Transposition: A reevaluation.

Theories of transposition are evaluated in terms of the available empirical data. The most often cited model, that of Spence (1937), is found to be adequate in its explanation of simple transposition and the distance effect. It encounters difficulty in explaining or incorporating the findings of: intermediate size, simultaneous versus successive discrimination, contrast and background effects, and mediated transposition. Other models are considered, with adaptation-level approaches providing the most adequate alternative to the Spence position. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are primates behaviorists: Formal dominance, cognition, and free-floating rationales.

Contrary to a recent claim (D. Maestripieri, 1996), the concept of formal dominance (F. B. M. de Waal, 1986) is not dependent on higher order intentionality (D. C. Dennett, 1983). Instead, it is implied that primates have a concept of relative dominance and express this relational assessment by context-independent, unidirectional status indicators. Present evidence supports the view that primates are able to categorize social relationships. In a semiotic framework, a distinction is made between (a) ritualized displays that are symptoms of acute emotional states (e.g., fear) and (b) formal status indicators that are symbols for a long-term social relationship (e.g., subordination). Criteria to distinguish empirically between these functions relate to species membership and familiarity of interactants, consolidation of relationships, spontaneity of signaling, and specialization of signals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia and the scanning cognitive control: A reevaluation.

In recent studies it has been inferred from performance on perceptual tasks, that paranoid schizophrenics showed extensive scanning and nonparanoid schizophrenics showed minimal scanning. Eye movements during free-search and size-judgment tasks were recorded for 14 paranoid and 14 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 14 psychotic depressives, and 14 control Ss. Medicated Ss showed lower eyemovement rate and fixation rate than nonmedicated Ss and controls, but there were no significant differences due to schizophrenia. There was a significant interaction between patient type and medication for size-judgment means, but all such differences were reduced to nonsignificance by training. Even after training, Ss showed greater variability in size judgments than controls. Results failed to support the notion of extensive or minimal scanning behavior of schizophrenics. Errors by the psychotic patients in making size judgments were not correlated with scanning behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extrinsic incentives and token-based programs: A reevaluation.

Criticizes F. M. Levine and G. Fasnacht's (see record 1975-07966-001) recommendation against the use of token programs (TPs) and extrinsic incentives in attribution theory and generalization research. Most TPs cited by Levine and Fasnacht successfully produced behavior change, had few observable adverse effects on Ss or their behavior, and required substantial improvement only in their procedures for programming generalization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive desensitization and avoidance behavior: A reevaluation.

Attempted to partially replicate and extend a study by S. Valins and A. Ray (see record 1968-04107-001) on the effects of false heart rate feedback on avoidance behavior. In the previous study, Ss reporting a fear of snakes saw slides of snakes while hearing either meaningless sounds or bogus heart rate feedback indicating they were not afraid of snakes. The present study with 30 female undergraduates replicated these conditions while including a no-treatment control and a group of Ss led to believe that snakes did affect them. Actual heart rate was monitored during the sessions and posttreatment interviews were conducted to more fully assess Ss' reactions. Analyses failed to reveal significant between-group differences on any of the outcome indices of fear. This was attributed to the apparent failure of experimental Ss to reevaluate their fear on the basis of their heart rate feedback. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk taking and vocational choice: A reevaluation.

Tested whether Ss preferring high levels of risk tend to choose high-risk occupations more often than low-risk occupations when asked to choose between them. Three separate risk-taking measures were used to divide 96 college freshmen and sophomores into high and low risk takers. Degree of occupational risk was defined by having Ss rate occupational titles according to perceived vocational success and probable income. Three Type III analyses of variance, one for each risk-taking measure, were carried out on the number of high-risk occupations chosen. Results show that risk-taking preferences were not significantly related to Ss' vocational choices on the selection tasks. Subsequent analyses compared the risk preferences of vocationally decided and undecided Ss, but no significant differences were found. The relationship of findings to previous research is discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Backward conditioning: A reevaluation of the empirical evidence.

Comments that there is an apparent discrepancy between the widespread view that backward conditioning does not occur and the experimental evidence that suggests that it does. Backward pairing of CSs and UCSs frequently has resulted in effects similar to those produced by forward pairing, and results of several recent experiments have established that such effects cannot be attributed to factors other than stimulus pairing per se. Surprisingly, even some of the earlier experiments that provided the basis for the current skepticism concerning backward conditioning provide evidence of its existence. The failure to recognize backward conditioning as a legitimate phenomenon seems to reflect theoretical biases rather than a paucity of empirical evidence. Thus, backward conditioning and its properties merit renewed interest and reexamination. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer in artificial grammar learning: A reevaluation.

This article covers methodological and theoretical issues in artificial grammar learning. Arguments that such tasks are mediated by abstract knowledge (e.g., A. S. Reber, see record 1991-00330-001) are based primarily on evidence from transfer experiments, where the surface vocabulary is changed between learning and test items. Because of a number of methodological concerns, the small magnitudes of artificial grammar learning effects generally are difficult to interpret. Possible solutions are offered here. Furthermore, even reliable transfer effects imply neither that subjects have acquired abstract knowledge of the underlying grammar nor that they are performing a process of abstract analogy from memorized whole exemplars. Models that learn only surface fragments of the training stimuli and perform abstraction at test rather than during learning are wholly consistent with transfer phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attendance behavior: A reevaluation of Latham and Pursell's conclusions.

G. P. Latham and E. D. Pursell (see record 1975-24318-001) suggested that the traditional focus on absenteeism may have been misguided. They argued that absenteeism is not a behavior but rather the absence of behavior; therefore, it would be better to be concerned with attendance rather than absenteeism. They presented data purported to demonstrate that attendance is a more reliable measure than absenteeism as well as more appealing theoretically. It is concluded in the present paper that attendance measures have few theoretical advantages over absenteeism measures and that the differences in reliability are limited. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Base-rate neglect in ALCOVE: A critical reevaluation.

A recent hybrid model of categorization (Attention Learning Covering Map [ALCOVE]; J. K. Kruschke, 1992) has combined the most desirable properties of exemplar models with a connectionist architecture and learning rule. A critically important property of ALCOVE is its apparent ability to account for base-rate neglect, a phenomenon beyond the purview of previous exemplar models. This article reexamines ALCOVE's base-rate neglect predictions and shows that they are confined to a very limited set of circumstances. In most cases, ALCOVE is unable to produce base-rate neglect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religiosity and mental health: A critical reevaluation and meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 24 studies on the relationship between religiosity and personality revealed no support for the preconception that religiousness is necessarily correlated with psychopathology; but it also showed only slightly positive correlates of religion. Better specification of concepts and methods of measuring religiosity are alleviating the problem of ambiguity in research results and suggest that religion reflects a multidimensional phenomenon that has positive and negative aspects. Clinical education, practice, and research need revision so that professionals will be better informed of the evidence, more open to the study of such variables, and more efficacious in their work with individuals who approach life from a religious perspective. (73 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention: A reevaluation of the implications of negative priming.

The notion that inhibitory processes play a critical role in selective attention has gained wide support. Much of this support derives from studies of negative priming. The authors note that the attribution of negative priming to an inhibitory mechanism of attention draws its support from a common assumption underlying priming procedures, together with the procedure that has been used to measure negative priming. The results from a series of experiments demonstrate that selection between 2 competing prime items is not required to observe negative priming. This result is demonstrated across several experiments in which participants named 1 of 2 items in a second display following presentation of a single-item prime. The implications of these results for existing theories of negative priming are discussed, and a theoretical framework for interpreting negative priming and several related phenomena is forwarded. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic and semantic memory in posthypnotic amnesia: A reevaluation.

J. F. Kihlstrom (see record 1980-11245-001) hypothesized that posthypnotic amnesia involved a dissociation between episodic and semantic components of memory. The present study tested an alternative hypothesis that Kihlstrom's findings resulted from experimental demands conveyed by the wording of the amnesia suggestion he employed. It was hypothesized that hypnotically amnesic Ss would show performance deficits on semantic and episodic memory tasks if expectations for such deficits were subtly conveyed to them. Using 2 treatment conditions, 60 undergraduates were divided into susceptibility groups. Condition 1 replicated Kihlstrom's experiment; in Condition 2, Ss were given an alternative hypnotic suggestion. It was found that Ss could be induced to show only episodic impairments (thereby replicating Kihlstrom) or both episodic and semantic impairments (contrary to Kihlstrom) by subtly varying the wording of amnesia suggestions. Findings are inconsistent with a dissociation hypothesis. Instead, they support the notion that hypnotic amnesia is a strategic enactment strongly influenced by expectations generated in the amnesia testing situation. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the response of others: Reevaluating the reevaluation.

Reviews an attempted replication of J. C. Coyne's (see record 1976-22455-001) study on depression and the response of others by D. A. King and K. Heller (see record 1985-06798-001) who found that depressed individuals were not rejected, nor did they induce negative moods. The present article reevaluates King and Heller's characterization of the literature and reveals that rejection of depressed persons is consistent across studies and methodologies. On the other hand, mood inductions are less reliable, tend to be diffuse rather than specific, and probably do not mediate rejection. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological reevaluation of handicapped children: A survey of practitioners and policymakers.

To assess the practice and perceived importance of school psychological reevaluations of handicapped children, questionnaires were sent to 100 school psychologists (mean age 38 yrs), 53 state consultants for school psychological services (mean age 42 yrs), and 16 state directors of special education (mean age 43 yrs). Findings indicate that reevaluation practices were nearly identical to initial evaluation practices although there was a reduction in total activity during the reevaluation. Changes in either diagnosis or placement of a reevaluated student were rare, yet the reevaluation process was perceived as very important. Two alternative processes to the current reevaluation procedure are presented that involved rereferring students as needed, and increased participation in the annual review of the individual educational program. Data are also presented concerning the frequency with which different measures were used with learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and mentally handicapped children. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dialectics in attribution research: A reevaluation of the dispositional-situational causal dichotomy.

Investigated the contribution of dispositional and situational factors to the explanation of hypothetical situations. 54 undergraduates rated items describing different types of events (accidents, occurrences, coincidences) on 3 attributional scales (for dispositional, situational, and dispositional-and-situational causality) and then gave a written account of their judgments. Results show that each factor's contribution was a function of the type of event represented in each item. While there was agreement on the degree of contribution of a principal causal factor to the explanation of a hypothetical situation, an analysis of Ss' accounts with respect to dialectical thinking revealed individual differences in their overall attributional patterns. Ss did not perform consistently (either in a dialectical or nondialectical fashion) in their accounts from item-to-item and thus, dialectical thinking was not shown to be a consistent, individual trait. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experiments on neophobia in wild and laboratory rats: A reevaluation.

Reports 2 experiments using food-container avoidance as an index of neophobia in a total of 20 adult male wild rats and 20 domestic Long-Evans and 20 Wistar rats. In Exp I Ss were fed from a single familiar container until their consumption had stabilized. Upon replacing the familiar container with a novel container, the latency of all 3 strains to begin feeding increased. In Exp II, Ss were offered a choice between a familiar and a novel container containing identical food. Though there was considerable individual variation among the 3 strains, the wild strain was more reluctant to eat from the novel container than the Long-Evans (hooded) Ss, which, in turn, were more reluctant than the Wistar (albino) Ss. Nonetheless, all 3 strains showed an initial avoidance of the novel container. It is concluded that both wild and laboratory strains are neophobic and that strain differences are ones of degree, not of kind. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)