A cross-national survey of cultural expectations and sex-role standards in reading

Cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading in Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Israel, Japan, and U.S.A. were investigated. A picture test showing various activities and objects including reading and books was administered in each country to six sub-samples that approximated to the levels: students in grades I, IV, VIII, and XII, college students, and adults. Subjects had to ascribe the activity or object as being appropriate for either a boy or a girl. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that cultural expectations and sex-role standards about reading are congruent within one country but that they differ between countries. In particular, boys in Canada and the U.S.A. rapidly learn to perceive reading as a feminine activity, whereas Danish and Japanese males at all ages consistently view reading as acceptable masculine behaviour.     

Effects of perceptual salience on the matrix task performance of four- and six-year-old children.

The effects of salience on 4- and 6-year-old children's ability to classify multiplicatively was investigated. A rank-ordered salience hierachy consisting of 3 dimensions was first assessed for each S. Several weeks later half the Ss of each age group were presented with a series of 9 3 times 3 matrix problems consisting of values from 2 dimensions ranked high in salience. The remaining half received identically structured matrices consisting of values from 1 highly salient dimension and of others from a dimension ranked low in salience. The goal in each problem was to select that compound stimulus from a set of alternatives that appropriately filled an empty cell in the matrix. Prior to the matrix problems, half the Ss in each matrix condition received sensitization training designed to increase the salience of the relevant dimensions in the matrix problems. The results showed that the pre-assessed salience of the relevant dimensions affected matrix solution in that more accurate performance was associated with those problems with both relevant dimensions relatively high in salience than those with one high and one low. Although the older Ss solved more problems, the evidence for coordination in the younger Ss was clear. No effects of sensitization training were found.     

Reversal of visual discrimination problem and differential frustration effects in dominant and submissive rats

Two experiments are reported comparing performance in dominant and submissive rats as determined by a food-competition procedure. Ss in Experiment I were either trained to criterion or overtrained before being reversed on a visual discrimination task. Although the two groups did not differ significantly in learning the initial task, the dominant Ss were significantly slower on reversal than the submissives. Experiment II, which utilized a tandem runway, showed that when the reinforcer which maintained the running response was not available in the first goalbox, submissive rats responded with a greater increase in running speed in the second runway than dominant rats. These findings were discussed as reflecting motivational differences between dominant and submissive rats.     

Successive acquisition and extinction in a runway with the domestic Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata)

Twenty domestic Muscovy ducks were trained to traverse a runway for food reward. Subjects were then randomly assigned to treatments. In one treatment, subjects received six nonrewarded trials followed by six rewarded trials every day for 12 days; and, in the other treatment, subjects received six rewarded trials followed by six nonrewarded trials every day for 12 days. These successive acquisition and extinction (SAE) treatments were selected because different extinction rates on the nonrewarded trials are expected on the bases of previous research performed with rats. Analyses of variance revealed the former treatment yielded significantly greater resistance to extinction than did the latter treatment. It was concluded that ducklings performed similarly to rats in the above SAE situation.