On learning and development, Piagetian style: I. A reply to Lefebvre-Pinard.

Examines the equilibration theory of Piaget (learning vs development, stage transitions) to make more explicit the methodological foundations of B. Inhelder et al (1974). In this connection, the "problem-solving" learning method used by these authors is analyzed by means of the new concept of "learning loops." Similarly, the successful equilibration learning method used by M. Lefebvre and A. Pinard (1974) is analyzed and shown to involve executive facilitation and chunking (coordination) of 2 crucial schemes. A process-structural model of conservation acquisition previously developed by the present author, and its empirical tests by R. Case (1975) and by G. M. Parkinson (1975), are used to illustrate and to empirically support the process-structural differences theoretically found between these 2 equilibration methods. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensional information facilitates the utilization of configural information: A test of the Castellan-Edgell and the Gluck-Bower models.

In 4 experiments involving learning in a probabilistic environment (a nonmetric multiple-cue probability learning environment) the authors found that utilization of relevant configural information was facilitated when any relevant dimensions were part of the relevant pattern. Relevant configural information in an environment with no relevant dimensions was as highly utilized as when the pattern contained the relevant dimension. With 2 relevant dimensions, the dimension within the relevant pattern was more highly utilized than the dimension not in the relevant pattern. Both N. J. Castellan and S. E. Edgell's (see record 1974-10165-001) hypothesis testing model and M. A. Gluck and G. H. Bower's (see record 1989-07449-001) connectionist model were unable to fit several aspects of the findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When knowing more means less: The effects of fan on metamemory judgments.

The authors used a "fan" paradigm (J. R. Anderson, 1974) to test the accessibility and competition models of metamemory using judgments of learning (JOLs). JOLs in this study reflect one's confidence level in subsequently recognizing newly learned material. The number of facts, or "fan," associated with JOL-queried concepts varied from 1 to 3 associates. Results of 3 experiments indicated that as the level of fan increased, the magnitude of JOLs decreased. This finding was observed even when the fan effect (i.e., slower recognition as number of facts increase) was attenuated on a verification task in 2 of the experiments by manipulating the organization of the multiple concepts. The results supported the competition hypothesis (T. A. Schreiber, 1998; T. A. Schreiber & D. L. Nelson, 1998) as an important determinant of JOLs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning the value of money from stochastically varying prices.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated learning of the value of money from product prices in an unfamiliar currency when the prices are proportional to quantity. In support of the second stage of a hypothesized 2-stage process of learning, Experiment 1, in which 32 undergraduates participated, shows that response times for inferences of quantity are longer when participants are presented with quantity-price pairs than when they are presented with price-quantity pairs. Experiments 2 and 3, in which 54 and 34 undergraduates participated, respectively, show that (a) stochastic price variation causes systematic errors in the learning of unit prices from quantity-price pairs as a result of judgmental regression effects and (b) in support of the 2-stage learning hypothesis, inferences of quantity are the inverse of the learned unit prices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multidimensionality of internal-external locus of control: Some additional data bearing on the validity of self-control as a third dimension.

Used hierarchical factor analysis to test the D. W. Reid and E. E. Ware (see record 1974-32481-001) hypothesis that in addition to social system control (SSC) and fatalism, self-control represents a dimension of the J. B. Rotter (see record 2011-19211-001) construct of internal vs external locus of reinforcement control. The Reid and Ware 32-item forced choice internal-external questionnaire was administered to 107 undergraduates and 779 high school students. Results reveal that both high school and university Ss differentiated 3 scales (thereby replicating the Reid-Ware analysis), but for the university Ss, self-control was a dimension of a different kind from fatalism and SSC. All 3 scales were related to a more generalized control expectancy for the high school sample. A social learning interpretation is given to explain differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social learning theory of sex differences: Imitation is alive and well.

The hypothesis that sex role development depends in part on children's tendencies to imitate same-sex individuals more than opposite-sex models is central to most theories of sex typing. Yet E. E. Maccoby and C. N. Jacklin (1974), in a review of the literature, conclude that the hypothesis has been disconfirmed. It is argued here that the research on which Maccoby and Jacklin based their conclusion is weak both methodologically and conceptually. This article presents a modified social learning theory account of the contribution of imitation to sex role development. It is suggested that children learn which behaviors are appropriate to each sex by observing differences in the frequencies with which male and female models as groups perform various responses in given situations. Furthermore, children employ these abstractions of what constitutes male-appropriate and female-appropriate behavior as models for their imitative performance. Exp I, with 48 male and 48 female 8–9 yr olds, confirmed that children engage in these processes. Exp II, with 42 male and 42 female 8-yr-olds, extended the validity of the formulation. It was shown that a child's imitation of an adult is strongly influenced by the degree to which the child believes that the adult usually displays behaviors that are appropriate to the child's sex. Present results reinstate same-sex imitation as a viable mechanism of sex role development. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A protocol illustrating a competency-based approach to cognitive therapy.

Presents a competency-based approach (CBA) that divides treatment into 9 distinct stages. These are (1) orientation, (2) basic self-observation skills (SBSs), (3) intermediate SBSs, (4) advanced SBSs, (5) hypothesis formulation and intervention planning, (6) test hypothesis and active intervention, (7) test development and alternative strategies, (8) test alternative strategies, and (9) termination. Using a CBA, clients are not allowed to move to a more advanced treatment stage until all criteria of the less advanced stage are met. The CBA seeks to reframe therapy and depathologize the process by focusing on new learning rather than unlearning. The CBA facilitates the formation of a collaborative therapeutic relationship and enhances clients' confidence in the therapeutic process and their own ability to learn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

2006 Award Winners: Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology.

The Early Career Awards, given for the first time in 1974, recognize the large number of excellent young psychologists. For purposes of this award, psychology has been divided into 10 areas: animal learning and behavior, comparative; developmental; health; cognition/human learning; psychopathology; behavioral and cognitive neuroscience; perception/motor performance; social; applied research; and individual differences. Five areas are considered each year, with areas rotated in two-year cycles. The areas considered in 2006 were animal learning and behavior, comparative; developmental; health; cognition/human learning; and psychopathology. This document lists the winners of these awards from 1974 to 2006, and provides the citations, brief profiles, and bibliographies for the 2006 recipients, Mark G. Baxter, Theodore P. Beauchaine, Angela Bryan, Seth D. Pollak, Brian J. Scholl, and Anthony D. Wagner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization hypothesis of abstract-concept learning: Learning strategies and related issues in Macaca mulatta, Cebus apella, and Columba livia.

The generalization hypothesis of abstract-concept learning was tested with a meta-analysis of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), and pigeons (Columba livia) learning a same/different (S/D) task with expanding training sets. The generalization hypothesis states that as the number of training items increases, generalization from the training pairs will increase and could explain the subjects' accurate novel-stimulus transfer. By contrast, concept learning is learning the relationship between each pair of items; with more training items subjects learn more exemplars of the rule and transfer better. Having to learn the stimulus pairs (the generalization hypothesis) would require more training as the set size increases, whereas learning the concept might require less training because subjects would be learning an abstract rule. The results strongly support concept or rule learning despite severely relaxing the generalization-hypothesis parameters. Thus, generalization was not a factor in the transfer from these experiments, adding to the evidence that these subjects were learning the S/D abstract concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The observer's temporal scope.

Comments on the article of P. E. Freedman et al (see record 1974-24406-001) in which the most basic law of learning theory, the law of effect, is explored. An attempt is made to understand how a reinforced response can be identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex, sex guilt, and contraceptive use revisited: The 1980s.

The Mosher True-False Sex-Guilt Inventory and questionnaires about sexual activity and contraceptive use were administered to a sample of 93 female college students in the 1983-1984 academic year. Comparison of this sample with comparable samples collected in the 1973-1974 and 1978-1979 academic years revealed an increase in sex guilt, a decrease in sexual activity, and an increase in the use of effective contraceptives between 1978-1979 and 1983-1984. These shifts indicate that both sexual behavior and contraceptive use returned to approximately the same level as in 1973-1974, whereas attitudes toward sex were more conservative than in either of two previous cohorts. Thus the current data provided the opportunity to test the emotional inhibition hypothesis of contraception during a period of relative sexual conservatism. The discussion deals with the relation between the personality disposition of sex guilt and trends in sexual values and behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mathematical and empirical development of a test of memory for clinical and research use.

H. Buschke (1973, 1974) described a procedure for evaluating verbal learning and memory that has been widely used clinically and in research. The procedure, however, lacks a rational basis for defining certain inherent parameters such as length of list to be learned or number of learning trials to be given. Test structure and scoring have never been standardized. In the present study, computer simulations were used to examine the procedure in terms of a mathematical learning model; optimal scoring procedures; and the effects of varying certain internal parameters such as list length, reinforcement paradigm, number of trials, and number of replications. The theoretical results obtained were applied to clinical research studies of 49 patients with primary degenerative dementia and dementia associated with alcoholism to demonstrate on a preliminary basis feasibility, reliability, and validity in the clinical research setting and to suggest strategies for structuring tests for future use in clinical research. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the complementarity hypothesis in A-B research.

Results of a study with 48 male undergraduates fail to support J. Berzin and E. Seidman's (see record 1969-13028-001) complementarity hypothesis, which predicts that it would be more beneficial to pair therapists with patients on the basis of dissimilar reactions to stress. Rather, the data tend to support the notion of greater effectiveness of "A" therapists, or the "super-A" hypothesis of G. M. Chartier and W. Weiss (see record 1974-28173-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual thinking in arts education: Homage to Rudolf Arnheim.

The influence of Arnheim's work on the author's research began with an experiment on the perception of visual balance. Two later research projects emerged from the profound influence of Arnheim's stance toward creation in the visual arts as a serious, cognitive endeavor. A series of meta-analyses were first conducted to test the claim that learning in the arts transfers to nonarts cognitive domains, but little evidence was found. Past research on the transfer hypothesis was found to be lacking because of its failure to assess learning in the parent domain. Therefore, a new research project was carried out to identify kinds of learning in the parent domain of visual arts. We identified eight thinking dispositions developed in serious visual arts classes, setting the stage for more plausible transfer studies. This study demonstrates that the visual arts inculcate basic skills in perception and cognition that exist both in the arts and sciences. All of the skills the authors describe can, with some modification, be transferred to the science laboratory. As Rudolf Arnheim has taught us, visual thinking is everywhere. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directional hypotheses for models of helping and coping using Graves's theory.

Commends the work of C. W. Graves (1966, 1970, 1974) on human biopsychosocial systems. Within Graves's system, individuals perceive themselves as alone in the overwhelming fight for survival in a threatening world where others fight back. Graves states that conflicting personality theories, schools of psychotherapy, learning theories, and conflicting views of how the world should function can be explained by assessing the systems from which they emanate. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reconsidering the support for Holland's congruence–achievement hypothesis.

Provides evidence that is used to reconsider studies that have been reported to support J. L. Holland's (1985) hypothesis that person–environment congruence relates positively to achievement. It is argued that W. E. Werner's (see record 1974-28747-001) article, which Holland (1985) cited as supporting his congruence–achievement hypothesis, says nothing about that hypothesis and that Holland's (1985) book and Holland's (see record 1968-06191-001) data support the notion that achievement orientation (not congruence) may be responsible for the positive associations that researchers have found between academic achievement and congruence. Other evidence for reconsideration of Holland's hypothesis includes the present finding of a negative relationship between the annual incomes and the conventional scores on the Occupations scale of the Self-Directed Search: A Guide to Educational and Vocational Planning of 555 female and 498 male accountants (mean age 36 yrs). It is concluded that the congruence–achievement hypothesis may not have been supported by the studies that have been reported to support it. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental developments in movement disorders: update on proposed free radical mechanisms

A possible physical explanation of the echinocyte -spheroechinocyte red blood cell (RBC) shape transformation induced by the intercalation of amphiphilic molecules into the outer layer of the RBC plasma membrane bilayer is given. The stable RBC shape is determined by the minimization of the membrane elastic energy, consisting of the bilayer bending energy, the bilayer relative stretching energy and the skeleton shear elastic energy. It is shown that for a given relative cell volume the calculated number of echinocyte spicula increases while their size decreases as the number of the intercalated amphiphilic molecules in the outer layer of the cell membrane bilayer is increased, which is in agreement with experimental observations. Further, it is show that the equilibrium difference between the outer and the inner membrane leaflet areas of the stable RBC shapes increases if the amount of the intercalated amphiphiles is increased, thereby verifying theoretically the original bilayer couple hypothesis of Sheetz and Singer (1974) and Evans (1974).     

Judging category frequency: Automaticity or availability?

Investigated 2 explanations of sensitivity to categorical frequency—that of automatic processing proposed by L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks (see record 1981-00461-001) and that of the availability heuristic put forward by A. Tversky and D. Kahneman (see record 1974-10410-001). In Exp I, with 128 undergraduates, sensitivity to category frequency was affected by instructions. Although varying retrieval time did not affect frequency sensitivity in Exp I, it was found in Exp II (with 96 undergraduates) that manipulating encoding time did. Differences in item recallability tended to support the availability heuristic hypothesis over the hypothesis of automatic processing. Results support the hypothesis that Ss use the availability heuristic to make judgments about the number of times a superordinate concept has been activated. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal memory in drug-naive, newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease. The retrieval deficit hypothesis revisited.

Objective: The retrieval deficit hypothesis on memory impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) implies a selective impairment in recall of learned material with normal encoding, retention, and recognition. This hypothesis has been challenged by new data. We have therefore investigated verbal memory and learning in a large sample of newly diagnosed, drug na?ve, non-demented patients with PD. Method: From a sample of patients with PD from the Norwegian ParkWest study, 133 PD patients and 133 controls matched on sex, age, and education were included. The California Verbal Learning Test-2 (CVLT-2) was used to assess verbal memory. Results: Patients performed significantly worse than controls on free and cued recall as well as on recognition memory. Patients used the semantic clustering learning strategy significantly less extensively than the controls and the learning slope of the PD patients was significantly less steep. There was no difference in retention when controlling for encoding. Patients did not perform better on the recognition measure or on cued recall (d-prime), as compared to free recall. Executive functions explained a substantial part of the memory deficits. Conclusions: This study suggests that memory impairment in drug na?ve early PD to a large degree is a deficit of learning/ encoding and not of retention or retrieval. An implication is that the retrieval deficit hypothesis should be moderated in its general form. Executive deficits and less extensive use of the efficient semantic clustering learning strategy had a strong impact on learning and memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A theory of criterion setting: An alternative to the attention band and response ratio hypotheses in magnitude estimation and cross-modality matching.

Discusses the attention band and response ratio hypotheses of D. M. Green and R. D. Luce (1974) and Luce and Green (1974) and notes some difficulties. An alternative hypothesis is put forward, based on a Thurstonian model for magnitude estimation in which the presented stimulus intensities are subjected to a logarithmic transformation. Response criteria are then applied to the resulting quantities to select corresponding responses. The setting and maintenance of these response criteria are accounted for by a theory of criterion setting previously developed by the present author and T. C. Williams (1984). A similar model is developed for cross-modality matching, and it is shown that these models can predict the V pattern for the coefficient of variation of response ratios, can predict the inverted V pattern for correlations between successive responses, and can account for some of the difficulties found in the literature. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)