Havana daydreaming: A study of self-consciousness and the negative reference group among Cuban Americans.

Reasoned that the Castro government in Cuba represents an important negative reference group for Cuban Americans in the US. Exp I asked 43 Cuban-American undergraduates to give their opinions on issues surrounding the liberalization of relations between Cuba and the US. As expected, opinions were more opposed to such liberalization when an ostensible representative of the Castro government was quoted as favoring it than when no mention was made of the Castro government. Exps II and III (137 Ss) tested the prediction that utilization of negative reference groups would be mediated by dispositional self-consciousness. In Exp II, Ss gave their opinions after favorable opinions had been attributed to officials of the Castro government. Opposition among these Ss was positively correlated with their public self-consciousness but was unrelated to private self-consciousness. Exp III replicated the effect of public self-consciousness when the reference group was salient but yielded an ambiguous effect for an experimental manipulation of self-focus. Findings appear to confirm the role of dispositional self-consciousness in reference-group behavior. Moreover, they appear to suggest that Ss used their opposition to the negative reference group for self-presentational purposes rather than for self-definitional purposes. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of group diffusion of cognitive effort on attitudes: An information-processing view.

232 undergraduates participated in 2 experiments that tested whether persons process a stimulus less extensively when they are part of a group that is responsible for the task than when they are individually responsible. In addition to a group size manipulation, the quality of the stimulus to be evaluated was varied to determine the mediator of the different evaluation of stimuli provided by group (GEs) and individual evaluators (IEs). When evaluating a high quality stimulus, IEs generated more favorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more positively than did GEs (Exps I and II); but when evaluating a stimulus of low quality, IEs generated more unfavorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more negatively than did GEs (Exp II). This result favors an information-processing view over dissonance, deindividuation, and commodity theory interpretations. Together the studies indicate that Ss will diffuse the responsibility for a cognitive task. The reduction in individual processing that accompanies an increase in the number of persons responsible can thus lead to either enhanced or reduced evaluations, depending on the subjective quality of the stimulus to be evaluated. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simple reaction times and timing of serial reactions of middle-aged and old men

The timing control of serial reactions in 20 middle-aged (38-43 years) and 20 older men (57-63 years) was examined by using a task of tracking serial-light stimuli with and without the previous learning (Exps. III and II, respectively). In Exp. I, a control group of 20 college students (19-22 years) had significantly faster and less variable mean simple reaction times than the two other groups. For the serial reaction times (Exps. II and III), the control group had significantly faster mean reaction times than the other groups who did not differ. In Exp. III, there was no difference between the serial reaction times and the simple reaction times in the contrasting groups. In Exp. II, however, although the serial reaction times were significantly slower than the simple reaction times in the older group, the serial reaction times did not differ from the simple reaction times in the middle-aged group. The difference between these groups appeared to be due to the task in Exp. II being more difficult than that in Exp. III, suggesting the more complex the movement to be made, the slower the responses of older people. Advancing age seems to have a greater effect on central processing components than on the perceptual and motor output components of serial reactions.     

Dispensability of member effort and group motivation losses: Free-rider effects.

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that group members exert less effort as the perceived dispensability of their efforts for group success increases. The resultant motivation losses were termed "free-rider effects." In Exp I, 189 undergraduates of high or low ability performed in 2-, 4-, or 8-person groups at tasks with additive, conjunctive, or disjunctive demands. As predicted, member ability had opposite effects on effort under disjunctive and conjunctive task demands. The failure to obtain a relationship between group size and member effort in Exp I was attributed to a procedural artifact eliminated in Exp II (73 Ss). As predicted, as groups performing conjunctive and disjunctive tasks increased in size, member motivation declined. This was not a social loafing effect; group members were fully identifiable at every group size. Exp III (108 Ss) explored the role that performance feedback plays in informing group members of the dispensability of their efforts and encouraging free riding. Results are generally consistent with those of Exps I and II. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of out-group homogeneity and levels of social categorization: Memory for the subordinate attributes of in-group and out-group members.

Explored the hypothesis that in-group members perceive their own group as more variegated and complex than do out-group members (the out-group homogeneity principle). In Exps I and II, 168 men and 171 women estimated the proportion of men or women who would endorse a variety of personality/attitude items that varied on stereotypic meaning (masculinity–femininity) and social desirability (favorable–unfavorable). It was predicted and found that out-group members viewed a group as endorsing more stereotypic and fewer counterstereotypic items than did in-group members. Findings are interpreted as support for the out-group homogeneity principle, and it is argued that since this effect was general across items varying in social desirability, the phenomenon was independent of traditional ethnocentrism effects. Exp III asked 90 members of 3 campus sororities to judge the degree of intragroup similarity for their own and 2 other groups. Again, each group judged its own members to be more dissimilar to one another than did out-group judges. In Exp IV, a theory was proposed suggesting that different "levels of social categorization" are used to encode in- and out-group members' behavior and that this process could account for the perception of out-group homogeneity. It was predicted and found that 109 men and 131 women were more likely to remember the subordinate attributes of an in- than out-group member, which provides some evidence for the theoretical model. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Paleostriatal lesions in the pigeon (Columba livia) potentiate classical conditioning: Evidence from fixed-interval responding, free operant go–no-go discrimination, and alternation.

Explored the existence of behavioral deficits in the paleostriatum augmentatum in 4 experiments in which pigeons were given bilateral electrolytic lesions. Exp I, conducted with 16 Ss, investigated the effects of lesions on keypecking for reinforcement on a 1-min FI schedule. The lesions increased total response rates, but response timing was not disrupted in paleostriatal Ss. In Exp II, 17 naive Ss were given VI baseline training and, in contrast to the results of Exp I, paleostriatal lesions did not increase responding. Go–no-go discrimination, which followed baseline training, revealed enhanced positive behavioral contrast in paleostriatal Ss, which was explained in terms of additivity theory. The results of Exps I and II suggest that potentiated classical conditioning occurred in paleostriatal Ss. In Exp III, 16 naive Ss were given spatial alternation training, and performance was temporarily impaired following paleostriatal lesions. The same paleostriatal Ss showed superior differentiation performance in Exp IV with a classical go–no-go alternation procedure (which also suggested potentiated classical conditioning). It is argued that disruption of (irrelevant) response-produced information may account for paleostriatal superiority. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The perceptual basis of judgments of pitch differences and pitch ratios.

In Exps I and II, 13 Ss were required in each trial to directly compare 2 pairs of tones and indicate which pair of tones had the greater pitch difference (Exp I) or pitch ratio (Exp II). In Exps III and IV, 6 Ss estimated both pitch differences and pitch ratios. A nonmetric analysis indicated that most Ss did not distinguish between pitch ratios and pitch differences, but treated them as the same perceptual quantity. The mel scale described how pitch changed with frequency for Ss without musical training, while a logarithmic relationship between pitch and frequency (the musical scale) provided a better fit for musically trained Ss. (French abstract) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representation-mediated overshadowing and potentiation of conditioned aversions.

Examined the ability of CS-evoked representations of flavored substances to modulate the conditioning of LiCl-based aversions to simultaneously presented flavors or odors. In Exps I–III, 156 thirsty Sprague-Dawley rats first received pairings of an auditory CS with a flavored-water UCS; they then received pairings of a compound stimulus with a toxin. Exp IV examined the potentiation of aversion conditioning to a novel odor using 32 Ss. In Exp I, conditioning of a flavor was partially overshadowed when it was presented in compound with a tone that had been previously paired with another flavor. Exp II replicated that result and also found that conditioning to a flavor was not overshadowed when the flavor was presented in compound with a tone that had been paired with that same flavored substance. In Exps III and IV, conditioning to an odor stimulus was potentiated when it was presented in compound with either a tone or another odor that had been previously paired with a flavor stimulus. Results suggest that evoked representations of stimuli may substitute for those events themselves in a variety of associative functions. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task specificity in nonspecific transfer and in extradimensional stimulus generalization in pigeons.

Determined whether discrimination training per se is sufficient to produce positive nonspecific transfer and whether it sharpens extradimensional stimulus-generalization gradients, using domestic pigeons. In Exp I, 8 groups of Ss received true-discrimination (TD) or pseudodiscrimination training between 2 line orientations in either (a) a successive-conditional (SC) discrimination prior to transfer to a true SC or (b) a go/no go (GN) discrimination between 2 colors. Discriminative performance in transfer was facilitated only when the original and transfer discriminations were of the same type. Exp II showed that positive nonspecific transfer was primarily mediated by the transfer of task-specific learning rather than by the transfer of attentiveness. In Exp III, 4 groups were trained as in Stage 1 of Exps I and II and given single-stimulus training with a chromatic stimulus, followed by a wavelength stimulus generalization test. Only TD-GN discrimination training produced sharp gradients, an effect leading to the conclusion that GN discrimination training and stimulus generalization are closely related by task requirements rather than by attention. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elaboration and recall of main ideas in prose.

Examined the utility of an elaboration hypothesis as a means of specifying "depth of processing" in memory for prose and as a guide for the construction of adjunct questions. 85 undergraduate and graduate students served as Ss in 5 experiments. Exp I examined the effects of different numbers of propositions within paragraphs on the recall of major ideas. Exp II replicated the procedures of Exp I but varied the topography of the text. Exp III examined processing time as an alternative explanation for the results observed in Exps I and II. Exp IV investigated a redundancy hypothesis as an alternative to an elaboration hypothesis. Exp V employed a procedure originally developed to test the effects of adjunct aids requiring different levels of elaboration on recall of prose. The results of Exps I–IV support the elaboration hypothesis in predicting recall of main ideas in paragraphs. The results of Exp V support the utility of employing an elaboration hypothesis as a heuristic for the construction of adjunct questions. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some observations of the effects of intertrial interval and delay on delayed matching to sample in pigeons.

Accuracy of delayed matching to sample was studied in 12 Silver King pigeons at different combinations of length of intertrial interval (ITI) and length of delay. When ITI and delay were varied between sessions in Exps I and II, accuracy increased monotonically with ITI and decreased monotonically with delay. Evidence was found for constancy of performance at equivalent ratios of ITI to delay, and percentage of correct choices was linearly related to the log of this ratio. In Exps III and IV, ITI was manipulated as a within-sessions variable. In contrast to the effect of this variable when manipulated between sessions, accuracy improved only from the shortest interval to the next shortest interval and remained constant at all longer intervals. In Exp IV, it was found that performance improved as a direct function of the mean ITI for sessions and that this relation was not affected by the degree of ITI variability within sessions. Findings resemble the effects of temporal variables on autoshaping, and the possibility that some common processes are involved in delayed matching and autoshaping is discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of physostigmine upon consolidation of memory in mice.

Investigated the influence of physostigmine upon the consolidation process in 4 experiments with 162 male DBA/2J mice. Ss were trained to escape shock in a 'Y'-maze. In Exp I physostigmine (.4 mg/kg, ip) impaired a previously learned task 2 days after initial learning but improved performance 11 days after initial learning. In Exps II and III, it was determined that the impairment of memory found on Day 3 was transitory and no longer evident once the drug was no longer active in an S's system. The findings of Exp IV, in which the Day 12 facilitory effect was examined, were essentially the same as those of Exps II and III. Results tend to support an inhibitory or motivational hypothesis rather than a consolidation hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of consensus estimates: Attribution, salience, and representativeness.

Five experiments examined the effects of attribution, salience, and representativeness of a target person's behavior on consensus bias—the tendency to generalize from the target's behavior to the behavior of the group. Ss were 762 undergraduates. Exp I showed that actors and observers induced to make a situational attribution for a behavior perceived this behavior as more common than did those induced to make a dispositional attribution. Exps II and III showed that observers perceived salient behavior as more common in the group than nonsalient behavior. Exps IV and V showed that observers were more likely to generalize from the behavior of a representative target than from the behavior of a nonrepresentative target. It is concluded that attributes of the target's behavior exercise strong influence on consensus estimates. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants' perception of musical relations in short transposed tone sequences.

Tested 104 infants (aged 7–11 mo) for their detection of a frequency relational change of 1 semitone in a 5-note melody. In Exp I, Ss were able to discriminate contrasting melodies that differed from the background melodies by 1 semitone. In Exp II, Ss detected a semitone difference more easily when the major triad was background and a relatively uncommon triad, the augmented triad, was the contrast. In Exp III, Ss discriminated the major and minor backgrounds used in Exps I and II from contrasting variations, called inversions, that did not differ in triad quality. Results indicate that infants can respond to precise relations between the component tones of a melody based on familiar or stable structures. Findings also imply that sets of tones that are unfamiliar or unstable may present encoding or memory difficulties for infants, as has been found for children and adults. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The roles of self-esteem and self-consciousness in the Wortman-Brehm model of reactance and learned helplessness.

Studied the conditions under which failure would enhance or inhibit subsequent task performance. Based on the theory of C. B. Wortman and J. W. Brehm (1975), it was expected that small amounts of failure would produce reactance (manifested by improved performance at a subsequent task); large amounts would lead to learned helplessness (i.e., impaired later performance). It was further expected that individual differences in self-esteem and private self-consciousness would serve as moderator variables for the effects. In Exp I, 78 college students were exposed to either a small amount or no failure before working on an anagrams task. As predicted, Ss high in self-consciousness, who showed greater reactance arousal in attitude change studies, performed better on the anagrams task than Ss low in self-consciousness in the small-failure condition, but not in the no-failure condition. In Exp II, 119 Ss were pretreated with either a small amount of failure, an extended amount of failure, or no failure before working on the task. A significant Self-Esteem by Helplessness Training interaction emerged. Low self-esteem Ss (low SEs) performed marginally better than did high SEs in the small-failure condition but significantly worse than high SEs in the extended-failure condition. Questionnaire data from Exp II were consistent with the notion that enhanced performance reflected reactance, whereas impaired performance signified helplessness. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading skill and memory scanning.

Four experiments using a total of 48 3rd–4th graders investigated differences between skilled and less skilled readers in the rate with which they scan memory. In each experiment, Ss read 1–3 unrelated statements, then answered a yes–no question pertaining to 1 of the statements. The primary result from Exps I and II, in which Ss read all material aloud, was that skilled readers answered questions approximately .6 sec faster than less skilled readers when reading time was partialed out. In Exp III, similar results were found for silent reading. In Exp IV, the difference in answering time found in Exps I–III was no longer significant when the scan component in answering was minimized. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Phonological priming in auditory word recognition.

Used a priming technique to test specific predictions regarding cohort activation in 3 experiments involving 170 undergraduates. Ss identified target words embedded in noise at different signal-to-noise ratios. The target words were either presented in isolation or preceded by a prime item that shared phonological information with the target. In Exp I, primes and targets were English words that shared 0, 1, 2, 3, or all phonemes from the beginning of the word. In Exp II, nonword primes preceded word targets and shared initial phonemes. In Exp III, word primes and word targets shared phonemes from the end of a word. Reliable phonological priming was observed in all experiments. Results of Exps I and II support the assumption of activation of lexical candidates based on word-initial information, as proposed in cohort theory; however, results of Exp III, which showed increased probability of correctly identifying targets that shared phonemes from the end of words, did not support the predictions derived from the theory. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sagacious judgment via word association.

Based on K. E. Scheibe's (1979) concepts of the mask and the prediction mode of sagacity, 4 experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that awareness of subtle cues accounts for success on a judgment task that requires recognizing the implications of target persons' word associations. Preliminary studies with 7 undergraduates identified word associations but not facial expressions or reaction times as relevant to success on the task. Thus, it was hypothesized that successful judges would be more accurate than unsuccessful judges in assessing the diagnosticity of word association clues. 30 undergraduate social welfare majors participated in Exp I; Exp II was a replication of Exp I using 73 high school students. Both Exps I and II involved a video presentation. Exp III involved a pencil-and-paper version of the judgment task used in Exps I and II. Ss were 76 undergraduates. Exp IV tested the generalizability of the previous results across S groups. 12 American and 14 foreign-born undergraduates (e.g., Malaysian, Taiwanese, Colombian, and Nigerian) served as Ss. Overall findings show that the predicted relation emerged in all 4 studies, despite variations in the task and S groups (varying in age, nationality, and amount of psychology-related training). Results are generally consistent with expectations based on Scheibe's analysis of sagacity and provide a basis for research on the judgment task in terms of personality correlates of cue utilization, individual differences in depth of processing, and ability to draw pragmatic implications. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive complexity and appraisal effectiveness: Back to the drawing board?

Tested C. E. Schneier's (see record 1978-11450-001) cognitive compatibility theory. In Exps I and II, 100 undergraduates rated college instructors and professor vignettes, respectively. Results show that rater cognitive complexity was unrelated to rating accuracy, halo error, acceptability of rating format, or confidence in ratings. In Exp III, 31 police sergeants rated patrol officers, and the results show that halo error and acceptability of formats were unrelated to cognitive complexity. In Exp IV, 95 undergraduates' ratings of managerial performance and instructor effectiveness showed no support for the cognitive compatibility theory. However, the data showed that raters' ability to generate dimensions was significantly related to halo error in instructors' ratings. Implications for cognitive compatibility theory and future research with the method of generating performance dimensions are discussed. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)