Harry F. Gollob

Judgments of an actor's “power and ability to influence others”

Subjects made potency judgments of the sentence subject in 128 items such as “Bill hurt the coward,” and “Joe helped the gentle man”. The verbs and objects used in constructing stimuli varied widely in their evaluative and potency characteristics. Seventyfour percent of the variation in the mean in-context potency ratings was accounted for by an equation of the form: In-context potency = −a + bV P + V e (cO e − dO p ) , where a, b, c , and d are positive constants, and V p , O p , V e , and O e refer to the potency and evaluative ratings of isolated verb and object components. Several implications of the equations are discussed in terms of belief in a “just world”, ingratiation, appeasement and threat of retaliation.

Quantitative assessment of brain lesions

The availability of precisely measurable dependent variables such as neurochemical activity, homeostatic changes, and behavioral patterns calls for more precise methods of measuring the independent variables of brain lesion research. In this study a method of measuring volumes of internal brain lesions and estimating amounts of damage to specific nuclei is described. Enlarged pictures of histologic sections through the lesion area are used. The structures to be measured are cut out of the pictures and weighed, and a weight-volume conversion formula is applied to yield the volumes of the structures. Two variations of this volumetric method are compared and evaluated. Various applications and advantages of quantified lesion data are discussed and appropriate statistical procedures are described.

Methods for estimating individual- and group-level correlations

The present article describes and compares 5 different estimators of correlations at the individual and group level

The Power of Hypothesis Tests for Comparisons.

Correct simple formulas are provided for the value of 0 needed to use the commonly available Pearson and Hartley (1951) power charts in determining the power of hypothesis tests involving single degree-of-freedom comparisons in the fixed effects analysis of variance. Most experimental design textbooks do not present such formulas; two widely used texts that do give them present incorrect ones.

Social Inference and Pleasantness Judgments Involving People and Issues.

The Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O) approach to social cognition was used to study some traditional balance theory problems and several additional problems as well. Pleasantness judgments and three types of social inference judgment were obtained for 14 item sets, each set consisting of the eight generic balance triads expressed as simple subject-verb-object sentences. The study varied whether the item sets had a real or abstract prrson or issue as the sentence object. The S-V-O model was used to assess the contributions of seven informational cues or biases (including traditional Heiderian balance) to each of the four types of judgment. Support was found for various hypotheses concerning different ways in which the cues used by judges depended upon the type of judgment being made. For example, the factors that led subjects to expect a situation of outcome to occur often differed from those that led them to expect this situation or outcome to be pleasant. Other systematic effects, which depended on the type of object in the sentence, are also discussed.

An adding result in impression formation

Ss were presented with a highly polarized piece of information, followed by a same-signed moderately polarized piece of information, and were asked whether the second piece of information led them to like the person describedmore, less, or just the same. The obtained percentage ofadding responses was 65%; that is, most of the responses indicated that Ss impression of the person described became more polarized following addition of moderately polarized information (p <.001). More adding was obtained for negatively than for positively evaluated adjectives (p <.05).