J. H. Rohrer, S. H. Baron, E. L. Hoffman, D. V. Swander

Transcription

1 2?Hr a! A Report of Research on o ^^ -^~" r" THE STABILITY OF AUTOKINETIC JUDGMENTS J. H. Rohrer, S. H. Baron, E. L. Hoffman, D. V. Swander A techncal report made under ONR Contract Nonr-475(01) between Tulane Unversty and Offce of Naval Research June 1, 1954 Urban Lfe Research Insttute TULANE UNIVERSITY New Orleans 18

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4 .. \,r THE STABILITY OF AUTOKINETIC JUDGMENTS 1 J. H. Rohrer, S. H. Baron, E. L. Hoffman, D. V. Swandar Ths dtudy s one of a seres carred out under ONR Contract Nonr-475(01) wth Tulane Unversty. That contract provdes for a system- I atc nvestgaton of the relatonshps holdng between personalty, learnng, and socal varables. The project, under the drecton of J. H. Rohrer, s a part of the research program of the Neuropsychatry Branch, Bureau of Medcne and Surgery, U. S. Department of Navy. Whle ths paper consttutes a techncal report to ONR, the nterpretatons presented heren are those of the authorsand do not represent, necessarly, those of the sponsorng agency, the Department of Navy. : T m A major crteron used n a seres of studes concerned wth problems of personalty structure and nterpersonal nteractons, carred cut by the wrters, has been rate of convergence to a common socal norm establshed to perceved autoknetc lght movement. Generalzatons developed from ths expermental model of a socal stuaton are lmted by the stablty, n tme, of the norms so establshed. Sherf (8) n hs classc experment demonstrated that such norms were stable when tested for after a perod of one week. Bovard {2) reported stablty of norms after 28 days. Thb report deals wth the stablty of socally affected judgments, establshed to an autoknetc producng lght S, after an elapsed tme nterval of one year. -.L-&k

5 1 : METHOD Subjects, The stablty of norms test was carred out wth 46 Oa who had establshed socal norms one year pror. All Os were undergraduate male students at Tulane and all were enrolled n ether Army, Navy, or Ar Force ROTC tranng unts, None of the Os were aware of the purpose of the study and none had experenced the autoknetc producng stuaton n the nterval between teat-re test. The expermental stuaton and room were dentcal for the norm formaton and retestng sessons. The expermental stuaton has been descrbed n detal elsewhere (4). The apparatus also has been descrbed elsewhere (7). Expermental Sessons. Three sessons were utlzed: {TJ an ndvdual tranng sesson; (X) a socal norm formaton secson; and, [Y) an ndvdual test of norm stablty. The method of tranng utlzed n sesson (T) has been descrbed elsewhere (4). Brefly, Os were traned n ndvdual sessons usng actual movement of a pnpont of lght wthn a crcular lumnous framework. Os reported ther judgments of the extent of move - ment after each exposure. Ffty exposures were made n ths sesson. The actual dstance that the lght moved was determned by E at the outset of the j sesson and remaned constant throughout the sesson, although the drecton of the movement was systematcally vared on a plane perpendcular to the O as permtted by the apparatus (7). About one hour followng the tranng sesson, the norm formaton -2-

6 sesson occurred. In ths cesson the lumnous framework was absent,' the pnpont of lght remaned statonary, and the audtory cue a from the apparatus were present. In sesson (X) the Os were tested n pars, one member had been traned n sesson (T) at a dstance of 2 n., the other member had been tested at a dstance of 8 n. Durng sesson (X) a verbal report of the perceved extent of lght movement was obtaned from the Os after each exposure. Ffty presentatons were also made n ths sesson. In sesson (Y), whch took place approxmately IE months followng sesson (X), each O was tested ndvdually and judgmentswere gvenfollowng each exposure. Ffty exposures were gven n ths sesson also. Thus, n sesson (Y) the condtons were dentcal wth those used n sesson (X), wth the excepton that each O was tested ndvdually. Scorng. The scores were n terms of nches of movement reported by the O. The Mdn of each O's 50 judgments, for each sesson, was computed. It s ths Mdn that consttutes the O's norm or score for each sesson. References to "mean score" ndcates the M of Mdns. R ESULTS The data for the Os traned wth a 2 n. lght movement were analyzed separately from the data obtaned from the 8 n. tranng group. Ths was done because the means of the (T) scores for the groups dffer sgnfcantly, whch was to be expected, and the groups were heterogeneous wth respect to varances. The results of an F test provdes evdence for

7 rejectng the hypothess of homogeneous varance at the. 01 level of conf- dence. Furthermore, t was not feasble to adjust the autoknetc (X) scores to account for the dfferences n (T) scores because an analyss of the re- gresson data revealed that one regresson lne could not be used for all observatons. Although the slopes of the regresson lnes wthn the two groups were not sgnfcantly dfferent and the regresson lne for the two means was lnear, the regresson coeffcent for the data wthn the groups dffered sgnfcantly from the regresson coeffcent for the group means. Table 1 presents the mean and varance for the (T) scores for Os traned at 2 n., and 8 n. respectvely. When Os who had been traned wth a lght that moved 2 n. were pared wth Os traned wth a lght that moved 8 n., and these pars tested together for ther judgments of autoknetc movements, the judgments converged to produce the (X) means also pre- sented n Table 1. The varances for these scores are also presented. It may be noted that the varablty of the judgments n the autoknetc sesson are consderable larger than the judgments n the more structured tranng.."' ' s - " * - ' sesson. The group means for the autoknetc {Y) scores obtaned one year after the (X) scores are also presented n Table 1 together wth ther v-,.- L- ances. A reducton n the group msan«* may be noted for both (T) rrouy. Ths reducton s statstcally sgnfcant (p. <. 01} for the S n. tranng group but not for the 2 n. tranng group. Dfferences between sessons have been evaluated and are presented n Table '^«M^-»~«(»S*r.v^.,J.r ^ '

8 . - - TABLE 1 Means and Varances Sesson 2 In. Tranng fn = 23) le-an Varance 8 n. Tranng (M = S3) Kean Varance T 3.C8 6.OS Me Ml X Y 6.29 g S. :- ~!^*S9SWW«S H, -~>

9 ? TABLE 2 Obtaned Dfferences Between Sesson'.)

10 In spte of the reducton Ln group ruedns When retested after an nterval of one year, there s stll?> hgh postve relatonshp between the norms establshed n sessons X)?-nd Y>. Ths relatonshp s shown by the correlaton coeffcents n Table 3, The multple correlaton coeffcent, r Y XT s a PP rax: '- nate ly ^e same as th" smple coeffcent of correlaton between frst and second autoknetc srores In order to evaluate the relatve contrbutons of (3C and (T) to the predcton of (Y)» the standard partal regresson coeffcents were computed. The standard regresson of \Y on (XV. ndependent of 'Tj t s and for the 2 n,, and 8 n., tranng groups respectvely, whle the standard regresson of (Y) and (T) ndependent of (X) s and for the 2 n and 8 n. groups respectvely It s evdent from a comparson of these coeffcents that the contrbuton of (T) to the predcton of Yj s neglgble DISCUSSION In a prevous study (4jj t was demonstrated that the effects of tran- ng Os to judge the actual dstance moved by a lght S. generalzed to a auto-! knetc lght movement, stuaton and thus nfluenced the magntude of the perceved autoknetc movement Stated n more formal! stc terms, the habt strength of a R tendency bal* up to a S of real movement,, generalzed to a S stuaton n whch the perceved movement was llusonary. The data presented n ths study demonstrate that judgmental norms of perceved autoknetc movement, modfed n the drecton of conformance wth 7

11 I TABIJI 3 Intereorrelaton C'neff< tents 8 ID. Taxuxr (N «23) EXY rr xt -Y.XT & S9K 1 * ^.'.vajg.-/: -.-. *dfct,t*la.. - -»-rr«2:-w-f.*>-«--f-»^ - <Mfr-~Vgl * * ** V*

12 - judgments of a second person n r.n nterpersonal (socal) stuaton, tend to negate the effects of the earler ndvdual tranng. Moreover ths negaton of tranng effects, by socal nteracton, perssts n tme; the effects of the - socal nteracton manfestng t3elf n a "non-socal" test stuaton after a perod of one year. Agan n more formalstc terms, the modfcaton due to socal nteracton was n the ntervenng habt varable. Kelman (5) has demonstrated that felt "success" led to stablty of - norms establshed to perceved autoknetc movement and felt "falure" led to norm modfcaton. The terms, "success" and "falure" are most meanngful when used wthn a theoretcal framework employng the concept of renforcement. Such a framework requres the dentfcaton of "motves" or "drves" that, when reduced, strengthen the tendency to respond. The change made n our S stuaton, that produced the altered behavor, was the ntroducton of a second O who began gvng reports of perceved movement whch were at varance wth the judgments gven by the other member of the par. The altered behavor that resulted was to brng nto conformance the judgments of perceved movement reported by both members of the par. It s hypothessed that ths shft was actvated by an acqured motve for -9-

13 ' * socal conformance. The data argue for the shft beng due to a drve varable, rather than due to a stuatonal, or 5, varable because the altered R perssted when the nterpersonal nteracton was not operatng fsesson Y), Thus, a stable R tendency was establshed to the lght S n the 50 tral {X) sesson by the reducton of the conformty drve, and ths R tendency was man- fested n the subsequent ndvdual fy) sesson. - An attempt was made to explan the data by use of Bate son's (1) and Harlow's /) notons of "learnng sets.." The rather rapd rate of con- vergence noted n sess.on (X} suggests that a "set" for conformance pro- duced by the nterpersonal cues could be nvolved* What s known about human socalzaton practces also suggests that sets to conform are one of the most lkely by-products of socalzaton* Yet the results obtaned n sesson <Y) suggest that the noton of "learnng sets" s not suffcent to ex- - plan the results; the specfcty and stablty of the acqured R tendency Wthn the theoretcal framework of Parsons et al, (6) ths would be equvalent to ther "need-dspostons to conform to expectatons"- that was felt by "ego." In the case of our Ss t. there was no evdence of overt : conflct nvolved n the conformng behavor. They were not aware that they were conformng,, yet all converged very rapdly, despte the presence of acqured R tendences, establshed n the <T> sesson, that would cause them to tend not to conform fd ---

14 :- ; _ ' _ ' -!. z ESS :j-- -~w~z ykt-?. - w.. " ^,..-_,..._ : _._.. '_»._._-.» 3? suggests the theoretcal need for an addtonal noton smlar to what Harlow (3) has referred to as "Tborndkan bondage" resultng from drve - m gg _ I '. reducton, ' _. MM! SUMMARY ^^ -._ -.v*» _.. 1. The stablty of judgmental norms, establshed as a result of ( nterpersonal nteracton was evaluated one year after they were establshed. We, The evaluaton was made by testng the subjects ndvdually, Z, It was shown that the norms, so establshed, were stable 3. Dat^ were presented whch showed that socal nteracton result- ed n a rapd modfcaton of response ': wdences establshed n a prevous ndvdual tranng sesson 4. The results obtaned were nterpreted wthn a renforcement 1 I theory framework. b * 4 IMP* 4%f * y_>*... '... : jt f* \. ; :,-**=' /" V"'.'.'^"'" " **"* ^ ^* **--> *"#» ~ _....!J. 3 r _.«,_ r_

15 -.- I : S * X REI 'ERENCES % - 1. Bateson, G. Socal plannng and the concept of "deuterolearang." In T. M. Newcomb, & E. L. Hartley, (Eds.) Readngs n coeval psychology. r! New York: Holt, Pp Bovard, E. f,, Jr. Socal norms and the ndvdual. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1948, 43, Harlow, H. F. The formaton of learnng seta. Psychol. Rev., 1949, 56, Hoffman, E. L»., Swaader, D. V., Baron, S. H., ft Rohrer, J. H. - Generalzaton and exposure tme as related to autoknetc movement. J. exp. Petychol., 1953, 46, "- ' 5. Kelman, H. C. Effects of success and falure on "suggestblty n the autoknetc stuaton. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1950, 45, , ^ '' " *k 1 f \ %..'m 6. T. Parsons, & E. A. Shls, (Eds.) Toward a general theory of acton. Cambrdge: Harvard Unv. Press, Pp Rohrer, J. H. St Hoffman, E. L. An apparatus for studyng the per- f cepton and judgment of lght movement. Amer. J. Psychol., 1954, 67, Sherf, M. A study of some socal factors n percepton. Arch. Psychol. New York. 1935, 27, No !..-;-.(^---r.-t»..*...;:..-.:,.....,...-,... *.. _,.,.,.,..,.. -V-^ -.---* p&vfr-^'-,,j,v