Albert Silverstein

Prior experience and patterning in a prisoner's dilemma game

State University of New York at Stony Brook, USAABSTRACTFemale college students first played a pseudo-prisoner’s dilemma (PPD) gamewith the experimenter, who followed a fixed strategy. In the first experiment theexperimenter’s strategies for di•erent groups of subjects were: (a) play tit-for-tat;(b) play randomly; (c) always cooperate; (d) always defect (‘cooperation’ and‘defection’, defined as in an actual prisoner’s dilemma game). Only the tit-for-tatgroup increased cooperation over trials; other groups decreased cooperation.After playing the PPD with the experimenter, subjects played an actual prisoner’sdilemma (PD) game with each other. In the PD game, subjects began cooperatingmoderately but cooperation deteriorated regardless of what the experimenter’sstrategy had been in the earlier (PPD) game. In a second experiment, subjectsagain played a PPD game with the experimenter and then played a PD game witheach other. Half played one trial at a time as in the first experiment while halfplayed in patterns of four trials at a time. In the PD game, patterning of trialsretarded the development of mutual defection regardless of previous experience.The cooperation-preserving e•ect of patterning of trials in this social task iscompared with similar e•ects on individual tasks involving self-control and risk-aversion. #1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rated pleasantness and association value of 101 English nouns

Ratings of pleasantness (PL) on a 7-point scale and of association value (a′) on a 5-point scale are reported for 101 two-syllable nouns. The ratings were obtained from two samples of 100 women each and two samples of 100 men each. Sizable differences were obtained between words on both scales. For women and men respectively, PL and a′ were correlated .570 and .585; PL and printed frequency were correlated .233 and .207; frequency and a′ were correlated .533 and .764. Womens and mens ratings correlated .973 for PL and .899 for a′.

Acquired Word Value and Verbal Learning

This experiment tested the hypothesis that pairing nonsense syllables with pleasant photographs would make them more learnable subsequently than would pairing them with indifferent photographs. Ss were shown syllable-photograph pairs and instructed to learn their own labels for the photographs as responses to the syllables. Half the photographs were “very pleasant” and half were “indifferent.” Next, the same syllables were made responses to 2-digit numbers in a second paired-associate list. The pleasant photographs were learned faster in Phase 1 and the pleasantly-paired syllables were learned faster in Phase 2. The superiority of the latter syllables was based partly upon greater availability at the end of Phase 1 but partly upon some independent learning effect during Phase 2. This superiority was hypothesized to be the result of greater implicit rehearsal of the pleasantly-paired syllables.

The role of instrumental responding and contiguity of stimuli in the development of infant secondary reinforcement

Abstract Ten-month-old infants received contingent pairings of a tone (T+) and food reinforcer. Groups S r and S D received the food on an FI 23-sec schedule for target touching, the former group receiving T+ immediately after the response and 1.5 sec prior to food and the latter group receiving T+ at the end of the intertrial interval. Group SC received food reinforcers 1.5 sec after T+ with no response required. A second tone (T n ) was heard by all groups once during each intertrial interval, at randomly determined points. All groups subsequently were given a spatial discrimination task, receiving T+ for one alternative and T n for the other. Group S r gave significantly more responses for T+ than for T n , but neither of the other two groups produced a superiority for T+. Thus, both contiguity with a primary reinforcer and the presence of an operant during training appear to be necessary for a neutral signal to acquire the ability to enhance responding.

Secondary reinforcement in infants

Abstract A spatial discrimination was successfully formed by 10-month-old infants during a single experimental session on the basis of secondary reinforcement. In the first task, S s received paired presentations of a tone and cereal for touching a target. After each reinforcement, 23 sec elapsed before another could be received and S heard a second tone during this period. In the second task, S s heard the food-paired tone ( T + ) each time they touched one of 2 new targets and heard the second tone ( T n ) each time they touched the other target. The number of responses producing T + was reliably greater than the number producing T n , thus demonstrating a genuine secondary reinforcement effect.

Auditory Prompting in Assessing Availability of Responses in Recall.

A measurement procedure was described for assessing response-availability in a quantitatively continuous fashion, based upon the use of auditory prompts and the assumption that the greater the amplitude of prompting required the less available is the response. Experimental data showed the signal-to-noise ratio of auditory prompts required for recall was inversely related to the number of practice trials. Those items which Ss never correctly anticipated during training required a higher prompting level than those which had been anticipated at least once. Successive recall opportunities without prompting did not improve the level of recall.

Book Reviews : Acquiescence and Social Desirability Response Styles, Item Characteristics, and Conformity by Lawrence J. Stricker. Psychological Reports Monograph Supplement 2-V12, Missoula, Montana: Southern Universities Press, 1963. Pp. 22.

will indeed be invaluable to the language teacher. For the language supervisor, it will be of great help in the construction and use of more formal tests for which the classroom teacher lacks both time and facilities. It should also be recommended reading for administrators and guidance experts. The essential difference between language as a vehicle for the communication of ideas and other subjects that consist of ideas as such, the fundamental differences between testing of the native or of a foreign tongue and, above all, the realization of the many and complex variables that enter into language learning, should come as an eye opener to those who have thought of a foreign language as just another subject, and of a foreign language test as just another achievement test.