Showing papers by "Florida Atlantic University published in 1969"

The grouper fishery of cay glory, british honduras

Abstract: Fisheries are poorly developed throughout the western Caribbean. An exception is British Honduras where there is a substantial folk-fishery and the daily consumption of fresh fish is customary by the urban population. There are three ethnic groups of fishermen, with Mestizos from the northern cays providing leadership in the annual exploitation of an unusual concentration of grouper in the Cay Glory area. Timing of the occurrence allows surplus salt-cured fish to be sold to inland communities and exported at premium prices to satisfy Lenten demand. Numerous adaptations to tropical climatic conditions have evolved in preservation techniques but the industry as a whole may soon decline owing to overfishing if uncontrolled exploitation continues.

Alternative cooperative strategies in a bargaining game

Abstract: Shure, Meeker, and Hansford (1965), at the Systems Development Corporation (Santa Monica, California), have attempted to show the "effectiveness" of a pure "pacifist" strategy in a bargaining situation (hereafter referred to as the SMH game). Their experiment may be summarized as follows: 143 Ss were asked to transmit messages in a communications system with the following conditions and restraints: (1) all messages had to be entered into a communication channel with a total storage capacity of six message units, (2) each S could only enter one letter of the message at a time in the communication channel, (3) only a complete message, of five units, could be transmitted, (4) only one S could transmit at a time, because each S needed five of the six units of capacity within the common channel to transmit, (5) deadlock occurred and neither S could transmit if both Ss attempted to transmit at the same time, for example, if both entered three letters apiece into the common channel. (In such a situation, it was necessary for one of the Ss to withdraw two letters before the other could transmit) . The basic objective of the game was to send as many messages as possible during

The Convergence of Voting and Attitude Patterns at the United Nations

Abstract: T his study examines the attitudes of United Nations delegates toward the major organs of the United Nations and attempts to ascertain what relations, if any, can be found between those attitudes and discernible voting patterns. It is basically a complement of another study focusing on delegate attitudes toward specific U.N. organs, entitled "National Attributes as Predictors of Delegate Attitudes at the United Nations."' The importance of delegate attitudes to the development of the United Nations has been stressed in the above study and will not be repeated here. In general, hovever, it is assumed that delegates possess "influence potential" because of the kind of role they play in the United Nations setting. Richard F. Pederson has pointed out:

Temporal vs discriminative factors in the maintenance of conditioned suppression: A test of the information hypothesis

Abstract: The Egger-Miller information hypothesis was tested in the CER situation using a nonoverlapping compound conditioning procedure. Six rats were given both delayed and compound conditioning trials consisting of identical CS-US intervals. The findings provided no support for the hypothesis, and further indicated that temporal factors contributed only partially to attenuated suppression in S1.

Resistance to extinction of the CER as a function of shock-reinforcement training schedules

Abstract: Resistance to extinction of the CER in rats was determined at five shock-reinforcement values (100, 66, 26, 20, and 13%). The percentage of times the US followed the CS during conditioning was approached gradually, starting at 100%, with subsequent reductions to a final schedule that differed for each of the partial groups. The data revealed an inverse-PRE, with greatest resistance to extinction of suppression at 100% shock-reinforcement. An interpretation, relating differences in shock density to the maintenance of generalized suppression, was suggested.

Response modification by “irrelevant” stimulus attributes

Abstract: In a category rating study, pure tone anchors of 1 sec duration, but varying in intensity, were compared as to their effects on judgments of the duration of white noise series stimuli of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 sec. The study postulated an effect on judgment related to the presence of an “irrelevant” attribute. The hypothesis was supported: An anchor stimulus of greater intensity than that of the series exerted the greatest effect (p =.04) when compared to the no-anchor condition and to other anchor conditions. A less intense anchor also had a significant effect (p =.04) compared to the no-anchor condition, whereas an anchor of equal intensity to the series did not have a significant effect (p =.28). The introduction of anchor stimuli lowered duration judgments throughout.

Photoelastic analysis of an orthotropic plate on a nonlinear foundation

Abstract: Frozen-stress techniques were used to analyze an orthotropic plate on a continuous, nonlinear foundation. A long-range objective of the investigation was to provide experimental results to compare with a future finite-element analysis of the same type problem. Data were presented to illustrate principal stress magnitudes and directions. Close agreement of a static equilibrium check of the nonlinear foundation with the applied load experimentally verified the procedure used for calculation of external pressure on the model-foundation interface.

Avoidance conditioning following preadaptation to weak shock

Abstract: Four groups of rats were preadapted, respectively, to no-shock,.004 mA,.008 mA, and.02 mA, before being conditioned in a jump box to.03 mA shock preceded by a bell CS. Both the.004-mA and the,008-mA groups required significantly fewer trials (p <.01) to criterion than the other two groups. The results were related to those of studies using subliminal anchor stimuli with human Ss and were interpreted in an adaptation-level framework.

Contrast effects with a shift in work load

Abstract: Both positive and negative contrast effects resulted from switching lever counterweights from heavy to light and light to heavy in a standard bar-pressing situation. Ss under the above two conditions were compared to control groups which continued with either heavy or light counterweights througfiout the study. Differences between postshift performance and the controls were significant (p <.01), but they did not persist in extinction. Tlie results were interpreted as supporting a relative position concerning perception.

Social Characteristics of Costa Rican Decision Makers

Abstract: T he following data were obtained in fall 1966 during a series of interviews by the author. As part of a larger study of the political culture of decision makers in Costa Rica, they indicate the level of education, age distribution, travel and study abroad, and the political-party affiliation of sample groups of Costa Rican deputies, civil servants, and appointed directors of autonomous institutes. Information presented here should be of use and interest to those comparing elite characteristics cross-culturally and to those who have a particular interest in Latin American politics. Three populations, consisting of 113 members of the 1962-1966 and 1966-1970 National Assemblies, 136 of the jefes of departments in the Ministries, and 91 directors of the autonomous institutes, were isolated. A sample of 25 percent was drawn from each of the populations. All but five of those selected were interviewed, and the data describe these 28 deputies, 32 civil servants, and 20 directors. As can be seen from Table 1, a majority of all are in the middle age group: over 35 and under 50 years of age. Most have graduated from universities, although deputies are less educated than members of the other groups (Table 2). A majority of civil servants and directors have studied overseas in addition to their regular education, while only a few of the deputies have studied abroad (Table 3). Many deputies, however, have traveled abroad as representatives of the government (Table 4). Most directors are members of the Partido Liberacion Nacional as Table 5 shows. Non-PLN affiliation among the civil servants and deputies is greater than among the directors, although members of the PLN still constitute a majority in each of the three samples. Civil servants and directors come primarily from San Jose, the capital, while most deputies are from places outside San Jose. No area is very far from San Jose and most members of all groups are from the Meseta Central.

A sequential test of performance (STOP) for all-or-none learning data

Abstract: A procedure is developed using the binomial test for the sequential criterion testing of all-or-none learning data. The sequential test is accompanied by a format for gathering the data which generates a graphic profile of S’s performance over trials. Comparison of an index of problem difficulty provided by the Sequential Test of Performance (STOP) with a more commonly used index, the number of correct responses in a fixed block of trials, produced a high linear relationship between the two measures with the STOP method showing a savings in trials run of over 40%.

Medium volume and the survival of Serratia marcescens.

Abstract: Summary Experiments were designed to test the null hypothesis that volume of agar medium in 100 mm Petri dishes has no influence on the colony count of the facultative organism, Serratia marcescens. With a constant inoculum in 9, 12, 15 and 18 ml volume of medium the surface counts were statistically equivalent, but the subsurface counts increased as a direct function of volume variation. Over the range studied, at the P= 0.95 level, the null hypothesis was accepted for surface colony counts but was rejected for subsurface colony counts.