Reduced trials and reliability of visual-acuity thresholds obtained by the method of constant stimuli.

To determine the effect of a reduction in trials per stimulus upon reliability of visual-acuity thresholds computed by the method of constant stimuli, visual-acuity thresholds were determined for 15 Ss, using a Landolt ring. Thresholds were computed using 5 stimulus values and 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 presentations per stimulus. Retest reliabilities of .92 and higher were obtained for as few as 10 trials per stimulus. It is concluded that "1… . classical… investigators probably tended to utilize more judgments than are necessary… 2… . for purposes of estimating absolute thresholds, the Müller-Urban constant method with five stimulus sizes appears to yield satisfactorily reliable thresholds… when as few as 10 trials per stimulus and 4-choice response categories are used." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive risk and environmental change.

"It is the objective of the present paper to examine wherein breadth of categorizing reflects the manner in which people deal with the risk of errors of judgment—specifically, the risk of saying that things are similar when they might be different, or that they are different when they might be similar… . Our central interest is in the specific behavior of broad and narrow categorizers in a highly simplified judging task. Two questions concern us. The first… with consistency of preference for broad and narrow categorizing in a stable stimulus situation… [and the] consistent manner in which… categorizers alter their judgments in the face of changes in the stimulus situations… . The narrow categorizer appears to prefer the risk… possibly being wrong… . The broad categorizer prefers the risk of not reacting to change and possibly being wrong." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HE31B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of brightness discrimination as measured by concurrent verbal responses and GSRs.

"In… subliminal perception experiments some response shows discriminative accuracy at stimulus values below the threshold of awareness determined by classical psychophysical techniques. The procedure is objectionable because the threshold measure admits extraneous variance that the measure of 'subliminal accuracy' does not… . This experiment compares the discriminative accuracy of GSR and verbal response when assessed by the same forced-choice psychophysical technique." Results indicated "the verbal response showed significantly higher correlation with the stimulus than did the GSR… neither response was significantly more accurate than the other." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioning to complex stimuli.

A research program is described dealing with behavior in a classical GSR conditioning situation. The empirical program is related "to the broader perspective of psychology in general." The research "affords a slim—but I hope stable—bridge between S-R learning theory and whatever is meant by perceptual theory." A rationale of assumptions is developed and on the basis of analysis predictions are formulated. "The present results are eminently consonant with an S-S interpretation of behavior… though I have attempted to make it consonant with S-R contiguity theory by employing the notion of internalized stimuli generated by responses to the conditioned stimulus." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political orientation and the perceptual effects of an anticipated interaction.

"… to shed further light on the conditions favoring similarity and complementarity in social preference, an experiment was designed to investigate the perception of a political stimulus person… by Ss varying in the strength of their own political orientation… . measured… by… political [scales]… . Ss were led to anticipate interacting with one of the stimulus persons, while in a control condition… there would be no expectation of ever meeting the SP." The results indicated that, "people with a strong need to manipulate their social enviornment tend to devalue others with similar orientation when a competetive interaction is anticipated." 15 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deceiving experimental subjects.

A survey to obtain "… some insight into how they felt about it themselves… " was conducted with "… subjects who had actually been deceived in an experiment… ." Results indicated "… very little evidence that these subjects were disturbed by being deceived." The author speculates that "… being deceived as an experimental subject is more of a problem when viewed in the abstract than when it actually happens to the individuals concerned." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Frequency and idiosyncracy of associative responses.

"Two studies were conducted to test five general hypotheses about the frequency and content of verbal associations elicited during a 30-sec. period." 20 Ss responded to 40 stimuli, and the effect of a failure-stress situation on response frequency and content was tested with 24 Ss. "Differences between Ss in frequency and idiosyncracy showed a wide range of values… . There were highly significant consistencies… within Ss across stimulus classes… . The results indicate the utility of 'controlled' associations as an individual difference variable." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

1957 and 1958 Russian books in psychology, psychophysiology, and related areas in psychiatry.

"I have in my possession 51 Russian books in psychology, psychophysiology, and related areas of psychiatry—24 published in 1957 and 27 in 1958." The increased quantity of Russian books "is by all tokens being matched by a rise in quality." The "most outstanding books are in psychophysiology and not in psychology proper… . I would be glad to lend my books to Russian-reading psychologists planning published reviews." An annotated list of the 51 books is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Report of the executive Officer: 1961.

Psychologists "must continue to speak to college students, and with greater effectiveness than may be true at present." American Council on Education evidence "suggests that psychology, against the index year of 1955, may be losing ground proportionately as an undergraduate major field… . If we fail in creating an adequate perception of psychology among college students, we may mortgage our future beyond redemption." In governmental affairs "psychology's voice… is not as clear nor its message as self-assured as the voices of other scientists and scholars." The factors influencing processes in which the APA Central Office becomes involved are considered briefly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the matter of juries, democracy, science, truth, senators, and bugs.

An investigation by the Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee of a research inquiry at the University of Chicago involving the recording of jury deliberations is reported in detail. "In this instance freedom of enquiry… clashed… with the value society holds at least as dear as freedom of inquiry—the right to privacy." The incident illustrated "… some of the current hostility to social scientists." "It is vastly important, both for democracy and for behavioral science, that ways be found whereby our behavior and our institutions can be studied with greatest profit and least harm to the sanctities we live by." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Let's reduce statistical drudgery. III.

SETAR (serial event timer and recorder) "… is based on techniques used in electronic digital computers" and is employed "… to reduce the drudgery of record reading and computation." SETAR "… can be thought of as doing the same work as a polygraph with eight electromagnetically operated pens, some or all of which could be connected to the apparatus of the task being studied." Utility of the apparatus is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of concomitant colored and uncolored pictorial representations on the learning of stimulus words.

To study the effect of varying degrees of compounding signs of objects denoted by the words, twenty-five stimulus words were presented under three learning conditions: (a) Words alone, (b) words with their uncolored pictures, (c) words with their colored pictures. It was concluded that support was given the hypothesis that "with the number of presentations… held constant, the number of… words recalled by Ss should vary positively within limits with the number of simultaneously presented additional signs." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cooperative behavior in dyad as a function of reinforcement parameters.

"Reinforcement parameters for a dyadic cooperative situation were defined and varied in a series of three experiments… . Each S was required to perform the simple motor response of turning a small concealed knob in a series of 50 trials. A reinforcing stimulus was delivered to each S separately after each trial… . The degree to which optimal cooperative behavior… developed in these situations, was studied as a dependent variable… . Other experimental parameters were suggested and the implications of these… for analysis were sketched." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

EPPS n Achievement and verbal paired-associates learning.

"In the present study, performance on two lists of verbal paired-associates learning materials is used to examine the role of n Achievement as a possible drive variable… . Ss high in EPPS n Achievement demonstrated significant superiority over low n Achievers in… verbal learning situations." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia.

"I hypothesize that the statistical relation between schizotaxia, schizotypy, and schizophrenia is class inclusion: All schizotaxics become on all actually existing social learning regimes, schizotypic in personality organization; but most of these remain compensated. A minority, disadvantaged by other… constitutional weaknesses, and put on a bad regime by schizophrenogenic mothers… are thereby potentiated into clinical schizophrenia. What makes schizotaxia etiologically specific is its role as a necessary condition… . It is my strong personal conviction that… schizophrenia, while its content is learned, is fundamentally a neurological disease of genetic origin." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrajudge consistency in ratings of heterogeneous persons.

"The existence and relative power of a unitary attitude toward diverse persons, implied in statements of Kelly (1955) and Sullivan (1956), were investigated by utilizing Cronbach's (1955) operational definition of 'implicit personality theory.' Although the results supported the concept of a general response set, the fragility of intrajudge consistency relative to stimulus factors points to a construct difficult to validate. No differences in consistency were found to be related to sex… The findings suggest less theoretical emphasis upon [judge]… bias and greater attention to response variability and 'reality' as evinced by interjudge agreement concerning stimulus attributes." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HE05G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of stuttering on the behavior of the listener.

"Listening behavior is significantly affected by stuttering… . Stuttering seems to act as a behavioral depressant to the listener. The 'avoidant' activities of the listener may be of significance in classing stuttering as a negative reinforcer (noxious stimulus) to the listener." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies in management training evaluation: I. Scaling responses to human relations training cases.

Dimensions of employee-orientation and sensitivity are used in this study of methodology in human relations training. "… is the purpose… to describe a scaling procedure by means of which open-end responses to stimulus films can be reliably scored." After showing 3 films "several groups of academic and industrial Ss" wrote responses to questions relevant to the 2 dimensions of supervisory behavior. 6 sets of responses were scaled by 16 judges, using a forced-distribution scheme. An abbreviated procedure was worked out and scale values obtained "indicate that the master scale method can be utilized with confidence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)