Sex Differences in Cognitive Functioning as a Result of Experimentally Induced Frustration

Abstract

IT IS THE concensus of several viewpoints of cognitive functioning that speed of response (p e r ception time) and abstract thinking are related. Though beginning with different assumptions and emphases, certain theoretical treatments of this relationship are in agreement that it takes time to think, that an inhibition of behavior is involved in abstract thinking (12, 6, 9). There is evidence that error and speed of re sponse, both characteristics of concrete thinking, increase as a result of experimentally induced frus tration (8)o This would suggest that concrete think ing is related to frustration, a position defended by many (10, 3)0 On the other hand, when only cor rect responses are considered, there is evidence that speed of response is related to intelligence test scores (14), leading to the conclusion that speed of response, in some instances , is indicative of ab stract thinking. This conceptual contradiction all but disappears when degree of error or accuracy is considered. High scorers on aptitude measures tend to be fast in rendering correct answers; frus trated subjects and/or those using a concrete mode of thought characteristically respond quickly at the the expense of accuracy. Two predictions follow from the above discussion. The first, there isa curvilinear relationship between speed of response and level of abstract thinking. The second, there is a linear relationship between number of errors and level of abstract thinking. In other words, both abstract and concrete thinkers respond quickly, but abstract thinkers commit fewer errors, are more accurate, than concrete thinkers. Limited evidence bearing on the above predic tions is available from the present study. For 2 2 subjects, the Wechsler-Bellevue Similarities Test (W. Bo ) was scored for concrete responses (5). Num ber of errors and number of problems attem pted within a given time limit were obtained from a com posite score based on the American Council on Ed ucation Psychological Examination Figure Analogies and Number Series Completion subtests (A? C, E. )0 For this sample the relationship between the W. B. measure and the number of problems attempted ap pears to be curvilinear. At the same time, the re lationship between error scores and concrete scores appears to be linear. However, neither of these re lationships is statistically significant. These pre dictions should be subjected to an adequate test us ing a larger sample than was available in the present study. The only justification for presenting these suggestive, though non-significant results, is that they furnish a possible resolution to a cone eptual contradiction regarding the relationship between speed of response (perception time) and abstract concrete thinking. Rokeach (9) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between rigid (concrete) thinking and perception time. Rokeach manipulated the percep tion time dimension and found that the number of setsolutions given to the critical problems of a water jar series decreasedas time between problem presentation and response was increased. From this relationship, Rokeach concluded that perception time is related to of thinking. Rokeach's study, however, is not a very convincing test of this rela tionship. More recent studies have indicated that experimentally induced sets such as the water jar Einstellungdissipate with time (1)0 This dissipa tion of set is not only limited to the presumed meas ure of personality rigidity inferred from the water jar series, but extends to other sets (e. g., function al fixedness) where a particular response pattern has been made dominant as a result of immediately preceding experiences. Inasmuch as the water jar set-inducing problems