Neutral Instructions Research Articles

Thought Suppression Induces Intrusions

An experiment was conducted to investigate whether deliberate attempts to avoid a thought content have paradoxical effects. Twenty-four Ss received thought suppression instructions, 16 neutral instructions. Thought suppression resulted in an increased number of occurrences of the thought to be suppressed. The contribution of the results to the theory of obsessions is discussed.

Impulsive motor behavior: Effects of personality and goal salience.

This experiment used a circle tracing paradigm to extend our recent theoretical development concerning the contributions of extraversion and neuroticism to impulsive performance on continuous motor tasks. Subjects (N = 137) completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 circle conditions: The goal condition provided subjects with a salient behavioral end point for their tracings, whereas the no-goal condition promoted behavioral uncertainty. In both conditions, Ss were asked to trace the circle under neutral and inhibition instructions. Using Gray's impulsivity and anxiety dimensions to group subjects, impulsive subjects under inhibition instructions displayed significantly faster tracing speed than nonimpulsive subjects in the presence of a salient goal, whereas anxious subjects appeared behaviorally impulsive in a situation promoting uncertainty and response conflict. Conceptualizing impulsivity and anxiety in terms of extraversion and neuroticism, with impulsive Ss as neurotic extraverts and anxious Ss as neurotic-introverts, it is proposed that Ss' level of extraversion determines the type of stimuli to which they are responsive, and that level of neuroticism influences the magnitude of this reaction.

Instructional Set and Thematic Apperception Test Validity

The strong controversy over the Thematic Apperception Test's (TAT) validity may be partly due to the divergent results critics and advocates have obtained in their own research. It is noted that conditions of test administration are closely associated with quality of TAT research results. To demonstrate a cause of TAT invalidity, 199 adolescents were given the TAT following one of four instructional sets: neutral, following a personality test, emphasizing that the TAT is a personality test, and in a nonthreatening but structured setting. As expected, stories written after neutral instructions were valid predictors of need for achievement, affiliation, and power criteria; whereas other stories yielded nonsignificant and sometimes negative validities. It was concluded that the instructions are crucial to the quality of TAT results, and suggestions were offered to help ensure validity.

Effects of task relevance on habituation of visual single-trial ERPs and the skin conductance orienting response

Single-trial event-related potentials were recorded at Oz, Pz, Cz and Fz, concurrently with skin conductance reactions and fixation behavior in a habituation paradigm. A total of 48 subjects received 16 identical visual stimuli; 24 of them were instructed to pay attention, whereas the other half were given a neutral instruction. Two early negative components (N1 and N2), as well as a late positive component (P3) were identified. N1 and skin conductance reaction (SCR) showed fast decrement over trials, whereas N2 and P3 habituated slowly. Habituation of N1 and SCR was delayed by task instructions; N2 was hardly seen at all in the neutral condition. The task effects on N1 and N2 were observed only at Oz. It is concluded that the processing of relevant stimuli differs structurally from the processing of neutral stimuli; this differences may be observed even at a latency of 100 ms. The N1 appears to be related to the SCR, whereas this does not hold for P3; the N2 is related to selection negativities reported by other authors.

Comprehension Strategies in Math Problem and Story Contexts

Two experiments were conducted to explore possible differences in inferential processing in math problem and story contexts. The subjects in both studies were fourth- and fifth-grade non retarded children and mildly retarded adolescents. In Experiment 1 subjects received a series of ambiguous passages designed to permit qualitative (story-based) inferences and quantitative (computational) inferences under one of three instructional set conditions (story set, math set, or neutral set). Results indicated that qualitative inferences were processed more accurately under story and neutral set instructions than under math set instructions. However, the accuracy of quantitative inferences was not affected by set condition. Experiment 2 represented a further effort to examine effects of set on math problem-solving performance. When the manipulation of set (math or story) was strengthened by embedding target items in a series of either story passages or math problems, the accuracy of quantitative inferences was fa...

The influence of therapeutic expectancy/demand on self-efficacy ratings

If expectancy/demand manipulations influence self-efficacy ratings independent of therapy effects or if outcome effects can be shown to be independent of efficacy ratings, questions would be raised about the mediational role of self-efficacy in the change process. Speech-anxious subjects underwent a single session of repeated in vivo exposure versus imaginal placebo under neutral versus positive therapeutic instructions in an effort to separate the effects of expectancy/demand and active therapy ingredients. Efficacy ratings and self-reported outcome were found to be significantly influenced by the expectancy manipulation, whereas no behavioral measures were influenced and heart rate outcome was due to an expectancy by treatment interaction. Canonical correlation analyses revealed significant associations between changes in efficacy ratings and self-reported anxiety but no relationships to behavioral and physiological measures. Although therapy did not have a separate main effect, precluding unambiguous conclusions regarding efficacy's mediational role, the possible influence of therapeutic expectancy on efficacy ratings was documented.

A response set analysis of developmental differences in children's moral judgments

The study tested the hypotheses that 1) children may not adopt a moral response set when faced with moral dilemmas and 2) their knowledge of what constitutes a moral constellation of behaviors may differ from that of adults and may lead to developmental differences. To test these hypotheses, the study examined children's responses to a multiple choice moral dilemmas questionnaire under neutral instructions, instructions to answer as a good child or as a bad child. Subjects in fourth and seventh grade were asked whether a story hero would transgress and were required to justify their answers. In addition, questions regarding affective reactions to transgressions, confessions, and due punishment were asked. Fourth grade children answering in the good child instructions condition tended to give significantly different responses than under neutral instructions, while seventh grade subjects did not tend to differentiate between these two instruction conditions. While adult theories of morality would predict a differentiation between good and bad child instructions, on some of the measures no differences were found between good and bad child instructions. The implications of these results for cognitive-developmental theory were discussed and a general framework for interpreting the data was offered.

The effects of empathic instructions upon donating behavior: Sex differences in young children

First-grade children were given either empathy instructions (in which they were told to imagine themselves in the target person's place) or neutral instructions (in which they were told to listen to what the target person did). For half the subjects, the target person was of the same sex; for the other half, the target person was of the opposite sex. Subjects were then given a chance to anonymously donate money to the target child, who was presented as being in need. Liking for the target child, subject's perceptions of the target child's emotional state, and subjects' report of their own emotional states were also assessed. Empathic instructions increased donating behavior for males, but not for females. Accuracy of perception of the target person's state was generally high. Self-reports of emotional states congruent with that of the target tended to be associated with increased donating behavior only for males, but these self-reports were greater for females than males, and greater for both sexes with same-sex target persons. Liking also was enhanced by gender similarity. These results are discussed in terms of a proposed relationship among empathy, prosocial behavior, sex, and age.

The Effects of Facilitative and Debilitative Achievement Anxiety on Notetaking

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of anxiety on notetaking behaviors during a lecture and on subsequent test performance. Eighty-seven high school juniors and seniors classified as having high facilitative anxiety, high debilitative anxiety, low facilitative anxiety, or low debilitative anxiety according to Alpert and Haber’s (1960) Anxiety Achievement Test were assigned to one of two treatments. In the Anxiety Inducing Treatment, subjects were told that they would be given a difficult test after listening to a lecture, that they should take notes, and that their scores on the test would allow the teacher to see how well they learned new material. In the second treatment, Neutral Instructions, subjects were told only that they should take notes on a lecture and that they would be tested. Dependent measures included two scores for the notes, including note quality and efficiency and the scores on a multiple choice posttest covering lecture material. A multivariate analysis of variance on the three dependent measures revealed a significant main effect for anxiety level only. Univariate analyses of variance and followup contrast tests on all three dependent measures showed that high levels of debilitative anxiety led to poorest performance on all dependent measures.

Effect of attentional and neutral instructions and of forward and backward conditioning analogs on response to change from paired stimulus repetition: More evidence relevant to the role of orienting reaction recovery in short-interval classical autonomic conditioning

This paper reports two “conditioning analog” investigations of the role of orienting reaction recovery (ORR) in short-interval classical autonomic conditioning. In Experiment 1, 48 subjects received either attentional or neutral instructions and then were presented with a conditioning analog arrangement consisting of 15 pairs (0.5 sec ISI) of 0.5 sec tones and lights (for half the subjects) or lights and tones (for the remaining subjects). This stimulus arrangement was patterned analogously to CS and UCS presentations in classical conditioning and was followed by a single stimulus change trial (light alone or tone alone) with modality counterbalanced across subjects to form appropriate forward and backward conditioning analogs. Significant SCR habituation and recovery were observed over repetition and change trials, respectively, but no effects of the instructional or forward-backward manipulations were found. Only the attentional-forward and neutral-backward groups exhibited HR habituation while only the attentionally-instructed groups gave evidence of HR ORR. Pulse volume showed neither habituation nor recovery and blood volume showed only habituation. The SCR results were interpreted as being consistent with some previous findings on attentional instructions and habituation but not ORR, and as indicating that Badia and Defran's (1970) findings, supporting the involvement of ORR in short-interval classical autonomie conditioning, could not be attributed to their atypical attentional instructions. The HR data were interpreted as being consistent with the ORR literature and as pointing to a greater sensitivity of cardiac than electrodermal responding to attentional factors in a conditioning analog experiment. The SCR and HR data together confirm and extend Furedy and Ginsberg's (1975) findings of no difference in ORR between forward and backward conditioning analogs, yet the magnitude of recovery observed re-opens the issue of the extent of involvement of ORR in short-interval autonomic conditioning (SIAC). The vasomotor data add to the existing empirical confusion concerning the effects of repetition and change on these measures. In Experiment 2, 48 subjects received either the neutral or attentional instructions and then were presented with a conditioning analog arrangement consisting of 10 tone-light (or light-tone) pairings as above interspersed with five single stimulus trials (light alone or tone alone) with modality counterbalanced across subjects to form appropriate forward and backward conditioning analogs. SCR showed dishabituation on paired trials subsequent to a single stimulus trial but HR did not. SCR showed no effects of the instructional or forward-backward manipulations. The SCR, but not the HR, data extend those of Experiment 1, suggesting the need for further investigation of HR habituation and dishabituation. Contrary to OR theory and ORR interpretations of SIAC, however, SCR dishabituation was found to increase over trials. These data were interpreted as indicating a negligible role of ORR in short-interval classical autonomic conditioning.

A Field Study of Adolescent Social Interactions: Developmental and Contextual Influences

Summary Adolescent males (N = 52) were observed during physical education volleyball games to examine whether two variables, age and game conditions, affected social behavior. Early adolescents were more active, especially prone to touch physically and to criticize teammates; middle adolescents more frequently encouraged and gave positive or neutral advice and instructions. When winning, team members encouraged each other physically and verbally; the reverse was true when a team was losing. Tied games were times of an excessive number of social interactions, especially of submissive responses.

TRAINING IN INFORMATION PROCESSING ALGORITHMS

Summary. Following Hunt's (1975) analysis of the Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM) test, an attempt was made to identify and train two strategies for solving RPM problems. Four training groups were formed: one received Gestalt strategy training, one received Analytic strategy training, one received training in both strategies, and a control group received neutral instructions. Following training, subjects completed a set of ambiguous items and Set I of the Advanced Progressive Matrices. In the latter, they were required to justify their responses. Evidence is presented which suggests that the two strategies proposed in Hunt's analysis can be identified and that subjects can be trained to use and maintain these strategies. Strategy use is also related to post-test performance. Analysis of subjects' justifications for responses indicates that Hunt's item analysis of certain RPM problems needs to be modified to take into account both the influence of item-type and subjects' flexibility in switching between strategies even after training.

Strategies and classification learning.

How do strategies affect the learning of categories that lack necessary and sufficient attributes? The usual answer is that different strategies correspond to different models. In this article we provide evidence for an alternative view— Strategy variations induced by instructions affect only the amount of information represented about attributes, not the process operating on these representations. The experiment required subjects to classify schematic faces into two categories. Three groups of subjects worked with different sets of instructions: roughly, form a prototype of each category, learn each category as a rule-plus-exception, or standard neutral instructions. In addition to learning the faces (Phase 1), subjects were given transfer tests on learned and novel faces (Phase 2) and speeded categorization tests on learned faces (Phase 3). There were performance differences in all three phases due to instructions, but these results were readily accounted for by specific changes in the representations posited by the context model of Medin and Schaffer; that is, strategies seemed to affect only the amount of information stored about each exemplar's attributes.

The Impact of Warmth and Instructions on Donation

WEISSBROD, CAROL S. The Impact of Warmth and Instructions on Donation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 279-281. The present study assessed the influence of short-term warmth induction and instructions given by the warmth inducer on second and fifth grade male and female children's donation. Main effects were found for the effects of warmth, instructions, and sex. Children who interacted with a low-warmth experimenter were more generous than those who interacted with a high-warmth experimenter. Girls were more generous than boys. And children who heard instructions that encouraged charitability were more generous than were children who heard statements that encouraged selfishness or encouraged them to do whatever they wanted with their winnings. Children who heard neutral instructions did not differ from children who heard responsible or permissive instructions.

THE EFFECTS OF COMPETITIVE AND NONCOMPETITIVE INSTRUCTIONS ON HEART RATE AND PROBLEM SOLVING TASK

The present study examined the effects of competitive and noncompetitive instructions on heart rate and problem solving time in paired subjects.Subjects were thirty junior college women. They were divided into three groups (respectively, N=10, 5pairs). The problem solving task was carried out under the competitive, noncompetitively relaxed or neutral instruction. Heart rate was continuously measured using cardiotachometers. Additionally, the psychological time was measured by estimation method, and state anxiety by Spielberger's STAI-I type.The main results indicated;1. Problem solving time differed among five tests. Especially, solving time in Test 2 and 3 was delayed. Noncompetitive instruction group was faster than competitive and neutral instruction groups.2. Heart rate of competitive and neutral instruction groups was increased as compared with training period. In opposition, heart rate of noncompetitive instruction group was decreased.From these results, it was suggested that noncompetitive and relaxed instruction had an optimal arousal level in paired situation.

Flexibility of accuracy versus speed orientation in reflective and impulsive children.

To compare the flexibility of accuracy versus speed orientation, 38 reflective and 38 impulsive fifth graders, selected on the basis of latency and errors on Matching Familiar Figures Test, were given three passages for proofreading under neutral, speed-stressing, and accuracy-stressing instructions in that order (Study I). Their performances were described in terms of the number of scanned errata (to be corrected) and the ratio of omissions, which were transformed into comparable T scores, using means and standard deviations of the corresponding measures for another 40 fifth graders who had been given the same three materials all under neutral instructions. When given speed-emphasizing instructions, both reflective and impulsive children showed significant within-style increases in the number of scanned errata. When given accuracy-stressing instructions, only the impulsives showed significant decrease in the omission ratio. Analyses of variance of the differences in T scores indicated that impulsive subjects showed greater variability in the omission ratio than reflective subjects. In a replication study (Study II) with easier passages, both reflective and impulsive fifth graders, who had not participated in Study I, showed significant increases in the number of scanned errata when the instructions stressed speed, but insignificant, nearly equal decreases in the omission ratio when accuracy was stressed. The older impulsive subjects were at least as flexible as their reflective counterparts in modifying their orientation to meet the “situational demands.”

Sex, Instructional Set, and Group Make-up: Organismic and Situational Factors Influencing Risk-Taking

The present piece of research was designed to investigate the effects of sex, type of instruction, and group composition on risk-taking behavior. Risk-oriented instructions produced significantly greater risk than neutral instructions for both individuals and groups. There were no significant shifts in risk when analyzing the difference between an individual's prescore and his score during group interaction. Males consistently demonstrated greater risk-taking behavior than females. Furthermore, all-male groups displayed more risk than either all-female, mixed-sex, or control groups. Plausible explanations were offered: sex-role stereotyping and consistency or congruity theory. Implications for research were discussed.

Delimitation of State-Trait Curiosity in Relation to State Anxiety and Learning Task Performance

The present study tested the validity of the state-trait curiosity distinction, investigated the effect of manipulating state curiosity upon learning performance, and assessed the reliability and validity of state (C-State) and trait (C-Trait) curiosity scales. Three hundred senior secondary school students were assigned randomly to (i) Curiosity Stimulating Instructions (CSI); (ii) Neutral Instructions (NI); or (iii) Boredom Inducing Instructions (BII) groups respectively. These treatments preceded the first administration of a test-battery (comprised of C-State, a state epistemic curiosity measure; SECS, a state curiosity scale; A-State; and C-Trait). A learning task (prose passage) ensued, followed by a second administration of the test-battery. Finally a posttest of immediate retention permitted assessment of each group's learning performance. Alpha coefficients for both C-State and C-Trait scales ranged from .86 to .92. Stability (test-retest) correlations were higher for the C-Trait scale than for C-State. Both concurrent and discriminant validity correlations were significant. Only tentative support for the state-trait curiosity distinction resulted, since the factor analyses were dominated by reversed and nonreversed items and subscales. Only for females in grade 12 did the instructional sets influence C-State scores and subsequent learning performance as predicted.

Instructional Variations and Adults' Conceptual Tempo Performance

Summary Forty-six college students were given the adult form of Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test twice, once under the standard (neutral) instructions, and a second time during which Ss were randomly assigned to one of three instruction groups. Two groups received instructions to minimize either response time or errors; a third group received neutral instructions. During the second administration, the group instructed to minimize response time showed more errors and lower response latency than the group instructed to minimize errors. Variances during the two administrations were compared within each group, with the use of the F-max test. Variances in the neutral group did not differ, but those in the other groups did, with variances significantly smaller during the second administration of the task. These results suggest that conceptual tempo reflects differences in implicit information processing criteria, which can be changed voluntarily, rather than automatic dispositional personality differences.

Encoding variability with imagery instructions in paired—associate transfer

Martin’s (1968) encoding-variability hypothesis was tested. Subjects learned two paired-associate lists conforming either to an A-B, A-D or to an A-B, C-D paradigm. Prior to learning the second list, one half of the subjects in each condition were instructed to use imagery to learn the list, while the other half received neutral instructions. If the instructions induce the subjects to variably encode the stimuli (i.e., to switch from a verbal to an imaginal code), then the A-D paradigm in effect becomes a C-D paradigm, and associative interference should be reduced. Results of two experiments failed to confirm the predictions. In addition, imagery instructions did not lead to improved second-list learning, even in the C-D condition, suggesting that it may be difficult to produce changes in learning strategies.