William J. Lammers

Memory-conjunction errors: Miscombination of stored stimulus features can produce illusions of memory

We demonstrate that subjects will often claim to have previously seen a new stimulus if they have previously seen stimuli containing its component features. Memory for studied stimuli was measured using a “yes”/“ no” recognition test. There were three types of test stimuli:target stimuli, which had been presented during study,conjunction stimuli, constructed by combining the features of separate study stimuli, andfeature stimuli, in which studied stimulus features were combined with new, unstudied, features. For both nonsense words and faces, the subjects made many more false alarms for conjunction than for feature stimuli. Additional experiments demonstrated that the results were not due to physical similarity between study and test stimuli and that conjunction errors were much more common than feature errors in recall. The results demonstrate that features of stored stimuli maintain some independence in memory and can be incorrectly combined to produce recognition errors.

Depression, anxiety, and relevant cognitions in persons with mental retardation

We assessed depression, anxiety, and relevant cognitions in persons with mental retardation by administering modified versions of the Reynolds Child Depression Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Cognitions Checklist to 46 persons with borderline to moderate mental retardation. Consistent with research with other groups, self-reports of depression and anxiety were highly correlated (r = .74) in these individuals, and cognitions were strong predictors of negative affect. Subscales measuring cognitions related to depression and anxiety were also highly related, limiting the “cognitive-specificity” hypothesis. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses offered mixed support for cognitive-specificity. We discuss the implications of these findings for the cognitive and affective assessment of persons with intellectual limitations.

Learning Factors in the University Classroom: Faculty and Student Perspectives.

We examined faculty and student perspectives on variables relating to the instructor, student, and physical environment that affect student learning. Tenured faculty members and university students enrolled in upper level courses completed a questionnaire evaluating their perceptions of variables important to student learning. Overall, faculty and students had similar perspectives regarding factors important to student learning, emphasizing foremost the importance of the instructor. Students were more likely to rate characteristics of themselves as important to learning, although faculty placed more emphasis on student characteristics of motivation, attention level, and attitude toward learning. Faculty and students also differed with regard to the optimal learning conditions for several specific variables.

Faculty and Student Perceptions of Outstanding University Teachers in the USA and Russia.

The majority of research that relates teacher characteristics to student learning in the university has come from Western universities. Using various methodologies, research continues to examine the characteristics of outstanding university teachers. Much of that research in the USA assesses faculty and student perspectives. However, there are nearly no cross‐cultural comparisons on this issue. We examined faculty and student perspectives about outstanding university teachers in the USA and in Russia. Faculty members and students at the University of Central Arkansas, Orel State University and Moscow City University rated the qualities of outstanding teachers on the Teacher Behaviors Checklist (TBC). Results showed significant positive correlations for the relative importance of teacher characteristics across the six participant groups. There did not appear to be any substantial differences between the American and Russian counterparts for 21 of the 28 specific teacher characteristics. The comparison of American and Russian faculty and students suggests more universality than cross‐cultural differences in the characteristics of outstanding university teachers.

Predicting Academic Success With Early, Middle, and Late Semester Assessment of Student–Instructor Rapport

We used a brief scale to measure student–instructor rapport and assessed the degree to which student’s perceived rapport at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester predicted final course grades in a traditional course. Results showed a positive correlation between rapport scores and final grades such that rapport at each of the time points during the semester predicted final course grade. Those students for whom rapport decreased across the semester showed significantly lower final grades than students for whom rapport remained stable or increased. Results support the psychometric properties of the Student–Instructor Rapport Scale-9 and that student–instructor rapport formed early in the semester predicts academic success.

IQ Zoo and Teaching Operant Concepts.

Psychology texts often cite the work of Marian and Keller Breland and their business, Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE), to demonstrate operant conditioning and the “misbehavior of organisms” from an evolutionary perspective. Now available on the Internet at the official IQ Zoo website (http://www3.uca.edu/iqzoo/), the artifacts of ABE’s work, in the form of photographs, documents, and audio/video recordings, provide a wealth of concrete examples of operant and evolutionary contingencies. Included in this site is the related work of Robert E. Bailey. These exhibits and their associated learning materials are relevant to many courses, including introductory psychology, psychology of learning, behavior modification, and history and systems of psychology.

More Misbehavior of Organisms: A PSI Chi Lecture By Marian and Robert Bailey

In 1992, Dr. Marian Breland Bailey, assisted by her husband Robert E. Bailey, gave the following presentation at the Psi Chi Banquet of the University of Central Arkansas. She and her first husband, Keller Breland, were students of B. F. Skinner and established Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) in 1947 and the IQ Zoo in 1955. Unknown to many historians of psychology, most of ABE’s projects extended outside the confines of the IQ Zoo and included work for the military, fairs, parks, businesses, and entertainment venues. Dr. Bailey’s Psi Chi lecture should prove invaluable to students, researchers, and scholars, for it is one of the few places where the extensive nature of ABE is described in an overarching fashion.