It was hypothesized that subjects who liked a source of potential harm would estimate the probability of receiving harm mediated by him as lower than would subjects who disliked the source. To test the hypothesis, subjects were asked to estimate the probability that a liked or disliked confederate would deliver an electric shock on each of 10…

Little empirical study has been done on the efficacy of the variety of psychological approaches used to treat depression. The author reviews theoretical points of view: psychoanalytic, cognitive and behavioral, and constructs an experimental design to compare the relative effectiveness of cognitive therapy, assertiveness training and insight…

Authors believes that three phenomena are all instances of "learned helplessness," instances in which an organism has learned that outcomes are uncontrollable by his responses and is seriously debilitated by this knowledge. This article explores the evidence for the phenomena of learned helplessness, and discussed a variety of theoretical…

A general decision-theory analysis of the word-frequency effect in recognition memory is carried out. On the basis of the analysis and data from a forced-choice experiment two distinct causes of the frequency effect are defined. (Editor)

A free-recall procedure demonstrated state-dependent learning using alcohol. Information encoded and stored while intoxicated was more effectively retrieved when later tests of recall were performed while intoxicated, as compared to recall accomplished in the sober state. (Editor/RK)

This research investigated the extent to which three suggested divided- attention effects--time delay, noise addition, and response bias change, as assessed by three cross-over-model parameters--were manifest when a manual, compensatory tracking task was performed concurrently with two secondary tasks. (Author/RK)

A factor analysis was used to study the relationships among response time and accuracy scores for a verbal analogies test, as well as a number of experimental variables designed to measure a series of information processing stages of the analogies task. (CTM)

A series of 13 experiments employing mice systematically investigated shock-elicited activity in a circular field and escape performance in a shuttle box following exposure to either escapable or inescapable shock. Results show that escape interference induced by inescapable shock may be comfortably interpreted in terms of a decreased tendency for…

In a series of experiments, it was found that asking questions about information in a prose sequence while it is being presented can affect the degree to which that prose material is stored as a unitized whole, and that this in turn will affect how well that prose is remembered. (Editor)

Suggests use of the planarian D. Dorotocephala, an animal 20 mm in size, in order to provide inexpensive lab experiences for students in large introductory psychology courses. The animal can be used to study perception, memory, behavior modification, and group processes. (Author/AV)

Nelson, Brooks, and Wheeler (1975) found that interference effects produced by physical similarity among word stimuli in paired associates result from the disruption of contact with the functional stimulus and that interference with associative retrieval is minimal. Data in this research challenge their conclusion on several grounds. (Author/RK)

Attempts have been made by Rabinowitz, Mandler, and Patterson (AA 527 084) to show that both recall and recognition involve the accessibility of individual words. Their recall tests preceded recognition tests, or vice versa, thus contaminating each other; a fresh experiment is presented to confirm that this is so. (Editor)

Transpersonal psychology, extending beyond the traditional paradigm of educational psychology, opens the way to investigation of more complete theories of learning, involving bio-feedback, ego-transcendence, and the range of human abilities influenced by different brain wave states. (MB)

The time course of the spread of activation in lexical memory was studied using naming latency as the measure of activation in a variable-duration priming paradigm. (Editor)

Several studies, developed by the authors, indicate that persuasive-arguments theory by itself is an adequate explanation of polarization. Sanders and Baron (AA 526 863) criticize this research. Here the authors answer their critique. Relevant portions of the standard literature are reviewed to demonstrate that social comparison is neither a…