Manuel Vega

Correlates of Adult Locus of Control

Correlations between scores on the Adult Locus of Control Scale and a number of personality scales supported the hypothesis that the control scores are related to need achievement, anxiety, psychopathology, socioeconomic status, ethnic group membership, and intellectual ability. There was some evidence that locus of control scores are also related to teacher effectiveness.

The Influence of Substance Use among Adult Female Inmates

Using a 90% sample (1,076) of the women incarcerated in August 1985 in Florida prisons, and a “non-use, casual/recreational use, problem use” typology, the extent of substance abuse was found to be inversely related to age at first arrest as an adult, age at incarceration, and employment at time of arrest. Extent of substance use was directly related to number and percent of prior offenses and incarcerations, broken parental home, and criminality in the family of origin. Even though non-users were more likely to be convicted of homicide, casual/recreational users were the most violent. No evidence was found for an increase in substance use/abuse between 1975 and 1985.

A study of female robbers in a Southern Correctional Institution

Abstract A stratified random sample of thirty-three female robbers incarcerated at the Florida Correctional Institute at Lowell was selected and interviewed. The findings indicated that the majority of the sample was black, under thirty, of average intelligence, and single. The female robber was typically found to operate with an accomplice, use a firearm, and be motivated by a desire for financial gain. A preliminary typology that included two major categories, situational robbers and career robbers, was developed.

Word association and verbal analogy problems

Previous attempts to identify verbal analogy problems that can be solved on the basis of word association did not take account of the possibility that assocations to a word are different when that word is in the context of other words than when it is presented alone. The various parts of 25 verbal analogy problems were presented, individually and in combinations, to Ss with instructions to choose responses on the basis of word associations. Ss receiving all three of the stimulus parts of the analogy problems chose answers that completed the corresponding problems significantly more often than Ss given only one of the stimulus parts. This result, and other factors, led to the conclusion that it is not possible to eliminate totally the word association bias of verbal analogy problems.

Further Note on Rule Utilization in Solutions of Abstract Picture-Analogy Problems

As a further test of a rule model of analogical reasoning, 24 problems from the Raven Progressive Matrices were given 93 Ss, run in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design in which there were two presentation intervals (20 vs 45 sec.), two stimulus conditions (the first two rows of each matrix were either present or absent), and two rule conditions (some Ss had access to E-generated rules). Over-all there were fewer errors with the longer interval, when the stimulus items of each matrix were present and when Ss had access to the E-generated rules for solving the problems. Providing rules had a larger effect when the stimulus items were not presented than when they were presented. The results were interpreted as providing support for a rule model of analogical reasoning, though some of the limitations of this model were noted.

Visual Defects and Performance on Psychological Tests

The effects of childrens visual defects on their psychological test performances have received little attention in the literature although their effects on achievement are well documented (e.g., Haines, 1955; Kephart et al., 1960). A study by Klauer (1962) indicated that although visually handicapped children do not differ significantly in IQ from normal children, those with severe handicaps had significantly reduced performance IQs when these were compared with their verbal IQs. The reduced performance IQ can be attributed to the fact that severe visual defects impair perception and will likely disrupt performance on test items requiring recog

RULE UTILIZATION IN SOLUTIONS OF ABSTRACT PICTURE-ANALOGY PROBLEMS

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that rules are generated and applied in solving analogy problems by providing one group of Ss with the appropriate rules. Analogy problems from the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test were employed in Exp. I, and problems from the Raven Progressive Matrices were employed in Exp. II. The results from both experiments did not support the hypothesis. It was suggested that the possibility, that the cognitive processes involved in comprehending E-generated rules may be as complex as those involved in generating rules from the stimulus materials, should be investigated further.