A common error term regulates acquisition but not extinction of causal judgments in people

In three experiments, we used the allergist task to examine the role of error correction mechanisms in the acquisition and extinction of causal judgments in people. Consistent with existing human and animal studies, acquisition of causal judgments was influenced by the discrepancy between the allergenic outcome and that predicted by all of the cues present on a trial (the "common error" term). However, in the present experiments, we failed to detect any evidence for the use of a common error term in extinction learning: Judgments of the allergenic properties of a cue were unaffected by the predictive value of the other cues present on a trial. This asymmetry in the use of a common error term in acquisition and extinction learning is inconsistent with previous animal studies and also with most models of associative learning. However, approaches that allow learning to be specific to a particular arrangement of elemental cues (context specific and state based) offer some explanation of the observed asymmetry.     

Basic Approaches

Abstract

Communication abilities, conflict management, and delegation are all important to students' success in the work force. Instructors often simulate situations that give students skills in these crucial areas by assigning group projects. It is often difficult for instructors to select individuals who will work successfully together. Common methods for selecting groups, many of which are ineffective, are discussed. A student self-assessment method used by the authors to group students according to their skills is described. The method, used for two years in both sophomore-and senior-level courses, has been proven to prevent intragroup skill imbalances.     

Teaching Music Fundamentals to the Beginning College Student

In this study, we examine the impact of a curriculum designed to increase first year college student political engagement. We used a staggered implementation design in which eight classes of traditional first year college students in were taught a political engagement curriculum by two instructors. The results confirm the positive impact of the political engagement curriculum above and beyond a rhetoric and composition curriculum for traditional first-year college students on important political indicators such as internal political efficacy and attentiveness and interest in politics. Further, participants exhibited significant post-intervention differences with regard to their comfort level joining political conversations as well as employing important conversational strategies to strengthen democratic dialogue. These results support the use of this curriculum to increase first year college students’ political engagement and underscore the impact that classroom curriculum and instruction can have promoting a deliberative and active citizenry.     

Instructional/Educational Media

Public Telecommunications Review (bi-monthly at $12.50 per year in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, $17.00 Elsewhere) and Volume I:1 appeared in August 1973

S. Young Lee and Ronald J. Pedone's Summary Statistics of Public Television Licensees Fiscal Year 1972 (Washington: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1973—no price listed, paperback)

Frederick Williams, Geraldine Van Wart and Monty Stanford's Carrascolendas: National Evaluation of a Spanish/English Educational Television Series (Austin, Texas: School of Communication, Center for Communication Research of the University of Texas, June 1973—$6.00, paper)

Children's Television Workshop offers its 1973 Annual Report (1 Lincoln Plaza, N.Y. 10023) which discusses developments in Sesame Street, Electric Company     

Communication Research and General Media

William B. Fairley and Frederick Mosteller, eds. Statistics and Public Policy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1977— price not given)

Julian L. Simon's Basic. Research Methods in Social Sciences: The Art of Empirical Investigation (New York: Random House, 1978—$14.95)

Delbert C. Miller's Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement (New York: McKay, 1978—$14.95, with a paperback edition available)

James Monaco, ed. Media Culture and Celebrity: The Media as Image Makers (New York: Delta Books (Dell), 1978—$4.95 each, paper)     

The contributions of parental management language to executive function in preschool children

This study investigated relations between preschoolers’ emergent executive function skills and their interactions with parents, with particular focus on the verbal utterances parents use to guide children's behavior (i.e., management language). Parent–child dyads (n = 127) were videotaped during a structured play task and the frequency of two types of management language, Direction (high control) and Suggestion (low control), was observed. Children's executive function was assessed using the Head–Toes–Knees–Shoulders (HTKS) task. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate relations between management language and the development of children's executive function. Direction language (i.e., commands) was negatively associated with children's age three executive function but not significantly related to the rate of executive function development over time. Conversely, Suggestion language (i.e., questions and statements that offer children some degree of choice) was positively related to executive function at age three but negatively related to growth. The potential importance of management language as a parenting behavior that contributes to various aspects of children's self-regulation during preschool and kindergarten is discussed.     

A Note on the Correction for Chance Success

A questionnaire was filled out by 108 graduates of a B.A. program in psychology. The subjects provided biographical data and information about credits in psychology, GPA, fields of interest, reasons for majoring in psychology, psychology-related employment during undergraduate study, plans for graduate study, occupational use of psychology after graduation, occupational and/or personal value of the B.A. program, value of faculty help and advisement, and outstanding characteristics of helpful faculty. Analyses of the data led to 11 conclusions, some of which confirm the findings of a previous study and others of which provide new information about the uniform as well as differential effects of the undergraduate curriculum.     

Amateur values in pageantry

This essay argues for an enlarged conceptualization of deception. A multidimensional scaling of similarity judgments of forty‐six deception‐related terms identified a number of aspects underlying the construct. They included evaluation, detectability, and premeditation. The elicited terms were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis, which revealed six families of deception: fictions, playings, lies, crimes, masks, and unlies. Implications of these results were explored.