A multivariable analysis of spatial abilities by sex

This article presents a series of studies investigating the influence of experimental factors and the personological variables of age and sex upon spatial abilities. It was hypothesized that the overall equivocal findings typical of spatial research may be partially due to the use of different factors across studies. The experimental variables of spatial factor, task demands, spatial information type, information-processing mode, and response mode were systematically manipulated across the eight studies. In each individual analysis of data collected in a specific study, no significant main effect sex differences were detected. However, when a meta-analytic review of the studies was conducted, both spatial information dimensionality and information dimensionality × spatial factor assessed proved to be influential on male and female spatial performances. Female performance was superior when the dimensionality of stimulus and response variables was invariant. Males had the advantage when dimensionality crossing was necessitated. The discrepancy between the sexes was particularly dramatic when the spatial orientation factor was tapped.     

The case of the disappearing disagreements: A reply to Yussen

S. R. Yussen (1984, Developmental Review, 4, 139–144) and I have few disagreements. The major one seems to be in what the purpose of my article (R. J. Sternberg, 1984, Developmental Review, 4, 113–138) should have been. I believe the article fulfills my own purpose, if not Yussen's.     

Why Reading? Because it's there

Three papers (V. A. Mann, Reading skill and language skill. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 1–15; G. Wolford & C. A. Fowler, Differential use of partial information by good and poor readers. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 16–35; F. J. Morrison, Reading disability: A problem in rule learning and word decoding. Developmental Review, 1984, 4, 36–47) are critiqued from the standpoint of their adequacy in advancing our understanding of a problem as complex as reading disability. Experimenters should be explicit about their guiding theoretical assumptions, and should think through the relations, if any, between their laboratory tasks and the actual processes of reading. The reading protocol of a dyslexic child is provided, and is interpreted within the frameworks of the Mann, Wolford and Fowler, and Morrison viewpoints.     

The influence of information redundancy upon the use of traits and persons as organizing categories

The following question is addressed: How do multiple, simultaneously present cognitive structures influence the representation and recall of social information? In an empirical study examining both free and cued recall, we found the variable information redundancy to influence both the organization and accuracy of subjects' recollections of trait-related behaviors. Redundancy was defined in terms of the degree of person/trait overlap in a social information ensemble. Some evidence indicated that this effect is attributable to an increase in the discriminability of the organizational structures during encoding. The implications of these findings for understanding the formation of integrated cognitive representations of individuals and the spontaneous use of traits in social information processing are discussed.     

Models of central capacity and concurrency

According to single channel theory, the ability of humans to perform concurrent mental operations is limited by the capacity of a central mechanism. The theory was developed by analogy with early computers which had a single central processing unit and required sequential processing. These limitations are not likely to be properties of the mind. But now computers have begun to employ extensive concurrent processing, because of the decreasing cost of the necessary hardware. In this review we will try to bring the computer analogy up to date. Theoretical issues important for concurrent systems may be of interest to psychologists and have applications to such problems as the speed-accuracy trade-off. Several hypotheses about the way signals gain access to the central mechanism are reviewed. Recent variations of the single channel theory are discussed, including the hypotheses that more than one process can use the central mechanism at a time, and that some processes do not use the central mechanism and can be executed concurrently with those that do. In addition, relevant concepts from scheduling theory and operating systems theory are introduced and difficulties encountered by concurrent systems, namely complexity, deadlocks, and thrashing, are discussed.     

Sensitivity in spectral structures

Invariance of matching is shown to be necessary and sufficient for the existence of sensitivity functions that are unique up to multiplication by arbitrary positive real numbers. Examples from auditory and visual psychophysics are discussed.     

A maximum likelihood hierarchical disaggregate model for predicting choices of individuals

The absence of operational disaggregate lexicographic decision models and Tversky's observation that choice behavior is often inconsistent, hierarchical, and context dependent motivate the development of a maximum likelihood hierarchical (MLH) choice model. This new disaggregate choice model requires few assumptions and accommodates the three aspects of choice behavior noted by A. Tversky (1972, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 9, 341–367). The model has its foundation in a prototype model developed by the authors. Unlike the deterministic prototype, however, MLH is a probabilistic model which generates maximum likelihood estimators of the aggregate “cutoff values.” The model is formulated as a concave programming problem whose solutions are therefore globally optimal. Finally, the model is applied to data from three separate studies where it is demonstrated to have superior performance over the prototype model in its predictive performance.     

Response mode and choice consistency: A test of unfolding theory

Coombs, Donnell, and Kirk (1978. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4, 497–512), in a study of risk preferences, collected data using both pick $\text{1}\text{3}$ and reject $\text{1}\text{3}$ response modes. Although the preference orders derived from the two response modes were identical, the pick data contained a greater number of inconsistencies than the reject data. In the present study, predictions were derived from unfolding theory (Coombs, 1964. A theory of data. New York: Wiley) regarding the relative consistency of pick and reject response modes. An experiment performed as a test of these predictions supported the unfolding model suggesting that differences in inconsistency between response modes could be attributed to the fineness of the grid of working midpoints imposed upon the choice process by the response mode.     

Item-specific and relational encoding effects in children's recall and recognition memory for words

This study tests the hypothesis that children's deficiency in encoding itemspecific and relational information in episodic events contributes to age differences in recall and recognition. In two experiments, grade school children and college adults were presented with word triplets varying in categorical relatedness. The processing of the item-specific and relational information in the triplets was independently manipulated. Experiment 1 assessed cued recall, and Experiment 2 assessed recognition of both the central target and incidental contextual members of each triplet. The results showed that the processing manipulations had independent and different effects on recall and recognition, on memory for the members of the different kinds of triplets, on the use of the retrieval cues, and on memory for target and incidental words. Developmental differences were found in both recall and recognition, and of both target and incidental words, that varied with triplet type and the processing manipulations and that were attributable to differences in the encoding of item-specific and relational information in the triplets. The discussion contrasts alternative accounts of children's encoding deficiency, and suggests that the distinction between automatic, age-invariant, and strategic age-sensitive encoding processes needs to be redrawn.