A theoretical model for estimating the effects of age and incentive on children's performance in probability learning is introduced. Novel predictions of the model about the effects of combinations of age and incentive were tested and confirmed. (Editor/RK)

The possibility that subjective contours are an artifact of brightness contrast was explored. Concludes that subjective contour and brightness contrast are distinct perceptual phenomena but share a dependency on the processing of edge information transmitted through the achromatic channels of the visual system. (Editor/RK)

Rats performed an intermittently reinforced operant response and received periodic presentations of a visual conditioned stimulus (CS) located either very near or far from the operant manipulandum. Findings suggest there are deficiencies in the general accounts of conditioned suppression that stress the motivational or emotional effects of…

The negative-contrast effect occurs when animals that are shifted from large to small reward temporarily drop below small reward control groups. The basic question asked here in three experiments was whether animals tested under a specific drive level will behave as though they expect a reward magnitude previously received, depending on the reward…

Assesses the validity of physiological versus learning interpretations of illness-preexposure effects. (Author/RK)

Assessed the validity of Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model by conducting a comprehensive review of nearly 200 relevant studies on the model as well as by applying meta-analytic procedures to much of the data. Available correlational results were reasonably valid and support the multidimensionality of job characteristics and their…

Evaluates the Rust Conference held in 1985 in Vienna, Austria. Explains that the workshop topic, "Central American Challenge," was used as an experimental application of the person-centered approach to conflict resolution in an international context. Concludes by admitting limitations and expresses optimism that this approach can be used…

Discusses the dynamics of emotional inclusiveness and applies it to the realm of citizen diplomacy in international relations. Argues that one must be able to emotionally encompass the system that one aspires to influence in order to transcend the inner polarities that perpetuate and reify splits in relationships. (BR)

Assessed evaluations and corresponding justifications of stories depicting violations of social expectations between friends. Results of the study of 60 children in grades one, three, and five showed that children's conceptions of trust drew on moral reasoning and that violation of trust led to negative feelings. (SKC)

Examines the effect of one social milieu factor (Israeli kibbutz vs. urban lifestyle) on adolescents' future orientation. Analysis of questionnaires from 114 kibbutz and 112 urban adolescents shows that kibbutz adolescents express fewer hopes for the future. (SKC)

Three degrees of cognitive processing were tapped by four problem types when 60 children between four and eight years were administered a set of geometry tasks differing in complexity. Analysis revealed that the tasks differed in difficulty, task success was related to age, and a hierarchical sequence existed among the skills. (SKC)

Explores the development of children's ability to plan their drawings. Presents a conceptual framework and a process-structural model of the planning of drawings in childhood. Two experiments support the model's prediction of different patterns of results as a function of the working memory capacity of the subjects. (SKC)

Used single-subject analyses to examine the developmental difficulty of the ulterior motive question (the backward inverse inference) in five- and seven-year-olds. Results suggest that children's difficulties with ulterior motive information result both from the abstract nature and the logical form of the task. (Author/SKC)

Tested infants of six to eight months and children of 5.5 years for their discrimination of silent intervals between elements of auditory patterns. Both groups could detect increments, and the context of a temporal increment influenced its detectability. (SKC)

Tested the hypothesis that some attempts to reduce the performance demands of concrete Piagetian operational tasks may have allowed children to solve those tasks with preoperational functions. Administered two previously used versions of the transitivity task for length and weight to 120 children six- to nine-years-old. The second version was…