No abstract

Early-handled and nOllhandled rars were paired with members of their own group in adulthood and permitted ro compere for food under depril'ation conditions. Polarity scores. defined as the winners' proporrion-of-time-ar-the-food-container scores minus 50. were higher in the handled group. These results were interpreted in terms of interactions between early-stimulation effects and reinforcement-con tingenc), effects.

On 2 separate occasions, 160 college Ss were administered both an IQ test and a test opinion scale in counterbalanced orders. Ss received differential feedback information presumably drawn from their earlier IQ test's performance before the 2nd administration. Feedback significantly affected subsequent retest IQ test score and opinion scale scores. Order of testing was a significant variable in the test-feedback-retest condition. It is concluded that when the testing situation is viewed as a complex interaction of stimuli, S, and situational variables, the variables investigated can systematically and significantly affect the performance of the examinee.

High and low emotional defecators in cross-classification with high and low emotional ambu/ators were paired with members of their own group and permitted to compete for food. Polarity scores, defined as the winner's proportion-of-time-at-thefood-container scores minus 50, followed a pattern similar to that reported in early-handled and nonhandled rats, but only where defecation was the basis for statistical manipulation.The authors have recently reported that rats systematically handled in infancy tend to show greater dominance-subordination polarity (DSP) in a food-competition situation than do nonhandled controls (Becker & Gaudet, 1968). Two of the effects of early handling are an increase in ambulation and a decrease in defecation after placement in a novel environment (Levine & Broadhurst, 1963). Rats vary, without experimental prompting, in their tendency to "freeze" and to evacuate in a strange environment (Hall, 1934;1936), and it seems reasonable to suppose that rats naturally high in ambulation and/or low in defecation might show greater DSP, as do early-handled rats. The present study sought to extend the authors' previous fmdings based on stimulu9-defmed intervening processes to those based on response-