"Incidental concept learning, feature frequency, and correlated properties": Correction to Wattenmaker.

Reports an error in "Incidental concept learning, feature frequency, and correlated properties" by William D. Wattenmaker (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1993[Jan], Vol 19[1], 203-222). This article included three typographical errors in the statistics. The corrected statistics are provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1993-16363-001.) Four experiments examined sensitivity to feature frequencies and feature correlations as a function of intentional and incidental concept learning. Feature frequencies were encoded equally well across variations in learning strategies, and although classification decisions in both intentional and incidental conditions preserved correlated features, this sensitivity was achieved through different processes. With intentional learning, sensitivity to correlations resulted from explicit rules, whereas incidental encoding preserved correlations through a similarity-based analogical process. In incidental tasks that promoted exemplar storage, classification decisions were mediated by similarity to retrieval examples, and correlated features were indirectly preserved in this process. Results are discussed in terms of the diversity of encoding processes and representations that can occur with incidental category learning. [An erratum concerning this article appears in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1993(Mar), Vol 19(2). The statistics on page 211 are corrected.] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rehearsal strategies can enlarge or diminish the spacing effect: Pure versus mixed lists and encoding strategy.

Using 5 experiments, the authors explored the dependency of spacing effects on rehearsal patterns. Encouraging rehearsal borrowing produced opposing effects on mixed lists (containing both spaced and massed repetitions) and pure lists (containing only one or the other), magnifying spacing effects on mixed lists but diminishing spacing effects on pure lists. Rehearsing with borrowing produced large spacing effects on mixed lists but not on pure lists for both free recall (Experiment 1) and recognition (Experiment 2). In contrast, rehearsing only the currently visible item produced spacing effects on both mixed lists and pure lists in free recall (Experiment 3) and recognition (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 demonstrated these effects using a fully within-subjects design. Rehearse-aloud protocols showed that rehearsal borrowing redistributed study from massed to spaced items on mixed lists, especially during massed presentations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the relationship between free recall and immediate serial recall: The effect of concurrent task performance.

In 3 experiments, participants saw lists of 16 words for free recall with or without a 6-digit immediate serial recall (ISR) task after each word. Free recall was performed under standard visual silent and spoken-aloud conditions (Experiment 1), overt rehearsal conditions (Experiment 2), and fixed rehearsal conditions (Experiment 3). The authors found that in each experiment, there was no effect of ISR on the magnitude of the recency effect, but interleaved ISR disrupted free recall of those words that would otherwise be rehearsed. The authors conclude that ISR and recency cannot both be outputs from a unitary limited-capacity short-term memory store and discuss the possibility that the process of rehearsal may be common to both tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Binding, relational memory, and recall of naturalistic events: A developmental perspective.

This research was an investigation of children's performance on a task that requires memory binding. In Experiments 1 and 2, 4-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and adults viewed complex pictures and were tested on memory for isolated parts in the pictures and on the part combinations (combination condition). The results suggested improvement in memory for the combinations between the ages of 4 and 6 years but not in memory for the isolated parts. In Experiments 2 and 3, the authors also examined the developmental relationship between performance in the combination condition and free recall of a naturalistic event, finding preliminary evidence that performance on a memory task that requires binding is positively related to performance in episodic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance vectors: A theoretical and experimental attack upon emphasis, effect, and repression.

"In each trial, 16 pairs of verbal phrases were presented, a pair at a time, in two windows in a perpendicular display panel facing the subject. The subject was asked on the first trial to guess, and then on succeeding trials to learn, which item in each pair was 'correct."' In a "'shock-right' group, the subjects obtained a shock in the original learning whenever they pressed the level and button for the correct item in the case of half of the 16 pairs and no shock for either item in the case of the other 8 pairs. In… a 'shock-wrong' group, the subjects obtained a shock in the original learning whenever pressing the lever and button for the incorrect item in the case of half of the pairs and no shock for the other 8 pairs." A "no-shock" group received no shock in original learning. Data concerning original learning and also relearning are presented. The "notion of emphasis was not here supported." Differences between the 3 groups are believed performance differences; it is assumed that "for all groups… the rate of actual learning was really about the same." The concept of vectors is used in discussing learning and performance. "The simple law of Effect is either out or needs reformulation… . We did find, I think, something like a pale pink simulacrum of 'repression."' If so, "it is obviously a performance and not a learning phenomenon." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

The relationship between self-acceptance and acceptance of others: A learning theory analysis.

In criticizing previous research regarding the associated dimensions to acceptance of self, Levy (1956) suggested that future research should require Ss to describe a series of specific objects rather than the "average other person," and for E to offer a theoretical formulation to predict the nature of expected results; this research was designed to answer such a critique. The self, father, and teacher were considered the specific objects; the theoretical frame of reference: learning theory. Acceptance of self was predicted to be a function of perceived similarity (PS), degree of self-dissatisfaction, and involvement. In this study, only PS was found to be related. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ37S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The testing effect in recognition memory: A dual process account.

The testing effect, or the finding that taking an initial test improves subsequent memory performance, is a robust and reliable phenomenon--as long as the final test involves recall. Few studies have examined the effects of taking an initial recall test on final recognition performance, and results from these studies are equivocal. In 3 experiments, we attempt to demonstrate that initial testing can change the ways in which later recognition decisions are executed even when no difference can be detected in the recognition hit rates. Specifically, initial testing was shown to enhance later recollection but leave familiarity unchanged. This conclusion emerged from three dependent measures: source memory, exclusion performance, and remember/know judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of sad mood on memory in older adults: A test of the mood congruence effect.

Mood congruence effects have long been studied in younger adults. but not in older adults. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) suggests that mood congruence could operate differently in older adults. One hundred and nineteen younger and 78 older adults were randomly assigned to sad or neutral mood inductions, using combined Velten and music induction procedures. Results indicated that during sad mood induction both older and younger adults showed enhanced recall of sad words on delayed word list recall task and in autobiographical memory. However, only older adults displayed mood congruence effects on lexical ambiguity and lower recall of positive words in the word list task. Results provided partial support for developmental effects on mood congruence derived from SST. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A personality-based similar-to-me effect in the employment interview: Conscientiousness, affect-versus competence-mediated interpretations, and the role of job relevance.

Past research on the employment interview has unearthed a "similar-to-me" effect signaling that rater-applicant similarity on various demographic and attitudinal variables will tend to inflate (bias) rater judgments. This study probes whether a similar-to-me effect hinging on personality dimensions also exists in the employment interview, using a sample of 40 male undergraduates (mean age 22.1 yrs). Results revealed rater-applicant similarity on the study's focal construct--conscientiousness--significantly influences job suitability evaluations. The similar-to-me phenomenon is explored in terms of competence- and affect-based explanations, and a modified paradigm applicable to job-relevant constructs is proposed. Contrary to conventional conceptualizations of the similar-to-me phenomenon, the authors suggest that the similar-to-me effect does not necessarily reflect rater error; in some cases, rater-applicant similarity may be leveraged to bolster interview validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between human resource investments and organizational performance: A firm-level examination of equilibrium theory.

It is commonly believed that human resource investments can yield positive performance-related outcomes for organizations. Utilizing the theory of organizational equilibrium (H. A. Simon, D. W. Smithburg, & V. A. Thompson, 1950; J. G. March & H. A. Simon, 1958), the authors proposed that organizational inducements in the form of competitive pay will lead to 2 firm-level performance outcomes--labor productivity and customer satisfaction--and that financially successful organizations would be more likely to provide these inducements to their employees. To test their hypotheses, the authors gathered employee-survey and objective performance data from a sample of 126 large publicly traded U.S. organizations over a period of 3 years. Results indicated that (a) firm-level financial performance (net income) predicted employees' shared perceptions of competitive pay, (b) shared pay perceptions predicted future labor productivity, and (c) the relationship between shared pay perceptions and customer satisfaction was fully mediated by employee morale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating Learning, Performance, and Persistence: The Synergistic Effects of Intrinsic Goal Contents and Autonomy-Supportive Contexts.

Three field experiments with high school and college students tested the self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & R. M. Ryan, 2000) hypotheses that intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) goals and autonomy-supportive (vs. controlling) learning climates would improve students' learning, performance, and persistence. The learning of text material or physical exercises was framed in terms of intrinsic (community, personal growth, health) versus extrinsic (money, image) goals, which were presented in an autonomy-supportive versus controlling manner. Analyses of variance confirmed that both experimentally manipulated variables yielded main effects on depth of processing, test performance, and persistence (all ps     

The psyche in psychophysics: A sensory-decision theory analysis of the effect of instructions on flicker sensitivity and response bias.

Instruction-induced changes in flicker thresholds, measured by traditional psychophysical procedures, may reflect changes in sensory sensitivity or in response bias. In 16 psychiatric patients, a facilitating set, in contrast to an inhibiting set, increased the proportion of flicker responses to both a physically intermittent light ("hits," p