John P. Keating

Acceptance of persuasion and the inhibition of counterargumentation under various distraction tasks

Abstract A discrepant communication was presented to subjects who monitored light flashes by visual, vocal, manual, or vocal-manual means. Higher rates of flashes increased acceptance of the communication and decreased counterargument production. Vocal and manual tasks were equally effective in inhibiting counterarguments and increasing acceptance, while the vocal-manual task was most effective in increasing acceptance of the counterattitudinal communication. The results suggest that the level and complexity of activity elicited by a distraction task is as important a determinant of persuasion-yielding and counterargument inhibition, as is the direct inhibition of the subvocal formation of counterarguments by distraction requiring vocal responding.

Misattributions to crowding: Blaming crowding for nondensity-caused events

Three field studies and a laboratory experiment investigated the effects of disconfirmed expectations and unattained goals, varying independently of density, on attributions to crowding. Studies 1 and 2 found that positively and negatively disconfirmed time expectations elicited greater attributions to crowding than confirmed time expectations. The second field study also showed that students not attaining their course registration goals made stronger crowding attributions than students who obtained their desired courses. The expectancy disconfirmation results were replicated in a laboratory experiment. Disconfirmed performance expectations, whether positive or negative, produced stronger attributions to crowding than confirmed expectations. The final study in this series demonstrated that crowding attributions can occur despite the presence of other plausible environmental and nonenvironmental causal factors. Taken together, these results show that factors operating independently of density can influence crowding attributions in high-density environments.

The Measurement of Perceived Crowding

Two measures of perceived crowding are used interchangeably by crowding researchers: one assesses how crowded people feel and one assesses how crowded people rate a setting. Two such measures were embedded in questionnaires which were identical except for the crowding measures and were distributed in a dense field setting. Factor analyses indicated that the two crowding measures are conceptually distinct, since the feel crowded item loaded with perceived density, constraint, distraction, and stress, whereas the environmental rating item loaded only with perceived density and general negative affect. The former was also found to be more sensitive to changes in physical density than the latter.

Assessing affective states: A new methodology for some old problems

Demand characteristics and reactivity can jeoparadize the validity of adjective checklists. The present studies test a methodology for distïnguishing among positive, neutral, and negative states, while minimizing demand and reactivity. Results from the studies revealed that ratings of neutral words accurately discriminated among college students induced to feel happy, neutral, or sad. In addition, independent judges demonstrated that assessing mood with ratings of neutral words weakens the link between scale items and to-be-measured mood state, thus minimizing potential demand and reactivity. Ratings of neutral words are discussed as an alternative to adjective checklists regarding measurement of affective states.

Crowding and reactions to uncontrollable events

The current study sought to test the consequences associated with misattributing uncontrollable events to crowding. Results showed that when density is a salient cue, greater crowding attributions were made when individuals were exposed to uncontrollable as opposed to controllable outcomes. In addition, performance deficits were found for individuals who were exposed to uncontrollable outcomes, indicated high crowding, and were administered a subsequent task in a nondense setting. The results are discussed in relation to the learned helplessness model as well as studies investigating the aftereffects of stress on human performance.

Type of Activity and Failure as Mediators of Perceived Crowding

High density can hinder or facilitate the attainment of an activity, so activities can be typified as density-hindered or density-facilitated. This quasi-experimental field study was conducted at a high-density street fair to examine if the type of activity (density-hindered or density-facilitated) important to a person in a high-density situation would mediate perceptions of crowding. It was hypothesized that perceptions of crowding would be positively correlated with the importance of density-hindered activities, but negatively correlated with importance of densityfacilitated activities. Additionally, it was hypothesized, on the basis of an attributional model of crowding, that perceptions of crowding would be positively correlated with experienced failure. Support was found for both hypotheses, stressing the importance of examining the person-environment interaction in work on crowding.

Development of coded emergency alarms through word-association tasks

Information about a fire must be delivered to hospital personnel while being concealed from the patient population. Standard word-association procedures were used to develop the optimal coded message for such a situation. These procedures capitalized on connotation of words used in the code to communicate the situation to affected personnel.