The effect of attending to feeling on memory for internally generated stimuli

The present experiments examined the effects of self-focus, as produced by focusing on feelings, on memory. In an initial experiment subjects did complex mental arithmetic significantly faster after self-focus. Because complex mental addition involves internally generated stimuli, the remaining experiments compared the effects, on memory, of self-focus on internally generated stimuli to the effect of self-focus on stimuli supplied by the experimenter. In a second experiment, self-focus facilitated memory for digits recalled in reverse order but not for digits when recalled in the given order. In a third experiment, self-focus facilitated the memory for the classification of digits but not for the digits themselves. In a fourth and fifth experiment, self-focus aided memory for classification of objects into categories such as small, medium, or large but did not aid memory for the objects themselves. In general, improved performance due to feeling focus was attributed to the role that self-focus may play in increasing attention to internally generated stimuli.     

Effects of knowledge that attributions will be observed by others

The current study was conducted to determine if attribution statements would be affected by subjects' knowledge that their attributions of success or failure would be observed by an opposite-sex peer. At the time subjects recorded their attributions, half of them anticipated that their attributions would soon be observed in their presence by an opposite-sex peer, while the other half recorded their attributions anonymously. Results indicated that attributions of success and failure were affected by the social context. Observed subjects evidenced less tendency to attribute their failure to low ability than did nonobserved subjects. Subjects who succeeded on an identity-relevant task reported higher ability attributions under observation conditions than under nonobservation conditions. Observed subjects evidenced significantly greater willingness to attribute failure to lack of effort than did nonobserved subjects. For a task intended to be of minimal relevance to subjects' identities, nonobserved subjects attributed failure to task difficulty to a significantly greater degree than did observed subjects. Results were discussed in relation to Bradley's contention that self-serving biases in attribution can usefully be conceptualized as strategic self-presentations.     

A study of hyperlexia

Twelve children with early intense reading and superior word recognition skills coupled with disordered language and cognitive behavior are described. Cognitive, linguistic, and reading measures evidenced a generalized cognitive deficit in forming superordinate schemata which was not specific to visual or auditory modalities. Positive family histories for reading problems were present for 11 of the 12 children, suggesting a relationship between hyperlexia and dyslexia.     

A different form of agraphia: Syntactic writing errors in patients with motor speech and movement disorders

Three patients are described who displayed syntactic writing errors in combination with a motor speech disturbance and impaired motor limb function. Two of the patients had bulbar amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Agraphia appeared when verbal communication was no longer possible. Autopsy in one patient disclosed only lesions consistent with ALS. The third patient had palilalia and chorea and, although not aphasic, his written language showed persistent syntactic errors. We hypothesize that the agraphia in these patients occurred because of the combination of disordered feedback from the motor speech apparatus and limbs.     

Biasing evaluations to appear unbiased: A self-presentational paradox

Subjects interviewed a confederate posing as a job applicant. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, half the subjects were insulted by the confederate at the end of the interview and half were not insulted. Half the subjects were observed by the experimenter during the final phase of the interview and evaluated the confederate publicly. The remaining subjects were unobserved during the interview and evaluated the confederate anonymously. As predicted, subjects who were publicly insulted were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects who were privately insulted. Within the public/insult condition, subjects scoring high on Snyder's (1974, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526–537) self-monitoring scale were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects scoring low on this scale. The positivity bias occurred only on highly subjective ratings, which are most prone to the appearance of bias. The results are discussed in terms of the subjects' desire to avoid the appearance of bias by biasing their evaluations.     

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.     

Attending to feelings and cognitive performance

The effect on cognitive performance of attending to internally generated stimuli was examined. Specifically, the effect of examining feelings and sensations upon performance in the Stroop test and upon the performance of mental addition was measured. In two initial experiments subjects more quickly named, in the Stroop test, the color of the ink (“red”) in which a color word (“green”) was printed following instructions to attend to their feelings. It was found that this facilitation was due in part to the slowing of the automatic, interfering habit of reading for word meanings. In a third experiment, the effect of attending to physical sensations on the back of the hand was found to have a similar facilitating effect and was seen as resulting from the allocation of attention to internally generated stimuli. In a final experiment, attending to feelings and to the physical sensations on the back of the hand was found to increase speed of mental addition. This effect was attributed to increased attention to internally generated stimuli (here knowledge about the arithmetic performance at the moment).     

Performance expectancies and affect associated with outcomes as a function of time perspective

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of time perspective on performance expectancies and the subjective evaluation of outcomes in regard to a task at which subjects had previously succeeded or failed. Prior research has produced conflicting findings on the subjective evaluation of positive and negative outcomes, but some of the research has dealt with tangible rewards and punishments while other work has been concerned with performance outcomes involving tasks with which subjects were unfamiliar. In the current study subjects first succeeded or failed on either an easy or difficult task. They then stated performance expectancies and made evaluations of the affect associated with success and failure in regard to performing the task again immediately, in 3 wk, or in 21 wk. Results indicated a significant decrease over time for both the satisfaction associated with passing and the dissatisfaction associated with failure. Performance expectancies were significantly higher for the testing period of 21 wk in the future than for either the immediate or 3-wk testing period, but this difference was evidenced only for subjects who initially passed the test.     

Effect of locus of control,expectancy confirmation-disconfirmation,and type of goal on causal attributions of failure

Two experiments demonstrated interactive effects between locus of control and expectancy confirmation-disconfirmation in determining attribution of failure. Experiencing an expected versus an unexpected failure significantly influenced the performance attributions of internals but not externals. The first experiment also demonstrated an interaction between locus of control and type of performance goal (self-determined versus other-determined) in determining failure attribution. When the performance goal was other-determined, there were significant differences between internals and externals in their attributions of failure, but these differences did not materialize when the performance goals were selfdetermined, in the absence of any externally defined standard. Interpretation of results focused on the differences between internals and externals in regard to information processing and certain cognitive characteristics as they are related to the attribution of outcomes.     

Simple and complex mental addition across development

Students in Grades 1, 4, 7, and 10 were timed as they solved simple and complex addition problems, then were presented similar problems in an untimed interview. A manipulation of confusion between addition and multiplication, in which multiplication answers were given to addition problems (3 + 4 = 12), revealed evidence for the hypothesized interrelatedness of these operations in memory only in 10th graders. The overall pattern of results suggests a strong reliance on memory retrieval, even in the first-grade group, with discernible time differences when “procedural” knowledge of carrying is required for problem solution. The results were judged consistent with a fact retrieval model which invokes explicit procedural information when problem difficulty is high or when processes like carrying and estimating magnitudes are required. In agreement with several other reports, the overall slowing of performance to larger problems is best explained in terms of normatively defined problem difficulty or associative strength in memory.