C. James Scheirer

Delay of gratification, locus of control, and eating patterns in obese and nonobese children

Abstract Two studies were conducted investigating the behavioral concomitants of childhood obesity. In the first study assessment of the internal-external dimensions of personality style by means of delay of gratification and locus of control tasks yielded no significant effects for obese vs nonobese children. However, the consumption of a snack varied for the two groups. The obese children ate the snack at a faster rate than did the nonobese children. Study 2 was directed at further describing the obese eating style in children over a total of three cafeteria meals. The results of this study again supported a distinctive eating style for the obese children who consumed a greater proportion of the food on their plates and also displayed a greater number of intervals with multiple eating responses. These results are discussed with regard to the social validation of an obese eating style in children and the inclusion of instructions to modify eating style in weight management programs for obese children.

Coding processes for pictures and words

Subjects were presented with either pictures or with the verbal names of the pictures in a recognition paradigm. Items were presented for either 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, or 2.00 sec with either 0.25, 1.00, or 2.00 sec between successive items. A recognition test followed where subjects gave confidence judgments on a six-point rating scale as to whether they had seen the items before. Analysis of both correct responses and observer sensitivity (estimated by signal detection theory methods) indicated that the processing rate for words was greater than the processing rate for pictures during the presentation interval while these rates did not differ as a function of the inter-slide interval. The results were interpreted in terms of continuous processing models.

Empirical approaches to information processing: Speed-accuracy tradeoff functions or reaction time

Abstract Recently Wickelgren has advocated the abandonment of reaction time research and its replacement with speed-accuracy methodology. This paper takes issue with the speed-accuracy approach and argues that the proposed methodology has little advantage over reaction time studies. Furthermore it is argued that speed-accuracy studies may have severe flaws of their own.

The effect of filmed modeling on cooperative play in disadvantaged preschoolers

In a series of three studies we investigated the effect of filmed modeling on cooperative play in disadvantaged preschoolers. These studies were conducted both in a natural (classroom) setting and in a laboratory setting. We were unable to demonstrate a reliable modeling effect with these preschoolers even when an extensive descriptive verbal component was added to the modeling film. In a fourth study we showed that the identical treatment did lead to modeling in middleclass preschoolers but that the content of the extensive verbal component was not related to the effect. These results are discussed in terms of appropriate control procedures for this type of study, the role of an audio component in modeling films, and the implications of the lack of filmed modeling effects for the teaching of disadvantaged preschoolers.

A parametric investigation of eating styles in obese and nonobese children

There has been debate regarding the validity of an obse eating style. Some investigations have documented differences in eating style between obese and nonobese populations, although others have failed to denote differences. Generally, these studies have been conducted in naturalistic settings, (e.g., restaurants, cafeterias, etc.), and consequently are susceptible to several sources of uncontrollable variance. The present experiment investigated the eating style of obese children, while controlling for a number of subject and setting characteristics. Obese children ( X = 35% overweight) were compared with normal weight children during the consumption of a standardized meal. In the laboratory setting, obese children ate their meals faster (i.e., total meal duration and more bites per min) than the nonobese children. Although total number of bites and sips did not statistically differentiate the groups, the trend was in the predicted direction. Results are discussed in terms of social validation of behavioral management programs for weight reduction and the relevance of such interventions for children.

Semantic effects in encoding specificity: A levels of processing approach

The semantic characteristics of study and retrieval contexts were varied in a cued recall paradigm. In the first experiment, ambiguous words (homographs) were modified at input and output by identical adjectives or by different adjectives reflecting either the same meaning or a different meaning. The results supported the principle of encoding specificity (Thomson & Tulving, 1970), but only for identical input and output cues; the results showed no facilitation of similar semantic context on recall. The second experiment used a depth-of-processing manipulation to show that the results predicted by a semantic interpretation of encoding specificity are obtainable, but only when subjects are induced to process deeply. The implications of these data for the generality of encoding specificity are discussed.

Task Difficulty as a Mediator of Subject Strategy in Memory Scanning.

A number of previous studies have shown performance to be mutable in the Stemberg memory-scanning task. Our results suggest that the difficulty of the task, and particularly of the list materials employed, may underlie a number of findings at variance with a strict scanning interpretation. Experiment I found that probes of letter-sets that form words are responded to faster than those of nonwords, irrespective of the number of list items. Experiment II replicated these findings and extended the investigation to the influence of practice in this situation. We conclude that criterion changes in the response-decision process provide a straightforward model for reaction-time effects when experimental conditions are perceived as differentially difficult.

The analysis of random effects in modeling studies.

SCHEIRER, C. JAMES, and GELLER, SANFORD E. The Analysis of Random Effects in Modeling Studies. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 752-757. Much of the research on modeling has used single models or, when multiple models have been used, a questionable data analysis has been applied. The analytic and conceptual difficulty revolves around the decision whether to treat models as a fixed or as a random factor in the analysis. We argue that in almost all cases the experimenter conceptualizes a study as providing the basis for a generalization to a larger population of models. Since this is the case, models must be analyzed as a random factor or a positive bias is introduced into the results. In this paper the concept of a random factor is discussed along with its application to and relevance for modeling research. Worked examples are provided, and a practical solution to the problem is proposed.

Segregation Strategies in Memory Scanning.

As Okada and Burrows (1973) have pointed out, it is essential for efficient retrieval that a subject be able to partition material in memory; otherwise, he would face the task of searching through all of memory for each retrieval. This observation is particularly relevant under Stembergs scanning paradigm, where much evidence suggests that subjects exhaustively search all items in short lists when responding to a recognition probe as rapidly as possible. Sternberg (1966, 1969) has argued that this is because high-speed scanning is more rapidly executed, and therefore more efficient, than checking the list for a match after each item. In more complex retrieval situations, however, subjects have been shown to utilize more complex strategies, including an apparently self-terminating search when scanning for serial position (Sternberg, 1969, Experiment 7). Other evidence has indicated that when memory loads are structured such that processing time could logically be reduced by searching through only subsets in memory, subjects do in fact utilize that structure. Naus, Glucksberg, and Orstein (1972), Naus (1974), and Okada and Burrows (1973), for example, found that slopes of scanning functions (increased reaction time with each additional item in the memory load) were reduced with lists of categorized words. Williams (1971) found that sets of letters learned on different colored backgrounds produced search restricted to the appropriate colors. The purpose of the research presented here was to further investigate the conditions under which subjects can partition material and use that segregation under Sternbergs scanning paradigm. The lists were composed

The Effect of Imagery on Accessibility and Availability in a Short-Term Memory Paradigm.

A variant of the Peterson (1959) paradigm was used to investigate retrieval of single pairs of items varying in imagery value. After being presented with a single pair, the subject recalled an item either in the presence or absence of the other item. Latency to respond showed that as long as one item of the pair was concrete no differential retrieval speeds were found. This result is interpreted as support for an organizational view of imagery. A second experiment suggested that retrieval effects are confined to permanent memory (long-term store).