Showing papers in "Psychological Review in 1977"

Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.

Abstract: The present article presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of personal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery, further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived from four principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. The more dependable the experiential sources, the greater are the changes in perceived selfefficacy. A number of factors are identified as influencing the cognitive processing of efficacy information arising from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and behavioral changes. Possible directions for further research are discussed.

Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes.

Abstract: Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Subjects are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes.

Features of Similarity

Abstract: The metric and dimensional assumptions that underlie the geometric representation of similarity are questioned on both theoretical and empirical grounds. A new set-theoretical approach to similarity is developed in which objects are represented as collections of features, and similarity is described as a feature-matching process. Specifically, a set of qualitative assumptions is shown to imply the contrast model, which expresses the similarity between objects as a linear combination of the measures of their common and distinctive features. Several predictions of the contrast model are tested in studies of similarity with both semantic and perceptual stimuli. The model is used to uncover, analyze, and explain a variety of empirical phenomena such as the role of common and distinctive features, the relations between judgments of similarity and difference, the presence of asymmetric similarities, and the effects of context on judgments of similarity. The contrast model generalizes standard representations of similarity data in terms of clusters and trees. It is also used to analyze the relations of prototypicality and family resemblance

Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory.

Abstract: Tested the 2-process theory of detection, search, and attention presented by the current authors (1977) in a series of experiments. The studies (a) demonstrate the qualitative difference between 2 modes of information processing: automatic detection and controlled search; (b) trace the course of the

Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: 1. Detection, Search, and Attention.

Abstract: A two-process theory of human information processing is proposed and applied to detection, search, and attention phenomena. Automatic processing is activation of a learned sequence of elements in long-term memory that is initiated by appropriate inputs and then proceeds automatically—without subject control, without stressing the capacity limitations of the system, and without necessarily demanding attention. Controlled processing is a temporary activation of a sequence of elements that can be set up quickly and easily but requires attention, is capacity-limited (usually serial in nature), and is controlled by the subject. A series of studies using both reaction time and accuracy measures is presented, which traces these concepts in the form of automatic detection and controlled, search through the areas of detection, search, and attention. Results in these areas are shown to arise from common mechanisms. Automatic detection is shown to develop following consistent mapping of stimuli to responses over trials. Controlled search is utilized in varied-mapping paradigms, and in our studies, it takes the form of serial, terminating search. The approach resolves a number of apparent conflicts in the literature.

Distinctive Features, Categorical Perception, and Probability Learning: Some Applications of a Neural Model.

Abstract: A previously proposed model for memory based on neurophysiolo gical considerations is reviewed. We assume that (a) nervous system activity is usefully represented as the set of simultaneous individual neuron activities in a group of neurons; (b) different memory traces make use of the same synapses; and (c) synapses associate two patterns of neural activity by incrementing synaptic connectivity proportionally to the product of pre- and postsynaptic activity, forming a matrix of synaptic connectivities. We extend this model by (a) introducing positive feedback of a set of neurons onto itself and (b) allowing the individual neurons to saturate. A hybrid model, partly analog and partly binary, arises. The system has certain characteristics reminiscent of analysis by distinctive features. Next, we apply the model to "categorical perception." Finally, we discuss probability learning. The model can predict overshooting, recency data, and probabilities occurring in systems with more than two events with reasonably good accuracy.

On the Nature of Input Channels in Visual Processing.

Abstract: The research reported herein was designed to assess whether the presence of noise elements in a visual display affects the detection of target letters at the perceptual or feature extraction level of processing, as well as at the decision level, and more specifically, whether (a) input or processing channels operate in an independent or interactive fashion and (b) how the spatial relation between signal and noise items affects detection performance. In order to distinguish among current theories proposed to account for the influence of noise items on visual processing, a forced-choice detection task was modified to incorporate a cueing procedure, which permitted the independent variation of signal-noise similarity, confusability, and proximity. The results provide evidence for feature-specific inhibition at the perceptual level, and a theory is proposed that assumes hierarchically organized, limited-capacity feature detectors and feature-specific inhibitory channels. There is now considerable evidence that the detectability of a designated signal is impaired by the presence of noise elements in the same visual display. The degree of impairment has been shown to vary as a function of the confusability of noise elements with the set of alternative targets (Estes, 1972; Gardner, 1973; Mclntyre, Fox, & Neale, 1970) and the spatial proximity of target and noise (Strangert & Brannstrom, 1975; Wolford & Rollingsworth, 1974). However, whether the effects of signal-noise similarity on target detection might be different than the effects of signalnoise confusability and how either of these variables might interact with signal-noise proximity has not been established; nor is it clear at what level of processing noise items impair the visual detection of signals. Evidence Edward E. Smith acted as Guest Editor for this article. The research reported was supported by Grant