Digital Commons Network^™

The Moral Dilemma In The Social Management Of Risks, Andrew F. Fritzsche

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Dr. Fritzsche offers data seen as demonstrating that irrational fears can lead to grotesque imbalances in social efforts devoted to preventing fatalities.

Invariance Seeking Action: Acquisition And Blocking Effects Of Causal Attribution In The Workplace, Suzanne Louise Reid

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Historical Notes On German Press Coverage Of Technology, Hans Mathias Kepplinger

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professor Kepplinger accounts for increased negativism in German media coverage of technology by pointing to changes in journalists' role definitions and attitudes.

Advancing Understanding Of Knowledge's Role In Lay Risk Perception, Branden B. Johnson

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Emphasizing how knowledge affects lay Risk perception, summarizing studies and suggesting further research, the author differentiates between knowledge production, knowledge dissemination and information processing as affected by, e.g., heuristics and Risk aversion. He also suggests that better understanding of lay knowledge can also illuminate experts' hazard knowledge.

Perception/Action: An Holistic Approach, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

A general systems approach is taken to studying the emergent properties of the human perception/action system. Two task domains, the control of locomotion and the recognition of objects, are used to study human performance. The locomotion task involves the control of altitude. Experiments are described that will manipulate the type of texture, the speed of forward motion, and altitude. A general hypothesis is presented that performance in the altitude control task is a function of the signal-to-noise ratio within the flow field--where signal refers to optical activity resulting from change of altitude and noise refers to optical activity resulting from …

Reply To Valverde, Paul B. Thompson

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

Professor Thompson responds to Valverde's argument, in the last issue, that his approach to Risk puts too much emphasis on the distinction between Risk subjectivism and Risk objectivism. In doing so, he asserts, inter alia, that anchoring Risk judgments in a probabilistic framework does not go far enough in rejecting reigning Risk-analysis notions of "real Risk."

A Critique Of Bandler And Grinder's Method Of Mapping Representational Systems, Leslie E. Goldmann

Dissertations and Theses

People perceive the world in their own terms: our use of language reflects our perceptions. The way in which we perceive the world and the words we use to reflect that perception Grinder and Bandler (1976) call a "representational system." The authors isolate three types of representational systems, visual, kinesthetic, and auditory, and they present a technique for mapping these systems. These authors state that a sensory preference profile can be mapped accurately and reliably via an individual's use of language. For example, words such as "clear," "see" and expressions of the kind "I get a picture" would connote a …

The Effects Of A Persuasive Communication On The Perception Of A Message Film, Marianell Branum Fink

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to examine, in a controlled experimental situation, two variables that might have an effect upon the viewer's perception of a message film. One variable that can be expected to affect perception is the viewer's prior knowledge of the film. This study deals with one specific variable - a published review. Another variable that might affect perception is personality. This study deals with one identified personality type - authoritarian. The message film is the award-winning, five-minute, color, anti-war film, Star Spangled Banner. It was produced and directed by Roger Flint and was released in …

Experimenter Bias Effect At Varying Levels Of Motivation, Leslie Marie Slade Gray

All Master's Theses

This study examined the effects of experimenter motivation upon the experimenter bias effect on a person perception task. It was hypothesized that the experimenter bias effect would decrease as reward and threat of punishment increased.

Thirty-five experimenters were randomly assigned to five treatment groups including a control group, two reward groups, and two punishment conditions. Each experimenter administered the photo task to two subjects. The results failed to support the experimental hypotheses.

A Comparison Of Verbal And Geometric Stimuli In Concept Learning, Robert William Greenway

All Master's Theses

Subjects classified stimulus patterns into positive or negative instances of the concept according to either an attribute identification (AI) problem or a rule learning (RL) problem. Four types of stimulus materials were used: verbal stimuli (V), geometric stimuli (G), or two combinations of these modes, verbal geometric (VG) or verbal colored (VC). The only main effects that were significant were the Type of rule and Type of problem. Some interactions were obtained between these factors and the stimulus mode employed.

The Effects Of Truth Table Pretraining And Intradimensional Variability On Rule Learning And Attribute Identification Tasks, Eric S. Gebelein

All Master's Theses

Ss were required to sort geometrical patterns into positive or negative instances. According to (a) an attribute identification problem (wherein one of three conceptual rules was given: Disjunctive, Conditional, or Biconditional) or (b) Rule learning problem (wherein the two relevant attributes were given: either yellow, triangle or blue, circle). Intradimensional variability for each condition was either five, seven, or nine levels. The Rule effect was the only significant source of variance even though performance did worsen as intradimensional variability was increased.

An Investigation Of The Mitchell-Brantley Choice Of Pictures Personality Inventory Items, John James Filipelli

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation is (1) to determine whether o:r not the child's percept of the physical structure of each "COPPI" picture is congruent with that intended by the authors, and (2) to determine whether the degree of "meaning" the child finds in the pictures significantly corresponds to the categorization specified by the authors.