Showing papers in "Psychological Review in 1979"

Motor-output variability: a theory for the accuracy of rapid motor acts.

Abstract: Theoretical accounts of the speed-accuracy trade-off in rapid movement have usually focused on within-moveme nt error detection and correction, and have consistently ignored the possibility that motor-output variability might be predictably related to movement amplitude and movement time. This article presents a theory of motor-output variability that accounts for the relationship among the movement amplitude, movement time, the mass to be moved, and the resulting movement error. Predictions are derived from physical principles; empirical evidence supporting the principles is presented for three movement paradigms (single-aiming responses, reciprocal movements, and rapid-timing tasks); and the theory and data are discussed in terms of past theoretical accounts and future research directions. Examining the current level of understanding about the production and control of motor responses, many would no doubt be tempted to say that we have not come very far since the early writings of Woodworth (1899) and Hollingworth (1909). These writers were concerned with the basic laws of limb movements (analogous, perhaps to the basic laws of motion that were the cornerstone of physics) that denned the relationship between the simplest aspects of motor

On the time relations of mental processes: An examination of systems of processes in cascade.

Abstract: This article examines the possibility that the components of an informationprocessing system all operate continuously, passing information from one to the next as it becomes available. A model called the cascade model is presented and it is shown to be compatible with the general form of the relation between time and accuracy in speed-accuracy trade-off experiments. In the model , experimentlLlmanipulations may have either or both of two effects on a processing level: They may alter the rate of response or the asymptotic quality pf the output. The effects of such manipulations on the output of a system of proessesare described. The model is then used to reexamine, the subtraction and additive factors methods for analyzing the composition of systems of processes. The examination of the additive factors method yields particularly interesting results. Among them is the finding that factors that affect the rates of two different processes would be expected to have additive effects on reaction times under the cascade model, whereas factors that both affect the rate of the same process would tend to interact, just as in the case in which the manipulations affect the durations of discrete stages. On the other hand, factors that affect asymptotic output tend to interact whether they affect the same or different processes. In light of this observation, the conclusions drawn from several studies about the locus of perceptual and attentional effects on processing are reexamined. Finally, an outline is presented of a new method for analyzing processes in cascade. The method extends the additive factors method to an analysis of the parameters of the function relating response time and accuracy.

A schematic model of dispositional attribution in interpersonal perception.

Abstract: Previous research on dispositional attribution has failed to take into account how the inference process may be affected by variations in schematic representation of dispositional attributes. A schema is denned here as a set of implicational links between dispositional levels and categories of relevant behaviors. Three general schemata are discussed—the partially restrictive schema, the hierarchically restrictive schema, and the fully restrictive schema—each having different implications for the rules of inference employed in making attributions based on observed behaviors. Relevant research on utilization of information regarding consensus, situational context, and actor's past behavior is reviewed in this framework.

Beyond Literal Similarity

Abstract: Hitherto, theories of similarity have restricted themselves to judgments of what might be called literal similarity. A central thesis of this article is that a complete account of similarity needs also to be sensitive to nonliteralness, or metaphoricity, an aspect of similarity statements that is most evident in similes but that actually underlies metaphorical language in general. Theoretical arguments are advanced in support of the claim that metaphoricity can be represented in terms of the relative degrees of salience of matching (or matchable) attributes of the two terms in a comparison. A modification of Tversky's account of similarity is proposed. The implications of this proposal for similarity statements are discussed, along with implications for the psychological processes involved in their comprehension. It is argued that the general account of similarity proposed, including, as it does, nonliteral similarity, can form not only the basis of a theory of metaphor but can also give a credible account of the relationship between metaphor, analogy, and similarity.

Chunking and Consolidation: A Theoretical Synthesis of Semantic Networks, Configuring in Conditioning, S-R versus Cognitive Learning, Normal Forgetting, the Amnesic Syndrome, and the Hippocampal Arousal System.

Abstract: Horizontal versus vertical associative memory concepts are denned. Vertical associative memory involves chunking: the specification of new (previously free) nodes to represent combinations of old (bound) nodes. Chunking is the basis of semantic memory, configuring in conditioning, and cognitive (as opposed to stimulus-response) learning. The cortex has the capacity for chunking, but the hippocampal (limbic) arousal system plays a critical role in this chunking process by differentiall y priming (partially activating) free, as opposed to bound, neurons. Binding a neuron produces negatively accelerated repression of its connections to the hippocampal arousal system, consolidating the memory by protecting the newly bound neuron from diffuse hippocampal input and thus retarding forgetting. Disruption of the hippocampal arousal system produces the amnesic syndrome of an inability to do new chunking (cognitive learning)—anterograde amnesia—and an inability to retrieve recently specified chunks—retrograde amnesia.

On the dynamics of two-person interactions.

Abstract: A class of discrete-state probabilistic models is discussed that allow for the separate assessment of the effects of both self-regulatory processes, including predispositions, and interactive processes on the complementary, reciprocal, and reinforcing tendencies of observable responses. In most of these models, the two responses made at Time t + 1 by members of an interacting dyad are statistically independent, given the pair of responses made at Time t. For each model, estimable parameters are denned in terms of state transition probabilities and are labeled, for the most part, as measures of bias or of sensitivity to previous own and other behavior. The models are applied to data collected by other researchers on the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes, on aggression in a natural setting, and on parent-infant interactions, and the resulting parameter estimates are discussed. Possible applications of the models for as sessing the effects of small group interaction are also mentioned.

Matching and Maximizing in Concurrent Schedules

Abstract: In a recent article, Staddon and Motheral derived a mathematical model of responding in concurrent variable-interval-variable-interval schedules. According to this model, maximization of overall reinforcement rate predicts the operant matching law. However, Staddon and Motheral's derivation ignores a fundamental aspect of the concurrent schedule contingency. There are two simultaneously available schedules. A reinforcer, therefore, can occur in two ways, (a) following two consecutive responses on the same schedule, and (b) following a switch between the two schedules. Staddon and Motheral's model does not distinguish between these two possibilities, and this omission leads to an incorrect estimate of the expected reinforcement rate. In addition, the exact density function for obtained interreinforcement times in a concurrent interval schedule shows that matching and maximizing are different.