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.     

Task performance and magnitude of goal valence

J. W. Brehm and his associates (J. W. Brehm, R. A. Wright, S. Solomon, L. Silka, & J. Greenberg, 1983, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 21–48) recently argued that the magnitude of goal valence (the attractiveness or unattractiveness of a potential outcome) varies directly with motivational arousal level. Motivational arousal, in turn, is thought to be a function of the perceived difficulty of goal attainment. This formulation was tested in the present study by examining the relationship between goal attractiveness ratings and performance on an anagram task. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law (R. M. Yerkes & J. D. Dodson, 1908, Journal of Comparative Neurological Psychology, 18, 459–482), the relationship between motivational arousal and performance should be curvilinear; optimal performance is usually observed for moderate levels of motivation relative to either low or very high motivation levels. Consistent with the Brehm et al. hypothesis, optimum performance in the present study was observed for subjects who reported moderate levels of goal attractiveness relative to subjects who reported either low or high levels of goal attractiveness. Anticipatory ratings of the difficulty of the anagrams were also congruent with the Brehm et al. model. These findings converge with data from other studies supporting the utility of goal attractiveness as an index of motivational arousal and provide an additional dimension of support for the model proposed by Brehm et al.     

Planning units and syntax in sentence production

The study was conducted to determine, first, whether it is the deep or the surface clause that is more important as a speech planning unit, and second, whether syntactic decisions are made during sentence production. Subjects, while talking, heard tones to which they had to respond by pressing a button; reaction times to these tones were taken as an index of processing load during production. It was found that there were increased RTs at the ends compared with the beginnings of deep structure clauses. No difference was found between RTs at the beginnings and ends of surface clauses not corresponding to a deep clause. The results were interpreted as showing that deep clauses are major planning units and that some planning for clauses occurs at the end of the preceding clause. Differences were found between RTs during clauses of different syntactic structure. These results were interpreted as indicating that syntax influences production and were discussed in relation to previous studies of pausing and speech disruption.     

The role of the school psychologist: Teachers'' preferences as a function of personal and professional characteristics

Teachers were surveyed concerning the importance of 12 potential roles for school psychologists (e.g., counseling, case or program consultation, community liaison, psychodiagnostics). Results showed that direct and remedial services which did not require the school psychologist to intrude on the teacher's prerogatives were in general considered to be most important. However, teachers who reported using “open education” methods were significantly more likely to value more indirect, preventive, and collaborative school psychology services than their colleagues. Grade level taught, gender, experience, and teaching specialty had virtually no effect on respondents' ratings of the school psychologist roles.