Biomedical subjects

S L Witryol

Publications and source records attributed to S L Witryol.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1990

Children's preference for complexity as a function of perceived units in collative motivation.

The purpose of this investigation was to manipulate a constant number of four elements (red and blue rectangles) to represent differentially perceived units of complexity. The hypothesis that motivational arousal and choice preferences of second- and fifth-grade children would be a positive function of the number of perceived units, ranging from one to four, was confirmed, consistent with Berlyne's (1960) theory. When the number of elements was held constant at three, as compared to four, similar results were obtained in a test at two intermediate levels of complexity. Implications for organization of elements and the effects of symmetry in determining children's preferences for levels of complexity are discussed.

Arousal↗

PubMed1990

Gender as a moderator variable in the relationship between an intrinsic motivation scale and short-term novelty in children.

Harter's (1980) Intrinsic-Extrinsic Orientation scale was examined for evidence of empirical and construct validity. We hypothesized that subscales defining the motivational component of intrinsic motivation would be correlated with novelty, a collative motivational variable. Partial support for the hypothesis was obtained for boys; correlations between novelty and Harter's Curiosity subscale were .57, .64, and .58 for boys in the third, fifth, and combined grades, respectively, and correlations approached significance for Harter's Challenge subscale. Not predicted were the correlations of .40, .68, and .46 obtained for girls in the third, fifth, and combined grades, respectively, between the Independent Judgment subscale (a cognitive-informational scale) and novelty. Results indicated that gender operated as a moderator variable, with boys expressing collative motivation directly in an action-oriented form, and girls demonstrating it somewhat indirectly in a thought-oriented form.

Arousal↗

PubMed1990

Complexity discrimination as a determinant of children's preferences in collative motivation.

Collative motivational preferences for increasing complexity in kindergarten and fourth-grade children were studied by varying the types of elements that constituted complexity gradation conditions along a similarity-distinctiveness continuum. A paired-comparisons procedure was used to assess children's relative preference for one to five levels of complexity within each condition. The highest gradation condition yielded a clear positive function between preference and number of elements, as well as the most reliable performance by children, but the two lower conditions yielded both positive and negative functions when subsamples were analyzed in homogeneous groupings. Obtained negative functions were interpreted as aesthetic or affective dimensions conflicting with the collative exploratory dimension. Differences between gradation conditions were consonant with a proposed arbitrary definition of variety as a distinctive condition of complexity.

Arousal↗

PubMed1990

Information theory and collative motivation: incentive value of uncertainty, variety, and novelty for children.

We tested the applicability of concepts and measures from information theory to studies of the development and operation of collative motivation. Three variables nominated by Berlyne as potential motivators of information seeking--uncertainty, variety, and novelty--were put into correspondence with three informational theoretic measures--average uncertainty in bits, number of possible outcomes, and outcome probability--to investigate the incentive properties of each variable for first and fourth graders. Increasing bit levels of uncertainty by adding alternatives to the set of possible outcomes was generally positively related to cover choices; however, increasing bit values by varying outcome probabilities from unequal to equal had no effect on choice. Without uncertainty, variety provided a weak source of collative motivation, systematically related to the choice of the transparent cover only for the older children when rewards occurred equally frequently. In contrast, the transparent cover was chosen significantly more frequently when the outcome probability of the associated reward was low. We obtained developmental stability in motivational effects except for variety operating in the absence of uncertainty.

Arousal↗

PubMed1971