Showing papers on "Similarity (psychology) published in 1970"

Effect of Intralist Similarity on Kindergarten Pupils' Rate of Word Acquisition and Transfer

Abstract: Studies of kindergarten pupils have shown that while low intralist similarity results in more rapid acquisition than high intralist similarity there are also more incorrect identifications and false generalizations on transfer tasks. The inference has been that if pupils were taught highly similar words they would make fewer subsequent errors because they would be less prone to fixate on single features o£ the words. The focus has, however, been on the extremes: high versus low similarity. Data from the present study, designed to extend the earlier results through procedural changes, suggest that moderate similarity may also result in efficient learning. The main implication has to do with the pragmatic matter of preparing beginning reading materials.

The Makalo Rock-Paintings of Nyamwezi

Abstract: Summary A shelter containing mainly geometrical paintings has been disclosed in Unyamwezi, in an area hitherto unconnected with such sites. It would seem from the attitude of the Nunguli secret society towards these paintings, their apparent age, and the general lack of local knowledge about them, that they are of pre-Nyamwezi origin. The nature of the geometric shapes suggest that they may have some symbolic significance, perhaps through sun worship or for some as yet unidentified purpose, and their similarity to shapes in other Tanzanian sites raises the possibility of a connexion.

Attitude similarity, interpersonal attraction, and evaluative social perception

Abstract: Ss, differing in the degree to which they were led to believe that a stranger’s attitudes were similar to their own, observed the stranger (a confederate) in a verbal learning situation in which shock was supposedly administered for incorrect responses. The confederate’s performance jrcepuon was programmed so as to be the same for all Os. Attitude similarity was positively related to both pre- and postobservation attraction ratings. High similarity and high attraction Ss rated the stranger’s performance significantly more favorably and also exhibited a tendency to rate the shock supposedly experienced by him as being more painful than did low similarity and attraction Ss.

Cues to word similarity used by children and adults: supplementary report

Abstract: Use of letter and shape cues in visual recognition of 3- and 5-letter nonsense words by 1st- and 3rd-graders, and college students (ns = 50) was investigated. Shape cues were used less frequently than letters; use of shape cues decreased with increasing educational level of Ss and were more frequently used with longer words.

Effects of adherence to generation rules on conceptual judgments

Abstract: Ss were given 96 trials on a simultaneous same-different similarity-dissimilarity task with histoform stimuli exhibiting different amounts of adherence to two generation rules. Similarity judgments and number of same-correct responses were found to be a positive function of amount of adherence to a generation rule. Conversely, performance was poorer (i.e., fewer correct, or higher similarity, ratings) as adherence increased on different-correct trials. It was suggested that Ss at least partially respond to learned attributes, but that these attributes are not well distinguished as defining separate classes.

Linear Equations for Estimating a Person's Occupational Adjustment, Based on Information on Occupational Profiles.

Abstract: Summary. There are broadly two models for vocational guidance, estimating respectively the ‘efficiency’ of the individual against a performance criterion and ‘belongingness or adjustment’ based on similarity to the typical member. The former has attractions of positiveness, but data for the latter are easier to get. It is shown in this paper that, with certain reasonably acceptable assumptions, mean occupational profile data can be used via the point-biserial to get regression equations permitting the more convenient usage of the ‘efficiency’ approach (though the criterion is still ‘adjustment’). An illustrative example is worked, discussion is given of how the proposed ‘adjustment score’ functions, and a tentative decision rule is stated.

Pattern learning in humans and electronic learning nets

Abstract: The letter reports on a previously unseen similarity between an associative memory model recently proposed for the brain and some electronic systems that have been developed for practical learning machines. This similarity is analysed, and its implications are discussed. Results of a comparison between the learning behaviour of an electronic network and a group of human subjects in a pattern-recognition task are given to complete the comparative study.

Failure of Personality Variables To Mediate Interpersonal Attraction.

Abstract: In previous research conducted by Byrne and his co-workers a consistent finding has been that attraction toward a stranger is a direct linear function of the proportion of attitudes S and the stranger share. However, considerable individual differences in attraction responses toward strangers evincing equal-attitude similarity suggest the existence of mediating personality variables. Attraction scores derived from the standard Byrne paradigm (Byrne, 1969) were correlated with personality measures for overlapping subgroups of 543 undergraduates. These measures were: Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability, Test Anxiety Questionnaire, Edwards Social Desirability, D-30 Depression, and Leary Interpersonal Checklist scales. Only the D-S measure of the Leary ICL correlated significantly with attraction and only for High Similarity Ss (r = .31, N = 43, p < .05), a rather marginal finding in view of the sample size and magnitude of correlation. It is suggested that attention be focussed upon within-subject attraction ...

The influence of semantic and acoustic similarity on retention of short sentences

Abstract: Short sentences were used as the learning material in retroactive-interference (RI) and proactive-interference (PI) designs. The relative influence of acoustically and semantically similar interfering sentences in the two designs was studied. Significant PI but no significant RI effect was found. Both acoustically and semantically smimlar material interfered with retention, with the latter having a more powerful influence.

Interpersonal Attraction and Uncertainty Reduction as Functions of Judgmental Similarity

Abstract: This experiment tested the effects of three levels of judgmental similarity on evaluative-attraction and on uncertainty reduction. A significant increase in evaluative-attraction and a nonsignificant increase in certainty were found, as similarity in quantitative (error-choice type) judgments increased. The findings extended the generality of the similarity-attraction hypothesis and suggested limited support for the effectance-reduction hypothesis.

The Interpretation of a Meis20ge in Light of Contextual Magnitude and Relevance

Abstract: Research has shown that a given core quantity appears larger as contextual stimuli become smaller, and conversely. This study sought to determine whether such contextual effects are greatest where contextual stimuli appear highly relevant in assessing a core quantity. As defined here, contextual relevance hinges upon physical similarity between core and context objects, as well as upon certain canons of appropriate judgment behavior such as the scientific method. Two parallel experiments were conducted. In both studies, reducing contextual magnitude increased the apparent size of core quantities, as predicted, where contextual relevance was high. Further, such increases in judged core-quantity magnitude had predicted effects on perceived writer stand (pro or con). Where contextual relevance was low, increasing size of context did not influence perceived magnitude of the core quantity viewed in isolation. Here, apparently, respondents discounted low-relevant contexts as predicted. However, when judging author stand on an issue, respondents apparently tended to rate a core quantity as large where context was large and of low relevance.

Individual and Developmental Differences in Interpersonal Understanding

Abstract: In the study of personality as a subject reflecting knowledge, work, and interaction, the totality of internal conditions through which all external influences on the personality are refracted is a prime consideration. An individual, who for others is an object of cognition and activity, is reflected in their consciousness and determines their behavior only as "refracted" through their internal world, i.e., their set of ideas and attitudes. The same person is seen differently by people having different experiences in work, knowledge, and social interactions. In addition to our ideas concerning perception and conception of a personality, which has been formed, for example, in a young schoolchild, and in addition to the ideas of similarity between the perception and concepts of children and adults, we must always consider special features connected with the development of the youngest child as a personality, as a subject reflecting knowledge.

Manifest anxiety as related to perceived similarity to peers

Abstract: 80 college students were involved in testing the hypotheses that peer identification would be negatively associated with adjustment and that peer identification would be more important to the adjustment of the females than to the adjustment of the males. Perceived similarity to a peer (PSP) was measured with the Role Construct Repertory Test, and the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale was the adjustment index. A 2 × 2 factorial design, sex by PSP, with MAS scores as the dependent variable, was used. High PSP Ss differed significantly from low PSP Ss (p < .001), and the main effect for sex and the sex by PSP interaction were not significant. Cell comparisons, however, suggested that the males were more responsible for the main effect than the females were. The first hypothesis was clearly supported, and the trend opposite to the second hypothesis was noted.

Extensive and intensive properties of concepts

Abstract: Similarity between nouns (concepts) was described by a distance function. Distances were then related to measurements on the concrete-abstract scale and to associations. Results were interpreted in terms of two aspects of the semantic space of words, intensionality and extensionality, the latter seeming a dominant basis for behavioral comparison of concepts.

The effects of delayed judgmental similarity on evaluative attraction

Abstract: The effects of three levels of judgmental similarity on evaluation and attraction were investigated under noninteraction delayed-feedback conditions. Significant effects of similarity on attraction and on evaluations of intelligence and knowledge were found. However, the effects of judgmental similarity on evaluations of morality and adjustment were not significant. The results were discussed by contrasting the effects of judgmental similarity (i.e., conceptualized as cognitive attitudinal component) on evaluative attraction with the effects of similarity in the evaluative attitude dimension.

Similarity of Verbal and Motor Learning.

Abstract: Paivio (1969) has suggested that verbal and motor responses should obey the same laws. The present experiment was an attempt to examine the learning behavior of normal Ss as they responded in several ways to the same stimuli. Ss were 23 male and 13 female volunteer students from Oberlin College. They were divided into three matched groups o n the basis of their free recall of a 15-item list presented on a memory drum. Stimuli for the main experiment were 35-mm. color slides of a male student performing simple gestures with his right hand. Two groups were provided with verbal titles for the gestures, such as: fist to ear, thumb to chin, palm over mouth, etc, The experiment was designed for only eight trials to maximize differences berween groups; previous experience with Ss from this population indicated that perfect trials would increase sharply beyond this point. All groups received the same procedure: each S was seated behind a table and shown the 12-item list once, using a geometric pattern for a start signal. H e was then given eight trials on the standard serial-list-learning paradigm, using a rate of one slide per 5 sec. with a 30-sec. intertrial interval. Only the method of responding differed among groups: in Group A, Ss responded by imitating the anticipated gesture; in Group B, by giving the verbal title; in Group C, by both imitating and verbalizing. A Groups X Trials analysis of variance demonstrated the expected increase in performance over trials (F = 34.48, df = 7/231. p < .01). However, neither the Groups nor the interaction term approached significance. Data were plotted and tested in several ways, but no differences berween groups were found either in over-all acquisition or in more detailed analysis. Items for each group displayed the familiar bowed serial position curve. The similarity of performance across groups indicates that in rhe serial-list task, Ss learn in essentially the same way whether motor or verbal responses are required. This is in line with both Paivio's theory and earlier work (Lake & Tedford, 1970) using free recall of motor items. While it is impossible to prove the null hypothesis that \"verbal learning\" and \"learning\" are the same phenomenon, it is comforting to know that at least in this respect they do not differ drastically.