A portable, unprepared simple reaction time (USRT) test is described. This test is particularly suitable for assessing performance in the field as a function of arousal-related stress. The test, which is housed in a small, battery-powered cassette recorder, presents a visual stimulus at quasi-random intertrial intervals ranging from 1 to 10 s. The subject responds by pressing a button as quickly as possible, whereupon the reaction time is displayed. The duration of the test is limited only by the cassette tape on which the data are recorded, but 10 min is recommended. Reviewed are studies illustrating the test's brief practice curve and its sensitivity to arousal-related stress.
A small (20 x 11 x 6 em), battery-powered, fully portable device is described for administering a four-choice serial reaction time test and recording the results on a standard magnetic tape cassette. The mains-powered decoder through which the tape is subsequently replayed is also described. The main application is the self-administration of the test by the subject in the field, particularly in studies of environmental stress, the data-bearing cassettes being passed to the experimenter for laboratory-based analysis. In preliminary performance trials, the four-choice test appeared to reflect fatigue due to continuous repetitive responding in a way similar to classical, nonportable, multiple-choice serial reaction tests, but over a shorter time scale and with greater internal consistency.Multiple-choice serial reaction time tests, for example Leonard's five-choice test (Leonard, Note 0, have proved sensitive indices of the effects of environmental stress (for review, see Wilkinson, 19(9). The tests themselves are usually laboratorybased, because the hardware is relatively bulky, requires mains (line voltage) electricity, and needs a separate store for the data, usually a tape recorder or computer. The object of the present design was to produce a portable version of the choice serial reaction test by greatly reducing the weight and size, by using batteries as a source of power, and by storing a record of the speed and accuracy of responses within the machine for subsequent retrieval using a mains-powered four-choice decoder. The overall aim was that subjects should be able to carry out the test in the field and, if necessary. in the absence of the experimenter.In order to reduce costs, one of a popular range of battery cassette tape recorders was adapted to perform the triple function of housing the display and response apparatus. generating a program of stimuli, and recording the response data. A laboratory-based decoder was also constructed. When the data are replayed through the decoder, the original sequence of responses is reproduced auditorially in real time. Simultaneously. output pulses are available to indicate the "correct" and "error" responses. These may be used with external equipment for counting or measuring reaction time of responses or as an interface to a general-purpose computer.
For many years, the study of foreign policy analysis (FPA) has been a kind of free-floating enterprise, logically unconnected to the main theories of international relations (IR). Sometimes, it has been subsumed under the liberal or pluralist sections of textbooks, and at other times placed within a discussion of realism. But the logical connections to both of these paradigms were always strained. The appeal of FPA approaches has also waxed and waned over the years, in part because these approaches do not appear to ''fit'' anywhere within the framework of the larger debates going on in IR. This article suggests that a dialogue with social constructivism provides the most logical base from which to launch a revitalized approach to FPA, especially the cognitive psychological approach to the study of foreign policy. If the FPA agenda is to be reinvigorated and taken more seriously outside the subfield itself, this article suggests, it must hitch its wagon to some of the critical substantive debates going on in IR theory today. Indeed, there are already some signs that the cognitive approach to FPA in particular is increasingly being associated with this larger body of theory.
A number of scholars have argued that historical analogizing plays an important role in foreign-policy decision making; the extent of that importance, however, remains largely a mystery to us. This article proposes that analogical reasoning is probably even more commonplace than previously thought, since it may play a crucial role even in 'novel foreign policy situations' (scenarios which appear largely unprecedented to the decision makers confronting them).One notable example of a novel foreign-policy situation is provided by the Iranian hostage crisis. Examining the Carter administration's decision-making processes during that crisis, the article concludes that even though many saw the hostage crisis as a unique occurrence, the participants drew upon a wide range of historical analogies in order to make sense of what was occurring and to propose suggested 'solutions' to the crisis.Recent years have seen an expansion of interest in analogical reasoning as a 'cognitive tool' central to political decision making, propelled in large part by the cognitive revolution in psychology and its role in the study of foreign policy. In his path-breaking analysis of the cognitive dimensions of foreign-policy decision making (FPDM), Robert Jervis identified the use of analogy as a central mechanism by which decision makers 'make sense' of novel situations. 'What onelearns from key events in international history,' he argued, Ms an important factor in determining the images that shape the interpretation of incoming information . . . Previous international events provide the statesman with a range of imaginable situations and allow him to detect patterns and causal links that can help him understand his world'.'More recently, Richard Neustadt and Ernest May have examined the manner in which decision makers use history,
Why did a handful of Iranian students seize the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979? Why did most members of the US government initially believe that the incident would be over quickly? Why did the Carter administration then decide to launch a rescue mission, and why did it fail so spectacularly? US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis examines these puzzles and others, using an analogical reasoning approach to decision-making, a theoretical perspective which highlights the role played by historical analogies in the genesis of foreign policy decisions. Using interviews with key decision-makers on both sides, Houghton provides an analysis of one of the United States' greatest foreign policy disasters, the events of which continue to poison relations between the two states. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy analysis and international relations.
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