The influence of learning strategy and type of list (abstract vs concrete) were investigated in two experiments. The results of both experiments strongly indicated that instructions to link successive items facilitates free recall relative to rehearsal instructions. The control Ss were generally inferior to the Ss instructed to link successive words but superior to the rehearsal...
Pair congruence (C) is the number of times any given pair is constructed when Ss freely pair two sets of items. Interpair interference (I) is estimated from degree of C between any pair’s members and other list items. One hundred Ss learned one of five 6-pair lists, each list representing a different combination of C and I, and then reported mnemonics. Increasing C facilitated...
The effects of auditory stimulus intensity (115, 95, or 65 dB) and two degrees of task information upon a key-tapping escape task were examined. Tapping speed, the time required to make 20 key taps per trial, was dependent upon instructions during both acquisition and extinction while auditory stimulus intensity had little effect upon performance. Start speed showed no...
The purpose of the study was to determine whether the escape response in a survival situation might not be modified in some way by moderate dosages of CPZ. The procedure used provided two measures, swimming time and success or failure in escaping from a submerged linear runway whose exit was blocked by an oncoming opponent. Three drug levels were selected: 1.0, 2.5, and 4.0 mg/kg...
Virginia opossums were given 600 trials in a T-maze on a 70–30 spatial probability problem. The opossums maximized the percentage of their responses to the 70% alternative, choosing it on more than 90% of the trials at asymptote. The learning curve of opossums did not differ from the learning curve of a control group of rats. It was concluded that in the Bitterman fish-rat...
One prominent operation for the control of motivational-incentive variables with reptilian species is peripheral body temperature change. However, little is known about the relation between peripheral temperature change, and the rate of deep body temperature adjustment, which may be more important in establishing a motivational level. Rate of deep body temperature adaptation to a...
The hypothesis that stimulus familiarity generates positive motivation independent of aversive effects of novelty was investigated by offering animals three different degrees of familiarity, with novelty held constant. Preference was found to covary with degree of familiarity, regardless of sensory modality. The results tend to support J. McV. Hunt’s proposal that perceptual...
Four rats were exposed to an avoidance procedure in which shocks were scheduled at 10 sec intervals and light and darkness alternated every 2 min. In light (SD), a response prevented all shocks programmed for that SD period; shocks were unavoidable in S△. Response latencies and distribution in SD and S△ indicated that the contingencies had established discriminative control of...
Shaping, auto-shaping, and observational learning were compared as methods for training albino rats to press a lever for milk reinforcement. The shaping procedure was generally superior, but 9 of 10 rats also learned under auto-shaping. This would seem to be the best procedure for training large numbers of rats. All animals learned under observation, although this procedure...
The present study attempted to differentiate between a set vs an interference explanation of the decrements in recall when activities are included in the retention interval. Using a lever-positioning task with three retention intervals (12, 22, and 37 sec) and two types of activity during the retention interval, it was found that movement caused a significant overestimation of...
Human operant GSR conditioning was attempted on a within-S basis by successively alternating periods of contingent and noncontingent reinforcement. The frequency and timing of reinforcements during each noncontingent period was determined by the pattern generated during the preceding contingent period. On a group basis (N = 17), the frequency of nonspecific GSRs was found to be...
Subjects were given various combinations of investigator and positive and/or negative reinforcement for polysyllabic words during free verbalization. In comparing frequency of reinforced responses, reinforcement and investigator effects were nonsignificant; however, combinations of positive and negative reinforcement interacted with investigator. Speed of response was unaffected...
Thirty Ss received a general information test. A four-stage paradigm referred to as recall-judgment-elimination-choice was used to test S’s ability to predict choice-recognition performance following incorrect recall. The results indicated that Ss can accurately predict which of the failed items will be subsequently recognized. These results were largely due to S’s ability to...
The distribution of 6S4 Rod-and-Frame Test scores for 684 college Ss (346 males and 338 females) is given, and its implication for studies of field dependence and of sex differences in RFT scores is discussed.
Two experiments are reported in which distress vocalizations to shock (UR) were studied while varying signaled (CS) and unsignaled shock (US), strains, and seven different CS-US intervals (ISI) from 100 msec to 6 sec. Measures analyzed were total vocalizations, vocalizations on Trial 1, and distribution of vocalizations over the 2 sec shock. ISIs of 300 msec or less did not...
The purpose of the present investigation was to assess the roles of drive and incentive upon the successive discrimination reversal performance of rats. Two levels of drive, high and low, and two values of incentive, large and small, were imposed upon four groups of Ss in a factorial design. All training and measurement were conducted in a simultaneous discrimination General...
Female offspring of gravid rats administered a single dose of 200 R of ionizing irradiation on Gestation Days 17, 19, or 21 remained significantly more active than similarly treated males. Both groups increased their activity over control levels with a lesser effect in evidence for 17 and 21 day males. Day 19 males were. unexpectedly, as active as the comparable female group.
Rats with extremely low response rates in a free-operant avoidance paradigm were subjected to altered experimental conditions involving either increased intensity or increased duration of shock relative to previous baseline conditions. Both changes resulted in a gradual increase in response rate. It is suggested that duration of shock be further investigated as a manipulatable...
The discussion-arguments and information-exchange explanations of the risky-, cautious-shift phenomenon were tested in three conditions. An information-exchange-only condition provided mere exposure to others’ initial responses, a discussion-only condition elicited discussion without information exchange, and a discussion-plus-information-exchange condition combined the two...
A study was conducted to provide direction to further research and theorizing concerning the nature of the variables that cause people to respond differentially to structurally different, but theoretically equivalent, matrix formats. Changes in the response pattern of a single individual were observed as a function of the matrix format presented. These results were interpreted as...
Based on the reinforcement theory of attraction and its model (classical conditioning), amount of information given in support of a S’s opinions was found to be an analog of magnitude of reinforcement (UCS intensity). As the model predicted, varying amount of information led to significant differences in attraction (p <.001).
The magnitude of the Zollner illusion varies according to the angle of intersect between the test and inducing lines and is maximal at about 20 deg of intersect angle. Increasing the density of the inducing lines multiplies the illusion by a constant amount. Obtained error functions agree well with error functions derived according to Piaget’s law of relative centrations.
Paired-associate lists differing in implicit modality of cue (auditory or visual) and in response mode (written or oral) were learned by five groups of children differing in hearing ability (normal to deaf). Overall, visual cues were easier than auditory cues, but cues interacted with hearing ability such that implicit auditory cues (rhymes) contributed less to the performance of...