Showing papers by "Rider University published in 1980"

Reconsidering the Work Disincentive Effects of Social Security

Abstract: This paper shows that, contrary to commonly held views, the provisions of the social security law actually provide strong work incentives for older men. The reason is that, for most workers, higher current earnings lead to higher future social security benefits. These incentives have been particularly strong for workers under 65 years of age and, although they will be reduced somewhat when the 1977 amendments to the social security law become fully effective, they will remain substantial. The findings raise serious questions about recent econometric work attributing the decline in labor force participation rates of older men to the social security system.

The Status of Women's Research in Educational Publications

Abstract: Sex differences in the content and authorship of articles published in major educational, women's, and minority journals from 1973–1977 were examined. In that five-year period, research related to women in education accounted for approximately 10% of the research published in four major educational research journals, 24% of the research published in two women's journals, and 6% of the research published in two minority journals. No increase in the relative number of articles related to women and education published from 1973 through 1977 was found. Articles authored by women accounted for 9%, 59%, and 17% of the research published in educational, women's, and minority journals, respectively. No increase in the relative numbers of articles authored or coauthored by women from 1973 through 1977 was found. The relationship between publications and the status of women in educational research is discussed.

Use of the internal-external control scale to predict preferences for products

Abstract: 15 male and 15 female undergraduates completed a locus of control survey and a product-preference questionnaire for internally oriented consumer products. The total internal score on the locus of control survey was correlated with the average rating of intent to purchase the internally oriented products. A significant positive correlation indicated that the locus of control scale may be used to predict consumers' behavior when certain products are involved.

Retrograde amnesia in free recall as a function of priority and "posteriority" instructions

Abstract: Summary.-The present study supports earlier reports showing poorer free recall for the item preceding a unique item in an otherwise homogeneous list. Subjects were shown lists of common nouns and instructed either prior to or immediately following list presentation to be aware of a word in the list from a particular taxonomic category. Recall of the unique item was improved both by priority and "posteriority" instructions, whereas recall was depressed for the immediately preceding item in both conditions. It was concluded that encoding failures are sufficient but not necessary to produce induced retrograde amnesia. When a unique item is introduced in a list of otherwise homogeneous items, the unique item is often better remembered than an item in a comparable position in a homogeneous list. This robust phenomenon is known as the von Restorff effect; see Wallace (1965) for an extensive review. Jenkins and Postman (1948) noticed that, although the unique item is better recalled, recall for items immediately preceding and following the unique item is depressed. They attributed the poorer recall of the surrounding items to a disruption of rehearsal caused by subjects' attention to the unique item. Tulving (1969) found poorer free recall for items preceding a unique item in a list when the unique item was a proper noun in a list of common nouns. He called the phenomenon induced retrograde amnesia due to the operational similarity between the negative spread of effect seen in the laboratory and clinical retrograde amnesia. Explanations for induced retrograde amnesia have focused on disruptions in consolidation, rehearsal failures, or failures of retrieval. Recently Fisk and Wickens ( 1979) found evidence that the locus of the effect occurred in the encoding stage. They were able to eliminate induced retrograde amnesia by orienting subjects toward the pleasantness-unpleasantness dimension of meaning during encoding. They reasoned that instructions affecting subjects' encoding strategy would not be effective in eliminating retrograde amnesia if the phenomenon were in the retrieval stage. It is possible that the retrograde amnesia effect is not solely located in encoding processes, but is multiply determined and due to encoding and retrieval factors. The rationale of the present study, then, was to replicate the Fisk-Wickens (1979) procedure with the addition of a condition in which a

Changes in Maternal Behavior in Rats During Exposure to a Stimulus Predicting Shock

Abstract: Previous research has established that Pavlovian fear-conditioned stimuli exert inhibitory effects when superimposed on appetitive contingencies. The study reported here shows that a shock signal will suppress specific maternal behaviors in dams exposed to stimulus-shock pairings before their litters were born. The suppression of maternal behavior in the form of oral contacts with pups and time spent in proximity to pups occurred in the home cage, while stimulus-shock pairings occurred in an operant chamber. The pattern of findings for three control groups, stimulus only, shock only, and random stimulus-shock, indicates that the suppression effect is dependent on the association of the stimulus and shock and not just the result of being shocked or exposed to the stimulus.

Effects of kinship, age, and sex on social preferences in rats measured in an operant response situation

Abstract: Latane and his co-workers have reported that several static stimulus variables do not affect social attraction between laboratory rats tested in an open-field apparatus. These variables include absence of fur, color of fur, perfumed fur, and sex of subject. Experiments are reported here that suggest that static stimulus variables related to kinship, age, and sex of companion exert a significant influence on social attraction and social exploration measured in an operant response situation. Social operant behavior varied as a function of stimulus factors in several situations: littermates paired with other littermates vs. strangers, dams exposed to young offspring vs. young strangers, dams exposed to young offspring vs. adult offspring, and adult rats exposed to their dams or to strange females.