Problems with experimental research on mental retardation include: (1) difficulties with defining mental retardation; (2) neglect in demonstrating causal relationships; and (3) reliance on methodology not necessarily appropriate for defining the criteria of retardation. The author advocates abandoning definitions based on intelligence tests and…

Underlying bases for federal interest in experimentation on human subjects, including abuses of investigative processes and efforts at regulation, are explored. Focus is on recent HEW rules on the protection of human subjects, which will have a significant impact on many research institutions. (LBH)

Whether individual study of risk problems (familiarization) leads to greater risk taking was investigated. Subjects (N=160) in groups of five or alone developed arguments in favor of the successful risky outcome in six Choice Dilemma problems. Groups may be more efficient than individuals in developing arguments favoring culturally valued…

Picture naming in children was assessed as a function of two stimulus characteristics: the number of correct names for a picture and the degree to which a picture realistically represents the object. Two experiments showed that children named low-uncertainty objects faster than high-uncertainty objects with multiple correct names. Contains 50…

The effects of intonation morphemes on the processing of simple reversible sentences containing a dislocated element were studied using synthetic speech stimuli. Both child and adult subjects processed the sentences better when they retained standard subject-verb-object order, suggesting that the morphemes serve as processing instructions.…

The aim of this article is to introduce readers to an alternative way of applying U-shaped functions to understand development, especially cognitive development. In classical developmental applications, age is the abscissa; that is, in the fundamental equation B = f(A), some behavioral variable (B) plots as a U-shaped or inverted U-shaped function…

Integrating the new scholarship on women into the mainstream college curriculum is an important task for feminist teachers, not withstanding considerable resistance among traditionally minded male colleagues. Efforts to transform the psychology curriculum have met with additional problems because of psychology's commitment to the experimental…

A classroom/laboratory exercise has been used to introduce college students to factorial research designs, differentiate between interpretations for experimental and quasi-experimental variables, and exemplify application of laboratory research methods to test practical questions (advertising claims). The exercise involves having randomly divided…

Data were collected for this study of the relationship between television watching and family life via a recording device (C-Box) consisting of a television set and a video camera. Designed for the study, this device was installed in 20 homes for one week to record the viewing area in front of the television set together with information on…

The impact of exposure to social models displaying variably tolerant pain behaviour on observers' expressions of pain is examined. Findings indicate substantial effects on verbal reports of pain, avoidance behaviour, psychophysiological indices, power function parameters, and sensory decision theory indices. Discussion centers on how social models…

The research reported here was directed at two distinct but related problems: (1) the assumption of bipolarity underlying standard semantic differential scales, and (2) the demonstration of the similarities between D-4 (the square root of the sum of squares of the difference between each word's mean rating and 4.00 on a number of scales) as a…

A program called Experiment Writer (EW) was designed to enable students to use the computer to sample a range of experimentation situations. EW was used by 20 students in an Advanced Experimental Psychology course; hardware consisted of a PDP-10 computer, and a PDP-15 computer with 12K of core memory and two time-shared stations. Experimental…

This paper briefly reviews how subjects enhance performance by favoring some stimuli over others. The author calls the mechanism by which this is achieved "expectancy", a generic term including preparatory set, behavioral hypotheses, orienting reflex, and anticipatory goal responses. Temporal and event expectancy are contrasted. Verbal prediction…

Reviews recent experimental and theoretical analyses of the relationship between level of processing and retention, and reports on two studies which tested predictions about the effects of orienting activities on retention. (AM)