John W. Somervill

SEX OF EXPERIMENTER AND EFFECTS OF PRETEST INTERACTIONS ON APPROACHING A SNAKE BY FEARFUL FEMALE SUBJECTS

96 female students in introductory psychology were selected by a screening procedure to ensure moderate to strong fearfulness of snakes. Each subject was assigned to one of eight groups according to a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design (attractive male or female experimenter; a modeling or no-modeling condition, and a pretest condition in which subjects either remained alone in a room or conversed with the experimenter for 7 min.). The only significant finding was that subjects showed significantly greater approach with modeling than without and with a male experimenter.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LOCUS OF CONTROL, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND PERCEPTION OF AUTOKINETIC MOVEMENT

The relationships among scores on locus of control (Rotters I-E Scale), autokinetic movement, and the American College Test were investigated. I-E scores and ACT composite scores were obtained for 90 university students (45 males and 45 females) in introductory psychology. All subjects were tested for 5 min. in an autokinetic test situation. It was predicted that subjects with an external locus of control would be more associated to lower scores on the ACT and perceive more autokinetic movement than subjects with an internal locus of control. Partial support was obtained for this prediction. Perception of autokinetic movement was significantly more associated with externally oriented subjects than internally oriented subjects. Externality was not more associated with lower scores on the ACT than internality.

EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ON TEST PERFORMANCE BY SUBJECTS VARYING IN DISTRACTIBILITY

Previously no significant effects of distraction on standardized test performance by adults have been reported. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether self-ratings of distractibility predicted differences in test performance in two environmental settings, the student union during rush hours and an individual study room inside the library. On the basis of self-ratings, 72 subjects (36 males and 36 females) were selected from 815 college students to form distractible groups, low, medium and high. Only the highly distractible group performed significantly better in the library than in the union. When individual differences in distractibility are considered, test conditions may affect performance.