Generative effects of note-taking during science lectures.

Two experiments investigated the generative hypothesis of how note-taking affects the learner's cognitive processing during encoding. Ss were required to take notes or not take notes while viewing a videotaped lecture on automobile engines and were then administered 4 posttests. In Exp I, 40 11th graders who had no prior experience with the lecture material served as Ss. Results reveal a pattern of interaction in which note-takers performed better than those who did not take notes on far-transfer tasks such as problem solving but worse on near-transfer tasks such as fact retention and verbatim recognition. Findings from Exp II, with 89 undergraduates (60 of whom were unfamiliar and 29 of whom were familiar with the lecture material), indicate that the same pattern occurred for Ss who were moderately familiar with the material but not for Ss who were highly familiar. Other treatments of Exp II such as taking summary notes or answering conceptual questions during breaks in the lecture produced results similar to those of note-taking. Results are consistent with M. C. Wittrock's (1974) idea that note-taking can be a generative activity that encourages students to build connections between what is presented and what they already know. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The standard object-sorting task as a measure of conceptual organization.

In object-sorting tasks, which are designed to assess developmental differences in conceptual organization, children are shown a variety of objects and told to put the things that are alike together. It was hypothesized that younger children construct designs, alignments, and scenes not necessarily because they have different principles of conceptual organization but because they are distracted by the task of spatial arrangement. This hypothesis was tested by having 60 3- and 4-yr-olds sort identical objects 2 times, once onto sheets of paper and once into transparent plastic bags, which do not readily allow for spatial arrangement. As predicted, when the salience of the spatial configuration was reduced, Ss' classifications improved. Since no feedback, modeling, or training of any type was given, Ss must have capitalized on an already existing conceptual system that is more like an adult's than their typical sorting would suggest. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of context on infants' responses to novel objects.

Studied 24 infants (mean age 27 wks) to test the hypothesis that responses to novelty vary with the degree of change from familiarization to test conditions. One such change is to permit manipulation during familiarization but not on the test. In 2 groups, Ss looked at and manipulated the familiarization objects. Ss who could also manipulate during the tests showed better differentiation between novel and familiar objects than did those who could not manipulate during tests. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of structure and strategy in two-dimensional pictures.

The development of 2 structural principles, hierarchical complexity and interruption, was examined in a new domain, 2-dimensional pictures. Using felt pieces, 20 children in each of 3 age groups (4–4.5, 4.5–5, and 5–5.5 yrs) were asked to reproduce felt pictures of flower arrangements constituting tree structures of different levels of hierarchical complexity. For each model, task difficulty was varied by requiring Ss to construct pictures either with whole flowers or with component pieces. The ability to reproduce the models formed a Guttman scale according to tree structure complexity, and older Ss scored higher on the scale than younger Ss. Thus, hierarchical complexity has a developmental role in the pictorial domain, as in language and 3-dimensional construction. The construction process was analyzed in terms of uninterrupted and interrupted strategies. Unlike earlier results with abstract (nonfigural) 3-dimensional construction tasks, the present Ss did not avoid interrupted strategies. The lack of strategy preference with whole flowers and the development of a preference for interrupted strategies with components may stem from the fact that the strong figural and thematic aspects of the models reduced the cognitive complexity of an interrupted strategy. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concrete operational thinking, diagnosis, and psychopathology in hospitalized schizophrenics.

Assessed the hypothesis that performance on cognitive tests would differentiate among various patient subgroups classified according to diagnosis and chronicity. 66 acute and chronic male schizophrenic inpatients were administered tests of conservation, class inclusion, and geometric drawing. Results show that acute Ss achieved significantly higher scores on 4 cognitive subtests than did chronic nonparanoids, but differences between chronic paranoids and nonparanoids were not significant. Ratings of psychopathology dimensions, especially conceptual dysfunction, discriminated significantly among Ss at 3 levels of performance on conservation tests. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reversal and extradimensional shifts in abstract and concrete schizophrenics.

72 concrete schizophrenics, defined in terms of conceptual sorting difficulties, were trained under 1 of 3 discrimination-learning conditions: reversal (R) shift, extradimensional (ED) shift, or control. 72 abstract schizophrenics were similarly divided, 1/2 of the Ss in each condition received verbal reinforcement, and 1/2 received candy reinforcement. Results indicated that concrete Ss required significantly more trials to learn the shift concepts than abstract Ss. Both R and ED shifts produced negative transfer relative to control conditions, but there was no significant difference between the 2 shift conditions. No differential effect was attributable to the different reinforcers. Results were discussed in terms of 2-stage discrimination-learning models and Goldstein's theory of schizophrenic concreteness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Breadth of deviate concepts used by schizophrenics.

This study investigated interfering overresponsiveness to a conceptual task in schizophrenics and attempted to isolate other situational conditions under which it occurs. The hypothesis was "the schizophrenic tendency to overinclude in a sorting task is positively related to the degree to which incorrect items share common qualities with the correct items in a given conceptual category." One normal and 2 schizophrenic groups, consisting of 24 males each, served as Ss. The results of the sorting tasks confirmed the hypothesis. An attempt was also made to determine whether schizophrenics showed excessive narrowing of the conceptual basis for sorting, but no difference between schizophrenics and normals was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explanations for visual cue primacy in judgments of honesty and deceit.

Examined the validity of the distraction hypothesis (Maier & Thurber, 1968). Ss were undergraduate students who watched a videotaped interview and rated the veracity of an actress who played the role of a college student. Study 1 disconfirmed the distraction hypothesis. Ss relied on nonverbal cues to make judgments of veracity, but the presence of nonverbal cues did not distract Ss from processing verbal content. Study 2 tested an alternate explanation, the situational familiarity hypothesis. Study 2 found that judgments in familiar situations were influenced primarily by verbal content cues, whereas those in unfamiliar situations were influenced by both verbal and nonverbal cues. Findings indicate that situational factors influence information processing and affect the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in judgments of veracity. Generalizability of prior deception research is questioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquisition of formal scientific reasoning by 10- and 13-year-olds: Designing a factorial experiment.

A study of 60 5th and 8th graders indicates that 8th graders who received conceptual-framework-plus-analog problem instruction generated more complete factorial arrays than did Ss who received conceptual framework alone who tended to attain perfect performance more often than Ss in the control condition. 5th-grade conceptual-framework-plus-analog Ss generated all combinations more often than Ss in either of the 2 remaining conditions, which did not differ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On believing what we remember.

Conducted 4 experiments with 303 undergraduates to examine the relationship between the rated truth of statements and prior study of parts of those statements. Findings from the 1st 2 experiments show that new details about familiar topics are rated truer than new details about unfamiliar topics. Consequently, recognition of a topic as familiar disposes Ss to accept new details as true. Results from the 3rd and 4th experiments show that statements initially studied under an affirmative bias are rated truer than statements originally studied under a negative bias. However, since even the negatively biased statements are rated truer than new ones, it is contended that Ss are not remembering the bias. Rather, different biases during study affect the probability that details will be encoded into memory. In contrast to differential biases, different study processes affect the likelihood that Ss will remember having studied the statements, but do not affect truth. Results are discussed in terms of the hypothesis that remembered factual details are the criterion of certitude against which tested statements are assessed. (French abstract) (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptual ability, response interference, and arousal in withdrawn and active schizophrenics.

Conducted 2 studies to assess 225 female schizophrenics' conceptual organization under conditions of low and high arousal and low and high response interference. Ss were classified as either active or withdrawn on Venables's Activity-Withdrawal scale. Arousal was manipulated by having Ss maintain grip pressure on a dynamometer. Besides revealing less ability of schizophrenics to benefit from increases in conceptual organization of input, results reveal important differences between active and withdrawn schizophrenics. In addition to conceptual organization deficiencies, withdrawns exhibited response interference problems under standard conditions and showed trends indicating further deterioration of both conceptual organization and response interference with increased arousal. In contrast, actives showed neither severe response interference nor increased deterioration with increased arousal. One aspect of actives' performance improved with heightened arousal, suggesting that these Ss function normally at a suboptimal level of arousal. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of preinformation upon human characteristics attributed to animated geometric figures.

"It was hypothesized that the animated geometric figures in the Heider-Simmel movie interact in such a way that the impression formed by Ss about the personality of one figure about which preinformation is given affects the way the other 2 figures are seen. This hypothesis was investigated by comparing the frequency with which favorable or unfavorable traits were ascribed to these figures under 3 conditions… . If it is legimate to generalize from animated geometric figures to real people in everyday life situations, the confirmatory results obtained tend to indicate that the impressions formed of an individual may be a function of the characteristics ascribed to another person seen to interact with him." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moral development and reconstructive memory: Recalling a decision to terminate an unplanned pregnancy.

Investigated the relationship between cognitive development, as measured by changes in the Moral Development Scale, and long-term reconstructive memory in 24 15–33 yr old females. The hypothesis that the past is reconstructed to conform with current developmental stages was examined. Results indicate that when developmental gains were made over a 1-yr interval, Ss used a higher stage perspective to reconstruct the decision making involved in resolving a problematic pregnancy and, hence, reconstructed the events in different terms than were originally presented. When developmental gains were not made over a 1-yr interval, Ss reconstructed the events in the same terms as originally presented. Further analysis indicated that those Ss who made developmental gains also referred to a phenomenon of "memory loss." Results support the hypothesis that memory is reconstructive rather than reproductive. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hemispheric priming by meaningful and nonmeaningful symbols in language-trained chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Further evidence of a left hemisphere advantage.

Hemispheric priming was examined in 3 language-trained chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using a simple reaction time (RT) paradigm. Ss were required to hold down a response button until the occurrence of a response cue. A warning stimulus was presented to either the left visual field or the right visual field (RVF) before the response cue occurred. No warning stimulus was presented on control trials. The warning stimuli were geometric communicative symbols from 2 semantic categories: food and tools. A 3rd set of warning stimuli were familiar geometric symbols. Dependent measures included RT and the number of false-positive responses. RT data indicated an RVF advantage in priming when the warning stimuli were food or tool symbols. No significant visual half-field differences were found for familiar symbols, but a trend toward an RVF advantage was observed. These effects were enhanced when Ss responded with their left hand. False-positive data also indicated an RVF advantage for the food and tool warning stimuli. The data indicate that hemispheric asymmetries for processing communicative symbols are present in language-trained chimpanzees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of information feedback on matrices learning for differing socioeconomic levels.

Examined the differential effect of 2 kinds of information feedback on performance when used to train matrix completion strategies. A matrices training task was administered to 120 white male Ss representing Grades 1 and 3 and low- and middle-socioeconomic status (SES) levels. After 4 enclosure-type items had been learned under 1 of 2 feedback conditions, Ss responded to a transfer set of 10 similar items. Results indicate that the 3rd-grade Ss learned more quickly than the 1st-grade Ss (p 1969-02983-001) concerning differential conceptual performance abilities characteristic of different SES levels. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and punishment.

An experiment to test the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with deficient passive avoidance learning under punishment. 75 High Pd and 75 Low Pd female undergraduates, equated for intelligence, learned a list of 10 nonsense syllables under 1 of 3 conditions of reinforcement: verbal reward, verbal punishment, and absence of comment by E. Punishment significantly retarded the learning of Low Pd Ss, but not that of High Pd Ss. No significant differences occurred under reward or neutral conditions. The hypothesis was considered confirmed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies in efficiency: Verbal conditioning as a function of degree of task centering. A replication.

The present study is an approximate replication of an experiment by Letchworth and Wishner (1962). Its substantive purpose was to test the effects on verbal conditioning of self- and other centered (SC and OC) instructions in interaction with 2 types of task orienting instructions. From the concept of efficiency it was predicted that there would be a significant interaction of the following form: SC Ss would have a relatively higher rate of conditioning than OC Ss under relaxed instructions, while the reverse would be true under problem instructions. Procedural changes from the previous study were incorporated in order to increase experimental control. A significant interaction supported the experimental hypothesis and duplicated the results of the previous study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantics at a glance: Is the right hemisphere special?

32 undergraduate Ss made an odd/even judgment to a single lateralized logograph, an Arabic numeral. All Ss were right-handed and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Stimuli were computer generated; Ss were shown the 8 Arabic numerals used by D. Besner et al (1986). Each S was tested with 1 block for each response hand. Data suggest that the left and right hemispheres are equally efficient at extracting meaning from at least some simple, highly familiar logographs. Particularly notable are the consistent reaction time (RT) differences between the left visual field and right visual field conditions for each response hand condition. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problem solving in triads composed of varying numbers of field-dependent and field-independent subjects.

Investigated the interactive effects of situational task demands and interpersonal group environment on small group performance. High-structure and low-structure tasks were solved by 3 types of small groups: 3 field-dependent Ss; 3 field-independent Ss; and triads with both field-dependent and field-independent Ss. Ss were 231 male college students who were tested with the Group Embedded Figures Test. The lower and upper third of the test distribution were defined as field dependent and field independent, respectively, and assigned to 1 of the 3 small groups. It was hypothesized that field-dependent Ss would perform tasks more efficiently than would field-independent Ss when the task environment provided structure. This hypothesis was not supported. The field-independent Ss had the fastest completion times, whereas the field-dependent Ss had the slowest times of all. It was also hypothesized that the difference in performance attributable to task structure would be greater for field-dependent Ss than it would be for field-independent Ss. This hypothesis was supported. Results demonstrate the relative ability of field-independent Ss to solve the tasks and the potential for coalition formation within the mixed triads. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How do individuals remember their past statements?

It was hypothesized that, when it is difficult for people to remember what they said previously, they may use their sense of familiarity with a statement to determine whether it is one they expressed. In 3 experiments, Ss were asked to state whether they had witnessed certain objects in a previous slide presentation; they responded aloud with experimentally mandated statements. The familiarity of target statements was varied, independent of whether they were expressed, through extraneous presentations of the pertinent objects. Later, Ss tried to determine whether (Exps 1 and 2), or how frequently (Exp 3), they expressed the target statements. Results supported the hypothesis: Ss were more likely to remember making statements concerning the more familiar objects than the less familiar objects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)