Relative Familiarity Research Articles

What's gender got to do with it : Perceptions of sexual coercion in a university community

This study examines gender differences in attitudes toward sexual coercion among collegians (n =325: 89.0% Caucasian, 6.8% Afican-American, 3.0% Asian,1.0% Hispanic, and .2% Native American) at a state-supported, midwestern university. Undergraduates (64.0% female and 36.0% male) were queried about the degree of their support for the use of sexual coercion across a range of dating-type encounters which varied by relational familiarity and sexual intensity.Their attitudes toward appearance as a sexual cue and traditional versus non-traditonal gender role orientations were also examined in relationship to these scenerios. The results indicate significant gender differences in attitudes regarding the use of sexual coercion in dating encounters across all situations, and in the interpretation of sexual cues in the context of interpersonal interactions. Gender differences were also found in gender role orientations.However, while the results provide support for the contribution of gender to attitudes toward sexual coercion, they also indicate that sexual semitotics and gender role orientations qualify that relationship; both variables are significant predictors of attitudes toward sexual coercion. The results are discussed in terms of the evidence provided for the role of interpretive schemas in the construction of attitudes toward sexual coercion for both men and women.

On Our Own: The Enterprising Anthropologist

Over the last fifteen years, applied anthropologists have ventured ever more frequently into the world of consulting, not as adjuncts of the nonprofit sector but as actual entrepreneurs. The relative novelty of entrepreneurship in anthropology results in few formalized structures to guide the practitioner along a path very different from the relative familiarity of academia. This article attempts to contribute to the knowledge base of this career choice by documenting the experience of one practitioner.

Sentence context and word recognition in children with average reading ability and with a specific reading disability

The inhibitory and facilitatory effects of context on word recognition were investigated in 24 8-to 10-year-old children with a specific reading disability in comparison with a group of 24 children matched for reading ability and a group of 24 children matched for chronological age. To avoid confounding the effects of reading level with those of word difficulty, target words of equivalent relative familiarity for each participant were presented in congruous, neutral, and incongruous sentence contexts. In agreement with previous studies, there was clear evidence of both general inhibitory and facilitatory effects. In contrast to previous findings, however, reading level did not have a major impact on the inhibition of word recognition in incongruous contexts compared with neutral contexts, although it may have led to greater facilitation in congruous contexts compared with neutral contexts. Although further research is required, these results suggest that if reading-age appropriate materials are selected, less skilled readers and those with a reading disability may not be as influenced by context as has been claimed previously.

Effects of social and environmental familiarity on group preferences and spacing behaviour in laying hens

Litter-kept hens were tested using a ‘free-choice’ situation, to investigate the effects of social and environmental familiarity on their spacing behaviour. In Experiment 1, social familiarity affected spacing, with subject birds which were familiar with each other spreading evenly over the available area as evidenced by a significantly lower ‘Spread of Participation Index’ (mean SPI 0.301–0.406), whereas less familiar birds clumped (mean SPI 0.453–0.646; P < 0.01) and fought more frequently. There were no clear effects of environmental familiarity. In a second experiment we used a T-maze to investigate effects of social familiarity on group preferences and behaviour in the chosen groups. There was no significant preference for familiar, semi-familiar or unfamiliar groups of companion hens. However, the incidence of aggressive pecks was significantly higher in small semi-familiar (mean 1.1 ± 0.6 pecks per hen per 5 min) and unfamiliar (mean 1.8 ± 0.5 pecks per hen per 5 min) than in large semi-familiar (mean 0.1 ± 0.1 pecks per hen per 5 min) and unfamiliar groups (0.1 ± 0.1 pecks per hen per 5 min; P < 0.001). Threats were more common in small familiar groups (0.2 ± 0.1 threats per hen per 5 min) than in small semi-familiar groups (0.1 ± 0.1 threats per hen per 5 min; P < 0.05) and were absent in the remaining group options. Relative social dominance of the subject hens had no effect on choices or on behaviour and there was no significant correlation with their behaviour in the companion hen groups. The results suggested that hens were unable to distinguish the relative familiarity level of companion hens from the T-maze or, alternatively, that making such a distinction was unnecessarily costly to the subject hens.

The ability of different strains of rats to acquire a visual nonmatching-to-sample task

Rats of four different strains (DA, Fischer 344, PVG hooded, and Sprague-Dawley) were trained on a nonspatial recognition task. The task, delayed-nonmatching-to-sample, required the rat to select between two complex stimuli on the basis of their relative familiarity. The four strains differed markedly. The two pigmented strains (DA and PVG) were significantly better than the two albino strains (Fischer 344 and Sprague-Dawley); among the pigmented strains, the DA rats consistently had the higher scores. The Fischer 344 rats had the lowest scores, and their pattern of errors indicated that they were performing in a qualitatively different manner from the other three strains. A control test with the two pigmented strains confirmed that they were able to use visual cues to solve the task. The results point to the likely value of the DA strain for such experiments and highlight potential confounding variables arising from the use of different strains for psychobiological research.

Interpersonal Deception

Interpersonal deception theory (IDT) frames deception as a communication activity and examines deception within interactive contexts. One key element of the theory is the role of suspicion in prompting behavior changes. An experiment testing several suspicion-related hypotheses paired participants (half friends, half strangers) for interviews during which interviewees (EEs) lied or told the truth and interviewers (ERs) were induced to be (moderately or highly) suspicious (or not). Results confirmed that suspicion and deceit were perceived when present, suspicion was manifested through nonverbal behaviors but with different behavioral patterns for moderately versus highly suspicious ERs, and suspicion affected sender behavior. Relational familiarity moderated some behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of mutual influence processes and the dynamic nature of communication in interpersonal deception.

Changes in neuronal activity related to the repetition and relative familiarity of visual stimuli in rhinal and adjacent cortex of the anaesthetised rat

Employing the same techniques as have been used with conscious rats, this study describes neuronal responses signalling information concerning the prior occurrence of visual stimuli in unconscious rats. Recordings of the activity of 387 neurones were made while anaesthetised rats were shown objects. Changes in neuronal responses related to stimulus repetition and the relative familiarity of visual stimuli were sought. The areas sampled were lateral occipital cortex, area TE of temporal cortex, perirhinal cortex and the hippocampal formation. The response to the first presentations of unfamiliar objects was significantly different from that to their second presentations for 30 (35%) of 86 visually responsive neurones; for 23 of the neurones was smaller when the stimulus was repeated, whereas for 7 it was larger. For all of these neurones the response change was maintained across intervening trials on which other stimuli were shown. For 4 (25%) of 16 neurones so tested, the response decrement persisted across at least 10 intervening trials. The activity of 63 neurones was recorded while rats were shown highly familiar as well as unfamiliar objects. The response to unfamiliar objects was significantly different from that to highly familiar objects for 3 (23%) of 13 visually responsive neurones. The types of neuronal response and their incidence expressed as a proportion of the number of visually responsive neurones were similar to those found in unanaesthetised rats (though the proportion of visually responsive neurones encountered in the anaesthetised rat was lower). The results indicate that information concerning the prior occurrence of stimuli is processed even under anaesthesia.

Neuronal Sianallina of Information Imoortant to Visual Recognition‐Memory in Rat Rhinal aid Neighbouring Cortices

This study was conducted to discover whether the rat cortex contains neurons that signal information concerning the previous occurrence of stimuli, as has been found in the primate. Recordings of the activity of 396 single neurons were made while unanaesthetized rats were shown objects. The effects on neuronal responsiveness of stimulus repetition and of the relative familiarity of the stimuli were sought. The areas sampled were the rhinal (entorhinal and perirhinal) cortex, area TE of the temporal cortex, the lateral occipital cortex and the hippocampal formation. The response to the first presentations of objects was significantly different from that to their second presentations for 63 (34%) of the 185 responsive neurons; for 39 of the neurons the response was smaller when the stimulus was repeated, whereas for 24 it was larger. The incidence of decremental responses was higher in the non-hippocampal cortex than in the hippocampal formation, while the incidence of incremental responses was higher in the hippocampal formation than other cortical areas. The response to unfamiliar objects was significantly different from that to highly familiar objects for 15 (22%) of 67 responsive neurons so tested; for 12 of the neurons the response was smaller when the stimulus was repeated, and for three it was larger; most of these neurons were found in area TE. The responses of ten familiarity neurons varied significantly with the relative familiarity of the stimuli but not with stimulus repetition; the responses of seven recency neurons varied significantly upon stimulus repetition but not with the relative familiarity of the stimuli. Thus information concerning stimulus repetition and familiarity is separably encoded at the single neuron level in the rat cortex. The results demonstrate that in the rat cortex as in the monkey cortex there are neurons that signal information concerning the prior occurrence of stimuli; such information is of importance to recognition memory, working memory and priming memory.

Event-related potentials and the recollection of low and high frequency words

A recognition memory test was conducted in which low and high frequency words were initially presented in one of two different study tasks. A word was defined as recollected if, at test, it was both confidently judged ‘old’, and confidently assigned to its correct study context. Low frequency words were more accurately recognised than high frequency items, and were also more likely to be assigned to their correct study context. The results are consistent with the view that low frequency words are better recognised because they are more likely to be recollected, rather than because they engender higher levels of relative familiarity. Event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked at test by correctly classified new words were contrasted with those evoked by old, recollected words. The ERPs to low frequency words exhibited large and reliable ‘old/new’ effects, in that from approx. 300 msec post-stimulus, waveforms were more positive-going for old than for new items. These effects were markedly smaller, and indeed non-significant, in the ERPs evoked by high frequency items. The results show that the interaction between word frequency and old/new differences in ERPs does not arise because of a confound between frequency and the probability of recollection. Together with other findings, they suggest that recollection is better conceived of as a graded, rather than as an all-or-none phenomenon.

Cultural Familiarity and Language Factors in the Structure of Category Knowledge

This study examined the influence of cultural familiarity and language factors in producing cross-cultural variations in typicality gradients. Thirty Chinese speakers living in Taiwan and 30 English speakers from the United States rated the proto typicality of exemplars from 10 super ordinate categories. Another 30 persons from each culture rated the relative familiarity in their experience of each exemplar. Strong cross-cultural variations were found in typicality gradients. Cultural familiarity was found to be correlated with typicality structures in both cultures but was more strongly related to the typicality gradients of American than Taiwanese-Chinese participants. However, for Chinese speakers, super ordinate category classifiers tended to be correlated with typicality gradients, particularly for those categories in which the familiarity and typicality relationships were low. It is concluded that language structure may moderate the influence of other important variables in producing cross-cultural variation in category structures.

Descartes, Gassendi, and the Reception of the Mechanical Philosophy in the French Collèges de Plein Exercice, 1640–1730

This article explores the speed and form in which the mechanical philosophy was absorbed into the college curriculum in Louis XIV’s France. It argues that in general a mechanist approach to nature only began to be received sympathetically after 1690. It also emphasizes that it was the Cartesian not Gassendist form of the mechanical philosophy that professors espoused. While admitting that at present it is impossible to explain successfully the history of the reception of the mechanical philosophy in the classroom, the article concludes by attempting to throw light on the French preference for Descartes. This, it is suggested, is linked to the relative familiarity of Cartesian mechanism, the way the philosophy was packaged, and the political and religious environment.

Interpersonal deception: V. Accuracy in deception detection

Previous research on accuracy in deception detection has typically occurred in a noninteractive context, which has resulted in many potentially salient influences being ignored. Guided by interpersonal deception theory, the current experiment examined the influences of suspicion, deception type, question type, relational familiarity, and expertise on accuracy in detecting truth and deceit. An adult sample of novices and a second sample of experts (military intelligence instructors and related military personnel) participated in interviews with strangers or acquaintances during which interviewees gave some truthful answers and some deceptive answers, the latter being one of three types. Interviewers, half of whom were induced to be suspicious, followed a standard interview protocol that introduced different question strategies. Results showed that (a) accuracy was much higher on truth than deception, (b) novices were more accurate than experts, (c) accuracy depended on type of deception being perpetrated a...

Interpersonal Deception VII

Previous research on deception has typically examined how deceivers behave when falsifying information in a noninteractive context. Guided by Interpersonal Deception Theory, the authors propose that deception may take a variety of forms, reflecting differences in the way senders strategically control message information and the differences in the behavioral profiles accompanying those strategies. The current experiment examined the impact of deception type (falsification, concealment, equivocation), receiver suspicion, receiver expertise, and relational familiarity on strategic and nonstrategic behavior Two adult samples, novices and experts (military intelligence instructors), participated. Interviewers, half of whom were induced to be suspicious, followed a standard protocol of questions. Interviewees answered the first two questions truthfully and then enacted one of the deception forms. Participants evaluated one another's behavior after the interview, and trained coders measured the nonverbal behavior No clear behavioral profile emerged for deception in general. Instead, behaviors associated with deception were strongly influenced by deception type, suspicion, and familiarity, suggesting that preinteractional and interactional features are important determinants of sender behavior. Of the deception types, participants rated equivocation as most brief, vague, and hesitant, whereas falsification was rated lowest on these characteristics. Behaviorally, senders were best able to suppress behavioral activity when equivocating and least able to when falsifying.

Territory acquisition in lizards: I. First encounters

Abstract. Juvenile Anolis aeneus lizards were added to patches of microhabitat in the field and observed as they established territories. Here, the factors related to the type (fight versus chase) and the outcome (win, loss, draw) of first encounters between dyads during the settlement period are considered. The type of first encounters was influenced by relative body length, in that fights were more likely to occur if opponents were of similar size than if they were of disparate sizes. Another factor affecting the type of first encounters was the order in which individuals met novel opponents: juveniles were more likely to fight when encountering the first few opponents, but switched to chases after meeting several unfamiliar animals. The probability of winning a first encounter was affected by relative body size and relative familiarity, which was measured in terms of the amount of time each member of the dyad previously spent in the immediate vicinity of the first encounter. There was also an interaction between size and familiarity, indicating that juveniles tended to avoid first encounters that they were unlikely to win and conversely, to initiate first encounters when the odds of winning were more favourable.

Neuronal activity related to visual recognition memory: long-term memory and the encoding of recency and familiarity information in the primate anterior and medial inferior temporal and rhinal cortex.

Recordings of the activity of 2705 single neurones were made in entorhinal and perirhinal cortex, area TG of the temporal lobe, and the inferior temporal cortex both during monkeys' performance of a serial recognition memory task using complex pictures and when monkeys were shown objects. Responses of 120 (9.7%) of the visually responsive neurons recorded were significantly smaller to the second than to the first presentations of unfamiliar stimuli. The incidence of such responses was highest in perirhinal cortex plus areas TE1 and TE2 of the temporal lobe, intermediate in lateral entorhinal cortex and areas TE3 and TG, and lowest in other parts of entorhinal and inferior temporal cortex. Response decrements were maintained across 20 or more intervening presentations of other stimuli for the majority of the neurones tested. Responses of 43 (14.4%) of the visually responsive neurones tested were significantly greater to unfamiliar than to highly familiar stimuli. Such differential responses were found only in lateral entorhinal and perirhinal cortex plus areas TG, TE1, TE2 and TE3. For 6 neurones the response difference was significant even when the familiar stimuli had not been seen for more than 24 h: such neurones demonstrate access to information stored in long-term memory for more than 24 h. Seven familiarity neurones signalled information concerning the relative familiarity of stimuli but not information concerning how recently they were last seen; 58 recency neurones signalled information concerning the recency of presentation of stimuli, but not their relative familiarity. Thus certain neurones demonstrate the separable encoding of recency and familiarity information. Neurones signalling information of use for recognition memory are found in cortex close to the rhinal sulcus where lesions result in major deficits in the performance of recognition memory tasks. The conjunction of these findings provides strong evidence for the importance of these neurones and this cortex for processes (recency and familiarity discrimination) necessary for recognition and working memory. The possible relation of the neuronal responses to priming memory is also discussed.

Effects of Novelty On Taste-Avoidance Learning in Chicks

AbstractFive experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of novelty on visually-mediated taste-avoidance learning in domestic chicks. In experiments l a and b, chicks were reared with either uncoloured or blue fluid in their home cages, and then required to discriminate between blue and uncoloured fluids that were either palatable or unpalatable (quinine-adulterated). For some chicks the distasteful fluid was novel in appearance, for others it was familiar. In both experiments chicks readily discriminated between a novel unpalatable fluid and a familiar palatable one, but failed to discriminate between a familiar unpalatable fluid and a novel palatable one. This failure to discriminate resulted from avoidance of the palatable fluid. In neither experiment did novelty enhance the rate of avoidance learning. Experiment 2 tested more directly the effect of novelty on speed of avoidance learning. Chicks were reared on either red or blue palatable fluid, then tested with either red or blue distasteful fluid. Avoidance learning was more rapid when the distasteful fluid was novel in colour, in both red-reared and blue-reared chicks. Experiment 3 investigated the inability of chicks to discriminate between a familiar unpalatable fluid and a novel palatable one, demonstrated in experiment 1. Chicks were required to discriminate between different-coloured palatable and unpalatable fluids when both were familiar in appearance (experiment 3a) or when both were novel (experiment 3b). Discrimination occurred in the first case but not in the second. In addition, avoidance learning was slower when both unpalatable fluids were familiar. I conclude that (a) novelty faciliates visually-mediated taste-avoidance learning in chicks and (b) the failure of chicks to discriminate a novel palatable fluid from a familiar unpalatable one depends on the relative novelty of the palatable fluid and not on the relative familiarity of the unpalatable one. The results are discussed in the context of warning coloration and are explained in terms of an interaction between unlearned and learned avoidance tendencies.

Event-Related Potentials and Recognition Memory for Low- and High-Frequency Words

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects made recognition judgments on high- and low-frequency words, half of which had previously been presented in an incidental study task. Compared to high-frequency items, low-frequency words were associated with superior recognition performance, and attracted a higher proportion of confident judgments. In the case of the low-frequency words only, the region of the ERPs post-500 msec evoked by correctly classified, previously studied (old) words was more positive-going than was the same region of the EWs to nonstudied (new) words. These "old/new" ERP differences were larger from electrodes over the left than over the right hemisphere. This old/new by frequency interaction held when EWs were formed only from words that attracted confident judgments. It is argued that these data are consistent with the ideas that (1) post-500 msec "old/ new" EW differences in recognition memory tasks reflect differences in old and new words' levels of relative familiarity, and (2) the recognition memory advantage for low-frequency words results, at least in part, from the higher level of relative familiarity engendered at test by previously studied low-frequency items. The data are interpreted as providing support for "two-process" models of recognition memory.

An Informal Survey of Assessment Use in Child Art Therapy

AbstractThe authors surveyed participants at a national art therapy conference on the use of assessments in art therapy with children. Different levels of experience, geographical areas and training programs were represented by thirty-seven respondents. Relative familiarity with projective tools was greater than with ari therapy assessments. However, most respondents cited preferred tools which relied on modifications of existing projectives and art therapy techniques, and unpublished assessments. The authors infer from their results that art therapists have a great diversity in training and approach to assessments, coupled with a strong need to innovate. The results, although from a small sample, have implications for both clinicians and researchers.

The Influence of Prior Knowledge and Text Genre on Readers' Prediction Strategies

This study examined the influence of prior knowledge and text genre on readers' prediction strategies. Three groups of subjects read two genres of text (short stories and essays), and gave verbal reports of their prediction strategies while reading. Next, subjects rated the texts in terms of relative familiarity of text content. Quantitative analysis of the think-aloud protocols indicated statistically significant differences in frequency of reports of predictions for particular texts. Subjects reported making significantly more predictions on the essays rated more familiar, and on the story which was rated more familiar. There were no significant differences in frequency of reported predictions on the short story and essay which were rated most familiar. Results indicate that readers' prior knowledge for the content of the text may significantly influence the nature of readers' prediction strategies. Qualitative analysis of protocols allowed for examination of the variation in the types of predictions and prediction-related strategies which were used by readers in this study. Implications of findings for reading comprehension theory and educational practice are discussed.

Place-identity as a product of environmental self-regulation

In this study place-identity is defined as a product of active environmental self-regulation influenced by the functional principles of self as described in the models of Epstein (1983) , Sarbin (1983) , and Vuorinen (1983, 1986) . It is argued that the physical environment is used as a means of maintaining the psychic balance of pain and pleasure, and the coherence of one's self and self-esteem. This interpretation is demonstrated empirically in a pilot study where 9-, 12- and 17-year-old children (N = 63) were asked to write about their favourite places. The thematic analysis of the descriptions shows that the pleasure and pain principle ( Epstein (1983) ) is concretely experienced in the form of freedom of expression and feelings of pleasure, familiarity, and belongingness in relation to the environment. The unity principle ( Epstein, 1983 ) is realized by being able to clear one's mind in the favourite place in order to ‘find oneself’ and to create coherence for one's self. The descriptions of control of a favourite place, its humanization, the fixing of memories in it, and naming it, seem to be the mechanisms connecting the physical environment to psychic self-regulation, so that one's self-esteem and sense of coherence can be regained when necessary.