Showing papers in "British Journal of Psychology in 1972"

The distribution of manual asymmetry

Abstract: Four different descriptions of lateral asymmetry are reviewed and their probable interrelations examined. Two main features are distinguished: first, a normal distribution of relative efficiency of the two sides which probably applies to all species subject to lateral differences; second, a factor specific to humans which induces a shift of the normal distribution toward dextrality. A brief discussion of the origins of asymmetry leads to the conclusion that the basic normal distribution probably depends on accidental variation while the human shift to the right may be a product of both cultural and genetic influences. The latter could imply that human right handedness is inherited while left handedness is not.

Reasoning and a sense of reality

Abstract: An experiment was performed to determine whether the use of realistic materials would improve performance in a deceptive reasoning problem. The task involved selecting from a set of envelopes those which, if they were turned over, could violate a given rule. The rule concerned either a realistic relation (‘if a letter is sealed, then it has a 50 lire stamp on it’) or else an arbitrary relation between symbols (‘if a letter has an A on one side, then it has a 3 on the other side’). Twenty-two of the 24 subjects made at least one correct answer with the realistic material but only seven of them did so with the symbolic materials. The verbal formulation of the rule was also varied but yielded only a marginal interaction with the main variable. It is argued that the critical factor is the intrinsic connexion between items rather than their specific nature.

Selective attention and performance in dangerous environments.

Abstract: Evidence on human performance in dangerous environments is reviewed and suggests that danger reduces efficiency, except in the case of experienced subjects. Perceptual narrowing is shown to be one source of decrement. It is suggested that danger increases the subject's arousal level which influences performance by producing a narrowing of attention. The nature of the performance decrement and of adaptation to danger are discussed in this context.

Hemispheric asymmetries in tachistoscopic information-processing.

Abstract: A considerable number of experiments, reported since 1965, has been concerned with cerebral hemisphere differences and the processing of tachistoscopic visual information. The present paper critically examines the findings from laboratory experiments with normal Ss and from clinical experiments with brain-damaged patients. Three general conclusions are reached from this analysis: (1) Much of the available evidence on tachistoscopic laterality differences and hemispheric asymmetries is ambiguous, equivocal, and inconsistent; this is attributable to inadequate methodological considerations and misinterpretations of response indicators. (2) The reliable evidence suggests the hemispheres differ in efficiency to initiate specific responses and in ability to analyse/encode visual information. (3) Future research into hemispheric determinants should supplement traditional recognition-accuracy indicators with non-vocal, non-identificatory measures in order to separate response-initiation from visual-analysis effects.

Short-Term Memory in the Deaf: A Test for Speech Coding.

Abstract: A study was carried out to examine the feasibility of identifying by a short test whether or not any particular profoundly deaf school child uses a speech code in short-term memory for verbal material. Consonant sequences were visually presented, drawn alternately from a set of letters which had high acoustic/articulatory similarity (AS), and from another of low similarity on this dimension, but with high shape similarity (VS). Relative recall performance from the two vocabularies is taken to represent the extent to which speech coding is used. Almost all control hearing subjects recalled more from the VS set; almost all deaf subjects recalled more from the AS set. The test thus provides a quick method of assessing the level of oral memorizing in one situation which has pedagogic relevance. Some validity is provided by the further fact that deaf subjects selected for oral facility yielded scores which were significantly different from those of deaf subjects not so selected — and different in the direction of hearing subjects. Just the same, the most oral deaf, as a group, approached nowhere near the level of speech coding used by the hearing subjects. Caution is suggested when comparing memory span of deaf and hearing subjects using verbal material, since it can be shown that with some consonant vocabularies, the deaf may show larger spans than the hearing.

Reasoning with negatives

Abstract: Two experiments are reported on the effect of negation on reasoning with conditional rules. In Expt. I significantly more affirmative than negative statements were denied by a valid inference (modus tollens), and significantly more negative than affirmative statements were affirmed by a fallacious inference (affirmation of the consequent). Subjects made their inferences by choosing from a list of possible conclusions, so that, for example, an affirmative statement, p, could be denied by selecting the negative conclusion, not p. It was hypothesized that the greater difficulty experienced by subjects in the denial of not p by a choice of p might be due to the additional intermediate step of double negation. i.e. not not p, which is involved. The results of Expt. II suggested, however, that the difficulty lies in subjects' inability to infer that a negative statement is false, rather than in the process of transforming a double negative into an affirmative.

Processing in perceptual integration between and within the cerebral hemispheres

Abstract: Two experiments are described in which, by a divided visual field technique, simple non-verbal stimulus material is directed to either the right hemisphere, left hemisphere, or divided between the hemispheres. It is found that when material to be matched is shared between the hemispheres, response latencies are reduced, suggesting increased capacity for the processing of such information and supporting the hypothesis that each hemisphere contains its own processing and analysing system. When the material is directed to only one hemisphere, and a bimanual motor response required, a relative superiority of the right hemisphere is found. If the response required is a vocal response, then further relative blocking of the processing undertaken by the left hemisphere is observed.

Peak shift, behavioural contrast and stimulus generalization as related to personality and development in children.

Abstract: Fourteen children, aged 7–11 years, were selected from an initial sample of 190 to give a range of scores on the JEPI. They were also evaluated by a Teacher's Rating Scale for neuroticism. The children were trained in a discrimination learning task which yielded measures of peak shift, behavioural contrast and stimulus generalization. Peak shift and behavioural contrast were positively correlated. Neuroticism was positively correlated with both one measure of peak shift and stimulus generalization. Extraversion was negatively correlated with a second measure of peak shift and positively correlated with generalization. With increasing developmental maturity (chronological age, reading age and relative advance of reading age), both peak shift and behavioural contrast tended to be reduced.

Open-field behaviour in rats: effects of handling sex and repeated testing

Abstract: The effects of pre-weaning handling, sex and repeated testing on the open-field behaviour of rats were consistent with existing reports and with the interpretation of the defecation and ambulation measures as inversely related indices of emotionality. The main finding replicated a report that although handled rats increase their ambulation with repeated testing in a fashion concordant with the observed drop in defecation, non-handled rats show an initial decline followed by an increase. This latter effect is interpreted in terms of fear-motivated escape behaviour on trial one, since non-handled rats confine their activity largely to the periphery of the field on this trial and their exploration of an object placed in the centre of the field increases over trials in accordance with theoretical expectations.

Selecting Creativity Tests for Use in Research.

Abstract: This study looks at the problem of creativity tost selection by examining the relationships between 15 divergent and non-divergent tests. This practical problem raises two main theoretical issues: whether ‘creativity’ is a unitary dimension across and within tests, and what relationship this range of abilities bears to IQ. A secondary aim is to evaluate four new tests by comparison with the 11 others. The tests were administered, along with two IQ reference measures, to 117 10- to 11-year-old school children. Factor analysis of the resulting intercorrelations led to the conclusion that ‘creativity’ implies an integrated range of abilities represented by the divergent tests which, although related to general intelligence in subjects of average IQ, remains factorially distinct from it; within tests, Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Elaboration subscores were highly intercorrelated. Thus, providing that all modes of response and types of test material are included (drawing/writing; verbal/non-verbal content), the actual divergent tests chosen are not of vital importance, and calculation of anything other than Fluency scores adds little information. Analysis of the four new tests confirmed this conclusion, and led to suggestions for their further development.

A CONFIRMATION OF THE INERTIAL‐ψ EFFECT IN SEQUENTIAL CHOICE AND DECISION

Abstract: The experiment was designed to test the hypothesis, derived from earlier investigations, that people tend to overestimate compound probabilities, in the rough sense that they think they have a better chance of success than is actually the case. Fifty boys, aged 14+, were presented with various m × n arrays, where m represents the number of stages and n represents the number of alternatives at each stage. There was one correct but unknown alternative at each stage and, in order to win a prize, the subject had to guess them all in turn, only one guess being allowed at each stage. The task of the subject was then to equate what he believed was his chance of winning the prize with one of a set of lotteries. The chance of success in these lotteries ranged from 0·9 to 0·0001. The hypothesis was confirmed and, in addition, what seems to be a ‘law’ of sequential choice (or decision) seemed to emerge. The ‘law’ is such that if the number of stages in the array is held constant, the relative overestimation of the chance of guessing correctly at all stages varies directly with a power of the number of alternatives per stage. If, however, the number of alternatives is held constant, the relative overestimation varies exponentially with the number of stages. This ‘law’, which we call ‘the inertial-ψ effect’, appears in almost identical form in two independent experiments. It may prove to have a very general application in the characterization of human judgement and its fallibility in many spheres of life.

The regression to right angles tendency and the Poggendorff illusion. I.

Abstract: The theory was tested that the Poggendorff illusion was due to three tendencies: (i) the regression to the right angle of the angle formed by the transversal with the ‘inducing’ figure, (ii) the tendency to see the transversal as more horizontal or vertical than it is depending upon which coordinate is nearer, and (iii) the tendency, when the ‘inducing’ figure is nearer one of these coordinates, for the transversal to be seen as nearer the other. A regression analysis showed that these tendencies were highly statistically significant and with a constant factor accounted for 93 per cent of the variability of the means for each angle.

Information selection, arousal and memory.

Abstract: Two experiments were performed to investigate the effects of noise-induced arousal on immediate recall of visually presented paired-associate adjectives. Results of Expt. I suggest that the established finding that high arousal during learning impairs immediate recall is probably an artifact produced by the standard experimental technique of randomizing list order for each anticipation trial. When order is maintained over successive anticipation trials lists are better learned in noise, indicating that order cues receive heavier weighting in that situation. In a second experiment, which employs an A-B-A retroactive inhibition (RI) paradigm, RI is less when noise is present during the learning of list A, and greater when noise is present during the learning of list B. The results from the two experiments are interpreted as demonstrating increased processing of input in states of high arousal (as produced by temporary changes in environmental stimulation).

The model of cognitive orientation: towards a theory of human behaviour

Abstract: This article presents the main assumptions and processes of a model for the analysis and prediction of behaviour, mainly on the molar level. Analysis of findings concerning the orienting reflex shows that a cognitive determination of the input's denotative meaning (‘meaning action’) is an indispensable antecedent for the elicitation of the orienting reflex, adaptive and defensive reactions, and CRs. If these responses fail to cope with the stimulus situation, meaning is further elaborated (‘meaning generation’). Interaction between the input's connotative meaning and the cognitive orientation components (beliefs about self, norms, goals and environment) produces a ‘cognitive orientation cluster’, manifested in a ‘behavioural intent’, which turns into behavioural output through the mobilization and adaptation of innate and learned ‘plans’. Supportive empirical findings and general theoretical implications are discussed.

Degrees of insight

Abstract: This experiment investigated performance on a reasoning task in which the subjects had to say which of four half-hidden cards they needed to see fully in order to determine the truth or falsity of a conditional sentence. In one experimental condition examples of each of the four types of card were fully displayed to remove any difficulty due to limitation of memory or imagery. No more correct solutions were obtained under this condition than under a control condition in which no such aid was given. After they had made their selections all subjects wrote down their reasons for them. Analysis of the different selections, and the reasons given for them, corroborated a previously proposed information-processing model, postulated to explain the cognitive processes involved in tasks of this type.

Vigilance decrement and speed of habituation of the gsr component of the orienting response

Abstract: The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between auditory vigilance performance and speed of habituation of the GSR component of the orienting response (OR) to auditory stimuli. Fast habituators (n = 7) displayed a greater rate of vigilance decrement than slow habituators (n = 7), suggesting a more rapid onset of a phase of low arousal in these subjects.

A hierarchical measure of cognitive complexity

Abstract: A new hierarchical measure of cognitive complexity based on the repertory grid is described. This measure is considered to be both conceptually and empirically an advance over previous measures. It emphasizes that the structure of a subject's construct system is important, rather than merely its degree of differentiation. In this respect, it has advantages over previous measures based on the repertory grid. Three experiments are described which test the validity and reliability of the new measure. These experiments show that the hierarchical measure is reliable and is unrelated to a measure of differentiation based on the repertory grid. The hierarchical measure is shown to be positively related to performance on Harvey's ‘This I Believe’ test, which has been used as a projective measure of cognitive complexity. The hierarchical measure is also shown to be unrelated to performance on a verbal reasoning task.

The attenuation of visual persistence.

Abstract: Haber & Standing (1969, 1970) have shown that visual persistence (VP), which it is suggested corresponds to Sperling's ‘Visual Information Store’, can be directly measured. The present investigation extends this approach with another direct measure of VP. This involves recording the number of phenomenally simultaneous lines that are experienced when viewing a single trace moving in a straight line, at a sweep speed above the fusion threshold, across the face of a rotating CRO. The results from three experiments suggested that VP for the apparent movement produced by this display was a decreasing function of field brightness, a curvilinear function of sweep speed, and an increasing function of rotation speed and of the spatial separation of the lines. One implication of the latter findings, namely that termination of VP may be brought about by lateral inhibition, received additional support from the finding that disruption by a superimposed noise field increased VP.

Types of imagery and imagery types: an EEG study.

Abstract: The occipital EEG of subjects differing in reported vividness of mental imagery was monitored during a series of mental imagery tasks. (i) Vivid imagers (selected on the basis of the Betts Vividness of Imagery Scale) had a higher mean dominant alpha frequency (m.d.f.) than weak imagers (P < 0·025), but there were no individual differences for alpha abundance. The difference for m.d.f. held for only one task - an eyes-open, minimal imaging condition, (ii) Greater alpha suppression followed presentation of High Imagery (High I) words than followed presentation of Low Imagery (Low I) words (P < 0·005). (iii) High I words elicited more imagery than Low I words, for both vivid and weak imagers (P < 0·005). (iv) Reported elicited imagery was greater for the vivid imagers (P < 0·005). (v) For two voluntary imaging tasks, alpha suppression was greater in that task reported by the subjects as being harder to visualize (P < 0·01), thus reversing the findings for (ii) above, (vi) Subjects completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory. None of the above findings could be attributed to individual differences in either extraversion or neuroticism. It is concluded that the act of imaging per se does influence the EEG and that alpha suppression is not merely a by-product of the arousing nature of imaging tasks. However, difficulty in the act of imaging also influences the EEG. The equivocal results of earlier research may therefore be accounted for in terms of the differential effects of instruction to image, upon the EEG, as demonstrated in the present study.

On Mental Energy.

Abstract: The notion of mental energy as an account of why we are active at all is as old as the ‘active principles’ of Greek philosophy. It took hold on psychology with the instinct theories of Freud and McDougall and subsequently of the ethologists. The concept was adapted by the behaviour theorists and, under the influence of Cannon, by the energetics school. Currently the tradition is carried by arousal theory. The concept is criticized as being of uncertain ontological status, tending towards hypostatic explanation and as being an application of power engineering principles to a communication system. Current understanding of the reticular system offers little support for its proposed role as an energy source. It is argued that the central question of why we are active at all is an unnecessary one.

The Development of Visual and Kinaesthetic Judgements of Distance.

Abstract: Three groups, each of 36 children, aged 4, 6 and 8 years, performed visual and kinaesthetic intra- and cross-modal matching tasks in three experimental conditions of simultaneous or successive visual inputs in an age x conditions x modality design. Stimuli were lengths with specific relations to a total distance. No effect of simultaneous versus successive experimental conditions was found. Age, modality and the interaction between age and modality were significant effects. For 8- and 6-year-olds highest errors were on the kinaesthetic–visual (K–V) task; for 4-year-olds visual–kinaesthetic (V–K) and intra-kinaesthetic (K–K) errors were significantly higher than all others. To test if differences in error patterns could be explained by poor movement control by 4-year-olds, data for subjects selected on intra-kinaesthetic performance were subjected to a second analysis. An age x modality analysis on subjects selected on K–K showed that age, modality and the interaction between age and modality were again significant effects. K–K errors for the 4-year group were now significantly lower than V–K errors, and not different from K–V. V–K errors had not been affected by the selection on K–K and were significantly higher than V–V, and than K–V errors. The cross-modal asymmetry (V–K > K–V errors) was thus not due to kinaesthetic response errors. K–V was only slightly and not significantly higher than V–V at the 4-year level. This error pattern contrasted with those found for 6- and 8-year-olds where K–V, not V–K errors, were highest and significantly different from V–V errors. The implications of the results for theories of cross-modal performance are discussed, and an explanation is suggested.

The development of sensitivity to figural and stylistic aspects of paintings

Abstract: To determine whether pre-adolescent subjects can learn to classify paintings consistently by style or by figure, matched groups of subjects at each of two age levels (7 and 10) were given a pre-test, a seven-week training session, and two post-tests. Subjects at both age levels demonstrated the ability to sort paintings according to a consistent criterion; the older group could more readily alter the basis of its classifications when instructed to do so; style sensitivity was not found to be dependent upon concrete operational thought. Strategies used by subjects and the role of Gestalt perception and operational thought in style sensitivity are discussed.

Reproduction of orientation of Kohs-type figures: a cross-cultural study.

Abstract: Adults and children from Zambia as well as children from Iceland were used to evaluate hypotheses that rotation of reproduced patterns in a Kohs-like task is not random but is such as to increase the ‘stability’ of the model and its symmetry about the median plane, and that the symmetry is of secondary importance to stability. The data obtained confirmed the difficulties which some African populations encounter when dealing with this type of task and verified the hypotheses stated above. The Icelandic sample made so few erroneous responses that their data could not be used in evaluating the hypotheses.

Arousal increment and degree of complexity as incentive.

Abstract: In Expt. I subjects were required by means of a key-press to view checkerboard patterns of either medium (36 bits) or low (four bits), medium or high (900 bits), or low or high complexity. Normally aroused subjects key-pressed more often to view slides of intermediate rather than low or high complexity. In Expt. II EEG desynchronization was found to be an inverted U-shaped function of complexity. In Expt. III subjective complexity (SC), based on the number of names of objects that the patterns reminded the subjects of and an estimate of the strength of each association, was found to be a U-shaped function of pattern complexity. These results were interpreted using Berlyne's notions regarding arousal, conflict and preference for complexity.

Art preference and personality

Abstract: The neuroticism factor of personality was compared with the romantic/classical dimension of art. Twenty-five male and 25 female college students between 19 and 24 years of age participated. Subjects chose their preferred selection of each of 11 pairs of paintings, which had been rated by art specialists on a romanticism scale, and completed the Maudsley Personality Inventory as an index of neuroticism. Subjects choosing Romantic art tended to score higher in neuroticism than did those choosing classical paintings. A negative correlation between extraversion and choice of romantic paintings was also found.

Arousal value of the stimulus and EEG abundance in an auditory vigilance task

Abstract: The EEG was monitored during an auditory vigilance task. The wanted signal consisted of three consecutive odd digits. Five other types of signal varied in their approximation to the wanted signal and were ranked on that criterion for their ‘arousal’ value. Each signal was followed by a rest period. The key results were: (i) alpha abundance (8·5–13·5 Hz) diminished as the arousal value of the signal increased (P < 0·005); (ii) theta (4·5–6·5 Hz) and beta (13·5–19·5 Hz) showed either weak or no effects; (iii) a very-low-frequency filter (2·0–4·5 Hz) yielded a strong effect for one class of signal only (P < 0·021); (iv) during rest periods which followed the three most arousing types of signal, alpha abundance was greater than during the preceding signal (P < 0·025): the reverse held for the least arousing signals (P < 0·025); (v) theta abundance was very much lower following response (rest period following the wanted signal) than following other signal types (P < 0·01) and theta abundance during rest was generally smaller than during signals (P < 0·021); (vi) for the three least arousing signals, activity at 2·0–4·5 Hz was lower during rest than during signals (P < 0·05); (vii) subjects rated themselves as being more ‘keyed up’ as cue or arousal value of the signals increased (P < 0·001) and (viii) similarly, reported that alertness increased during rest periods associated with signals of increasing cue value (P < 0·01). These findings demonstrate that during a task of this sort, the subject experiences variation in alertness; this variation in subjective state is reflected by systematic change in the EEG. It is concluded that these results lend support to arousal models of vigilance and to Lindsley's activation theory.

Developmental changes in short-term recognition memory.

Abstract: Changes in auditory and visual recognition were studied in subjects ranging in age from 10 to 60 years. Four-word lists were presented serially at a rate of 0·75 sec. per item and followed after 1·5 sec. by a test word for recognition. Under a separate condition subjects simply named the test word as rapidly as possible. It was argued that subtracting naming latency from decision latency yielded a relatively pure measure of comparison time in memory. Age effects were found in decision latency, but these were greatly reduced by the subtraction procedure. When presentation list and test word were both given auditorily no age differences were found in corrected decision latency, but developmental changes remained when the list and the test word were presented in different modalities. It was concluded, first, that in comparison with perceptual and response factors, memory scanning time is relatively insensitive to age differences and, second, that auditory recognition involves the use of a pre-linguistic or ‘representational’ memory system which is not sensitive to age over the sampled range.

Infantile handling and associative processes of rats

Abstract: A review of the literature on the effects of infantile handling indicated that this variable has an effect upon the animal's later performance on various learning tasks. This effect may be the manifestation of at least two possible processes. As a result of its direct effects on the emotional as well as exploratory responsivity of the rat, infantile handling has an indirect effect upon the animal's associative learning processes. Because the learning criteria used in previous handling studies involve an increase in an animal's operant level of goal-directed activity, it is difficult to determine whether handling directly facilitates later learning. On the other hand, the results of studies of the effects of handling upon tasks where activity level increase is not confounded with learning would yield less ambiguous outcomes than those from earlier experiments. The aim of the present experiment was to train handled (H) and non-handled (NH) rats in a brightness discrimination learning situation and to examine the effects of punishment in that context. The fact that NH animals required fewer trials than H animals to relearn the formerly punished response suggests the possibility that H animals show greater retention of the learned fear response (hence greater associative ability) than NH animals.