Showing papers in "Bulletin of the psychonomic society in 1980"
TL;DR: This article examined different measures of contingency in the psychological judgment literature concerned with binary variables and argued that accurate judgments about related variables should not be used to infer that the judgments are based on the appropriate information.
Abstract: Varied measures of contingency have appeared in the psychological judgment literature concerned with binary variables. These measures are examined, and the inappropriateness of some are noted. As well, it is argued that accurate judgments about related variables should not be used to infer that the judgments are based on the appropriate information.
341 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that twice-presented items were more likely to be recalled than items presented once, and they were; MP items were judged more likely than DP items, but they were not; and subjects think that they know MP items when they do not suggests why processing may be less for massed than for distributed presentations.
Abstract: College students rated the likelihood of recall of individual words presented for free recall learning. Predictions were made using a 7-point scale immediately following an item’s presentation in the list. To-be-rated items included those presented one time, as well as items presented twice in either a massed (MP) or distributed (DP) manner. Twice-presented items were rated as more likely to be recalled than items presented once, and they were; MP items were judged more likely to be recalled than DP items, but they were not. The finding that subjects think that they know MP items when they do not suggests why processing may be less for massed than for distributed presentations. As such, these results provide support for the attenuation of attention hypothesis of the spacing effect in free recall.
160 citations
TL;DR: This paper showed that the squirrel monkey is capable of relative numerousness judgments, including ordinal numerousness judgment, and concluded that the ability to use quantitative concepts is a prerequisite to the acquisition of language.
Abstract: With nonnumerousness dimensions (e.g., pattern, area) controlled, three cards with two to seven black-filled circles were presented on each trial. If the center of three conditional cue lights was illuminated, the monkey was reinforced for selecting the card with the fewest circles; if two lights were on, the card with the intermediate number of circles was correct; and if three lights were on, the card with the most circles was correct. Training began with one conditional cue light and proceeded to the three-light condition. Then the one- and three-light conditions were presented randomly and concurrently, followed by the two-light condition. Finally, one, two, or three lights were presented randomly and concurrently. Only one monkey met criterion on all training stages, but another monkey succeeded also through the intermediate-number condition. It was concluded that the squirrel monkey is capable of relative numerousness judgments, including ordinal numerousness judgments. Additional discussion was concerned with the hypothesis suggested by Brown, Lenneberg, and Ettlinger (1978) that the ability to use quantitative concepts is a prerequisite to the acquisition of language.
80 citations
TL;DR: In this article, single letters and numbers were shown at different angular orientations in the frontal plane, in both forward and backward (mirror-image) versions, and subjects were required to discriminate the stimuli on the basis of version, category and name.
Abstract: Single letters and numbers were shown at different angular orientations in the frontal plane, in both forward and backward (mirror-image) versions. In three separate conditions, subjects were required to discriminate the stimuli on the basis of version, category (letter, number, and name (G, 2, etc.). There was a pronounced effect of orientation on version judgments but none at all on category and name judgments, indicating that the identification of a tilted character requires neither the assignment of a cognitive up-down axis nor mental rotation to the upright. Nevertheless, reaction times for backward versions were slower than reaction times for forward versions in both category and name conditions, implicating some sort of interhemispheric transfer process. No support was obtained for the so-called “conceptual category” effect in that reaction times for category judgments were consistently slower than reaction times for name judgments.
65 citations
TL;DR: The present data confirm previous reports that freezing in the rat is a useful index of aversive conditioning and produce reliable CS-evoked freezing in comparison with pseudoconditioning controls.
Abstract: The present data confirm previous reports that freezing in the rat is a useful index of aversive conditioning. Forward conditioning produced reliable CS-evoked freezing in comparison with pseudoconditioning controls. When a white noise was the CS, conditioned freezing increased with shock intensity; when a localized light was the CS, freezing did not vary with shock intensity.
65 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a new power law of movement time for motor control tasks is proposed as an alternative to the classical Fitts' law, which may be interpreted as a special case of the power law.
Abstract: A new power law of movement time for motor control tasks is proposed as an alternative to the classical Fitts’ law. A reanalysis of Fitts’ original data indicates that this power law may provide superior fits to those of Fitts’ law, which may be interpreted as a special case of the power law. The so-called rate of change of information derived from Fitts’ law, which is claimed to be an invalid information-theoretic measure, is an exponentially decreasing function of Fitts’ index of difficulty according to the power law rather than a fixed quantity as derived from Fitts’ law.
65 citations
TL;DR: This article found that discriminating between externally and internally derived memories was easier than discriminating between two external sources of memories, consistent with the idea that the classes of internally and externally derived memories differ in characteristic ways.
Abstract: Subjects participated in small groups. Two subjects engaged in a “conversation” in which they alternated generating single words, and other subjects listened to the conversation. Later, speakers were better than other subjects at correctly identifying the origin of words. This held both for a situation in which the subjects had considerable freedom in what they generated (Experiment 1) and for a situation in which what they generated was constrained by specific cues (Experiment 2). The fact that discriminating between externally and internally derived memories was easier than discriminating between two external sources of memories is consistent with the idea that the classes of internally and externally derived memories differ in characteristic ways.
63 citations
TL;DR: It was found that rats that were reexposed to the context in which they had been shocked were significantly more analgesic than rats in the other two groups (which did not differ).
Abstract: It has been suggested by recent studies that the analgesic reaction to electric shock can be conditioned. However, these studies either lacked shocked controls or used an indirect measure of analgesia (freezing). In the present investigation, each rat was exposed an equal number of times to two distinct environmental contexts. The rats were shocked in one context and reexposed to the same context before test, shocked in one context and reexposed to the nonshock context before test, or not shocked at all and reexposed to one of the two contexts. Immediately following reexposure, the pain reactivity of the rats was assessed by a hot plate (Experiment 1) and a tail-flick apparatus (Experiment 2). It was found that rats that were reexposed to the context in which they had been shocked were significantly more analgesic than rats in the other two groups (which did not differ). These results confirm that it is possible to condition shock-induced analgesia in the rat.
63 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the robustness of Z, t, and F tests against heterogeneity in a large-scale sampling study under conditions realistic to experimentation and testing in the behavioral sciences and found that robustness was strongly influenced by all of the factors investigated, and interactions among the influencing factors were often strong and complex.
Abstract: The alleged robustness of Z, t, and F tests against nonnormality and, when sample sizes are equal, of t and F tests against heterogeneity as well was investigated in a large-scale sampling study under conditions realistic to experimentation and testing in the behavioral sciences. Factors varied were: population shape (L or bell), σ1/σ2 (1/2, 1, or 2), size N of smallest sample (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, or 1,024), N1/N2 (1/3,1/2,1, 2, or 3), α (.05,.01, or.001), and test tailedness (left, right, or two). In about 25% of the situations investigated, the test failed to meet a very lax criterion for robustness at every examined N value less than 100, and in 8% at every value less than 1,000; no test met the criterion in all of the situations studied before N=512. Robustness was strongly influenced by all of the factors investigated, and interactions among the influencing factors were often strong and complex.
54 citations
TL;DR: The watched-pot phenomenon was literally produced by exposing two groups of subjects to a pot of water on a hot plate as discussed by the authors, where the experimental subjects were asked to signal when the water began to boil; the control group was given no such instructions.
Abstract: The proverbial watched-pot phenomenon was literally produced by exposing two groups of subjects to a pot of water on a hot plate The experimental subjects were requested to signal when the water began to boil; the control group was given no such instructions All subjects were then asked to estimate the length of a 240-sec interval; the experimental group gave significantly longer time estimates than did the control group The results are interpreted as supporting an expectancy interpretation of the watched-pot effect
46 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the N250 latency shift reflects an increase in decision time as a consequence of greater difficulty, while the P300 amplitude decreased with increased task difficulty, as predicted by the equivocation formulation of Ruchkin and Sutton 11979, this trend failed to reach the required.01 level of statistical significance.
Abstract: Eight subjects counted the rarer of two clicks under two levels of difficulty of discrimination. Event-related potentials showed a significant lengthening of N250 and P300 latency when the discrimination was more difficult. These findings confirm those of Ritter et al. !1979} despite the following procedural differences: {1} Stimuli differed in intensity rather than pitch, 12} the task involved silent counting rather than reaction time, and 13} statistical analyses were computed across subjects rather than within subjects. We conclude that the N250 latency shift reflects an increase in decision time as a consequence of greater difficulty. The current findings also support the Ritter et al. I1979} conclusion that the P300 latency increase is secondary to the N250 increase. Although P300 amplitude decreased with increased task difficulty, as predicted by the equivocation formulation of Ruchkin and Sutton 11979}, this trend failed to reach the required .01 level of statistical significance.
TL;DR: Conditioned defensive burying was observed in 30, 60, and 90-day-old male and female Long-Evans hooded rats, but was never observed in gerbils or hamsters and did not reach significant levels in BALB mice.
Abstract: Conditioned defensive burying was observed in 30-, 60-, and 90-day-old male and female Long-Evans hooded rats (Experiment 1), in adult male and female CD-I albino mice and Long-Evans hooded rats (Experiment 2), and in adult male Long-Evans, Wistar, and Fischer rats and CD-I and CF-1 albino mice (Experiment 3). Conversely, conditioned defensive burying was never observed in gerbils or hamsters and did not reach significant levels in BALB mice.
TL;DR: Rattlesnakes of three taxa struck and released large rodent prey but held smaller rodents in their jaws after striking, consistent with the fact that large rodents are more dangerous to rattlesnake than are small rodents.
Abstract: Rattlesnakes of three taxa (Crotalus durissus, C. enyo, and C. viridis) struck and released large rodent prey but held smaller rodents in their jaws after striking. The specimens of C. enyo were clearest in this regard; almost all large prey were released, and all small prey were held. This finding is consistent with the fact that large rodents are more dangerous to rattlesnakes than are small rodents. Accordingly, it appears that rattlesnakes have evolved differential predatory strategies for dealing with prey of varying size. Speculation is offered about the manner in which these respective strategies are activated or selected during predatory episodes.
TL;DR: The hypothesis that task attentional requirements vary inversely with increases in the efficiency of task performance was evaluated in this paper, where subjects simultaneously performed a random number generation task (RNG) on two or four trials of the two-hand coordination task.
Abstract: The hypothesis that task attentional requirements vary inversely with increases in the efficiency of task performance was evaluated. Three experimental groups (N = 8, N = 6, N = 3) were required to learn a two-hand coordination task (THC). To assess changing attentional demands at different levels of skilled THC performance, subjects simultaneously performed a random number generation task (RNG) on two or four trials of the THC task; these trials occurred during initial acquisition, during semiskilled performance, at performance asymptote, or after overlearning. The RNG index showed marked deterioration during initial acquisition (p <.005), remained below baseline but improved during semiskilled performance (p <.05), and partially and completely recovered to original baseline levels during the mastery and overlearning trials. The RNG procedure may provide a brief, sensitive, and consistent measure of attention deployment during the performance of tasks and in the learning and acquisition of complex skills.
TL;DR: Simulation of arm selection under various biases was used to provide several estimates of chance accuracy of armselection, which emphasize the type and degree of the problem in characterizing chance accuracy and may be useful in arriving at a relevant estimate.
Abstract: The radial arm maze is now widely used to assess spatial control of behavior. Determination of chance performance on the maze may be made difficult, however, because of response biases. Simulation of arm selection under various biases was used to provide several estimates of chance accuracy of arm selection. These estimates emphasize the type and degree of the problem in characterizing chance accuracy and may be useful to others in arriving at a relevant estimate.
TL;DR: Stevens’ psychophysical power function is derived from the experimental finding that rats bisected pairs of durations at their geometric mean, and since the similarity function seems to hold for animals as well as for humans, dealing with similarities appears to make more perceptual than cognitive demands.
Abstract: Church and Deluty (1977) found that rats bisected pairs of durations at their geometric mean and concluded that the psychophysical function for duration in rats is logarithmic. From the same experimental finding and the assumption that the similarity between the short duration and the bisection point equals the similarity between the bisection point and the long duration, together with the unidimensional similarity function proposed by Eisler and Ekman (1959), Stevens’ psychophysical power function is derived instead. Since the similarity function thus seems to hold for animals as well as for humans, dealing with similarities appears to make more perceptual than cognitive demands.
TL;DR: Rats shocked once by a stationary wire-wrapped prod affixed to the side of the test chamber buried the prod with bedding material from the floor of the chamber, consistent with the view that burying is a defensive response.
Abstract: Rats shocked once by a stationary wire-wrapped prod affixed to the side of the test chamber buried the prod with bedding material from the floor of the chamber. Although this conditioned defensive burying response occurred reliably at a wide range of shock intensities, subjects receiving more intense shock spent more time burying the prod. This positive relation between the amount of conditioned burying and the severity of the aversive stimulus is consistent with the view that burying is a defensive response.
TL;DR: The authors found that while bizarre imagery yielded higher complexity scores and was associated with greater response recall, there was no difference between correctly and incorrectly recalled responses in terms of mediator complexity, and the previously reported finding of greater variety in mediator formation for bizarre mediators was replicated.
Abstract: This study determined if the complexity level and type of common and bizarre visual mediators generated for paired associate items functionally related to performance on a recall task given 1 week later. Results indicated that while bizarre imagery yielded higher complexity scores and was associated with greater response recall, there was no difference between correctly and incorrectly recalled responses in terms of mediator complexity. The previously reported finding of greater variety in mediator formation for bizarre mediators was replicated. The discussion focused on differential effects of complexity of verbal and visual mediators.
TL;DR: An information theory approach to the analysis of data from visual-motor experiments is suggested here so that the amount of information transmitted by movements of the limbs, final position, or even electromyographic activities can be calculated as absolute measures.
Abstract: An information theory approach to the analysis of data from visual-motor experiments is suggested here. A solution to the arbitrariness of the information of continuous distributions is proposed so that the amount of information transmitted by movements of the limbs, final position, or even electromyographic activities can be calculated as absolute measures. A new index, visual-motor efficiency, is introduced, which is an absolute measure of performance. Since it is an absolute quantitative index, it can be used to compare different subjects at the same visual-motor task, to compare the same subject’s performance at different tasks, to chart the progress of a subject during training, or to make virtually any absolute comparisons of efficiency.
TL;DR: Very simple stimuli consisting of up to two straight-line segments that were either physically connected or separated by a gap were utilized, and a strong model that assumed that features are reported if and only if they are sampled together with independence could not be rejected even when the lines were connected.
Abstract: Well-specified feature detection models of visual character recognition typically assume feature sampling independence; that is, they assume that the detection of one feature is probabilistically independent of the detection of others. Recent results have suggested this assumption may be suspect with letter-like stimuli. The present study utilized very simple stimuli consisting of up to two straight-line segments that were either physically connected or separated by a gap. A strong model that assumed that features are reported if and only if they are sampled together with independence could not be rejected even when the lines were connected.
TL;DR: Elderly adults were compared with high and low test-anxious young adults on a task that required deciding whether a word could be considered an instance of the category name shown with it as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Elderly adults were compared with high and low test-anxious young adults on a task that required deciding whether a word could be considered an instance of the category name shown with it The words were either typical or atypical members of the category The elderly adults showed the slowest reaction times for all decisions, and the age difference was proportionally the same for atypical and typical instances Elderly subjects were more like high-anxiety young adults than like low-anxiety young adults for atypical instances, but elderly subjects were significantly worse than anxious young adults for typical instances and unrelated words These results offer some support for the role of anxiety in producing the aging performance deficit, but this factor seems insufficient to explain all age-related performance differences
TL;DR: Extinguishing either type of association (St-S* or R-S*) reduced resistance to extinction relative to controls, implicating both types of association as being important in determining the persistence of operant behavior, with the suggestion that the R- S* may be more important than the StS*.
Abstract: Rats were trained initially to barpress for food when either a tone or a light was presented. One group then had the tone-food (St-S*) association extinguished by presentation of the tone in the absence of the bar followed by no food. Under this condition, the response-food (R-S*) association was assumed to remain intact. Another group had the R-S* but not the tone-food (St-S*) association extinguished by presentation of the light when a barpress did not produce a food pellet. Two control groups, one concerned with generalized extinction and the other receiving no treatment, were included. The persistence of responding to the tone was then measured in extinction. Extinguishing either type of association (St-S* or R-S*) reduced resistance to extinction relative to controls, implicating both types of association as being important in determining the persistence of operant behavior, with the suggestion that the R-S* may be more important than the StS*. These results are inconsistent with the current trend of emphasizing the importance of St-S* associations to the exclusion of other associative mechanisms.
TL;DR: Although the magnitude of effect was small, quadriceps femoris extension strength was found to be significantly (p <.001) greater for 60 male subjects when they stared at a blue card than when they looked at a pink card.
Abstract: Although the magnitude of effect was small, quadriceps femoris extension strength was found to be significantly (p <.001) greater for 60 male subjects when they stared at a blue card than when they stared at a pink card. Hypothesized kinesiological effects of color are thus further indicated.
TL;DR: The present study shows that the superiority of sequential presentation can be obtained with the Optacon if letters considerably smaller than usual are displayed and the spatial bandwidth of the finger suffices for the recognition of large roman letters.
Abstract: Research with the Tactile Vision Substitution System, a device that converts optical patterns into vibrotactile patterns for display against the back, has shown that a simple pattern, such as a letter, is more easily recognized when presented sequentially than when presented in entirety all at once. In recent work with the Optacon, another such device using the surface of the finger for display, Craig (Note 2) has found quite the opposite result over an extensive range of pattern durations. The present study shows that the superiority of sequential presentation can be obtained with the Optacon if letters considerably smaller than usual are displayed. Sequential presentation is advantageous when the pattern information essential for recognition exceeds the spatial bandwidth of the sensory surface, whether it be the finger, back, or other skin surface. In the normal usage of the Optacon, however, it appears that the spatial bandwidth of the finger suffices for the recognition of large roman letters.
TL;DR: In this article, an experiment was conducted to determine affective reactions to interpersonal distances and the results showed that reactions increased in positivity as distance between friends decreased, but for strangers positivity increased, then decreased with decreasing interpersonal distance.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted to determine affective reactions to interpersonal distances. Pairs of male-female friends or strangers were exposed to six interpersonal distances, and their reactions to each distance were assessed. The results showed that interpersonal distances could be “mapped” and that maps differed for friends and strangers. The results also showed that reactions increased in positivity as distance between friends decreased, but for strangers positivity increased, then decreased with decreasing interpersonal distance. The latter finding was interpreted as providing limited support for Sundstrom and Altman’s theory. It was suggested that future research might be improved by adopting a “zone approach” instead of the common “personal-space approach” and that more attention should be directed toward the analysis of affective responses to interpersonal distances.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the effect of phonemic similarity on short-term recall of visually presented sequences of letters and words, and found that concurrent articulatory suppression does not attenuate the effect.
Abstract: Concurrent articulatory suppression does not appear to attenuate the effect of phonemic similarity upon short-term recall under conditions of auditory presentation. On theoretical grounds, the effect should be entirely abolished with visual presentation, but the available evidence is equivocal. The present study investigated the immediate serial recall of visually presented sequences of letters and words. Articulatory suppression reduced the overall performance and eliminated the phonemic similarity effect.
TL;DR: Two different kinds of serial position curves are produced by immediate serial recall of supraspan lists: the regular bow-shaped curve and the curve in which recall decreases from the first to about the third serial position, levels off at the fourth position, and then decreases more sharply at the fifth serial position as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Two different kinds of serial position curves are produced by immediate serial recall of supraspan lists. One is the regular bow-shaped curve, generally regarded as the standard shape. The other is a curve in which recall decreases from the first to about the third serial position, levels off at the fourth position, and then decreases more sharply at the fifth serial position. In many studies, this marked pattern suggests a discontinuity in the serial position curve. This article reviews studies producing each kind of curve, presents some analyses suggesting that a chunking process is involved in the production of the second kind of curve, and discusses the significance of the problem for studies of serial recall and order information.
TL;DR: Albino rats tested for defensive-burying behavior after receiving one exposure to an aversive stimulus (electric shock or the discharge of a flashbulb) showed that shock subjects spent more time engaged in burying behavior than did flash subjects and insulin-injected subjects spent less time burying.
Abstract: Sixty albino rats were tested for defensive-burying behavior after receiving one exposure to an aversive stimulus (electric shock or the discharge of a flashbulb). Within each of these stimulus treatments, separate groups (n = 10) were tested under insulin-, saline-, and no-injection conditions. Two additional control groups (n=10) were tested under no-flash and no-shock conditions. Subjects exposed to the flash accumulated more bedding material around the aversive stimulus than did subjects exposed to the shock. However, shock subjects spent more time engaged in burying behavior than did flash subjects. It was also shown that insulin-injected subjects spent less time burying and accumulated less bedding material around the aversive stimulus than did the other subjects exposed to the aversive stimuli. No burying behavior was observed in the control animals.
TL;DR: This paper showed that the Pollyanna tendency on an antonym pair generation task and two happiness measures correlated negatively with happiness, but not with either Pollyanna measure, and the list task was not correlated with happiness.
Abstract: People give precedence to pleasant over unpleasant events, a ubiquitous tendency called the Pollyanna principle. Thus, pleasant items are “spewed” early in list-generating tasks, and the more positive member of an antonym pair is uttered first. Not everyone does this. We have demonstrated modest correlations between the Pollyanna tendency on an antonym pair generation task and two happiness measures; a list-generation task yielded Pollyanna prin ciple results, but the two tasks were uncorrelated, and the list task was not correlated with happiness. Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory correlated negatively with happiness but not with either Pollyanna measure.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effect of color on the sensitivity of monocular and binocular rivalry to changes in orientation and frequency and concluded that monocular alternation is more sensitive to color changes than is binocular warping.
Abstract: The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether or not monocular and binocular rivalry are mediated by the same mechanism. The question was approached by examining, in a series of two experiments, the spatial frequency and orientation tuning characteristics for both forms of rivalry, as well as the effects of color upon monocular and binocular rivalry. The results of Experiment 1 indicate that binocular rivalry is insensitive to spatial frequency and color. In Experiment 2, the effects of spatial frequency and orientation were examined. The results of this experiment indicate that binocular rivalry is less sensitive to changes in orientation than is monocular alternation. There is no effect of color upon binocular rivalry. It was concluded that monocular alternation and binocular rivalry are mediated by different mechanisms.