Naive Ss Research Articles

Perception of Sign Language of the Deaf

Non-verbal communication via gesture is basic to human experience. The purpose of this study was to explore with naive Ss the accuracy of identification of symbols expressed in sign language of the deaf, hypothesizing that these symbols would be correctly identified beyond chance expectations.

Rat activity as a function of water deprivation and age

Four rats were water deprived for 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 h, beginning at ages 37, 59, and 81 days. Naive (37 days) Ss increased activity over baseline after 24 h; deprivation-experienced Ss showed activity decrements after 24 h. All Ss sharply decreased activity at 120 h at each age interval.

Encoding of novel figures for communication and memory

Descriptive names (encodings) were given to novel, graphic figures by Ss under one of three instructions: social-communicative, self-memorial, or associative. Two weeks later these same Ss plus a group of naive Ss attempted to match their own encodings and those of another S from each of the groups with the correct figure. The memorial and social Ss performed better on their own encodings than did the associative Ss, and there was some indication that the memorial Ss also performed better than the social Ss. The social and memorial encodings were better communicators to others than the associative ones, but there was no difference between social and memorial encodings. The results were interpreted in terms of a communication model involving the criteria used for editing encodings and the availability of conventional labels for the stimuli.

Induced motion in three dimensions.

The observations described in this note fall within phenomena of induced motion, described by Duncker (1929) . However, unlike Duncker's results, which occur in frontal plane, in this case we have an effect clearly observable in third dimension. The experimental arrangement consists of a head-rest and an eyepiece permitting only monocular vision, and a black screen, 90 cm. from S's eye, with a 30-cm. square viewing aperture; applied to back is a sheet of glass in middle of which are painted two vertical and parallel white lines of 8 x 0.2 cm. with a distance between them of 8 cm. The visual axis of eye is perpendicular to plane of glass and intersecrs it at center of cwo lines. Behind glass is displayed a plywood rectangular surface (70 un. long and 32 crn. high) on which is applied a sheet of opaque paper with a uniform texture formed by horizontal parallel black and white stripes, each 0.6 cm. wide. The recrangle may be turned about vertical axis, which is perpendicular to line of regard and 1.2 m. from S's eye. During experiment, rectangle is continuously oscillated over 45 in fronto-parallel plane: total width of oscillation is, thus, of 90. There are 28 oscillations p.m. Ten medical studenn were naive Ss, their task being to describe accurately and completely possible how they perceived two white lines. The results show a pattern of sequential transformations which ( i ) srarts with impression that two lines are suspended in air at a fixed distance from S and lengthen and shorten alternately as though they were .elastic (the line corresponding to receding part of textured rectangle is seen lengthening, and vice versa), (ii) changes to impression of two lines which keep their height constant but shift alternately forward and backward with a pendular movement, each independent of other (the line corresponding to receding part of rectangle is seen approaching, and vice versa), finally (iii) ends with impression that two lines are elements of a single solid stimulus and swing with a rigid movement: a typical description of this phenomenon is that the lines are on a plane of glass, and this plane oscillates uniformly and in a direction which is opposite to that of hinder surface. This effect is very strong and lasting, and Ss have difficulty in seeing two lines again in ( i ) . Other research, now being carried out, investigates phenomenon of an induced motion in third dimension caused by an apparent movement.

Effects of high-rate talkers on group voting behavior in the leaderless-group problem-solving situation.

This study investigated the bases of voting behavior by naive Ss for a group member who is high in the hierarchy of verbal output among the group but not superior in correctness of his decisions in response to various problems presented. 12 groups of female Ss [3 naive Ss and an experimental corroborator (incognito to the naive Ss)] were to solve 30 relatively unstructured concept-formation problems, discuss their solutions, and then vote for a “leader” for each of the problems. It was shown that non-perceptive Ss attribute the collaborator with significantly more perceptions of correctness than perceptive Ss and, correspondingly, take away a significant number of perceptions of correctness from individuals who rank low in the duration hierarchy.

Awareness and Intertrial Activity in Verbal Conditioning

It was hypothesized that, in VOC, the relationship between awareness and performance gains would be a function of the experimental conditions during training. Fifty-six naive Ss were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions. Each group performed the Taffel sentence-construction task. This was the only treatment given one group; a second group was required to perform a color-naming task between trials. A third group was required to write their “thoughts about the experiment” between blocks of trials, while a fourth group was required to perform both the intertrial and the inter-block tasks. All groups demonstrated significant performance gains. The color-naming task resulted in significantly less performance gain, as expected, but, contrary to expectation, did not significantly inhibit the development of awareness. The discrepancies between the present results and those of previous studies were explored as were the implications for understanding the VOC process.

Effect of maze experience on dominance hierarchies

Submissive rat Ss, defined in terms of the dominance tube, were taught various mazes independent of the more dominant Ss of their groups. After being run in the mazes with the naive Ss, the groups were retested in the dominance tube. The results indicated a significant change from test to retest in the groups subjected to the learning tasks, while two control groups remained stable.

Experimenter Expectancy and Social Facilitation: II. Stroop-Test Performance under the Condition of Audience

In a study on the E-expectancy effects with 11 Es and 67 naive Ss it was demonstrated that the presentation of different scientific results leads to significantly different behaviors by Es. Es who expect a relatively low increase of speed in the performance on the Stroop test under audience conditions hint to the observers in a more conspicuous way than Es who expect a relatively high increase of speed. In the experiment as well as in control experiments, it could be shown that the difference in conspicuousness of hints had no influence on Ss' performance.

Influence of donor-recipient brain transfers on avoidance learning.

The brain extracts from donor animals, trained on intermittent punishment avoidance tasks, were transferred by intraperitoneal injections to naive recipients. Two types of control conditions were used, (1) the brain extracts from untrained donors were injected into naive recipients and (2) water injections were given to naive Ss. The recipient animals also received intermittent punishment-avoidance (running) training. Measurements were made of exploratory, first-trial avoidance, and extinction behaviors. Evidence suggested transfer of avoidance tendencies from donor to recipient Ss.

Effect of angle of retinal vision on the rate of fluctuation of the Necker cube.

42 naive Ss between the ages of 18 and 22 and free from eye defects viewed 3 Necker cubes in random order in a study of the effect of angle of retinal vision on the rate of fluctuation. Ss fixated on a dot in the center of each cube which was situated left-face-forward-down for 2-min. trials and counted the number of fluctuations. It was found that fluctuations decreased as the angle of retinal vision increased. The decrease in fluctuation rate between the 3° and 8° angles, although evident, was not significant. However, the decrease in fluctuation rate between the 8° and 13° angles was significant at the .01 level. The study suggests this phenomenon may be more subject to external control than realized and could also be a function of personality. More likely, the phenomenon is an interaction of some nomothetic cortical process and the individual's idiographic peculiarities. Fragmentation and distortion were reported by Ss on all 3 of the cubes. These phenomena support a learning interpretation.

Preferences for complexity-simplicity and symmetry-asymmetry.

A 2 × 2 design was employed; 70 undergraduates from two classes were exposed to complexity-simplicity and symmetry-asymmetry. Each class showed an overwhelming preference for the complex-symmetrical shapes ( p < .001). Because complexity was preferred only in conjunction with symmetry, the results are considered consistent, in a qualified way, with the notion that naive Ss tend to prefer simplicity.

Adaptation to the dominance tube

Two groups of rats inexperienced in dominance tube competition opposed respectively an established group of dominant and submissive Ss. Results were negligible between dominant and naive Ss but submissive animals performed below chance against naive opponents, after displaying transitory ascendance during early dominance contests. A fifth group of rats was used to demonstrate the reliability of tube dominance over an extended period of time.

A methodological study of auditory lateralization

The just-noticeable-shift (JNS) threshold of a centered image was determined for four naive Ss A two interval forced choice situation was used under the method of constant stimuli. The three manners of presentation of the intensity imbalance were as follows: (1) an increase in intensity at one ear, (2) a decrease in intensity at one ear, (3) an increase in intensity at one ear produced concommitantly with a decrease in intensity at the opposite ear. The sign test demonstrated significant differences between method (2) and methods (1) and (3).

Some properties of the olfactory system of man

Preliminary investigations into the effects of a 12-h diurnal variation suggested there was a 10-fold decrease in odor sensitivity from morning to evening. For a selected group of odorants (methyl, t-butyl, and phenyl isonitrile), the difference between detection and recognition thresholds in general was found to be 10-fold; however, for some Ss the difference was less. When Ss were blindfolded, no changes in odor sensitivity were noted. Similarly, imposing an auditory stress on the test situation did not significantly alter odor sensitivity in either experienced or naive Ss,

An analysis of two random paintings.

Two recent paintings are analyzed whose small number of constituent elements fit criteria of randomness formulated previously by having naive Ss construct random configurations.

Studies of learning to learn: V. Gains in performance as a function of warm-up and associative practice

This study investigated performance on a paired-associate test list as a function of type and duration of prior training. The design comprised four experimental groups and a control group. The experimental groups represented the factorial combination of two types of training tasks and two levels of practice. Training was either on an unrelated list of paired associates or on a number-guessing task which simulated the physical arrangements and response requirements of paired-associate learning. There were either 4 or 10 training trials. The control group received no prior practice. Performance on the common transfer task was substantially better after the learning than after the nonlearning activity. Under both conditions speed of acquisition increased with the number of training trials. It is concluded that for naive Ss, familiarization with the learning task has greater weight than sheer warm-up in determining subsequent gains in performance.

Observations with self-embedded sentences

The Miller-Isard hypothesis that people attempt to process multiply self-embedded sentences as recursively interrupted sub-routines was critically examined. Results of a sentence comprehension test showed that Ss perceive such sentences as ungrammatical approximations to sentences with one embedding rather than as multiply embedded structures. The Miller-Isard hypothesis appeared irrelevant to the actual processing performance of the naive Ss.

Stimulus control of the prey attack response in naive garter snakes

Newborn garter snakes without prior feeding experience were found to selectively respond with attack behavior to water extracts of organisms normally eaten in captivity and not to respond to extracts of other organisms and controls. Differences were noted in the frequency and latency of responding to the effective stimuli. This response to chemical stimulation did not easily habituate. Visual stimuli may cause the S to orient toward and “explore” a potential food object, particularly if moving; but it is concluded that the basic somatic movements involved in the attack of prey are present at birth and that this behavior can only be elicited by certain chemical stimuli in naive Ss.

Lightness of gray in the presence of white.

The empirical evidence thus far indicates that the square root rule applies for first lightness judgments of a middle gray by naive Ss when viewing either: (a) contiguous symmetrically displayed white and gray fields or (b) a white patch surrounded by gray; but not when (c) the gray is seen as a patch against a white background.

An alternative method of presenting the Mueller-Lyer illusion.

Two presentations of the Mueller-Lyer illusion were investigated: (a) the traditional method and (b) a method involving a slide presentation. The traditional method produced a measure of the illusion that diminished as the angle of the arrowhead increased. The slide presentation gave a similar pattern, although for every angle of arrowhead presented the amount of illusion was greater than that found with the traditional method. Ss, sophisticated about the Mueller-Lyer illusion, gave a greater reading of the illusion with slide presentation than naive Ss recorded with the traditional method.