Browsing by Author "Guttman, Norman"
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Item Open Access A cross-cultural study of social perception …(1968) Paramesh, C. R.Introduction: Wherever social relations or interpersonal relations are involved, social perception runs as an undercurrent, either implicitly or explicitly. Perhaps the primary importance of social perception derives from the assumption that overt forms of social behavior are "steered" by the perception of social environment. Many problems in interpersonal relations turn out to be in some measure the consequence of perceptual distortion. Social perception, it may also be added, is closely related to one’s perception of self. Under ordinary conditions, there are three major elements which we will confront in a study of social perception. They are (a) the situation or context in which the person to be judged is embedded, (b) the person who is apart from the situation and (c) the perceiver himself. In the present study, the first two elements are not of special interest. The main point of interest is the third element, the perceiver who is shaped and sensitized by his or her particular cultural background. We are interested in examining the "selective- tuning" on the part of the perceiver in perceiving certain aspects of both the self and other people in preference to others. The present study aims to analyze the consistent trends, termed here "self- styles, " in individuals that influence them in perceiving others. It is assumed that these self- styles are determined fairly well by societies and, therefore, it is proposed to examine the variations of these self-style orientations in terms of culture. However, it is difficult to isolate and assess the differential importance of personal and social characteristics, although it is feasible. So, by "social perception" we refer to the consistent tendency to look for certain attributes in the other as influenced by self-concept.Item Open Access Avoidance learning to stimulus objects presented following shock(1973) Keith-Lucas, Timothy, 1945-An earlier informal experiment by Hudson (1950) in which rats learned to avoid a bundle of pipe cleaners presented only following shock is replica.ted and extended. Five groups of 20 Ss each received a single shock each while taking a sucrose pellet from a novel striped panel, A black-out period ranging from 1 to 40 sec. began with the onset of the 3/4 sec. shock. During the black-out the striped panel (forward-order CS) was removed; immediately following the black-out, a rubber toy hedgehog descended into the apparatus, Following a short exposure to the toy hedgehog and an intervening 24 hr. in the home cage, S was observed in the apparatus with the toy hedgehog at one end and the striped panel at the other. Control groups received either shock without the toy hedgehog or the toy hedgehog without the shock. All behavior was video recorded. Significant differential avoidance of the toy hedgehog occurred in the short inter stimulus interval groups (1, 5, and 10 sec.), but not in the 40 seCc group or in the control groups. In further analyses, individual’s were classified as differentially avoiding either the toy hedgehog, the striped panel, the shock location, the opposite end of the apparatus or no identifiable stimulus, according to two schemes. In the first, the basis of classification was differences in time spent in a normal posture at the two ends of the apparatus relative to a distribution of such differences in the unshocked control group. In the other, a combined score derived from differences in four other classes of behavior was the basis of classification. In both analyses, significant numbers of Ss from the 1, 5, and 10 sec. groups were identified as avoiding the toy hedgehog, while insignificant numbers of Ss from the 40 sec. and control groups did so. Only insignificant numbers of Ss avoided the striped panel. The results demonstrate that the "backward" association of the toy hedgehog with the shock is a reliable and robust phenomenon that can occur despite a 10 sec. UCS-CS delay, a single trial procedure, a 24-hr. delay between shock and testing, and the availability of a potential forward - order CS. The results cannot readily be explained either in terms of an unconditioned response to the toy hedgehog or simple sensitization. Both logical considerations and experimental results in backward conditioning preclude describing these results in terms of stimulus cuing. The results are interpreted as a. demonstration of the ability of rats to perceive causal agent-effect relationships in certain specific situations. Support for conclusions drawn from the inference that rats can make causal agent-effect connections is taken from the areas of belongingness, stimulus selection in avoidance learning, delayed taste -avoidance learning, novelty, reflexive aggression, and species-specific defense reactions. Theoretical literature relevant to this inference and the broader question of what is learned is discussed.Item Open Access Stimulus generalization and operant discrimination as a function of level of motivation ...(1961) Thomas, David Rolf, 1933-The primary purpose of this experiment was to investigate the relationship between the level of primary motivation (hunger) and two basic phenomena of behavior, stimulus generalization and discrimination learning. The difficulty of the discrimination was also systematically varied so that intersection effects involving problem difficulty might be observed and utilized in the analysis of the main behavioral processes under scrutiny. An additional problem which was investigated was that of the effect of discrimination training on a subsequently obtained generalization gradient. Procedures were employed which made possible a separation of the effects of the physical difference between stimuli to be discriminated and the amount of discrimination training administered, on properties of the post-discrimination generalization gradient. A final problem with which we were concerned was that of the relationship between stimulus generalization and the ease of formation of a subsequently learned discrimination. A number of different measures of discrimination learning were used and different aspects of previously obtained generalization gradients were utilized in an attempt to predict them. The character of the present study was essentially empirical, but the data will also be examined for their bearing upon a set of important basic issues in learning theory which extend beyond those functional relationships which determined the experimental design.Item Open Access The effects of attitude and commitment on retention(1976) George, James M.The literature pertaining to the effects of attitude on the learning and retention of controversial information was reviewed, and other variables which were thought to interact with attitude in its effect on memory were examined. No firm conclusions could be drawn because of the inconsistent results in past studies. The variable of commitment was singled out as a likely candidate for further study because of its possible crucial role in determining whether subjects would be open-minded in processing new information or whether they would react defensively to inconsistent material. Using Kiesler's (1971) work as a point of departure, it was hypothesized that the higher the subject's degree of commitment to a stand, the more difficult it would be for him to retain inconsistent information as compared to consistent material. Furthermore, it was expected that this effect would grow in strength as the retention interval increased in length. A final hypothesis predicted a positive correlation between the amount of inconsistent material retained and the degree of attitude change toward the position advocated in a counter -attitudinal speech. An attempt was made to develop new ways of examining more than just the quantity of a subject's recall. Accordingly, objective measures were developed of the types and amount of distortion present in recall and of the importance of the ideas recalled. The experimental design involved variation of three factors; degree of commitment (three levels), consistency of information with the subject's own position (two levels), and time of recall (two levels). Subjects were recruited from the Duke University subject pool, and a total of 120 subjects (10 per condition x 12 conditions) were used in the final analysis. Only subjects who indicated a stand definitely for or against capital punishment in a survey prior to the experiment were recruited. Commitment was manipulated by varying the public nature of a speech which subjects thought they would have to tape-record. Subjects in both the high and low commitment condition were given their choice of reading a speech either supporting or opposing capital punishment. Any subject who did not pick the side corresponding to his pre -measured attitude was dropped from the experiment. High commitment subjects thought that the tape recording would be made public and they would be identified as the speaker, while low commitment subjects thought that they would remain anonymous. A control condition, or no commitment condition, was created by offering some subjects the choice of reading one of two speeches unrelated to capital punishment. All subjects heard a speech either for or against capital punishment which was either consistent or inconsistent with their own beliefs on the issue ^ Half the subjects were tested for recall immediately after hearing the speech, and the other half were tested only after a delay of one week. Measures were also taken of subjects' recall ability, the degree of commitment they felt, and their attitude change. The results of the study showed that the commitment manipulation was executed successfully, but that none of the hypotheses were supported by the data. Higher degrees of commitment did not differentially affect subjects' recall of consistent and inconsistent information. Furthermore, the hypothesized positive relationship of attitude change to retention was rendered untenable because a significant correlation in the opposite direction was found. Two further hypotheses were developed to explain this negative correlation. A significant interaction between degree of commitment and time of recall was obtained for the amount of material recalled. This complex interaction was interpreted as the result of a combination of different anxiety levels and different amounts of rehearsal between conditions. Several small effects of dubious reliability involving the newly developed recall variables were found, but these findings need to be replicated because of the large number of significance tests conducted.