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16504 papers
The Tempest
The statistical features and general characteristics of an integrated statistical package, BC TRY, are reported. The BC TRY system of cluster and factor analysis includes many of the same descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses accomplished by the best of the packages reviewed by Berk (1977), as well as some unique routines, and it provides the user with exceptional flexibility.
This paper discusses a methodology for psychological instrumentation in which requirements common to a spectrum of experiments are defined and implemented in a microcomputer system. The microcomputer may either stand alone or be used as an intelligent front end to a larger computer. In either case, experiments are described in a high-level implementation language. The advantages of this approach include reduced hardware and maintenance costs, increased reliability, and smoother operation by research personnel. A tutorial example is given of the design and construction of one such system used to present visual stimuli, including text, graphics, and simple animation, on a movable array of video monitors. Displays are produced by a Z80 microcomputer in response to commands from a larger host computer, in this case a PDP Lab/8e. Illustrations are given of three studies in progress; comparisons are made with special-purpose equipment built earlier. The microcomputer system is preferable from both a cost and management point of view.
A software system (NOVA SKED) was developed for the experimental control and collection of data from operant behavior experiments that is compatible with the Data General Corporation real-time disk operating system (RDOS). NOVA SKED is based on the SKED state notation language originally implemented on Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8 series of minicomputers. The system includes a compiler written in FORTRAN, a multitasking run-time system that can be configured to run up to 30 stations, a data back-up system, standard data manipulation programs and subroutines, and user manuals.
Previous research efforts to use on-line computer systems for personality assessment are briefly reviewed. Shortcomings in the conversion of paper-and-pencil testing forms to computer media are noted. Construction of a new instrument, specifically designed for use with an on-line computer system, is described. Advantages of this approach are noted.
Recent developments in microprocessor-based technology should be of particular interest to psychologists concerned with perceptual and cognitive processes. This paper describes the advantages of a Z-80-based system that uses the Technical Design Labs video display board (VDB) for the generation and control of visual stimuli.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between cognitive complexity, attitudinal affect, and dispersion of affect scores (N = 102 male business administration undergraduates). Models of automobiles and toothpaste brands were the content domains studied. Analysis using Pearson product-moment correlation supported the hypothesis that cognitive complex Ss had a lower level of affect and greater dispersion of affect scores than did simpler Ss.
Historically, feeling and knowing have been viewed as distinct and sometimes competing psychological processes. Feeling involves emotions or values; pure knowledge is dispassionate. Three experiments examine an opposite view--that feeling (as evaluation) and knowing (as memory) are not two separate, distinct processes but are so fundamentally intertwined as to be psychologically indistinguishable. The logic of the three experiments is as follows: If knowing (memory) and feeling (affective evaluation) are two aspects of a single process, then changes in one should correspond to changes in the other. Past research has demonstrated reliable changes in serial position effects of free-recall with manipulations of presentation rate and recall delay: slower presentation rates enhance the primacy effect, delayed recall diminishes the recency effect. Experiment I attempted to determine if similar changes in the pattern of affective serial position effects could be produced by varying presentation rate and rating delay. Three lists of 12 nonsense words were presented to subjects at a two or four second rate. One group (N = 40) free-recalled the items, the other (N = 72) rated the items (7-pt. Good-Bad scale). Recall or rating was immediate or delayed 25 seconds. Primacy was obtained for both the recall and affect rating groups. Recency was obtained for recall and an "inferred" recency effect was obtained in rating. The delay diminished recall recency, and presentation rate had no effect on recall primacy. Neither delay nor presentation rate influenced rating serial position effects. Differences between rating and recall results were discussed. Experiment I suggested that serial position influences affective value. If knowing (memory) and feeling (evaluation) are two aspects of a unitary process, then affective value should influence serial position effects. Experiment II compared the serial position curve for nonwords rated "good" with that of nonwords rated "bad". It was expected that affective value would influence the shape of the serial position curve in ways similar to word frequency--i.e., a recency effect for free-recall of both "good" and "bad" nonwords, but a primacy effect with "good" nonwords only. Thirty-two students were given a single trial free-recall task using two lists of nonwords. One list consisted of 10 nonwords rated "good", and the other of 10 nonwords rated "bad". When recall of each list was analyzed separately, the expected results were obtained: Primacy with the "good" but not the "bad" list. Experiment III applied the approach used in the first two experiments to personality impression formation. Contrary to the affect-memory identity thesis, past research has shown that the evaluative impression formed of a hypothetical target person is not a simple function of the target's recallable traits. Several studies have reported impression primacy in conjunction with recall recency. In Experiment III, the standard Asch impression formation procedure was used: two lists of 12 trait words were read to each of 80 subjects who rated the likeability of the target person and recalled the list. Recall primacy and recency effects were manipulated as in Experiment I (varying presentation rate and delay) to test for similar order effects in impression formation. The correspondence between impression and recall order effects was strong. A slow presentation rate enhanced both recall primacy (with the second list) and impression primacy: initial trait words were better recalled and figured more prominently in the impression formed. A 25-second delay diminished both the recall recency effect and, among males, the impression recency effect: terminal traits were recalled less well and were less influential in determining the impression. Inconsistencies between the present results and those of previous research were discussed.
This article explores the question of why competent evaluators award the ratings they do to college students' expository essays. Essays were rewritten to be stronger or weaker in four categories: content, organization, sentence structure, and mechanics. Twelve evaluators first used a 4-point holistic rating scale to judge the essays' quality. Then they rated whether each of the four rewriting categories in each rewritten essay was strong or weak (perceptions). Analyses of variance revealed content and organization to affect ratings most (p <.001). Mechanics and sentence structure had smaller effects, which differed when measured by the actual rewriting versus by the perceptions. Mechanics and sentence structure were significant in their interaction with organization (p <.001 andp <.01, respectively).
ABSTRACT The analysis of high frequencies of identical errors made on the Pimsleur German Writing Proficiency Test revealed common learner strategies and pointed to certain aspects of the target language which need more emphasis and, perhaps, better implementation. The errors were analyzed with regard to item difficulty, the amount of previous instruction in the target language, and general competence as reflected by total raw score. An analysis of the distribution of the morphological, lexical, and syntactical deviations from the norm was made for each test item with regard to error frequency and variance. The deviations from the norm revealed as main sources of error: negative transfer from the native tongue, overgeneralization of rules concerning the target language, and cue‐copying. The analysis of error approximation to the norm led to the conclusion that the “degree” of error may be indicative of the learner's stage on the interlanguage continuum. The research was based on the analysis of 8729 errors made by 308 Iowa State University students testing out of first year German.
Thirty-two male and 32 female introductory psychology students were given the opportunity to falsely report success (i.e., to cheat) on a series of objectively unsolvable achievement tasks. Consistent with previous evidence, a Personality X Situational Locus of Control interaction effect, accounting for 24% of the variance, was found whereby persons classified as having generalized internal locus of control beliefs (internals) cheated more when the task was described as requiring skill while those with external control beliefs (externals) cheated more when chance presumably determined performance outcomes. Differing rates of task persistence, postperformance belief and affect ratings. and stated reasons for cheating (or not) were consistent with both affective and cognitive theories in explaining the cheating to conform to their status on the internal stable dimension of ability, externals were concerned with maintaining a belief in their status as fortunate individuals, also conceived as an internal stable attributional determinant. No sex differences in cheating or persistence behavior were found.
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One version of deficient-processing theory attributes the lag effects observed in free recall to a diversion of attention or processing activity from repeated items when the spacing between repetitions is small (cf. Hintzman, 1976). This hypothesis indicates that spacing effects should be sensitive to many instructional variables that alter the rules for allocating processing capacity to the to-be-remembered items. In an effort to manipulate such allocation rules, two free-recall experiments were carried out. The first manipulated overt rehearsal instructions so that subjects were either left free to rehearse in a manner of their own choosing or were restricted to the item currently being presented. The second was similar except that overt rehearsal was not required and a third condition (imageability-rating task) was added. The results indicate that spacing effects are sensitive to instructional variables and suggest that displaced rehearsal plays an important role in the spacing effect.
70 female subjects who had attempted to lose weight responded to Rotter's I-E Scale and to a linear scale indicating their success in weight reduction. They also indicated whether they had ever joined an organized weight-reduction program and, if so, whether they had completed it. On the basis of their responses they were classified as Externals or Internals and as Joiners or Non-joiners producing four groups in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The groups were External Joiners, External Non-joiners, Internal Joiners and Internal Nonjoiners. The perceived locus of control did not affect self-rating scores of weight reduction. Nor did membership status affect ratings of success. An interaction between perceived locus of control and membership status was found. Internal Joiners reported greater success in weight loss than Internal Non-joiners. External subjects, however, reported greater success in weight reduction when they did not join a weight-reduction program. The least successful group in weight loss was composed of Joiners who dropped out of a program before its completion.
The application of microprocessor technology to assessment of alcoholism in a clinical research laboratory is described.
Two experiments using a levels-of-processing paradigm were performed to demonstrate the existence and usefulness of a semantic component in chess knowledge. Experiment I compared forced-choice recognition of chess positions after a structural task (piece counting) as opposed to a semantic task (choosing a move). Recognition accuracy, confidence, and familiarity ratings all showed a facilitation effect in the semantic condition. By including an orienting task that did not encourage semantic processing but still allowed pattern-matching operations to occur (copying a board), Experiment II demonstrated that this task effect was a genuine enhancement of memory due to meaningful processing. One again, the processing of meaningful relations in the semantic task (positional evaluation) produced a higher level of recognition performance than did the more structural processing. These results suggest that aspects of meaning have some input into the processes that generate the memory representation of a chess position.
The hypothesis that a political candidate's image is not constant and differs predictably among different subgroups of the electorate was tested. Three different samples of undergraduate subjects were used in a 2 × 2 factorial design in which equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats rated the images of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter by means of the semantic differential just prior to the 1976 Presidential election. As hypothesized, in all three samples, Republicans rated Ford higher than Carter, while Democrats did just the reverse. Though Democrats rated Carter higher than Ford, more of them indicated an intent to vote for Ford than for Carter. This finding contradicts previous information that image ratings predict voting behavior but may represent a special case in that college students' weak party affiliation, their lack of knowledge about politics, and their responsiveness to their agemates may make them extremely susceptible to peer pressure in elections.
In the wake of several studies that have cast doubt upon the effectiveness of contact eye covers in restricting vision, we performed a series of five experiments to the end of achieving reversible blinding of the albino rat. The data of Experiment 1 indicated that the contact eye cover can be as effective as a rubber cup in restricting visual input. In Experiment 2, animals that were fitted binocularly with opaque eye covers performed as if blind on a task involving acquisition of pattern discrimination. In Experiment 3, binocular coverage with the opaque eye cover resulted in chance performance across 300 trials of a previously acquired pattern-discrimination habit. In Experiment 4, the base diameter of the eye cover was found to be a critical factor: Performance of a previously acquired brightness discrimination was reduced to chance levels by contact eye covers that approximated 7.0 mm in diameter. In Experiment 5, a smaller eye cover (6-mm diam) had no effect in limiting the visually evoked electrocortical response of the albino rat, while an eye cover of 7.2-mm diam produced a reliable attenuation of the response. The collective results indicate that appropriately fabricated contact eye covers are a viable means of restricting visual input and may justifiably be considered contact occluders.
Dictionaries and related language reference works constitute a rich but under-exploited resource for the history of languages and of language study in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the size and complexity of typical medieval dictionaries make editions and analyses by traditional methods prohibitively expensive in time and money. Using as an example the Latin-Middle English dictionaryMedulla grammatice, the paper describes some central problems in the study of medieval English lexicography and the solutions provided by computers, which, with their immense speed, profound memory, and perfect accuracy can help scholars analyze, edit, and promulgate medieval documents and the linguistic data they contain.
Using psychiatric interviews, sexual and affect rating scales, hormonal studies, and neurologic assessment, the authors assessed the effect of L-dopa treatment on men with Parkinson's disease. Patients demonstrated variable affect changes. Approximately one-half of the patients reported an increased sexual interest that was not related to improvement in locomotor function. Hormonal factors appeared to be involved. The findings suggest that male parkinsonian patients who possess an intact hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis experience increased sexual function related to L-dopa treatment.
A simple introduction to microcomputers is provided. References are provided for more detailed descriptions of some systems and applications in psychology.
Computer-controlled administration of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test to children between the ages of 4 and 13 years was shown to be feasible without the presence of a live examiner. Test-retest correlation coefficients were obtained in the range from .54 to .74 and were not significantly different from those obtained with manual administration in the PPVT standardization sample. Practice effects and IQ differences between the two forms of the test were nonsignificant.
Techniques are presented for analyzing data collected as a function of: a circular independent variable (e.g., angle, direction, or orientation) or an independent variable which is cyclical (e.g., months of the year). The procedures are presented in a tutorial manner, emphasizing their relationship to more traditional statistics in experimental psychology.
In order to handle its own documentation as well as in order to come to the aid of isolated researchers who have no access to computers, the Institute of Research and of the History of Texts is attempting to put together a certain number of programs which can satisfy the needs of various types of medieval historical documents.
A state notation language (NOVA SKED) for the experimental control and collection of data from operant behavior experiments by Data General NOVA series minicomputers is described. NOVA SKED is based on the SKED system written for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP8 series of minicomputers. The NOVA SKED state notation syntax enables diagramming experimental procedures directly and precisely by the operant experimenter, who need not be familiar with computers. This syntax can then be compiled by the computer into programs that operate under the SKED run-time system (RTS). The SKED RTS operates in a timesharing mode that allows up to 16 experimental stations to function simultaneously and independently from each other. NOVA SKED is a “stand-alone” system that collects and stores data on digital magnetic tape.