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A master's thesis written by Winston T. Wilson in 1959 at Oklahoma State University. The study investigates the relationship between sex difference and handedness in relation to bilateral transfer 'reminiscence' in a pursuit-rotor study. statistical analyses, performance curves, and discussion of the results.
Typology: Lecture notes
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By
Bachelor of Science Baylor University Waco, Texas 1957
Submitted to the faculty of the Graduate School of the Oklahoma State University ·· in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
August, 1959
Thesis Approved:
Dean of the Graduate School
438795 ii
STATE^ UKLAHOMA UN!VERSl LIBRARY
Table
Correlation Coefficient and Regression Equations for Each Control (No Rest) Condition ••••••••••• (^) • • • •
Mean Value For Time on Target in Seconds for Each Experimental Group (Plus
Analysis of Variance of Sum of Five Pre- rest Trials (11-15) for All Eight Experimental Groups ••••••••••
Page
20
21
22
IX ..
Analysis of Variance of Logarithmic Transformed Gain Scores of Right- handed vs. Left-handed Male and Female Subjects •••••••••• Analysis of Variance of Logarithmic Transformed Gain Scores of Males vs. Females for Right-handed and Left-handed Subjects ••••• Analysis of Variance of Logarithmic Transformed Gain Scores of Right- handed Females vs. Right-handed Males.. • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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GI e e • • 24
Table Page x. Analysis of Variance of Logarithmic Transformed Gain Scores of Left- handed Males vs. Left-handed Females (^) .. (^) • • • • • • (^) • • • • (^) • • • • • .. (^) • • 25 XI. AnalysisTransformed Gain^ of^ Variance Scores^ of^ Logarithmic of Left- handed Females vs. Right- handed Males. (^) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 25 XII .. AnalysisTransformed^ of^ Variance Gain Scores^ of^ Logarithmic of Right- handed Females vs. Left-handed Males (^) • • • .. .. .. (^) • • • • • • • • .. (^) • .. (^) • • • 26 XIII .. AnalysisTransformed^ of^ Variance Gain Scores^ of^ Logarithmic of Right- handed Males vs. Left-handed Males (^) • • .. (^) • .. (^) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 26 XIV .. Analysis^ of^ Variance^ of^ Logarithmic Transformed Gain Scores of Left- handed Females vs. Right-handed
V
ACKNO LWEDGEMENT The author wishes to express appreciatiam t@ the members of the Department of Psychology of Oklahoma State University who gave assistance in this investigation. Special thanks are due Dr. L. M. Gustafson, for his guidance and helpful criticism throughout the research. The author is indebted to Mrs. Hazel Witt for help in the preparation of the rough draft of the manuscript. WTW
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Reminiscence, an increment in the performance of a partially learned task following an interpolated rest, has been demonstrated repeatedly in a variety of psychological investigations concerned with learning. One of the approaches by which the phenomenon has been studied is the pursuit rotor. Research involving this apparatus dates back
indicated some of the task variables which have been inves- tigated in relation to reminiscence. These variables are: reminiscence as a function of chronological age (21, p~ 161); reminiscence as a function of length of the inter- polated rest interval (6, 15, 20); and reminiscence as a function of the previous degree of distribution of practice
In a general consideration of the problem of transfer of training, it has been found that transfer of training
established habit has an influence upon the acquisition, performance, or relearning of a second habit." Such transfer effects may be positive as when initial training facilitates the acquisition, performance. or relearning of a second activity. Negative transfer effects occur when
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SIR to produce aggregate inhibitory potentia.l, IR. IR is
reduced during a rest (non-activity). Conditioned non- activity is what Hull refers to as conditioned inhibition,
Kimble, in the printing task, demonstrated that IR remains relatively constant from 5 to 15 trials and then decreases in value. But, sIR develops as a negatively accelerated (habit) function of the number of trials in the experiment. In that sIR is considered a habit, it does not dissipate with the passage of time.
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Since the discovery of bilateral transfer ''reminis- cence," numerous investigations have been made in an attempt to discover whether ordinary and bilateral reminiscence are the same phenomenon or like phenomena. This has been done (15, 16) by attempting to determine whether or not these two gain scores are like functions of the same variables~ Grice and Reynolds (14) studied these two types of gain (ordinary and bilateral reminiscence) as functions of the length of the rest interval. Their results indicated that bilateral transfer "reminiscence" is an increasing function of inter- polated rest (at least up to 10 minutes). In this respect it is similar to the function of ordinary reminiscence. While the authors maintained that this fact did not identify the phenomenon of bilateral·transfer "reminiscence" as being identical to ordinary reminiscence, it, at least, suggested that the two may be subject to the same interpretation.
In a search for the locus of the ordinary,and, later, bilateral transfer "reminiscence" effects, three major theories have been offered. They are the Work theories, the Perseveration theories, and the Differential Forgetting theoriess Essentially, the general Work theory assumes that there is a by-product left behind as a result of an activity which tends to prevent the recurrence of this activity or, at least~ to lower the efficiency of the later performance. It is speculated that this inhibitory by-product of work dissi- pates during periods of inactivity~ An interpolated rest condition then would tend to aid the performance of a partially learned task following the interpolated reste The amount of facilitation is related to the amount of IR gener- ated during the pre-rest practice period and whether or not the interpolated rest was sufficiently long to dissipate this IRs The classical Perseveration theory assumes that effects of neural activity involved in learning will be built up over the pre-rest practice period. These effects will persist during the rest condition and into the post-rest trials. The interpolated rest permits further strengthening of associations and their consolidation. This should result then in an improved post-rest performance. The Differential Forgetting theory holds that,.while a subject is practicing, he learns not only the correct responses, but also incorrect and conflicting responses
In this study the roles of the subject (organismic) variables, handedness and sex difference:,; have.::; beeu.nstud.i.ed/ in a bilateral transfer "reminiscence" investigation. There was no attempt to relate these subject variables to ordinary reminiscence0 Such a comparison, though desirable, was not feasible under the current time and subject limitationsa There is only a limited number of references concerned with the role of sex differences and handedness in this type of motor learning. 'Ammons i, Alf in" and Ammons ( 5 ) (^) 9 in their study of rotary pursuit performance of pre-adult subjects,:i'found; a marked over-all increase of proficiency in this skill with an increase in age. Boys in comparison to girls showed an increasing superiority during the course of practice.
learning with respect to sex differences. They found that males exceeded the females in initial and final ability. Rotary pursuit tracking as a function of handedness was studied by Grant and Kraestner (12). Their results indi- cated that handedness scores were related to the direction in which the rotary pursuit turn-table revolves. Right- handed subjects obtained higher scores when the apparatus
revolved in a clockwise direction. Left-handed subjects performed more proficiently when the task involved a counter-clockwise movement.
Simon, ·necrow, Lincoln, and Smith (23) have studied the effects of handedness on tracking accuracy with a hand-wheel control apparatus. They found !!Q. significant differences in the performance of right-handed or left-handed individuals. In 1956·an investigation performed by Miles and Lewis ·( 22) •. suggested that age might be a significant factor in determining both the rate of acquisition of skill and the over-all level of performance in a pursuitmeter task. The experimenters found no significant differences between the performance scores of the two different handedness groups. The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the function of the two subject· (organismic) variables, sex difference, and handedness, .· in bilateral transfer "reminis- cence." It is hoped that this research will help to establish the relationship of these variables in bilateral transfer "reminiscence."
continued under massed conditions or, in other words, an improvement in performance attributable to an interpolated rest. There were four experimental groups and four control groups in·which the independent variables were rest condi- tion, sex differencet and handedness: lo Group I was a control group of right-handed female.s. Their 15 practice trials with the pre- ferred hand were followed by a shift in hands during the 10 second inter-trial interval which was followed then by 10 more trials with the non-
females. Their 15 practice trials with the pre~ ferred hand were followed by a five minute inter- polated rest, a shift in hands, and 10 more trials with the non-preferred hand (15 R--5 minute rest-- 10 L).
3~ Group III was a control group of left-handed females, who practiced 15 trials with the preferred hand and then 10 trials with the non-preferred hand; the shift in hands took place during the normal 10 second inter-trial interval (15 1--no rest--10 R) .. 4Q Group IV was an experimental group of left~handed females, who also practiced 15 trials with the ·:::.. :.. , :t • ..
preferred hand and then 10 trials with the non- preferred hand; the shift in hands took place during the normal 10 second inter-trial interval which occurred during the fi.ve minute: in:t,erpolated rest between trials 15 and 16 (15 L--5 minute rest--10 R) ..
who practiced 15 trials with the preferred hand and then 10 trials with the non-preferred hand; the shift in hands took place during the normal 10 second inter-trial interval (15 R--no rest--10 L)~
10 post-rest practice trials with the other hand. Each trial of practice was 30 seconds long with a 10 second inter-trial interval .. Three seconds before the beginning of each trial, a buzzer sounded as a "ready" warning to the Ss. A modified version of the Standard Air Force Rotary Pursuit Instructions was used (16)~ Appendix A contains the instructions read to each S~ Modification of these instruc- tions was determined by the experimental conditions. All Ss were informed during the instruction period that they might be asked to change hands during the course of the experi- ment@ All groups were allowed an equal amount of time to change the stylus from one hand to the other. This was 10 seconds, which was the inter-trial intervalo For each of the four experimental groups (right-handed females, left-handed females, right-handed males, and left- handed males) which received a five minute interpolated rest, there was a control group which had the same amount of practice but had no interpolated rest. There was a total of 120 Ss for all conditions (experimental and control)& The regression equations for predicting the four experimental (reminiscence) groups' post-rest performance from their pre-rest performance were computed from the sum of trials 11-15 (pre-rest) and the sum of trials 16-20 for each subject in each control group. The appropriate derived coefficient of correlation then was used in the regression equation for predicting post-rest (trials 16-20) performance from pre-rest (trials 11-15) performance for each subject in
each of the four appropriate experimental conditionsa Obtained scores then were compared with predicted scores for each Sunder each of the experimental (rest) conditions. When the obtained score was greater than the predicted score 9 there was evidence of a gain score or the reminis- cence phenomenon~ Subjects in each group received 10 trials of practice after the rest interval and/or shift in hands in order that the post-rest performance curves could be used to graphi- cally demonstrate the reminiscence effect. The experimenter (E) was present at all times. He gave instructions, proctored, and recorded the scores for each trial .. During the interpolated rest, the Ss were permitted to talk with E, but they were not allowed to discuss the experiment or to manipulate or to inspect the apparatus. Any questions they asked which concerned the investigation were deferred until after the experiment had been concluded.
