The hypothesis that either familiarization or the association of items to context produces the crossover effect in whole-part learning was tested. The crossover effect refers to the eventual negative information transfer that occurs at the end of second-list learning. Results were interpreted in terms of a stage model of learning. (Editor/RK)

Investigates the feasibility of an alternative scoring procedure for the Semantic Differential (SD) that would permit easier analysis by psychotherapists so that the SD's use might increase as a measure of therapy process or outcome. (Author/RK)

Presentence evaluations conducted by psychologists and psychiatrists (clinicians) and correctional counselors (caseworkers) were subjected to multiple regression analyses in order to specify the relative contribution of inmate characteristics (offense severity and recidivism probability) and decision-maker response biases to sentencing…

A quantitative model is presented for understanding self-control and impulsiveness involving aversive events. Four experiments were conducted to test the model's adequacy in predicting how delay until punishment and duration of punishment affect choice. (Editor)

Examined whether modifying a message about a stimulus person to suit the listener has a lasting effect on the communicator's own recall and evaluation of this person. Potential consequences of following the rules for effective communication on communicators' later social judgments are discussed. (Editor/RK)

35 undergraduates segmented one of two videotapes of an actor methodically assembling 20 five-page questionnaires. Tests the hypothesis that behavior that differs systematically in the availability of action-defining changes will be segmented into perceived actions in a systematically different way. (Author/RK)

An unobtrusive experimental manipulation was used to test the hypothesis that the mere presence of others can influence an individual's performance. A task was employed for which there were no clear performance criteria, and which was very unlikely to engender evaluation apprehension. Concludes that the mere presence of others is a sufficient…

Argues that certain distinctions drawn by philosophers and linguists concerning implication do not have behavioral consequences and, thus, are not appropriate constructs in a theory of the psychology of implication. The distinctions discussed are directly asserted versus implied meanings and logical versus pragmatic implications. (Editor)

An experiment was conducted to test the proposition that rewards undermine or enhance intrinsic interest in a task to the extent that individuals interpret their behavior as being motivated by the reward. It was predicted that when subjects were denied the opportunity to develop and confirm this attribution, rewards would not produce an…

Begins by discussing a number of problems in applying a levels-of-processing approach to memory as proposed in the late 1960s and then revised in 1972 by Craik and Lockhart, suggests that some of the basic assumptions are false, and argues for information-processing models devised to study working memory and reading, which aim to explore the…

Examines the limitations of several theories of developmental psychology, most notably Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development, and concludes that developmental theory has not given adequate expression to the concerns and experience of women. Argues for an expanded view of adulthood that would result from the integration of the "feminine…

Perspective ability is the ability to represent how objects look relative to each other from another person's viewpoint. This ability involves two different but interrelated skills: multiple classification and perspective-taking. The intent here was to devise a training program designed to study the causes of transition from one stage of…

Two experiments were conducted with Chinese subjects to investigate whether phonemic similarity affected the visual information processing of Chinese characters. The first experiment used a short-term retention paradigm and the second, a sentence judgment task. Results were discussed with respect to the issues of orthographical differences and of…

Three word-identification experiments suggest that a model derived from experiments with pseudowords can be applied successfully to word identification. The data derived from the experiments confirm the role of higher order verbal units in word identification and suggest the structural components of a verbal-mediation theory of reading. (Editor/RK)

This research tested the hypothesis that grouping has adverse effects on the recall of tactual shapes but facilitates the recall of tactual letters on the assumption that this depends on different processes. A further question was the relation of grouping to letter recall span (set-size).