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18265 papers
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pairwise similarity‐dissimilarity ratings of 20 slides of buildings representing major architectural styles were subjected to an INDSCAL analysis. Four major similarity dimensions were identified. Subsequently, the stimuli were rated on two batteries of scales: (1) collative and affective ratings, and (2) stylistic and technical ratings. Canonical correlations and redundancy indices revealed close relations between the multidimensional stimulus locations and the scale and factor spaces. The findings of the three experiments suggest that the four principal dimensions in the perception of architecture appear to be (1)Clarity, (2)Hedonic Tone/Arousal, (3) Uncertainty, and (4) Familiarity.
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.
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.
The application of microprocessor technology to assessment of alcoholism in a clinical research laboratory is described.
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.
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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 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.
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.
A simple introduction to microcomputers is provided. References are provided for more detailed descriptions of some systems and applications in psychology.
The development of an on-line MMPI interpretative program is outlined. Profiles interpreted by this program are first examined to determine whether a standard or locally known profile type fits. If so, an appropriate narrative report is printed. If there is no match with a known profile type, statements from several scale-by-scale interpretative sources are organized into a logical report. Methods have been developed to eliminate duplication and contradiction from different sources of information. Examples of output from this program are presented and advantages of the program are discussed.
code may suggest why we eventually find wholesomeness a refreshing relief.2 But note eventually: neither the gross appeal to sensation signalled by Symons, the movement's own historian, nor the subtle oxymorons revealed by Riffaterre, one of the current critical luminaries, accounts for the tediousness of Decadent writing. Indeed, descriptions of Decadent style-and we have mentioned only two at the chronological poles-make Decadent writing sound rather interesting, even intrinsically worth reading. Personally, I would never claim that it is either entertaining or provocative; on the contrary, I would claim that not a single piece can hold our attention on its own merits qua literature. But at the same time I would claim that it is worth intensive study not just by various interdisciplinary specialists of the period but by students of language, style, and translation. Its flaws-or, perhaps more properly, its deviation from recurring norms of taste-can contribute to our appreciation of reference, association and transfer. Its pace-or its blockage of sequentiality-can contribute to our appreciation of information flow in literature and its indispensable temporality. In the end, it may well be that Decadent writers misuse the space-time components of poesy, and that misuse would help explain why we find them everlasting bores. It may well be also that a translator is best poised to realize what is being effected in Decadent expression. After all, a translator by analysis and instinct must work his way back to the source writer's attitudes in order to reproduce in another language a comparable articulative process and result. In any event, that is how I arrived at the observations which follow.3 The standing of Villers de l'Isle-Adam (1838-89) is a, if not the, quintessential Decadent, makes him an inevitable case in point. His last fully executed work L'Eve future (1880-85) is a novel so compendious that we can use it as both glossary and grammar of Decadent rhetoric. We can take our examples from the climax, the final forty pages, when Lord Ewald receives the automaton Hadaly fabricated by Edison.4 These extracts will be adequate to show first that the expression is radically iconographic lexically, syntactically, narratively. Villiers, who was simultaneously licentious and puritanical, in this novel keeps sensual reference within the bounds of conservative good taste. But if his referents here are not blatantly gross
The focus of this paper will be in two areas: methodology and data analysis. Briefly, a meth odology was sought which would provide the greatest amount of empirical, quantifiable data on the features of Chicano Spanish as represented by the speech of a Mexican American wo man originally from Texas. The type of data collected was in terms of acceptability judgments and so qualifies what can be said about the actual linguistic features of the spoken language. But the patterns that the judgments reveal are valuable insights to norms of Spanish usage for the three groups sampled.