Focuses on the effects of unsignaled changes in reinforcement schedules on the level of responding in instrumental conditioning and, particularly, on the theoretical bases of the "elation" and "depression" effects associated with increases and decreases in the parameters of reinforcement. (Author/RK)

An integration of two different approaches to the psychology of causal induction is proposed that overcomes the problems associated with each. The proposal results in a causal power theory of the probabilistic contrast model of P. W. Cheng and L. R. Novick (1990). (SLD)

This article critically examines the view that the signal detection theory (SDT) interpretation of the remember-know (RK) paradigm has been ruled out by the evidence. The author evaluates 5 empirical arguments against a database of 72 studies reporting RK data under 400 different conditions. These arguments concern (a) the functional independence…

Theories that posit multiplicative relationships between variables are common in psychology. A. G. Greenwald et al. recently presented a theory that explicated relationships between group identification, group attitudes, and self-esteem. Their theory posits a multiplicative relationship between concepts when predicting a criterion variable.…

This article presents a theory of visual word recognition that assumes that, in the tasks of word identification, lexical decision, and semantic categorization, human readers behave as optimal Bayesian decision makers. This leads to the development of a computational model of word recognition, the Bayesian reader. The Bayesian reader successfully…

The sum-difference theory of remembering and knowing (STREAK) provides a sophisticated account of many interactions in the remember-know (R-K) area (C. M. Rotello, N. A. Macmillan, & J. A. Reeder, 2004; see record 2004-15929-002). It assumes 2 orthogonal strength dimensions and oblique criterion planes. Another dual-process model (J. T. Wixted…

The focus of this article was with the general question of how stimuli are established as signals or acquire associative strength, and no distinction being made between classical and instrumental experiments. (Author/RK)

The central thesis of the present article is that balance theory (Heider, 1946, 1958) or affective-cognitive consistency theory (Rosenberg, 1956, 1965; Rosenberg & Abelson, 1960) provides a framework that can be used to account for all dissonance results . (Author/RK)

A theory of the lay epistemic process is outlined. An integrative framework is provided that allows consideration of diverse attributional models in common theoretical terms and derivation of the necessary applicability conditions of different such models. (Author/RL)

The basic theory of achievement motivation as developed by Atkinson is reviewed, and the implications of the inertial-tendency postulate are examined. (Editor)

L. J. Rips and F. G. Conrad (1989) suggested that the results from their experiments on folk beliefs about the mind provided clues to differences between folk and scientific psychology. An alternative explanation is developed that holds that their results shed no light on folk theories of the mind but are quite general. (SLD)

The most important changes that have taken place in behaviorism since John B. Watson's 1913 article are the introduction of the intervening variable approach and the understanding that psychology is both an experimental and a psychometric science. The only observables available to psychology are stimuli and response. (SLD)

James J. Gibson (1954) viewed perception as a system that picks up information which supports coordination of the agent's actions with the systems the environment provides. This led him to develop the idea of affordances, characteristics of objects and the environment that support their contributions to interactive activity. (SLD)

George A. Miller's essay gives a clear account of information theory and demonstrates how the concept of limited channel capacity can be applied across sensory dimensions. Its major influence has been demonstrating that immediate memory span is relatively insensitive to the amount of information per item. (SLD)