Types produce types—Especially fathers

Employing a larger sample and a more stringent statistical criterion, this study replicated an attempt by T. G. Grandy and R. F. Stahmann (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1974, 5, 231–239.) to test Holland's hypothesis that parents' personality types foster similar offspring personality development. The relationships between paternal and offspring personality types were consonant with the findings of Grandy and Stahmann but the role of maternal personalities remained unclear. An explanation was offered that fathers' personality types carry more weight in the development of offspring types.     

Comparative judgments with numerical reference points

A model of subjective magnitude comparisons is explored, which assumes that subjects compare symbolic stimulus magnitudes with respect to a reference point. The reference point may be established implicitly by the question (e.g., “Which is larger?” vs “Which is smaller?”) or be presented explicitly (e.g., “Choose the stimulus closer to X.”). The model was tested in five experiments in which subjects judged which of two comparison digits was closer to (or further from) a reference digit. Regression analyses in three experiments revealed that reaction time depended on the ratio of the distances from the comparison items to the reference point. The other two experiments provided evidence that subjects can strategically vary the processes by which they compare stimuli to a reference point. The results indicated that subjects can perform various types of “analog arithmetic” using either the linear number scale or a nonlinear scale of subjective digit magnitude.     

The interpretation of universal affirmative propositions

It is proposed that All F are G is often given a ‘structure-neutral’ interpretation, as All, F, G, lacking a subject-predicate distinction. In the first experiment, children aged 6–7–8, and 11–12, and adults, acted out instructions like “Make a building in which all the yellow blocks are square”. The experiment demonstrated the dominance in children and decline with age of structure-neutral interpretations. In a second experiment, with the same age groups, propositions of the form All F are G, varying as to the factual inclusion relations expressed, were presented as the major premises of syllogistic items. The results indicated the presence of structure-neutral interpretations under some circumstances in adults as well as children, and also demonstrated the existence in all subjects of a ‘pragmatic processing’ mode that becomes less obligatory with age. In pragmatic interpretations, meaning is determined by previously known factual relations between the things which the words represent, rather than by grammatical relations between the words themselves.     

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.