Jum C. Nunnally

Pupillary response as a general measure of activation

Pupil size was measured while 30 male college students undertook five tasks respectively concerning, (a) muscle tension induced by the lifting of weights, (b) fear induced by threat of a gunshot, (c) intense stimulation induced by loud pure tones, (d) heightened attention from viewing novel pictures, and (e) pleasantness and unpleasantness in reaction to pictures that differed in terms of their affect-inducing characteristics. Highly regular relationships were found between pupil size and degree of muscle strain and between pupil size and the temporal ordering of events during threat of a gunshot. Significant effects on pupil size also were found for the other three types of stimulation.

Exploratory Behavior and Human Development

Publisher Summary This chapter covers (1) the place of exploratory behavior in relation to psychological science, including historical background and a temporal scheme for articulating various subprocesses involved in exploratory behavior, (2) the theoretical concepts that underlie all existing theories concerning exploratory behavior, (3) methodology and findings with respect to the form of exploratory behavior that has been treated in most detail, namely that of visual investigation, and (4) the implications of the aforementioned topics for developmental psychology. It is concerned only with humans about 2 years of age or older rather than with infants and lower animals. Although exploratory behavior in general is discussed, the literature surveyed in the chapter pertains to visual investigation.

The effects on eye movements of complexity, novelty, and affective tone

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of stimulus complexity, novelty, and affective tone on the direction of eye movements of male college students. Motion pictures were taken of S’s eye while he viewed pairs of stimuli. In no instance, in any part of the 10 sec. viewing interval, did Ss as a group fixate longer on unpleasant stimuli when they were paired with either pleasant or neutral stimuli; and pleasant stimuli consistently dominated neutral stimuli. Also, novel stimuli and complex stimuli tended to dominate their non-novel and less complex competitors. Differences in instructions were found to markedly affect the magnitude but not the direction of fixation-dominance.

The influence of stimulus complexity, novelty, and affective value on children's visual fixations.

Abstract In two experiments, motion pictures were taken of an Ss eye while he viewed pairs of stimuli. Each pair represented two points along the continuum of either stimulus complexity, novelty, or affective value. The fixations of children were dominated by more complex or novel figures when those figures were compared with less complex or banal figures. In addition, Exp. II demonstrated the feasibility of developing stimuli to represent four points on a continuum of novelty and suggested an increasing monotonic relationship between the novelty of a stimulus and its potential for dominating fixations. In contrast to studies with college students, it was found in both experiments that stimuli with negative affective value dominated both neutral and positive stimuli.

Association of neutral objects with rewards: Effect on verbal evaluation and eye movements

Three experiments were reported concerning the conditioning of verbal evaluation and eye movements in children. Conditioning was obtained with various payoff games in which neutral stimuli (nonsense syllables and geometrical forms) were paired with rewards (pennies and candy). In the three experiments, conditioning days ranged from 3 to 7 Dependent measures were verbal evaluation and eye movements. The former was measured with adjective checklists, in which the S was required to assign each of a list of adjectives either to the payoff stimulus or to one or more nonpayoff stimuli. Eye movements were measured photographically. Groups of stimuli were presented at a short distance from the S. The amount of time spent looking at the payoff stimulus was compared with the amount of time spent looking at nonpayoff stimuli. Although procedures varied in the three studies, there was at least one measure of verbal evaluation for each conditioning session. In two studies eye movements were measured only at the end of acquisition; in the third, eye movements were measured for each conditioning session. Very strong effects were obtained for verbal evaluation: positive evaluation of the payoff stimulus increased as a function of conditioning. One study provided evidence that the effect is relatively enduring. Less marked, but statistically significant effects were found for eye movements. After conditioning, children looked at payoff stimuli more than nonpayoff stimuli. The results from these studies and related studies were discussed with respect to a stimulus-stimulus conditioning model.

An Overview of Psychological Measurement

Because this book is being written for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and kindred professionals, in this chapter it will be assumed that the reader is already familiar with fundamental issues relating to behavioral measurement and, consequently, that there will be no need to discuss low-level principles. Rather, the discussion will center on controversial issues that are of immediate importance to the professional clinician or researcher in the behavioral sciences. Whereas the examples chosen for this chapter to illustrate principles of measurement are particularly applicable to clinical diagnosis, the principles are quite general to empirical science. Because some methods of statistical and mathematical analysis are intimately related to the development and use of measurement methods, critical comments will be made about some prominent approaches to statistical analysis, but details regarding their applications will be left to referenced sources rather than be discussed in detail here. (Any reader who is not already familiar with fundamental principles of psychometric theory and analysis, or would like a refresher course in that regard, might want to consult my book Psychometric Theory, 1978.)

The influence of stimulus incongruity on the familiarity effect in visual selection

A consistent finding in the literature concerning visual selection is that a stimulus exposed to S subsequently loses some of its potential to elicit looking responses. Studies examining the familiarity effect in visual selection have not systematically examined the influence on that effect of various stimulus characteristics possessed by the familiarized stimulus. The present experiments examined the relationship between the magnitude of the familiarity effect and the level of incongruity represented by the familiarized stimulus and found it to be increasing and monotonie. In addition, Experiment 3 examined the generality of reports that familiarized stimuli are “liked” less than their unfamiliarized counterparts. The ease of explaining the results of the experiments using an “affect change” model of the familiarity effect and an “inforjnation-conflict resolution” model of that effect are discussed.

A new methodology and finding relating to visual stimulus selection in children

The purposes of the present study were: (a) to examine more closely the effects of stimulus incongruity on visual selection in children by employing stimuli which represented four points on a continuum of incongruity; (b) to employ a procedure which would closely approximate a natural environment and thus increase the situational generality of the results. Results demonstrating the influence of stimulus incongruity on fixation-dominance were replicated using a modified procedure in which a child sat in a waiting room unaware that his looking behavior was observed. This replication lends credance to the situational generality of those earlier findings. The extension of this basic replication indicates that with children the relationship between stimulus incongruity and fixation-dominance is monotonic and increasing.

Association of neutral objects with rewards: Effects of massed versus distributed practice, delay of testing, age, and sex

Abstract The “conditioning apparatus” was a spin-wheel game in which the stopping of a pointer on one nonsense syllable resulted in the winning of 2 pennies and the stopping on another syllable resulted in the loss of one penny. Conditioning effects on the syllables were assessed with 3 dependent measures respectively concerning (a) verbal evaluation, (b) reward expeetaney, and (c) instrumental viewing responses. The first major purpose was to determine effects of four levels of massed versus distributed conditioning sessions. The second major purpose was to determine effects of delayed testing after the end of conditioning. Half the Ss were tested the day after the last conditioning session, and the other half were tested 5 weeks later. Incidental purposes of the experiment were to examine effects of age (grades 1, 3, and 5) and sex. All groups significantly differentiated the syllables in the predicted manner. There were no significant differences between groups due to levels of massing practice sessions, age, or sex. The most important finding was that effects were as strong for Ss tested 5 weeks later as for Ss tested the day after the end of conditioning sessions.

Factored Scales for Measuring Characteristics of College Environments

Ix 1958 Stem published a preliminary manual for a college environments inventory, called the College Characteristics Index. The inventory was based upon lB1urray’s (1938) classification of needs and contained thirty scales of ten dichotomous items each. For each hypothesized need there was a corresponding college press scale consisting of items describing pressures or activities in the college which might be satisfying to persons with the given type of need. Subsequently, Pace and Stern (1958) showed that mean press scores at five colleges, based upon undergraduate student descriptions of faculty and student pressures, differed markedly from campus to campus, and that student descriptions showed considerable agreement with faculty descriptions. One use of such scales for measuring college environments is to systematically describe ways in which learning environments differ, and to relate these environmental differences to student perform-