Norman H. Hamm

Effects of race and exposure on judgments of interpersonal favorability

Two experiments replicated and extended the “mere exposure” effect across the variables of race, sex, and level of initial favorability. Both experiments employed a between subjects design in which white subjects rated their favorability toward 20 photographs, 10 of black and 10 of white college graduates. The initial exposure sequence was followed by 10 repetitions of each photograph for experimental subjects and an inverted alphabet printing task for control subjects. During the posttest all subjects again rated the photographs. Irrespective of race and sex of photograph or initial level of favorability, exposure functioned to enhance interpersonal attractiveness in both experiments.

NORMATIVE DATA FOR THE PURDUE PEGBOARD ON A SAMPLE OF ADULT CANDIDATES FOR VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION

Norms for the Purdue Pegboard are reported on candidates for vocational rehabilitation. These subjects scored significantly below the norms published in the Purdue manual for industrial workers. It is recommended that the present norms be used with a clinical sample of candidates for vocational rehabilitation.

Outcomes of the Minnesota Smoking Prevention Program

1,320 seventh-graders from a large midwestern public school district participated in a 6-hr. session of the Minnesota Smoking Prevention Program. Responses from students of the four trained and three control junior high schools indicated that the Minnesota program did not prevent students from becoming new users but rather encouraged those who were regular users to quit.

Effectiveness of Social and Correctness Reinforcers with Different Aged Children

The effectiveness of two classes of verbal reinforcers, correctness and social, were examined among 108 second-, fifth-, and eighth-grade, middle-class children using a marble-sorting task. Results indicated that correctness reinforcement was more rewarding across all levels of age than social approval; however, a post hoc analysis of the age by treatment effect indicated a significant reinforcer effect for only the eighth-grade Ss.

Content validity of the wrat and grade level achievement of primary grade students

Abstract The Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) arithmetic and reading performance of randomly selected primary grade children in a suburban school district was compared to grade placement in reading and math, and text placement in reading. WRAT scores overestimated actual achievement in all grades tested. Because of differences in curriculum, the WRAT may not adequately identify significant underachievement in suspected learning-disabled students at kindergarten and grades 1 and 2.

Preferences for black skin among Negro adults.

24 black Ss, age 15 to 25, 35 to 45, 55 to 65 yr., were required to choose a real and ideal face from 11 faces which differed in skin color and attribute desirable and undesirable behavioral attributes to 20 figures, 10 of which were Negro. Analyses of the former task showed neither a significant preference on the part of all Ss for dark skin colors nor an increasing tendency for older Ss to prefer light skin; analyses of the latter task also indicated that across all age groups there was no preference for dark skin. However, Ss in the youngest age group attributed significantly more positive behavioral attributes to black skin than Ss in the older age categories.

Sex Differences in Encoding Strategies for Active and Passive Words

From the known sex differences in personality functioning it was hypothesized that males would recall more active words (Osgoods Semantic Differential) while females would recall more passive words than males. Two verbal recall techniques, an associative clustering and proactive task, confirmed the latter portion of the preceding hypothesis: on both tasks females recalled more passive words than males (ns = 44 and 60 in two experiments). Apparently a significant cognitive difference exists between the sexes in the organization and storage of passive but not active words.

A Partial Test of the “Contiguity” and “Generalized Imitation” Theories of the Social Modeling Process

Summary Imitative behavior was studied with the use of 36 kindergarten children who were either reinforced or not reinforced for imitative behavior prior to observing a male model exhibit aggressive behaviors. The children were tested for imitative aggressive behaviors in an eight-minute free-play situation, by means of a five-category rating scale. The results revealed that the reinforced group emitted significant more physical, verbal, and nonimitative aggression than the nonreinforced group. A second test examined the retention of the models aggressive behavior under an incentive condition. The incentive condition diminished the initial differences found in the first test, revealing a nonsignificant difference between the reinforced and nonreinforced groups. Hence, the study provided support for both the “contiguity” and “generalized imitation” theories of social modeling.

Racial meaning with a mediated generalization procedure

Seventy-eight white and black college Ss, divided equally into white, Negro, and control mediation groups, were tested for generalized responses along a color dimension ranging from medium brown to light tan. Control (no racial meaning implied) and mediational (racial meaning implied) gradients were derived with five colors, two lighter and two darker than the CS. On the control gradient, (1) Ss generalized more to lighter colors than to darker colors, and (2) black Ss generalized more to darker colors and less to lighter colors than did white Ss. No significant mediation or Race by Mediation effect was found.