Moral judgment and sex role orientation as a function of self and other presentation mode.

Gilligan's concern for a negative bias in assessing moral reasoning based on feminine interpersonal orientations and corresponding positive bias in favor of masculine orientations of justice and equity was explored. Bem's Sex Role Inventory provided a psychological index of orientation rather than only biological sex. College men and women completed Rest's moral dilemmas (DIT) in the usual manner-other condition-or assumed the role of the central character-self condition. The latter procedure augmented affective dimensions assumed to underlie orientation differences. Males in the other condition scored higher on the DIT than those in the self condition; females revealed the opposite pattern. Using the sex role categories, it appeared that androgynous males had higher DIT scores in the self condition than in the other condition, in direct contrast to the overall results for males. For females who were androgynous or masculine in orientation, the self condition resulted in higher DIT scores than the other condition. Generally, the greater affective demands in the self condition produced a higher frequency of Stage 3 use for men and women regardless of sex role orientation. The other condition showed a higher percentage of Stage 4 use among males and females independent of sex role orientation. Sex role orientation and affective arousal were discussed in terms of Gilligan's view of moral judgment development.

Responses to moral dilemmas involving self versus others.

Forty older adults were administered the standard version (i.e. Other-orientation) of Rest et al.'s Defining Issues Test (DIT) and a modified version (i.e., Self-orientation) of the same instrument on two separate occasions. Contrary to the results of previous studies with children and young adults, the self/other manipulation in the present study failed to influence significantly older adults' moral judgments. The role of cognitive/perspective-taking and personal/affective factors in the moral reasoning abilities of the elderly, as well as those of children and young adults, are discussed.

Young adults' scores on the defining issues test as a function of a "self" versus "other" presentation mode.

One hundred college students were randomly divided into four groups and were administered the standard version (i.e., other-orientation) of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and/or a Modified version (i.e., self-orientation) of the same instrument on two separate occasions. Subjects displayed greater amounts of principled moral reasoning when responding to the standard (other-orientation) rather than the modified (self-orientation) version of the DIT. Also, significant test-retest reliability was obtained for the standard, but not the modified, version of the DIT. The role of affective factors in the evaluation of moral problems involving the self versus hypothetical others was discussed.

Effects of extraversion, anxiety, and sex on children's verbal fluency and coding task performance.

Seventy-eight boys and 71 girls (ages eight to 18 years) were assigned to one of eight groups on the basis of scores on the Junior Esysenck Personality Inventory, the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and sex of the S. The Ss were administered a simple and a complex verbal fluency task and the coding subtest of the WISC. It was found that extraverted children of both sexes did better than introverted children on both measures of verbal fluency and the nonverbal coding task. Anxiety influenced girl's performance on the more complex verbal fluency task, but did not alter boys' performance. The present findings were discussed in relation to the adult literature relating extraversion, anxiety, and verbal fluency.

The enigmatic eidetic image: a reply to Gray and Gummerman.

Gray and Gummerman (1975) contended that eidetic imagery differs from visual-memory imagery only in quantitative aspects. There is evidence to controvert that argument and to support a theory of eidetic imagery as a qualitatively distinct phenomenon. It is proposed that eidetic imagery plays an essential role in early development and that superimposition methods are adequate for measurement of eidetic imagery in young children. It is further suggested that eidetic imagery is the precursor of iconic storage. The persistence of eidetic imagery in older children appears to be associated with some but not all forms of brain damage and may be overshadowed by more advanced memory imagery.

Effects of a memory aid of the three types of conservation in institutionalized retarded children.

Qualitative identity, quantitative identity, and equivalence conservation were assessed in 60 retarded boys and girls in three groups (MAS 5.4,6.3, and 7.5)9 Half of the Ss were provided a memory aid while the other half were not. The memory aid did not facilitate conservation on any of the tasks. The order of task difficulty found was qualitative identity, quantitative identity, and equivalence conservation. These data were discussed in terms of memory deficits and factors contributing to conservation and M.A.

The incidence of eidetic imagery as a function of age.

Many theorists suggest that eidetic imagery is important in early child development, but there have been few systematic attempts to test whether eidetic imagery varies inversely with age. A sample of 280 students, ranging in age from 5 to 18 years, was tested for eidetic imagery by methods designed to minimize the probability of confusion between eidetic imagery and visual memory imagery of any other type. As expected, the youngest age groups showed the highest frequency of eidetic imagery, and beyond age 7, the incidence did not vary systematically. The results are interpreted as indicating the plausibility of a theory which affords eidetic imagery a role in the early cognitive development of the child.

Relationship between linguistic performance and memory deficits in retarded children.

Performance of retarded children was measured on four tests of linguistic ability and two memory tests. Subjects were 50 retarded children: 10 each at mental ages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The relationship between linguistic performance and memory was assessed by correlational analysis. Multiple and partial correlations were computed using a measure of language comprehension and a measure of memory span as predictor variables and three measures of language production as criterion variables. Different patterns of correlation were found with the three production as criterion variables. Different patterns of correlation were found with the three production measures, suggesting that the relative importance of memory span in language production depends on the specific production task.

Haptic-visual form identification in children aged 4 through 13.

Children 4 through 13 yr. of age performed on a haptic-to-visual form-identification task. The obtained curves showed that for both sexes, rate of improvement slowed down at approximately 9 yr. of age.