Test of the language-aggression hypothesis

Knowledge Acquired from Learning: Procedural Cognition and its Declarative Cognizance

62 college students articulated the procedural cognition acquired during successful learning of both original and reversal-shifts of the discrimination-reversal learning task. Articulations formed a four-level hierarchy of “declarative cognizance” (defined as correct articulation of reinforcement contingencies) as follows: Level 1 having no declarative cognizance, Level 2 of perceptually based cognizance, Level 3 of concrete-rule-based cognizance, and Level 4 of abstract-rule-based cognizance. The plausibility of this cognitive hierarchy is enhanced by observations that increasingly higher levels of declarative cognizance are associated with increasingly faster learning. Mon-tare's 1983 and 1988 concepts of primary and secondary signalization are invoked to account for the learning processes underlying these examples of procedural cognition and the hierarchy of declarative cognizance.

Aggression and paternal absence: racial-ethnic differences among inner-city boys

Aggression scores were obtained for 132 preadolescent inner-city males to test the hypothesis that paternal absence may differentially influence aggressive behavior. A statistically significant, two-way race by paternal absence interaction (p less than .01) indicated that, when compared to their racial-ethnic counterparts living with both parents, father-absent Puerto Ricans were equally as aggressive, father-absent blacks were less aggressive, and father-absent whites were more aggressive. Tentative interpretations of these findings were developed with a view to the demographic realities of an American inner-city.

Aggression and family size

The aggression displayed under controlled conditions by 56 inner-city Hispanic boys ages 7-8 was measured to test the hypothesis that S s from large families will display less antisocial aggression than S s from small families. The results indicate that aggression and family size were related in a linear manner: decreasing aggression was linked to increasing family size. These behavioral results may be, in part, the result of increased accelerated development of social skills within children living in large families.

Effects of fathers' absence and birth order on aggressive behavior of young male children

Aggression scores were obtained for 50 inner-city Hispanic males. An analysis of variance indicated a statistically significant interaction between birth order and number of parents in the household. Post hoc analysis indicated that last-born subjects reared in low-income families with fathers absent displayed more aggressive behavior than firstborn, middle-born, or last-born subjects in families with fathers present. Moreover, there was an indication that firstborn and middle-born subjects in families with fathers absent may be more aggressive than their counterparts in families with fathers present. These results suggest that birth order should be considered in studies of the behavior and personality development of males in father-absent families. Research designs should differentiate between last-born and middle-born siblings.