A "science of complex judgment."

Psychologists tend to neglect the study of complex judgment. "Never before in history have so many been faced with so many complex decisions." Thus, "… it should be the concern of psychologists as an organization to consider effective means for increasing our contributions in the realm of complex decision-making." The concept of scope which "… is defined as the relative omnipotence which observations, measures, or statistics possess in the total decision complex of which they are a part" is proposed and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The growth of mind.

"What is most unique about man is that his growth as an individual depends upon the history of his species [as reflected in culture]… . the growth of the mind is always growth assisted from the outside… . What a culture does to assist the development of the powers of mind of its members is, in effect, to provide amplification systems… ." These are amplifiers of action, of the senses, and of thought processes. In considering the distinctiveness of man and his potentiality for further evolution: "The 5 great humanizing forces are… tool making, language, social organization, the management of man's prolonged childhood, and man's urge to explain… . [The] psychologist cannot alone construct a theory of how to assist cognitive development and cannot alone learn how to enrich and amplify the powers of a growing human mind." The task belongs to the whole intellectual community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An analysis of the Miller Analogies Test for a scientific population.

On 50 subjects "… who are actively engaged in research in an industrial organization… " a correlation of .58 between the Miller Analogies Test and the Full Scale Wechsler-Bellevue was obtained; a correlation of .77 between the Miller Analogies Test and the W-B vocabulary subtest was obtained. Confirmation of these results with a representative graduate school population would suggest "… that a more discriminating vocabulary test than the W-B subtest for graduate school populations might closely approximate the efficiency of the MAT in predicting success in graduate school." (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)     

Sensitivity to violations of "run" and "trill" structures in rat serial-pattern learning.

Rats learned serial patterns composed of either "run" chunks (e.g., 123 234…) or "trill" chunks (e.g., 121 232…). For each type of pattern, 1 group of rats encountered an element at the end of the pattern that violated the run or trill structure. In both run and trill patterns violations were unusually difficult for rats to learn, whereas corresponding elements in "perfect" patterns that did not violate pattern structure were easy. Additionally, rats' errors on violation elements conformed to the structure of the patterns in which they were embedded. Thus, rats were sensitive to the run or trill organization of their patterns and mastered the rules governing the pattern before learning "exceptions to the rule." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traits revisited.

"… much of our research on traits is overweighted with methodological preoccupation… we have too few restraints holding us to the structure of a life as it is lived. We find ourselves confused by our intemperate empiricism which often yields unnamable factors, arbitrary codes, unintelligible interaction effects, and sheer flatulence from our computors… I propose the restraints of 'houristic realism' which accepts the common-sense assumption that persons are real beings, that each has a real neuropsychic organization, and that our job is to comprehend this organization as well as we can." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychological factor apparently associated with neoplastic disease.

"A growing body of literature suggests that there are some correlations between personality organization and the occurrence of malignant disease… . Our data suggest that under certain conditions, early emotional trauma [in this instance, early birth of a sib] may interact with other factors and play a part in the etiology of a later malignancy… psychological factors apparently must be viewed as being of some significance in the development of malignant disease, and to integrate this knowledge with the physiological findings in this field" is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

To perceive is to know.

"Perceiving is a cognitive process involving knowing, understanding, comprehending, organizing and even cognizing… . [The] factors known in perception are properties of sets of stimuli, not properties of individual stimuli (to say nothing of the elements which make up these individual stimuli)… . [Perceiving] is an active process, 1 in which the perceiver participates fully." The experiments cited illustrate "that to perceive is to know. It is to know and comprehend the nature of a stimulus; it is to know the nature of the alternatives to a stimulus; and it is to know the structure and organization of sets of stimuli." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The predilection for single orderings.

Halo effect, a phenomenon the author felt was long known to psychology but little studied, is traced throughout its history and its use by social scientists. Halo effect is translated by the author into "predilection for a single ordering or ranking of a set of people or other objects." To test this hypothesis Ss were required to learn materials under 6 conditions involving 2 social structures at the same time involving events in some order (age, height) and some grouping (by name, by characteristic). "It was found that two orderings of a set were… relatively difficult to learn… [and] the aversion to a set having discrepant orderings is a special case of an aversion to a set having more than one organization of a given kind." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3HE16D. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Engrams, memory storage, and mnemonic coding.

Among the basic questions concerning memory is the problem of "how the human brain records, stores, and transmits information… . I believe that acquired engrams are laid down like genetic codes, are transmitted as genetic information and revived and assembled into memories by some matching method. The matching may be either chemical or electrical and at some levels of neural organization of the sort we identify with frequency radio tuning or electrical resonance… . [If] we conceive of learning as a linking of sequential responses or facts, it is not the facts but the links between them which are altered by the learning process." Brain function resembles genetic replication and resonance phenomena rather than devices currently employed in automata. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Committee on Professional Liability Insurance. Professional liability insurance for psychologists.

Professional liability insurance for psychologists is obtainable through the Smith-Hoggatt-Dawson Insurance Agency of Champaign, Illinois. Coverage is described and premiums specified. Insurance is granted automatically to an APA member if he is an ABEPP diplomate "… or if he is a regular member of the staff of a recognized college, university, school or school system, firm of industrial or clinical practitioners' clinic, hospital, or church" and to others. Non-ABEPP diplomates "… in completely independent private practice… " must be sponsored in writing by two ABEPP diplomates. The "… insurance now available is written in such a way as to cover research workers as well as… " practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A terminal course for psychology majors.

A special course for senior psychology majors "… in which one step has been taken in the direction away from the conservative tradition of lecturing and examining" is described. The students' first assignment is to list "… the ten most persistent and pressing problems of personal and social living… " and the second is to "… select the ten concepts, laws, or principles which you believe to be the most significant… ." From these the "… subject matter of the rest of the term is established." There is "… frequent and favorable reaction from students… ." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Southern regional mental health program focuses on development of training and research.

"The American psychological profession is taking a leading role in the nation's first regional program to improve mental health and combat mental disease which the Southern Regional Education Board is conducting." The program reached its operational stage with the organization of the Southern Regional Council on Mental Health Training and Research in Atlanta on July 11-12, 1955, following 18 months of surveys and planning. The organization, problems, and activities of the Southern program are discussed. State committees have "… agreed that the need for new knowledge is as acute as the personnel shortage." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious trial and error and related behavior.

Empirical material relating to "vicarious trial-and-error" (VTE) is summarized and evaluated critically in terms of criteria for VTE, of antecedents to and response correlates of VTE, and of VTE and learning efficiency. It is proposed that the criterion for scoring VTE behavior should be the AB unit [S's "… looking at or facing one side or card and then turning toward and looking at (or facing) the other side or card before making a choice… "]. Doubts are raised concerning the Muenzinger and Tolman VTE and learning efficiency hypothesis and an alternative explanation is advanced, "… based on an analysis of the role of position preferences supplemented by principles of conflict… ." 63 references. (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)     

An item analysis of How Supervise? using both internal and external criteria.

"Two hundred and eight college graduates who were members of the supervisory staff of a large manufacturing organization took Form M of How Supervise? and were rated for supervisory performance… . Statistical analysis indicated no relation between scores on How Supervise? and rated success in a supervisory position. An item analysis indicated that the items consistently measured some quality, possibly supervisory knowledge. The items in the test were found to be too easy for the group of subjects and for the most part not valid predictors of supervisory success as measured… ." 27 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Achievement and nurturance in triads varying in power distribution.

"… to determine the effect of motivational differences on play in a competitive three-person game where initial strength of participation varies. In each of 20 groups, one member was high in achievement but low in nurturance, one high in nurturance but low in achievement and one intermediate in both variables. Each group played 12 games, three each of four types of power pattern. Performance was analyzed in terms of coalitions… and final outcome… . It is suggested that the person high in achievement employs a strategy, adapted to immediately relevant conditions, that serves to capitalize upon his assets." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality structure and group structure: An interpretative study of their relationship through an event-structure hypothesis.

"The attitude of favor or disfavor, developed by workers in a large business organization to 2 experimental programs with contrasting patterns of allocating authority appears to be a function, as was predicted, of the interaction between the personality structure of the individual and the structure of the work-program in which he is operating. Those individuals who… are 'suited' to the program they are in, tend to feel a greater satisfaction with it and a greater degree of liking for it than do those whose trend structures are 'unsuited' to their program." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of closed-circuit television in university resident instruction.

"It is now obvious that we can link any number of classrooms together, put one or more TV receivers in each, and let one good professor lecture over the television system to multiple groups of students." Experiments "… or demonstrations could be performed and televised… ." Initial cost, installation and maintenance, operation, flexibility and pictures are discussed. "… TV exists as an aid to, and not a replacement for, the instructor… ." Faculties should "… begin now to coolly appraise TV for its strengths and its weaknesses, and to determine in what ways and under what conditions TV can make a contribution to resident university instruction." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The useful dimensions of sensitivity.

"The variables of sensory discrimination are radically different from the variables of perceptual discrimination… . Perception involves meaning; sensation does not." The "useful dimensions of sensitivity are those that specify the environment and the observer's relation to the environment… . The sense organs are all capable of motor adjustment." There are 2 kinds of organismic action, exploratory and performatory, and 2 kinds of feedback. Every sense is a pattern sense "capable of delivering a sequence or stream of neural inputs or changes in the simultaneous pattern. Every sense is therefore a transformation sense as well as a pattern sense… . The crux of the theory… is the existence of certain types of permanence and underlying charge. These invariants are in the stimuli at least potentially." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)