Some relations of general intelligence and selective attention

General intelligence may set structural feature limitations on three aspects of selective attention: direction, adjustability, and breadth. Amiable hypotheses considered are that subjects of varying intelligence may (1) have some partially fixed tendencies to look at different dimensions of stimuli, (2) have varying rates of adjusting their direction of attention, and (3) have varying upper limits on breadth of attention for tasks demanding it. Data, theory, and methods bearing on these hypotheses were reviewed from the domain of visual discrimination learning.     

Internal-External Control and beliefs about automobile travel

It was hypothesized that the Internal-External Locus of Control dimension (Rotter, 1966) would predict reported feelings about automobile travel and attribution of responsibility for automobile accidents. Relative to Externals, Internals were found (a) to attribute responsibility for automobile accidents more to internal, controllable causes; (b) to report less anxiety when travelling via automobile; (c) to report wearing seatbelts more often; and (d) to experience automobile travel as more interesting and involving.     

Interaction of stimulus dimensions in concept and choice processes

Four major types of interaction of stimulus dimensions based on perceptual research are described: integral, configural, separable, and asymmetric separable. Implications of these interactions for concept and choice processes are discussed. With regard to concept learning, it is argued that integral or configural interactions are desirable within the set of relevant and within the set of irrelevant dimensions used to generate stimuli, but that relevant dimensions should be separable from irrelevant dimensions. With regard to choice processes, integral or configural dimensions produce choices based on ordinary distance relations or equivalent parallel processing of dimensions. With separable dimensions, however, serial processing is at least possible; and such processing can lead to choices in which the subset of stimuli and the order of processing of dimensions affects the choice outcomes.     

Cognition in music

A cognitive/constructive view of music is put forth that diverges from traditional conceptions of music (e.g., music as sound; music as behavior; music as communication). The present view attempts to be compatible with the evidence of historic style changes that have occurred in the notated repertory of Western music. Two levels of cognitive processing are proposed: processes on the level of particular styles (germane to a certain period, culture, or community) and processes that are generic, universal, or cross-stylistic. Twelve such generic processes are described in detail. Several problems in the research stemming from earlier definitions of music are explored. In particular, attention is given to the artifacts of theoretical analysis (e.g., scales, chords, and discrete pitches) and their influence on music-psychological research.     

POLITICS: Automated ideological reasoning

POLITICS is a system of computer programs which simulates humans in comprehending and responding to world events from a given political or ideological perspective. The primary theoretical motivations were: (1) the implemention of a functional system which applies the knowledge structures of Schank and Abelson (1977) to the domain of simulating political belief systems; (2) the development of a tentative theory of intentional goal conflicts and counterplanning. Secondary goals of the POLITICS project include developing a representation for belief systems, investigating cognitive processes such as goal-directed inferencing, and the integration of several types of knowledge representations into a functional system.