Ambiguity and anxiety.

The hypothesis was that anxiety as a momentary state is related to ambiguity or "structuredness" as measured objectively or perceived by the patient. 20 patients were given ambiguous interviews, and 20 patients structured interviews. "Structuredness" was rated from recordings of the interviews and from the patients reactions. 5 different measures of anxiety were measured. 4 of the 5 correlated significantly with "objective structuredness" and 2 of the 5 with structure as the patient perceived it. (32 ref.) From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1HK65D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The joy buzzer in experimentation.

This article describes a novel piece of psychological apparatus recently used in a human factors study relating to the evaluation of a weapons system: the joy buzzer. The use of this novel piece of apparatus proved most successful for the problem under investigation. No doubt, there are many similar applications for the use of the joy buzzer in the field of applied psychology. It is hoped that other novel pieces of instrumentation will be similarly revealed for use in psychological experimentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity in the MMPI.

MMPI items were rated for ambiguity on a 5-point scale and were also answered under standard instructions by male and female introductory psychology students. Lower ambiguity ratings of female Ss were interpreted in terms of role or habit patterns of females in our culture. Mean ambiguity values for selected MMPI scales revealed high ambiguity for both sexes, independent of order effects, for items keyed on the K, Pd, Pt, Ma, and Welsh A scales, and low ambiguity for items on the L, F, Hs, Mf, and Welsh R scales. Significant intercorrelations were found between total ambiguity scores of individual Ss and scores on Hs, Si, and Sc, with a negative relationship between ambiguity and K. These results suggest a relationship between ego control and perceived ambiguity in the items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity and verbal fluency in the TAT.

15 TAT cards, divided into low-, medium-. and high-ambiguity groups, were administered to 30 female nursing students. Stimulus ambiguity, defined in terms of variability of themes evoked by a given card, was found to be associated with hesitant and disrupted speech. These findings are explained in terms of the mediating role of uncertainty on speech. An adaptation effect was noted. The later, as opposed to the earlier stories, are associated with a longer reaction time, but fewer "ah's," less silence, and a quicker articulation rate. Finally, significant differences are noted between Ss' verbal fluency indexes, based on all 15 cards and thus independent of stimulus ambiguity, and verbal fluency indexes obtained in an interview situation. These differences are discussed in terms of monological vs. dialogical speech. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Actions and Affordances in Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution.

In 2 experiments, eye movements were monitored as participants followed instructions containing temporary syntactic ambiguities (e.g., "Pour the egg in the bowl over the flour"). The authors varied the affordances of task-relevant objects with respect to the action required by the instruction (e.g., whether 1 or both eggs in the visual workspace were in liquid form, allowing them to be poured). The number of candidate objects that could afford the action was found to determine whether listeners initially misinterpreted the ambiguous phrase ("in the bowl") as specifying a location. The findings indicate that syntactic decisions are guided by the listener's situation-specific evaluation of how to achieve the behavioral goal of an utterance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A paradigm for classroom experimentation.

"The substantial, continual assistance to researching teachers can be augmented somewhat by in-service training concerning principles of design and analysis." In the Laboratory of Experimental Design of the Department of Educational Psychology at the university, the assisting process is conceptualized in 10 sequential steps, each of which is described briefly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue discovery in probabilistic environments: Uncertainty and experimentation.

It is argued that cue discovery is an important part of the task of learning from experience in probabilistic environments. Cue discovery involves the identification of new valid predictive cues, and their incorporation into the learner's mental model. In contrast, previous work in "multiple-cue probability learning" has focused principally on learning the quantitative characteristics of given cue–criterion relations. In two studies presented here, 36 college students learned to predict the behavior of a computer-controlled graphic display. The criterion behavior was a function of four to six cues, including several not explicitly identified. Analyses of test results, verbal reports, and behavior during learning indicate that subjects used outcome feedback to accomplish cue discovery. This process was accomplished more effectively when subjects were permitted to experiment by designing their own learning experiences. A distinction is drawn between a system whose behavior is unpredictable because of the presence of unknown controlling variables, and one that contains "random" error. Cue discovery may be more difficult in the latter case, but is accomplished nonetheless. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity and context processing in human predictive learning.

Two experiments explored the role of ambiguity on context processing by using relative stimulus validity designs in human predictive learning. Two groups of participants were trained with 2 stimulus compounds (XY and XZ). In Group TD (true discrimination), compound XY was always followed by the outcome, whereas compound XZ was never followed by it. In Group PD (pseudodiscrimination) the presentation of each compound was followed by the outcome in half of the trials. Experiment 1 found that pseudodiscrimination facilitated context dependency of reliable predictors regardless of whether they were trained in the same context in which pseudodiscrimination took place or in an alternative context in which true discrimination was conducted. Experiment 2 found context dependency of reliable predictors trained and tested in PD contexts, suggesting that the ambiguity in the meaning of the cues produced by pseudodiscrimination training is at least partially responsible for the context switch effects found in ambiguous situations in human predictive learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical problems in social psychological experimentation in the laboratory.

Discusses ethical problems in the use of deception in laboratory social psychological experiments, and analyzes the 2 prevailing arguments used to justify such experiments (cost/benefit and the absolutist position). It is suggested that solutions to ethical problems lie in developing and perfecting new methodologies such as simulations, naturalistic observation, and unobtrusive measures. The fact that changing methods will change the nature of psychological inquiry is all the more reason for exploring new methods since dissatisfaction with traditional methodology, not ethical problems, has been the prime motive for movement in this direction. (French summary) (67 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambiguity in speech

Ambiguity in speech during analysis is one manifestation of transference. Four types of ambiguity are illustrated. Each ambiguity communicates an unconscious wish or intention and the defense against this wish or intention. In each type of ambiguity, transference manifestations are expressed in the form of speech and not alone by its content, as we are accustomed to identifying the transference. Each type of ambiguity within the analysis expresses fear to responsibility and recrimination for libidinal or aggressive intentions. In some patients, the combinative ambiguity or malapropism expresses the fear of reprisal through the transformation into a self-inflicted injury. The pronominal ambiguity may express a feared and wished-for fusion with the analyst. The analyst's ambiguous interpretations are properly used to encourage associations, but at times may reflect lack of understanding and be a manifestation of countertransference.     

Signal-detection methods in personality and perception.

Discusses methodological problems encountered in the use of traditional threshold measures in the study of personality and perception. The threshold is shown to: (1) yield results dependent upon the psychophysical method used, (2) be arbitrary in definition, (3) be unimproved by corrections for guessing, and (4) confound the O's sensory capabilities with his criterion for reporting a given stimulus event. Methods derived from signal-detection theory are described. Studies using the logic and methods of signal-detection analysis in personality and perception research are reviewed and their implications discussed. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Event structure in perception and conception.

Events can be understood in terms of their temporal structure. The authors first draw on several bodies of research to construct an analysis of how people use event structure in perception, understanding, planning, and action. Philosophy provides a grounding for the basic units of events and actions. Perceptual psychology provides an analogy to object perception: Like objects, events belong to categories, and, like objects, events have parts. These relationships generate 2 hierarchical organizations for events: taxonomies and partonomies. Event partonomies have been studied by looking at how people segment activity as it happens. Structured representations of events can relate partonomy to goal relationships and causal structure; such representations have been shown to drive narrative comprehension, memory, and planning. Computational models provide insight into how mental representations might be organized and transformed. These different approaches to event structure converge on an explanation of how multiple sources of information interact in event perception and conception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word perception and misperception in context.

When reading lists of words and nonwords at 100 msec/word, Ss reported words accurately but frequently converted nonwords such as dack into similarly spelled words such as duck or deck. In sentences, both nonwords and anomalous words were misread as appropriate words, but the bias was greater for nonwords. Word associations in lists (e.g., sailor–dack–vessel) produced a similar bias, but when sentence meaning was pitted against such associations the lexical effect was largely overridden. Sentences in which biasing context appeared only after the critical item reduced but did not eliminate the context effect, suggesting that multiple word candidates remained active while at least the next 3 words were processed. These results support a 2-stage modular interactive model: The 1st stage is stimulus driven and emits multiple weighted candidates that are combined interactively with contextual information in a 2nd stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

One-way experimentation does not prove one-way causation.

Comments on the defense of the external validity of laboratory experiments by L. Berkowitz and E. Donnerstein (see record 1982-29293-001), arguing that they overlook the fact that lab experiments are not adept at demonstrating exclusive 1-way causality when 2-way causality is a distinct possibility in real-world settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional perception and memory in amnesia.

The authors examined whether perception of emotional stimuli is normal in amnesia and whether emotional arousal has the same enhancing effect on memory in amnesic patients as it has in healthy controls. Forty standardized color pictures were presented while participants rated each picture according to emotional intensity (arousal) and pleasantness (valence). An immediate free-recall test was given for the pictures, followed by a yes-no recognition test. Arousal and valence ratings were highly similar among the amnesic patients and controls. Emotional arousal (regardless of valence) enhanced both recall and recognition of the pictures, and this enhancement was proportional for amnesic patients and controls. Results suggest that emotional perception and the enhancing effect of emotional arousal on memory are intact in amnesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heterosocial perception in rapists.

This research explored the hypothesis that rapists are selectively deficient in their ability to process interpersonal cues from women, especially negative cues. A measure of heterosocial cue-reading accuracy was administered to 11 volunteer subjects in each of three groups of white male inmates from a federal prison: rapists, violent nonrapists, and nonviolent nonrapists. Rapists were significantly less accurate than subjects in either control group when reading cues in simulated first-date interactions; violent nonrapists, in turn, were less accurate than nonviolent nonrapists. Rapists were especially deficient in reading women's cues. Errors associated with negative cues accounted for the largest proportion of variance in these effects. All subjects had more difficulty reading men's cues than women's cues. The demonstration of specific deficits in social cue-reading abilities, or decoding skills, among white inmates with histories of rape is consistent with a social information-processing analysis of rape behavior. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anger and time perception in children.

The present study investigated age-related variations in judgments of the duration of angry facial expressions compared with neutral facial expressions. Children aged 3, 5, and 8 years were tested on a temporal bisection task using angry and neutral female faces. Results revealed that, in all age groups, children judged the duration of angry faces to be longer than that of neutral faces. Findings are discussed in the framework of internal clock models and the adaptive function of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective processes in perception.

The studies reported in this paper are classified into four general areas: (a) studies of size judgment; (b) studies of the relationships between physiological needs and perception; (c) studies on "selective sensitization" to positively valued stimuli; and (d) studies concerned with "perceptual defense." A section is also included on the various ways of defining the term perception. The author concludes that a need exists for further research, replication of existing studies, improved methodology, and a greater concern for theoretical objectives. 129-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)