterance (MLU), transitional utterance length to each C and NC signal, and the proportion of child questions, exact self-repetitions, repetition and reductions, and rephrases/elaborations. The data analysis revealed that all children appropriately modified the length of their utterances (MLU) in the doll condition but not in the adult condition, indicating that they were sensitive to both the feedback and the nature of their listeners. Older children were more likely than younger children, and girls more likely than boys to adjust the length of their utterances appropriately to each type of feedback, slightly increasing the length of the subsequent utterance to a C signal and decreasing the length to an NC signal. The younger children were also more likely to respond with a simple repetition to NC cues from the adult.     

Proofreading errors in good and poor readers

Seven-year-old children classified as good and poor readers carried out a proofreading task on two passages varying in level of difficulty. Misspellings were introduced by transposing two adjacent letters in the work "the," other three-letter words, and longer words. While both groups of readers were able to identify the correct spelling of the misspelled words on a spelling test, poor readers made significantly more proofreading errors. Word length had a significant effect on performance, indicating that sensitivity to word configuration is important for successful proofreading. The pattern of proofreading errors did not reflect underlying differences which might relate to strategies used by the two groups in normal reading. The results are compared with those from other proofreading and letter detection experiments in order to highlight methodological implications when such tasks are used to verify hypotheses concerned with normal reading strategies.     

Carbon monoxide levels and rates of consumption after changing to low tar and nicotine cigarettes

Studies which have examined low tar and nicotine (LT/LN) cigarette smoking have failed, for the most part, to assess adequately the long-term effects of these cigarettes. Most studies have been short-term laboratory investigations of nicotine regulation. More practical strategies for changing to LT/LN cigarettes have largely been ignored. The present study examined long-term changes in smoking patterns following the gradual introduction of LT/LN cigarette smoking. Predicted increases in reported rates of consumption as well as carbon monoxide (CO) levels were not found for most smokers following changes to LT/LN cigarettes. Generally, smokers showed decreased rates of consumption, and a majority had lower CO levels at the end of treatment and during follow-up. Thus, LT/LN cigarette smoking would appear to be an alternative treatment goal for risk reduction in individuals who cannot stop smoking.     

Procedural knowledge versus fact retrieval in mental arithmetic: A reply to Baroody

Based on a review of reaction time studies, a model of mental arithmetic performance which emphasizes the process of fact retrieval from organized memory representations was proposed (M. H. Ashcraft, Developmental Review, 1982, 2, 213–236). In contrast to this view A. J. Baroody (Developmental Review, 1983, 3, 225–230) proposes that most mental arithmetic performance depends on procedural knowledge such as rules, heuristics, and principles. While Baroody's idea is both intriguing and potentially important, its exposition is quite vague and speculative. Without concrete suggestions as to the nature of the proposed rules and heuristics, especially for routine problems like 4 + 3 and 8 × 5, Baroody's proposal appears to be pertinent only to special cases like N + 0 and N + 1. Lacking this sort of elaboration, the alternative does not provide a useful or compelling explanation of the existing Chronometric results, and seems, at best, to be premature.     

Job satisfaction related to tested congruence and differentiation

Tested personality-environment congruence and differentiation, singly and in combination, as measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (J. L. Holland, Palo Alto, California, Consulting Psychologists Press, 1977b), were predictive of reported job satisfaction for teachers employed in five subject matter areas. Time-related variables and sex were not significantly related to the job satisfaction measure used in the study.     

Modality-specific interference with overt mediation by pigeons in a delayed discrimination task

Pigeons were trained on a delayed discrimination task in which they were rewarded for pecking a white terminal stimulus (TS) presented 5 sec after a green initial stimulus (IS) and for not pecking the white TS when it followed a red IS. Each bird bridged the memory interval (MI) with overt mediational behaviors. Nevertheless, sustained retroactive interference (RI) effects were produced by houselight illumination (Experiments 1 and 3), and mild shock pulses (Experiment 5) but not white noise (Experiment 2) presented during the MI. Although the magnitude of the light-induced RI effect was proportional to the duration of houselight illumination (Experiment 4), the beginning-end effect described by W. A. Roberts and D. S. Grant (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1978, 4, 219–236) was not observed. These results not only attest to the between-task robustness of both light-induced RI and modality-specific effects with pigeons, but also support the hypothesis that RI effects result from the disruption of mediational activities possibly analogous to rehearsal. The results further demonstrate that an event interpolated within the MI need not be unexpected or novel to produce RI. Furthermore, the interpolated event can produce modality-specific RI effects even though it effects a different sense than do the IS and TS.