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brief contents

1 What Is Psychology? 1

2 Scientific Methods in Psychology 27

3 Biological Psychology 61

4 Sensation and Perception 96

5 Nature, Nurture, and Human Development 143

6 Learning 194

7 Memory 233

8 Cognition and Language 272

9 Intelligence 313

10 Consciousness 340

11 Motivated Behaviors 373

12 Emotions, Stress, and Health 410

13 Social Psychology 451

14 Personality 498

15 Abnormality, Therapy, and Social Issues 536

16 Specific Disorders and Treatments 568

vii
contents

1 What Is Psychology? 1

MODULE 1.1 From Freud to Modern Clinical Psychology 22


Psychologists’ Goals 3 Recent Trends 22
General Points About Psychology 3
IN CLOSING: Psychology Through the Years 24
Major Philosophical Issues in Psychology 4
Summary 24
What Psychologists Do 7
Key Terms 25
Should You Major in Psychology? 13
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 25
IN CLOSING: Types of Psychologists 14
Why Does This Matter to Me? 25
Summary 15
Suggestions for Further Exploration 26
Key Terms 15
Additional Resources 26

MODULE 1.2
Psychology Then and Now 16
The Early Era 16

The Rise of Behaviorism 21

2 Scientific Methods in Psychology 27

MODULE 2.1 MODULE 2.2


Thinking Critically and Evaluating Conducting Psychological Research 37
Evidence 29 General Principles of Psychological Research 37
Evidence and Theory in Science 29
Observational Research Designs 41
Steps for Gathering and Evaluating Evidence 29
Experiments 47
Replicability 31
What’s the Evidence? Inheritance of Acquired
Criteria for Evaluating Scientific Theories 31 Characteristics? 48
Ethical Considerations in Research 50
IN CLOSING: Scientific Thinking
in Psychology 36 IN CLOSING: Psychological Research 51
Summary 36
Summary 52
Key Terms 36
Key Terms 52
Answers to Other Questions in the Module 36

viii
MODULE 2.3 Why Does This Matter to Me? 58
Measuring and Analyzing Results 53 Suggestions for Further Exploration 58
Descriptive Statistics 53
Additional Resources 59
Evaluating Results: Inferential Statistics 56
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 2
IN CLOSING: Statistics and Conclusions 57 Statistical Calculations 60
Summary 57 Standard Deviation 60

Key Terms 58 Correlation Coefficients 60

EXPLORATION AND STUDY 58 Web/Technology Resources 60

3 Biological Psychology 61

MODULE 3.1 IN CLOSING: Drugs and Synapses 78


Neurons and Behavior 63 Summary 78
Nervous System Cells 63
Key Terms 78
The Action Potential 65

Synapses 66
MODULE 3.3
Brain and Behavior 79
What’s the Evidence? Neurons Communicate The Major Divisions of the Nervous System 79
Chemically 68
Measuring Brain Activity 85
Neurotransmitters and Behavior 69
The Autonomic Nervous System and Endocrine
IN CLOSING: Neurons, Synapses, System 86
and Behavior 70 Experience and Brain Plasticity 88
Summary 71
The Two Hemispheres and Their Connections 89
Key Terms 71
The Binding Problem 91

MODULE 3.2 IN CLOSING: Brain and Experience 93


Drugs and Their Effects 72
Summary 93
Stimulants 72
Key Terms 94
Depressants 73
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 94
Narcotics 74
Why Does This Matter to Me? 94
Marijuana 74
Suggestions for Further Exploration 94
Hallucinogens 75
Additional Resources 95

4 Sensation and Perception 96


MODULE 4.1 Key Terms 108
Vision 98 Answers to Other Questions in the Module 108
The Detection of Light 98

Color Vision 104


MODULE 4.2
The Nonvisual Senses 109

IN CLOSING: Vision as an Active Process 108 Hearing 109

Summary 108 The Vestibular Sense 113

ix
The Cutaneous Senses 114 Perceiving Movement and Depth 132

The Chemical Senses 117 Optical Illusions 135

Synesthesia 120
IN CLOSING: Making Sense of Sensory
Information 139
IN CLOSING: Sensory Systems 121
Summary 139
Summary 121
Key Terms 140
Key Terms 122
Answers to Other Questions in the Module 140
MODULE 4.3 EXPLORATION AND STUDY 141
The Interpretation of Sensory
Information 123 Why Does This Matter to Me? 141

Perception of Minimal Stimuli 123 Suggestions for Further Exploration 141

Perception and the Recognition of Patterns 125 Additional Resources 141

What’s the Evidence? Feature Detectors 126

5 Nature, Nurture, and Human Development 143

MODULE 5.1 IN CLOSING: Developing Cognitive Abilities 171


Genetics and Evolution of Behavior 145 Summary 171
Genetic Principles 145
Key Terms 172
How Genes Influence Behavior 150

Evolution and Behavior 151


MODULE 5.3
Social and Emotional Development 173
The Fetus and the Newborn 152
Erikson’s Description of Human Development 173

IN CLOSING: Getting Started in Life 154 Infancy and Childhood 174

Summary 154 Social Development in Childhood


and Adolescence 175
Key Terms 154
Adulthood 177
MODULE 5.2 Old Age 178
Cognitive Development 155
The Psychology of Facing Death 179
Infancy 155

Research Designs for Studying Development 158 IN CLOSING: Social and Emotional Issues
Through the Life Span 180
Jean Piaget’s View of Cognitive Development 161
Summary 180
Infancy: Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage 162
Key Terms 180
What’s the Evidence? The Infant’s Concept of
Object Permanence 162
MODULE 5.4
Early Childhood: Piaget’s Preoperational Stage 164 Diversity: Gender, Culture, and Family 181

What’s the Evidence? Children’s Understanding Gender Influences 181


of Other People’s Knowledge 164 Cultural and Ethnic Influences 184
Later Childhood and Adolescence: Piaget’s Stages of The Family 186
Concrete Operations and Formal Operations 168
How Grown Up Are We? 170

x
IN CLOSING: Many Ways of Life 191 Why Does This Matter to Me? 192

Summary 191 Suggestions for Further Exploration 192

Key Terms 191 Additional Resources 192

EXPLORATION AND STUDY 192

6 Learning 194

MODULE 6.1 Additional Phenomena of Operant Conditioning 215


Behaviorism 196 B. F. Skinner and the Shaping of Responses 216
The Rise of Behaviorism 197
Applications of Operant Conditioning 219
The Assumptions of Behaviorism 198
IN CLOSING: Operant Conditioning and Human
IN CLOSING: Behaviorism as a Theoretical Behavior 221
Orientation 199
Summary 221
Summary 199
Key Terms 222
Key Terms 199
MODULE 6.4
MODULE 6.2 Variations of Learning 223
Classical Conditioning 200 Conditioned Taste Aversions 223
Pavlov and Classical Conditioning 200
Birdsong Learning 226
What’s the Evidence? Emotional Conditioning
Social Learning 227
Without Awareness 204
Drug Tolerance as an Example of Classical IN CLOSING: All Learning Is Not the Same 230
Conditioning 205
Summary 230
Explanations of Classical Conditioning 206
Key Terms 231

IN CLOSING: Classical Conditioning Is More EXPLORATION AND STUDY 231


Than Drooling Dogs 209
Why Does This Matter to Me? 231
Summary 209
Suggestions for Further Exploration 231
Key Terms 209
Additional Resources 232

MODULE 6.3
Operant Conditioning 210
Thorndike and Operant Conditioning 210

Reinforcement and Punishment 212

7 Memory 233

MODULE 7.1 The Information-Processing View of Memory 240


Types of Memory 235 Working Memory 243
Ebbinghaus’s Pioneering Studies of Memory 235
IN CLOSING: Varieties of Memory 245
Methods of Testing Memory 236
Summary 245
Application: Suspect Lineups as Recognition
Memory 238 Key Terms 246

Children as Eyewitnesses 239 Answers to Other Question in the Module 246

xi
MODULE 7.2 MODULE 7.3
Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval 247 Forgetting 259
Encoding 247 Retrieval and Interference 259

The Timing of Study Sessions 252 A Controversy: “Recovered Memories” or “False


Memories”? 260
The SPAR Method 253
What’s the Evidence? Suggestions and False
Mnemonic Devices 253
Memories 262
Storage 254
Amnesia 263
Retrieval 255
IN CLOSING: Memory Loss and Distortion 268
IN CLOSING: Improving Your Memory 258
Summary 269
Summary 258
Key Terms 269
Key Terms 258
Exploration and Study 270
Answers to Other Questions in the Module 258
Why Does This Matter to Me? 270

Suggestions for Further Exploration 270

Additional Resources 270

8 Cognition and Language 272

MODULE 8.1 IN CLOSING: Successful and Unsuccessful


Attention and Categorization 274 Problem Solving 296
Research in Cognitive Psychology 274 Summary 296

What’s the Evidence? Mental Imagery 274 Key Terms 296

Attention 275 Answers to Other Questions in the Module 297

Attention-Deficit Disorder 280


MODULE 8.3
Categorization 281 Language 298
Nonhuman Precursors to Language 298
IN CLOSING: Thinking About Attention
and Concepts 284 Human Specializations for Learning Language 300

Summary 284 Language Development 302

Key Terms 284 Understanding Language 305

Answers to Other Questions in the Module 285 Reading 307

MODULE 8.2 IN CLOSING: Language and Humanity 310


Solving Problems, Making Decisions, Summary 310
and Thinking 286
Key Terms 311
Algorithms and Heuristics 287
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 311
Other Common Errors in Human Cognition 290
Why Does This Matter to Me? 311
Expertise 293
Suggestions for Further Exploration 311
Unconscious Thinking and Problem Solving 294
Additional Resources 312

xii
9 Intelligence 313

MODULE 9.1 What’s the Evidence? Stereotype Threat 333


Intelligence and Intelligence Tests 315 Individual Differences in IQ Scores 334
What Is Intelligence? 315
IN CLOSING: Consequences of Testing 336
IQ Tests 319
Summary 337
IN CLOSING: Measuring Something We Don’t
Key Terms 337
Fully Understand 322
Answers to Other Question in the Module 337
Summary 323
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 338
Key Terms 323
Why Does This Matter to Me? 338
Answers to Other Question in the Module 323
Suggestions for Further Exploration 338
MODULE 9.2
Additional Resources 338
Evaluation of Intelligence Tests 324
The Standardization of IQ Tests 324

Evaluation of Tests 327

Are IQ Tests Biased? 330

10 Consciousness 340

MODULE 10.1 IN CLOSING: The Mysteries of Sleep


Conscious and Unconscious Processes 342 and Dreams 363
Brain Mechanisms Necessary Summary 363
for Consciousness 342
Key Terms 363
Can We Use Brain Measurements to
Infer Consciousness? 343 MODULE 10.3
Consciousness as a Threshold Phenomenon 344
Hypnosis 364
Ways of Inducing Hypnosis 364
Consciousness as a Construction 345
The Uses and Limitations of Hypnosis 365
Unconscious or Altered Perception 345
What’s the Evidence? Hypnosis and Memory 367
Consciousness and Action 347
What’s the Evidence? Hypnosis and Risky
What’s the Evidence? Consciousness and Acts 368
Action 347
Is Hypnosis an Altered State of Consciousness? 369
IN CLOSING: The Role of Consciousness 349
Meditation as an Altered State
Summary 349 of Consciousness 370
Key Terms 350
IN CLOSING: What Hypnosis Is and Isn’t 370

MODULE 10.2 Summary 371


Sleep and Dreams 351 Key Terms 371
Our Circadian Rhythms 351
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 371
Why We Sleep 354
Why Does This Matter to Me? 371
Stages of Sleep 356
Suggestions for Further Exploration 372
Abnormalities of Sleep 358
Additional Resources 372
The Content of Our Dreams 360

xiii
11 Motivated Behaviors 373

MODULE 11.1 What’s the Evidence? Sexual Orientation


General Principles of Motivation 375 and Brain Anatomy 400
Views of Motivation 375
IN CLOSING: The Biology and Sociology
Conflicting Motivations 377 of Sex 401
Summary 401
IN CLOSING: Many Types of Motivation 379
Key Terms 401
Summary 379

Key Terms 380 MODULE 11.4


Work Motivation 402
MODULE 11.2 Goals and Deadlines 402
Hunger Motivation 381
What’s the Evidence? The Value
The Physiology of Hunger and Satiety 381
of Deadlines 402
Social and Cultural Influences on Eating 384
Job Design and Job Satisfaction 404
Eating Too Much or Too Little 384
Leadership 406

IN CLOSING: The Complexities of Hunger 389


IN CLOSING: Work as Another Kind
Summary 389 of Motivation 407
Key Terms 389 Summary 407

Key Terms 408


MODULE 11.3
Sexual Motivation 390 EXPLORATION AND STUDY 408
What Do People Do and How Often? 390 Why Does This Matter to Me? 408
Sexual Anatomy and Identity 394 Suggestions for Further Exploration 408
Sexual Orientation 397 Additional Resources 408

12 Emotions, Stress, and Health 410

MODULE 12.1 MODULE 12.2


The Nature of Emotion 412 A Survey of Emotions 429
Measuring Emotions 412 Fear and Anxiety 429

Emotion, Arousal, and Action 414 Anger and Aggressive Behavior 431

What’s the Evidence? The Cognitive Aspect Happiness, Joy, and Positive Psychology 433
of Emotion 416
Sadness 436
Do We Have a Few “Basic” Emotions? 418
Other Emotions 437
Usefulness of Emotions 423
In Closing: Emotions and the Richness of Life 437
Emotional Intelligence 425
Summary 438
IN CLOSING: Research on Emotions 427
Key Terms 438
Summary 427

Key Terms 428

Answers to Other Question in the Module 428

xiv
MODULE 12.3 Summary 448
Stress, Health, and Coping 439 Key Terms 448
Stress 439
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 449
How Stress Affects Health 441
Why Does This Matter to Me? 449
Coping with Stress 443
Suggestions for Further Exploration 449

IN CLOSING: Health Is Mental as Well Additional Resources 449


as Medical 447

13 Social Psychology 451

MODULE 13.1 MODULE 13.4


Cooperation and Competition 453 Interpersonal Attraction 480
Developing Morality and Cooperation 453 Establishing Relationships 480

Altruistic Behavior 455 Special Concerns in Selecting a Mate 484

Accepting or Denying Responsibility Marriage 486


Toward Others 458
IN CLOSING: Choosing Your Partners
IN CLOSING: Is Cooperative Behavior Carefully 487
Logical? 460
Summary 487
Summary 461
Key Terms 488
Key Terms 461
MODULE 13.5
MODULE 13.2 Interpersonal Influence 489
Social Perception and Cognition 462 Conformity 489
First Impressions 462
Obedience to Authority 491
Stereotypes and Prejudices 463
What’s the Evidence? The Milgram
Attribution 466 Experiment 492
Group Decision Making 494
IN CLOSING: How Social Perceptions Affect
Behavior 471
IN CLOSING: Fix the Situation, Not Human
Summary 471 Nature 495
Key Terms 471 Summary 496

Key Terms 496


MODULE 13.3
Attitudes and Persuasion 472 EXPLORATION AND STUDY 496

Attitudes and Behavior 472 Why Does This Matter to Me? 496

Central and Peripheral Routes of Attitude Change Suggestions for Further Exploration 497
and Persuasion 474
Additional Resources 497

IN CLOSING: Persuasion and Manipulation 479

Summary 479

Key Terms 479

xv
14 Personality 498

MODULE 14.1 MODULE 14.3


Personality Theories 500 Personality Assessment 524
Sigmund Freud and the Psychodynamic Standardized Personality Tests 524
Approach 500
An Objective Personality Test: The Minnesota
Carl Jung and the Collective Unconscious 506 Multiphasic Personality Inventory 525
Alfred Adler and Individual Psychology 508 The NEO PI-R 526

The Learning Approach 509 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 527

Humanistic Psychology 510 Projective Techniques 527

Implicit Personality Tests 529


IN CLOSING: In Search of Human Nature 512
Uses and Misuses of Personality Tests 530
Summary 513
Personality Tests in Action: Criminal Profiling 531
Key Terms 513
What’s the Evidence? Criminal Profiling 532
MODULE 14.2
Personality Traits 514 IN CLOSING: Possibilities and Limits
Personality Traits and States 514 of Personality Tests 533

The Search for Broad Personality Traits 514 Summary 533

The Big Five Model of Personality 516 Key Terms 534

The Origins of Personality 518 EXPLORATION AND STUDY 534

Why Does This Matter to Me? 534


IN CLOSING: The Challenges of Classifying
Personality 522 Suggestions for Further Exploration 535

Summary 522 Additional Resources 535

Key Terms 523

15 Abnormality, Therapy, and Social Issues 536

MODULE 15.1 Humanistic Therapy 551


Abnormal Behavior: An Overview 538 Family Systems Therapy 552
Defining Abnormal Behavior 538
Trends in Psychotherapy 552
Classifying Psychological Disorders 541
What’s the Evidence? How Effective Is
Psychotherapy? 554
IN CLOSING: Is Anyone Normal? 544
Comparing Therapies and Therapists 556
Summary 545

Key Terms 545 IN CLOSING: Trying to Understand Therapy 559

Summary 559
MODULE 15.2
Psychotherapy: An Overview 546 Key Terms 560
Historical Trends in Psychotherapy 546
MODULE 15.3
Psychoanalysis 547 Social and Legal Aspects
Behavior Therapy 548 of Treatment 561
Therapies That Focus on Thoughts Deinstitutionalization 561

and Beliefs 550 Involuntary Commitment and Treatment of Potentially


Dangerous Patients 562

xvi
The Duty to Protect 562 Key Terms 565

The Insanity Defense 563 EXPLORATION AND STUDY 566

Preventing Mental Illness 564 Why Does This Matter to Me? 566

Suggestions for Further Exploration 566


IN CLOSING: The Science and Politics of Mental
Illness 565 Additional Resources 566

Summary 565

16 Specific Disorders and Treatments 568

MODULE 16.1 MODULE 16.3


Anxiety Disorders 570 Mood Disorders 590
Disorders with Excessive Anxiety 570 Depression 590

Disorders with Exaggerated Avoidance 572 Bipolar Disorder 597

What’s the Evidence? Learning Fear by Mood Disorders and Suicide 599
Observation 573
IN CLOSING: Mood and Mood Disorders 600
IN CLOSING: Emotions and Avoidance 579
Summary 600
Summary 580
Key Terms 600
Key Terms 580
MODULE 16.4
Answers to Other Questions in the Module 580
Schizophrenia and Autism 601

MODULE 16.2 Symptoms of Schizophrenia 601


Substance-Related Disorders 581 Types and Prevalence 603
Substance Dependence (Addiction) 581
Causes 604
Alcoholism 583
Therapies 606
What’s the Evidence? Ways of Predicting
Autism 609
Alcoholism 585
Opiate Dependence 587 IN CLOSING: The Elusiveness of Schizophrenia
and Autism 609
IN CLOSING: Substances, the Individual, and
Summary 609
Society 588
Key Terms 610
Summary 588
EXPLORATION AND STUDY 610
Key Terms 589
Why Does This Matter to Me? 610

Suggestions for Further Exploration 610

Additional Resources 611

EPILOGUE 612

REFERENCES 613

NAME INDEX 657


SUBJECT INDEX/GLOSSARY 672

xvii
preface to the instructor

A few years ago, I was on a plane that had to turn APPROACHES, FEATURES,
around shortly after takeoff because one of its two
engines had failed. When we were told to get into AND STUDENT AIDS
crash position, the first thing I thought was, “I Many years ago, I read an educational psychology
don’t want to die yet! I was looking forward to textbook that said children with learning disabili-
writing the next edition of my textbook!” True ties and attention problems learn best from spe-
story. cific, concrete examples. I remember thinking,
I remember taking my first course in psy- “Wait a minute. I do, too! Don’t we all learn best
chology as a freshman at Duke University in from specific, concrete examples?” For this reason,
1965. Frequently, I would describe the fascinat- science classes use laboratories, to let students try
ing facts I had just learned to my roommate, demonstrations and experiments. Few introduc-
friends, relatives, or anyone else who would lis- tory psychology classes offer laboratories, but we
ten. I haven’t changed much since then. When I can nevertheless encourage students to try proce-
read about new research or think of a new ex- dures that require little or no equipment. At vari-
ample to illustrate some point, I want to tell my ous points, the text describes simple Try It Your-
wife, children, colleagues, and students. Through self exercises, such as negative afterimages,
this textbook, I can tell even more people. I hope binocular rivalry, encoding specificity, and the
my readers will share this excitement and want Stroop effect. Some of these activities are available
to tell still others. as Online Try It Yourself activities on the compan-
Ideally, a course or textbook in psychology ion website at www.cengage.com/psychology/
should accomplish two goals. The first is to instill kalat. Students who try these activities will under-
a love of learning so that our graduates will con- stand and remember the concepts far better than
tinue to update their education. Even if students if they read about them only in abstract terms. A
remembered everything they learned in this few of the online activities enable students to col-
text—and I know they won’t—their understand- lect and report their own data.
ing would gradually go out of date unless they Reading the material is good, but using it is
continue to learn about new developments. I fan- better. Researchers find that we learn more if we
tasize that some of my former students occasion- alternate between reading and testing than if we
ally read Scientific American Mind or similar spend the same amount of time reading. The Con-
publications. The second goal is to teach people cept Checks pose questions that attentive readers
skills of evaluating evidence and questioning as- should be able to answer with a little thought.
sertions, so that when they do read or hear about Students who answer correctly can feel encour-
some newly reported discovery, they will ask the aged; those who miss a question should use the
right questions and draw the appropriate conclu- feedback to reread the relevant passages.
sions (or draw no conclusion if the evidence is Education was long a very traditional field in
weak). That skill can carry over to fields other which the procedures hardly changed since the
than psychology. invention of chalk and desks. Recently, however,
Throughout this text, I have tried to model educators have been learning to use the power of
the habit of critical thinking or evaluating the evi- new technologies, and this text offers several im-
dence, particularly in the What’s the Evidence portant technological enhancements. The website
features, which describe research studies in some already mentioned includes the Online Try It
detail. I have pointed out the limitations of the Yourself exercises as well as flash cards, quizzes,
evidence and the possibilities for alternative inter- an online glossary, and links to other interesting
pretations. The goal is to help students ask their sites related to each chapter. An eBook (electronic
own questions, distinguish between good and version of the text) is available at www.ichapters.
weak evidence, and ultimately, appreciate the ex- com. In addition to the usual text material, it in-
citement of psychological inquiry. cludes links to videos, animations, and Online Try

xviii
It Yourself activities. It also includes multiple- sent or elusive. In cultures where women have
choice questions with feedback. If a student low status, males do better than females in
chooses an incorrect answer, the eBook explains mathematics, but where status is about equal,
why it was wrong and then explains the correct so is math performance. (chapter 5)
answer.
Each chapter of this text is divided into two to
• After you have learned something, such as a
vocabulary list, additional study at the same
five modules, each with its own summary. Mod- time is nearly a complete waste of time. Study
ules provide flexibility for the instructor who is much more effective if you go away from it
wishes to take sections in a different order—for for a day or so and then return to review.
example, operant conditioning before classical (chapter 7)
conditioning—or who wishes to omit a section.
Modular format also breaks up the reading assign-
• People often do not know why they made a
decision. If you ask, “Why did you choose this
ments so that a student reads one or two modules picture instead of the other one?” and then
for each class. Key terms are listed at the end of show the picture that the person didn’t choose,
each module, and a list with definitions can be the person often doesn’t recognize that you
downloaded from the website. At the end of the made a switch and confidently describes plau-
text, a combined Subject Index and Glossary pro- sible reasons for the choice. (chapter 8)
vides definitions of key terms as well as page ref-
erences for those terms and others.
• The Flynn effect is the observation that mean
IQ performance has increased from one gen-
eration to the next for several generations.
New data show a similar generational in-
crease in developmental milestones of the
WHAT’S NEW first 2 or 3 years. Because health and nutrition
IN THE NINTH EDITION seem the preeminent explanations for this
change in early development, they become
Does psychology really change fast enough to jus-
likely candidates to explain the Flynn effect,
tify a new edition of an introductory text every 3
too. (chapter 9)
years? Some areas of psychology admittedly do
not, but others do. This edition has more than 600 • If you monitor people’s brain activity while
they are about to make a “spontaneous” deci-
new references, including more than 500 from
sion to press the left or right key, you can pre-
2006 or later. The chapter on memory was sub-
dict their choice 5 to 10 seconds before they are
stantially reorganized. A few new topics have
conscious of their decision. (chapter 10)
been added, such as the Myers-Briggs and NEO-PI-
R personality tests. Many of the figures are new or • When an area shifts to daylight savings time,
people’s alertness and performance suffer for
revised. Two of the “What’s the Evidence?” sec-
a week or two. The effects are greatest for
tions are new, dealing with criminal profiling
people who were already sleep deprived, such
(chapter 13) and the problems of a before-and-
as most college students. (chapter 10)
after study without a control group (chapter 2).
Even in topics where the content has not changed • Men with higher testosterone levels are less
likely than other men to marry, and if they
much, an author always finds many small ways to
do marry, they are less likely to be faithful.
improve the presentation. Here are a few of my
(chapter 11)
favorite new studies:
• After you make a decision about anything,
• People show a slight preference for a job that
sounds similar to their own name (e.g. Larry
even something trivial, you become more
likely than before to take action on other mat-
and lawyer), as well as a place to live, em- ters instead of procrastinating. (chapter 11)
ployer, or spouse who shares their initials.
(chapter 1)
• Spending a little money on a gift for someone
else raises your happiness more than spending
• If students take a test with the instructions in that money on yourself would. (chapter 12)
red letters, or any other red mark on the test,
their scores suffer. Evidently, the red discourages
• Happiness is contagious. If your friends be-
come happier, you probably will, too, and
students by reminding them of teachers’ correc- then you may spread it to still other people.
tions on past tests and papers. (chapter 1) (chapter 12)
• If you measure how strongly various people’s
brains respond to somewhat frightening pic-
• Becoming familiar with someone does not
necessarily increase liking. You find out what
tures, you can predict their political leanings you have in common but also what you don’t
with moderate accuracy. (chapter 3) have in common, and you discover the other
• Although males and females differ on the aver- person’s flaws. (chapter 13)
age in their interests, even in early childhood,
supposed differences in abilities are either ab-
• Psychologists have long assumed that no one
would ever again replicate Milgram’s obedi-

xix
ence experiment, but J. M. Burger did, in part. PowerLecture with JoinIn and ExamView is
He asked people to deliver shocks only up to designed to facilitate an instructor’s assem-
150 volts, relieving the serious ethical prob- bly of PowerPoint® or similar demonstra-
lem of the original study. He found that peo- tions and contains lecture slides, figures and
ple obeyed authority almost as much today as tables from the text, the Instructor’s Resource
they did in the 1960s. (chapter 13) Manual and Test Bank, and Resource Integra-
• If you ask people in different countries to rate
how conscientious they are, the reports don’t
tion Guide. With PowerLecture, all of your
media resources are in one place, including
differ much from one country to another. an image library with graphics from the book
However, direct observations of conscientious itself, video clips, and more. ExamView® in-
behaviors show clear differences among coun- cludes all of the test items from the printed
tries. (chapter 14) Test Bank in electronic format and enables
• People with early-onset depression usually
have other relatives with the same or other
you to create customized tests in print or
online, and JoinIn™ Student Response Sys-
psychiatric conditions. People with late-onset tem offers instant assessment and better stu-
depression usually have relatives with blood dent results.
circulation disorders. (chapter 16) CengageNOW with Critical Thinking Vid-
• Apparently, schizophrenia can be caused by
mutations (including new mutations) in so
eos is an online self-study and assessment
system that helps students study efficiently
many different genes that no one gene will and effectively while allowing instructors to
emerge as consistently linked to schizophre- easily manage their courses. CengageNOW
nia. (chapter 16) analyzes student performance and discovers
which areas students need the most help
with. Students take a pretest, and based on
TEACHING AND LEARNING their answers, the system creates a personal-
SUPPLEMENTS ized learning plan unique to each student.
This learning plan is full of engaging peda-
You’re familiar with those television advertise- gogy that aids student understanding of core
ments that offer something, usually for $19.95, concepts in psychology. After completing the
and then say, “But wait, there’s more!” Same here. personalized learning plan, the student fol-
In addition to the text, the publisher offers many lows up with a posttest to ensure mastery of
supplements: the material. The self-study and assessment
Study Guide, revised by Mark Ludorf, pro- questions were revised for this edition by
vides learning objectives, chapter outlines, Alisha Janowsky.
other study aids, and practice test items, with Available on the website, WebTutor, and
an explanation of why each wrong answer is CengageNow for Introduction to Psychology,
wrong. It also includes a language-building 9th Edition, Online Try It Yourself exercises
component especially helpful for nonnative illustrate concepts and promote critical think-
speakers of English. ing about various topics in the text.
Test Bank, revised by Ralf Greenwald, includes
questions from the previous edition, hundreds
of new items contributed by James Kalat and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
tested in his classes, and many new ones by To begin the job of writing a textbook, a potential
Ralf Greenwald. That bank is also available in author needs self-confidence bordering on arro-
ExamView® electronic format. Many of the gance and, to complete it, the humility to accept
items have already been tested with classes at criticism of favorite ideas and carefully written
North Carolina State University, and the Test prose. A great many people provided helpful sug-
Bank indicates the percentage correct and point gestions that made this a far better text than it
biserial. Note also that the Test Bank includes a would have been without them.
special file of items that cut across chapters, During preparation of this edition, I have
intended for a comprehensive final exam. worked with three acquisition editors, Erik Evans,
Instructor’s Resource Manual, revised by Michelle Sordi, and Jane Potter. The transition
Nancy Jo Melucci, is both thorough and cre- proceeded as smoothly as I could hope, and I par-
ative. It includes suggestions for class demon- ticularly thank Jane Potter for guiding the text
strations and lecture material. It also contains through most of the process. Tali Beesley served
the author’s suggested answers to the Step as developmental editor, offering detailed sugges-
Further questions available online. tions ranging from organization of a chapter to

xx
choice of words to new and improved figures. I Brodie, St. Thomas University; John Broida, Uni-
thank each of these people for their tireless help. versity of Southern Maine; Gordon Brow, Pasa-
Rebecca Rosenberg supervised the supple- dena City College; Gregory Bushman, Beloit Col-
ments, a task that grows bigger with each edition. lege; James Calhoun, University of Georgia;
I have now had the pleasure to work with Frank Bernardo Carducci, Indiana University Southeast;
Hubert as my copy editor for several editions, Mar Casteel, Pennsylvania State University, York
and I greatly appreciate his careful reading and Campus; Liz Coccia, Austin Community College;
attention to detail. Nic Albert secured numerous Karen Couture, Keene State College; Deana
quality peer reviews throughout the entire proj- Davalos, Colorado State University; Patricia Deldin,
ect. Nancy Shammas and Pat Waldo did a marvel- Harvard University; Katherine Demitrakis, Albu-
ous job of supervising the production, a compli- querque Technical Vocational Institute; Janet
cated task with a book such as this. Vernon Boes, Dizinno, St. Mary University; Kimberly Duff, Cer-
who managed the design development, Lisa Torri, ritos College; Darlene Earley-Hereford, Southern
who managed the art development, and Jeanne Union State Community College; David J. Echevar-
Calabrese, who designed the interior and the ria, University of Southern Mississippi; Vanessa
cover, had the patience and artistic judgment to Edkins, University of Kansas; Susan Field, Geor-
counterbalance their very nonartistic author. gian Court College; Deborah Frisch, University of
Tierra Morgan planned and executed the market- Oregon; Gabriel Frommer, Indiana University;
ing strategies. Martha Hall, the photo researcher, Rick Fry, Youngstown State University; Robe
found an amazing variety of wonderful photo- Gehring, University of Southern Indiana; Judy
graphs and managed the permissions requests. Gentry, Columbus State Community College; Anna
To each of these, my thanks and congratulations. L. Ghee, Xavier University; Bill P. Godsil, Santa
My wife, Jo Ellen Kalat, not only provided Monica College; Kerri Goodwin, Loyola College in
support and encouragement, but also listened to Maryland; Joel Grace, Mansfield University; Troi-
my attempts to explain concepts and offered anne Grayson, Florida Community College at Jack-
many helpful suggestions and questions. My son sonville; Joe Grisham, Indiana River Community
Samuel Kalat provided many insightful ideas and College; Julie A. Gurner, Quinnipiac University;
suggestions. I thank my department head, Doug- Community College of Philadelphia; Alexandria E.
las Gillan, and my N.C. State colleagues—espe- Guzmán, University of New Haven; Richard Han-
cially David Martin, Bob Pond, Bart Craig, and son, Fresno City College; Richard Harris, Kansas
Rupert Nacoste—for their helpful suggestions. State University; Wendy Hart-Stravers, Arizona
Many reviewers provided helpful and insight- State University; W. Bruce Haslam, Weber State
ful comments. I thank the following people, as University; Christopher Hayashi, Southwestern
well as those who wish to remain anonymous: College; Bert Hayslip, University of North Texas;
Jennifer Ackil, Gustavus Adolphus College; Manda Helzer, Southern Oregon University; W.
Melanie M. Arpaio, Sussex County Community Elaine Hogan, University of North Carolina Wilm-
College; Thomas Carskadon, Mississippi State ington; Debra Hollister, Valencia Community Col-
University; Alicia M. Doerflinger, Marietta College; lege; Susan Horton, Mesa Community College;
Andrew Johnson, Park University; Jonathan Lytle, Charles Huffman, James Madison University;
Temple University; Michelle Merwin, University Linda Jackson, Michigan State University; Alisha
of Tennessee at Martin; Todd Nelson, California Janowsky, University of Central Florida; Robert
State University; William Price, North Country Jensen, California State University, Sacramento;
Community College; and Robert A. Rosellini, Uni- James Johnson, Illinois State University; Craig
versity at Albany. Jones, Arkansas State University; Lisa Jordan, Uni-
Each edition builds on contributions from re- versity of Maryland; Dale Jorgenson, California
viewers of previous editions. I would also like to State University, Long Beach; Jon Kahane, Spring-
thank the following reviewers who contributed field College; Peter Kaplan, University of Colorado,
their insight to previous editions: Jeffrey Adams, Denver; Arthur Kemp, Central Missouri State Uni-
Trent University; Judi Addelston, Valencia Com- versity; Mark J. Kirschner, Quinnipiac University;
munity College; Mark Affeltranger, University of Kristina T. Klassen, North Idaho College; Martha
Pittsburgh; Catherine Anderson, Amherst College; Kuehn, Central Lakes College; Cindy J. Lahar, Uni-
Susan Anderson, University of South Alabama; versity of Calgary; Chris Layne, University of To-
Bob Arkin, Ohio State University; Susan Baillet, ledo; Cynthia Ann Lease, Virginia Polytechnic
University of Portland; Cynthia Bane, Denison Institute and State University; Chantal Levesque,
University; Joe Bean, Shorter College; Mark University of Rochester; John Lindsay, Georgia
Bodamer, John Carroll University; Richard W. College and State University; Mary Livingston,
Bowen, Loyola University Chicago; Michael Louisiana Technical University; Linda Lockwood,
Brislawn, Bellevue Community College; Delbert Metropolitan State College of Denver; Sanford

xxi
Lopater, Christopher Newport University; Mark Russell, Santa Monica College; Mark Samuels,
Ludorf, Stephen F. Austin State University; New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology;
Pamelyn M. MacDonald, Washburn University; Kim Sawrey, University of North Carolina at Wilm-
Steve Madigan, University of Southern California; ington; Troy Schiedenhelm, Rowan-Cabarrus Com-
Don Marzoff, Louisiana State University; Christo- munity College; Michele N. Shiota, University of
pher Mayhorn, North Carolina State University; California, Berkeley; Noam Shpancer, Purdue Uni-
Michael McCall, Ithaca College; David G. McDon- versity; Eileen Smith, Fairleigh Dickinson Univer-
ald, University of Missouri; Tracy A. McDonough, sity; James Spencer, West Virginia State College;
College of Mount St. Joseph; J. Mark McKellop, Jim Stringham, University of Georgia; Robert
Juniata College; Mary Meiners, San Diego Mira- Stawski, Syracuse University; Whitney Sweeney,
mar College; Dianne Mello-Goldner, Pine Manor Beloit College; Alan Swinkels, St. Edward’s Univer-
College; Nancy J. Melucci, Long Beach City Col- sity; Natasha Tokowicz, University of Pittsburgh;
lege; Rowland Miller, Sam Houston State Univer- Patricia Toney, Sandhills Community College;
sity; Gloria Mitchell, De Anza College; Paul Moore, Warren W. Tryon, Fordham University; Katherine
Quinnipiac University; Anne Moyer, Stony Brook Urquhart, Lake Sumter Community College;
University; Jeffrey Nagelbush, Ferris State Univer- Stavros Valenti, Hofstra University; Suzanne
sity; Bethany Neal-Beliveau, Indiana University- Valentine-French, College of Lake County; Douglas
Purdue University at Indianapolis; Jan Ochman, Wallen, Mankato State University; Michael
Inver Hills Community College; Wendy Palmquist, Walraven, Jackson Community College; Donald
Plymouth State College; Elizabeth Parks, Ken- Walter, University of Wisconsin–Parkside; Jeffrey
nesaw State University; Gerald Peterson, Saginaw Weatherly, University of North Dakota; Ellen
Valley State University; Brady Phelps, South Da- Weissblum, State University of New York Albany;
kota State University; Shane Pitts, Birmingham Fred Whitford, Montana State University; Don
Southern College; Thomas Reig, Winona State Wilson, Lane Community College; David Woehr,
University; David Reitman, Louisiana State Uni- Texas A&M University; Jay Wright, Washington
versity; Bridget Rivera, Loyola College in Mary- State University; John W. Wright, Washington
land; Jeffrey Rudski, Muhlenberg College; Linda State University.
Ruehlman, Arizona State University; Richard James Kalat

xxii
preface to the student

Welcome to introductory psychology! I hope you the defined words, but don’t memorize the defini-
will enjoy reading this text as much as I enjoyed tions word for word. It would be better to try to
writing it. When you finish, I hope you will send use each word in a sentence or think of examples
me your comments via email at psych.feedback@ of each term. Better yet, when appropriate, think
cengage.com or by mail using the student reply of evidence for or against the concept that the
page at the end of this book. The publisher will term represents.
pass your comments along to me.
The first time I taught introductory psychol- Questions to Check Your
ogy, several students complained that the book we
were using was interesting to read but impossible Understanding
to study. What they meant was that they had People remember material better if they alternate
trouble finding and remembering the main points. between reading and testing than if they spend
I have tried to make this book interesting and as the whole time reading. (We’ll consider that point
easy to study as possible. again in the chapter on memory.) At various
points in this text are Concept Checks, questions
that ask you to use or apply the information you
FEATURES OF THIS TEXT just read. Try to answer each of them before read-
ing the answer. If your answer is correct, you can
Modular Format feel encouraged. If it is incorrect, you should re-
Each chapter is divided into two or more modules read the section.
so that you can study a limited section at a time.
Each chapter begins with a table of contents to
orient you to the topics considered. At the end of
Try It Yourself Activities
each module is a list of key terms and a summary The text includes many items marked Try It Your-
of some important points, each with page refer- self. Most of these can be done with little or no
ences. If a point is unfamiliar, you should reread equipment in a short time. You will understand
the appropriate section. At the end of a chapter, and remember the text far better if you try these
you will find suggestions for further reading, a exercises. Online Try It Yourself activities are also
few Internet sites to visit, and other suggestions. available at www.cengage.com/psychology/kalat.
The purpose of these is the same as the Try It
Yourself activities in the text; the difference is
Key Terms that online activities can include sounds and mo-
When an important term first appears in the text, tion. The description of a research study will be
it is highlighted in boldface and defined in italics. easier to understand and remember after you
All the boldface terms are listed in alphabetical have experienced it yourself.
order at the end of each module. They appear
again with definitions in the combined Subject
Index and Glossary at the end of the book. You What’s the Evidence Sections
might want to find the Subject Index and Glossary Every chapter except the first includes a section ti-
right now and familiarize yourself with it. You tled What’s the Evidence? These sections highlight
can also consult or download a list of key terms research studies in more than the usual amount of
with their definitions from this Internet site: detail, specifying the hypothesis (idea being tested),
www.cengage.com/psychology/kalat. research methods, results, and interpretation. In
I sometimes meet students who think they some cases, the discussion also mentions the limita-
have mastered the course because they have mem- tions of the study. The purpose of these sections is
orized the definitions. You do need to understand to provide examples of how to evaluate evidence.

xxiii
Internet Site When you study, don’t just read the text but
stop and think about it. The more actively you use
The text website is www.cengage.com/psychology/
the material, the better you will remember it. One
kalat. This site offers flash cards, quizzes, interac-
way to improve your studying is to read by the
tive art, an online glossary, and links to other in-
SPAR method: Survey, Process meaningfully, Ask
teresting websites related to each chapter. The site
questions, Review.
also includes the Online Try It Yourself activities.
All of these opportunities are highly recom-
mended; please explore them. Survey: Know what to expect so that you can
focus on the main points. When you start a
Indexes and Reference List chapter, first look over the outline to get a pre-
view of the contents. When you start a new
A list of all the references cited in the text is at the module, turn to the end and read the summary.
back of the book in case you want to check some-
thing for more details. The combined Subject In- Process meaningfully: Read the chapter care-
dex and Glossary defines key terms and indicates fully, stopping to think from time to time. Tell
where in the book to find more information. The your roommate something you learned. Think
name index provides the same information for all about how you might apply a concept to a
names mentioned in the text. real-life situation. Pause when you come to
the Concept Checks and try to answer them.
Do the Try It Yourself exercises. Try to moni-
Optional Study Guide tor how well you understand the text and ad-
Also available is a Study Guide to accompany this just your reading accordingly. Good readers
text, written by Mark Ludorf. It provides detailed read quickly through easy, familiar content
chapter outlines, learning objectives, study hints, but slowly through difficult material.
and other helpful information. The most valuable
Ask questions: When you finish the chapter,
part for most students is the sample test ques-
try to anticipate what you might be asked
tions, with an answer key that explains not only
later. You can use questions in the Study
which answer is right but also why each of the
Guide, on the website, or compose your own.
others is wrong. The website offers some sample
Write out the questions and think about
questions but not as many. The Study Guide also
them, but do not answer them yet.
includes a language-building component. The
Study Guide is recommended for students who Review: Pause for at least an hour, preferably a
have struggled with multiple-choice tests in the day. Now return to your questions and try to
past and who are willing to spend some time in answer them. Check your answers against the
addition to reading the book and studying lecture text or the answers in the Study Guide. Reinforc-
notes. If your bookstore does not stock the Study ing your memory a day or two after you first
Guide, you can ask them to order a copy. The read the chapter will help you retain the material
ISBN is 0495909475. longer and deepen your understanding. If you
study the same material several times at lengthy
intervals, you increase your chance of remem-
ANSWERS TO SOME bering it long after the course is over.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
What do those parentheses mean, as in “(Bau-
QUESTIONS meister, 2008)”? Am I supposed to remember
Do you have any useful suggestions for improv- the names and dates? Psychologists generally
ing study habits? Whenever students ask me why cite references in the text in parentheses rather
they did badly on the last test, I ask, “When did you than in footnotes. “(Baumeister, 2008)” refers to
read the assignment?” Many answer, “Well, I didn’t an article written by Baumeister, published in
exactly read all of the assignment,” or “I read it the 2008. All the references cited in the text are listed
night before the test.” If you want to learn the sub- in alphabetical order (by the author’s last name)
ject matter well, read the assigned material before in the References section at the back of the book.
the lecture, review it again after the lecture, and You will also notice a few citations that in-
quickly go over it again a few days later. Then re- clude two dates separated by a slash, such as
read the textbook assignments and your lecture “(Wundt, 1862/1961).” This means that Wundt’s
notes before a test. Memory researchers have estab- document was originally published in 1862 and
lished that you will understand and remember was republished in 1961.
something better by studying it several times No, you should not memorize the parentheti-
spread out over days than by studying the same cal source citations. They are provided so an inter-
amount of time all at once. Also, of course, the ested reader can look up the source of a statement
more total time you spend studying, the better. and check for further information. The names

xxiv
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Proxy
Planeteers
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Proxy Planeteers

Author: Edmond Hamilton

Release date: August 2, 2022 [eBook #68669]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Better Publications, Inc, 1947

Credits: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed


Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROXY


PLANETEERS ***
PROXY PLANETEERS
By EDMOND HAMILTON

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from


Startling Stories, July 1947.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Doug Norris hesitated for an instant. He knew that another
movement might well mean disaster.
Here deep in the cavernous interior of airless Mercury, catastrophe
could strike suddenly. The rocks of the fissure he was following had
a temperature of hundreds of degrees. And he could hear the deep
rumble of shifting rock, close by.
But it was not these dangers of the infernal underworld that made
him hesitate. It was that sixth sense of imminent peril that he had felt
twice before while exploring the Mercurian depths. Each time, it had
ended disastrously.
"Just nerves," Norris muttered to himself. "The uranium vein is
clearly indicated. I've got to follow it."
As he again moved forward and followed that thin, black stratum in
the fissure wall, his eyes constantly searched ahead.
Then a half-dozen little clouds of glowing gas flowed toward him
from a branching fissure. Each was several feet in diameter, a faint-
glowing mass of vapor with a brighter core.
Norris moved hastily to avoid them. But there was a sudden flash of
light. Then everything went black before his eyes.
"It's happened to me again!" Doug Norris thought in sharp dismay.
Frantically he jiggled his controls, cut in emergency power switches,
overloaded his tight control beam to the limit. It was no use. He still
could not see or hear anything whatever.
Norris defeatedly took the heavy television helmet with its bulging
eyepieces off his head. He stared at the control-board, then looked
blankly out the window at the distant, sunlit stacks of New York
Power Station.
"Another Proxy gone! Seven of them wrecked in the last two weeks!"
It hadn't just happened, of course. It had happened eight minutes
ago. It took that long for the television beam from the Proxy to shuttle
from Mercury to this control-station outside New York. And it took as
long again for the Proxy control-beam to get back to it on Mercury.
Sometimes, a time-lag that long could get a Proxy into trouble before
its operator on Earth was aware of it. But usually that was not a big
factor of danger on a lifeless world like Mercury. The Proxies, built of
the toughest refractory metals, could stand nearly anything but an
earthquake, and keep on functioning.
"Each time, there's been no sign of falling rocks or anything like
that," Norris told himself, mystified. "Each time, the Proxy has just
blacked out with all its controls shot."

Then, as his mind searched for some factor common to all the
disasters, a startled look came over Doug Norris' lean, earnest face.
"There were always some of those clouds of radon or whatever they
are around, each time!" he thought. "I wonder if—" A red-hot thought
brought him to his feet. "Holy cats! Maybe I've got the answer!"
He jumped away from the Proxy-board without a further glance at
that bank of intricate controls, and hurried down a corridor.
Through the glass doors he passed, Norris could see the other
operators at work. Each sat in front of his control-board, wearing his
television helmet, flipping the switches with expert precision. Each
was operating a mechanical Proxy somewhere on Mercury.
Norris and all these other operators had been trained together when
Kincaid started the Proxy Project. They had been proud of their
positions, until recently. It was a vitally important job, searching out
the uranium so sorely needed for Earth's atomic power supply.
The uranium and allied metals of Earth had years ago been
ransacked and used up. There was little on Venus or Mars. Mercury
had much of the precious metal in its cavernous interior. But no man,
no matter how ingenious his protection, could live long enough on
the terrible, semi-molten Hot Side of Mercury to conduct mining
operations.
That was why Kincaid had invented the Proxies. They were
machines that could mine uranium where men couldn't go. Crewless
ships guided by radar took the Proxies to the Base on Mercury's
sunward side. From Base, each Proxy was guided by an Earth
operator down into the hot fissures to find and mine the vital
radioactive element. The scheme had worked well, until—
"Until we got into those deeper fissures with the Proxies," Doug
Norris thought. "Seven wrecked since then! This must be the
answer!"
Martin Kincaid looked up sharply as Norris entered his office. A look
of faint dismay came on Kincaid's square, patient face. He knew that
a Proxy operator wouldn't leave his board in the middle of a shift,
unless there was trouble.
"Go ahead and give me the bad news, Doug," he said wearily.
"Proxy M-Fifty just blacked out on me, down in Fissure Four," Norris
admitted. "Just like the others. But I think I know why, now!" He
continued excitedly: "Mart, seven Proxies blacking out in two weeks
wasn't just accident. It was done deliberately!"
Kincaid stared. "You mean that Hurriman's bunch is somehow
sabotaging our Project?"
Doug Norris interrupted with a denial. "Not that. Hurriman and his
fellow politicians merely want to get their hands on the Proxy Project,
not to destroy it."
"Then who did wreck our Proxies?" Kincaid demanded.
Norris answered excitedly. "I believe we've run into living creatures in
those depths, and they're attacking us."
Kincaid grunted. "The temperature in those fissures is about four
hundred degrees Centigrade, the same as Mercury's sunward side.
Life can't exist in heat like that. I suggest you take a rest."
"I know all that," Norris said impatiently. "But suppose we've run into
a new kind of life there—one based on radioactive matter? Biologists
have speculated on it more than once. Theoretically, creatures of
radioactive matter could exist, drawing their energies not from
chemical metabolism as we do, but from the continuous process of
radioactive disintegration."
"Theoretically, the sky is a big roof with holes in it that are stars,"
growled Kincaid. "It depends on whose theory you believe."
"Every time a Proxy has blacked out down there, there's been little
clouds of heavy radioactive gas near," argued Doug Norris. "Each
seems to have a denser core. Suppose that core is an unknown
radium compound, evolved into some kind of neuronic structure that
is able to receive and remember stimuli? A sort of queer, radioactive
brain?
"If that's so, and biologists have said it's possible, the body of the
creature consists of radon gas emanated from the radium core. You
remember the half-life of radon exactly equals the rate of its
emission from radium, so there'd be a constant equilibrium of the
thing's gaseous body, analogous to our blood circulation. Given
Mercury's conditions, it's no more impossible than a jellyfish or a
man here on Earth!"

Kincaid looked skeptical.


"And you think these hypothetical living Raddies of yours are
attacking our Proxies? Why would they?"
"If they have cognition and correlation faculties they might be
irritated by the tube emanations from the control-boxes of our
Proxies," Norris suggested. "They get into those control-boxes and
wreck the tube circuits by overloading the electron flow with their
own Beta radiation!"
"It's all pretty far-fetched," muttered his superior. "Radioactive life!
But all those Proxies blowing can't be just chance." He paused, then
added gloomily, "But I can just see myself telling a World Council
committee that your hypothetical living Raddies are what keep us
from delivering uranium! Hurriman would like that. It would convince
the Council that I'm as incompetent as he claims."
"He'll convince the Council of that anyway unless we deliver uranium
from Mercury quickly," retorted Norris. "And we'll never do it till we
get these Raddies licked. They're basically just complex clouds of
radioactive gas. A Proxy armed with a high-pressure gas hose
should be able to blow them to rags. Can't we try it, Mart?"
Kincaid sighed, and stood up.
"I was a practical man once," he said wearily, "and would have
booted you out of here if you'd suggested such stuff. But I'm a
drowning man right now, so I'll buy your straw. We'll send down a
couple of Proxies armed with gas hoses and see how they make
out."
Doug Norris eagerly went with his superior into the adjoining room
where the operators of the Base Proxies were on duty.
"Norris and I will take over two Proxies at base," Kincaid told the
sub-chief there.
Two operators took off their helmets and got out of their chairs.
Norris took the place of one, donning the television helmet.
The control and television beams were on. The compact kinescope
tubes in his helmet gave him a clear vision of the Base on Mercury,
as seen through his Proxy's iconoscope "eyes".
There were no buildings, for Proxies didn't need shelter. The seared
black rocks stretched under a brazen sky, beneath a stupendous
Sun whose blaze even the iconoscope filters couldn't cut down
much. The Base was just a flat area here beside the low rock hills. A
crewless ship lay to one side, its hatches open. Near it were the
supply-dumps of Proxy parts, the repair shops, the power plant.
"We'll get a couple of oxygen tanks from the supply dump and use
them for your gas hose weapons," Kincaid was saying.
The Proxies they were guiding did not look like men. They looked
like what they were—machines devised for special purposes. They
were like baby tanks, mounted on caterpillar drives, each with two
big jointed arms ending in claws, and a control-box with iconoscope
eyes. They clamped on the high-pressure oxygen tanks, clutched the
nozzles of the attached hoses, and rolled out of Base across the
seared plain toward the black rock hills. In a few minutes, they
entered the narrow cleft of Fissure Four.
Norris knew the way down here. He led, switching on his searchlight
even though he didn't really need it. The Proxy's iconoscope eyes
could see by the infra-red radiation from the superheated rock walls.
They finally reached the spot deep down in the fissure where his
disabled former Proxy still stood. Doug Norris reached his jointed
arms and quickly unclamped the shield of its control-box.
"Look there, Mart! The whole control's shot! They do it by
overloading the tubes with their own Beta emanations, all right."
Kincaid's Proxy had elbowed close, its big iconoscope eyes peering
closely. Here in the office, Kincaid uttered a grunt.
"That still doesn't prove the gas that did it was living. Instead of your
hypothetical Raddies, it could be—"
"Look there!" yelled Doug Norris suddenly. "There they come again!"
Three of the glowing gaseous things were flowing toward them along
the fissure. They poised for a moment in a lifelike way, and then
swept forward.
"Your gas hose!" yelled Norris to the man beside him. "Don't let them
get near you!"
The Raddies were advancing in a deliberate way. In spite of the
time-lag, Norris tried to raise his gas hose and trigger it. There
wasn't time. The eight-minute lag between his action and the result
out there on Mercury was fatally long. The glowing Raddies were
flowing up around the Proxies.
Doug Norris was momentarily dazzled by the brilliance of the Raddy
that enveloped his Proxy's control-box. It was like looking into a star
to look into the glowing, pulsing core of the thing.
His senses reeled queerly as he stared, hypnotized by the swirling
bright gas and the starlike, throbbing core. He sensed dimly that that
core was a kind of life possible on no terrestrial planet, a crystalized
gaseous neurone structure that used its own radon emanations as a
body.

He felt his senses staggering, darkening. It was as though he were


hypnotized by the brilliance of that pulsing core of light, as though it
were probing excruciatingly into his brain.
Then Doug Norris came out of his queer daze to find himself sitting
there with his helmet dead. He could see nothing. His movements of
the Proxy controls yielded no response.
"Blacked out, both our Proxies!" Kincaid exclaimed, dazedly taking
off his own helmet. "And we got some kind of kick-back shock."
Norris, still badly shaken, nodded unsteadily. "There must have been
a kick-back along the control beam when they blew the control-
boxes. The circuit breakers may have been slow." He added quickly,
"But you know now I was right! Those Raddies are living things, that
instinctively attack our Proxies!"
Kincaid frowned. "It looks like it. But no gas hose or any other
weapon will work against the brutes. The time-lag makes it
impossible to use weapons. Our only chance is to seal and ray-proof
the Proxies' control-boxes against them. That'll take time. But it's our
only chance to get uranium out of there, and it's got to be done
before Hurriman's clique gets the Council on our tail. I'll have the
boys bring the Proxies all back to Base at once."
Norris followed his chief back to his office. Winters, the office clerk,
was waiting there for them, and looking anxious.
"A bulletin just came over the news tape, Chief," he told Kincaid.
"Here it is."
Mart Kincaid read the tape, and his square shoulders seemed to sag
a little. He looked at them heavily.
"We won't need to worry any more about your Raddies, Doug. World
Council has just passed Hurriman's motion requesting an immediate
investigation of Proxy Project. It will begin tomorrow." He added
tonelessly, "You know what that means. When they find we've lost
nine valuable Proxies out there on Mercury without getting any
uranium at all yet, we'll be thrown out."
"Blast Hurriman!" Doug Norris raged. "The Proxy Project has been
your work from the start! You sweated to develop the things. Now
because there's a hitch, a bunch of bumbling politicians take it over!"
"It's all in a lifetime," Kincaid shrugged. "Winters, you tell the boys.
Have them pull their Proxies back to Base, and go home." He sat
down slowly in his chair then, and stared at the wall. "So it's over.
Well, right now I'm too tired to care."
Norris felt heartsick. "Isn't there any chance of stalling them long
enough to try our idea of rayproofing the Proxies?"
"You know there isn't," said his superior. "It'd take days to do that job.
Even if it worked against the Raddies, it'd take weeks more to get
out uranium. And Hurriman's bunch won't wait weeks."
He looked at the sick face of the younger man, then opened a desk
drawer and took out a bottle of Scotch and glasses.
"Here, have a drink," he ordered. "You're a little young yet, and you
take these things too seriously."
Norris unhappily drank the Scotch. But his nerves, still shaken by
that queer kick-back shock from the beam, didn't relax much.
"Mart, your calmness isn't fooling me," he said. "I know how much
the Proxies meant to you, the dreams you had of operating Proxies
on every planet man couldn't visit, even on worlds of distant stars."
Kincaid shrugged as he poured himself a drink. "Sure, I wanted all
that. But since when have scientists ever been able to buck
politicians?"
Darkness pressed the windows as night gathered. They sat silently
in the darkening office drinking the Scotch and looking at the tall,
lighted stacks of the distant New York Power Station.
Doug Norris found no comfort in the liquor's sting. His sense of
injustice deepened. The Proxies were Kincaid's, but just because he
couldn't produce uranium fast enough, they would be taken away
from him.
He said so, bitterly and at length. Kincaid only shrugged wearily
again.
"Forget it, Doug. Have another drink."
Norris discovered with mild surprise that the bottle was empty.
"We must have spilled some of it," he said a little thickly.
"There's another bottle in the drawer," Kincaid grunted. "They were
for the Project party next week, but that's all off now."

Norris opened the other bottle and generously refilled their glasses.
He sat down beside Kincaid, who was looking broodingly from the
window at the distant atomic power plant. Despite the warm physical
glow he felt, Doug Norris was unhappier than before. A new,
poignant sorrow had risen in him.
"You know, Mart, it isn't only what Hurriman's doing to the Project
that's got me down," he said sorrowfully. "It's what happened to old
M-Fifty today."
"M-Fifty?" Kincaid inquired. "You mean that Proxy you lost this
afternoon?"
"Yes, he was my special Proxy for all these months," Doug Norris
said. "I got to know him. He was always dependable, never jumped
his control beam, never acted cranky in a tight place." His voice
choked a little. "I loved that Proxy like a brother. And I let him down. I
let those Raddies wreck him."
"They'll fix him up, Doug," said Kincaid, a rich sympathy in his slightly
thickened voice. "They'll make him as good as new when they get
him back up to Base."
"Yes, but what good will that do if I'm not here to operate him?" cried
Norris. "I tell you, that Proxy was sensitive. He knew my touch on the
controls. That Proxy would have died for me."
"Sure he would." Kincaid nodded with owlish understanding. "Here,
have another drink, Doug."
"I've had enough," Norris said gloomily, refilling their glasses as he
spoke. "But as I was saying, that Proxy won't run for a bunch of
politicians and their ham-handed operators like he ran for me. He'll
know that I'm gone, and he won't be the same. He'll pine."
"That's the way it goes, Doug," Kincaid said sadly. "You lose your
best friend—I mean, your best Proxy—and I lose my Project, just
because we can't furnish enough uranium for power over there."
He gestured bitterly toward the distant stacks of New York Power
Station that soared like towers of light in the distant darkness.
"You know, I've got an idea in my mind about that," Kincaid added
slowly, as he stared at those towers.
Doug Norris nodded emphatically. "You're dead right, Mart. You're
absolutely right."
"Now wait, you didn't hear my idea yet," Kincaid protested a little
foggily. "It's this—we're losing the Project because we can't furnish
enough uranium for power. But suppose they didn't need uranium for
power any longer? Then they'd let us keep the Proxy Project!"
"Exactly what I say!" Norris declared firmly. "There's just one thing for
us to do. That's to find a way to produce atomic power from some
commoner substance than uranium. That'd solve our whole
problem."
"I thought I was the one who said that," Kincaid said, puzzled. "But
look—what fairly common metal could be used to replace uranium in
the atomic piles?"
"Bismuth, of course," Norris replied promptly. "Its atomic number is
closest to the radioactive series of elements."
"You took the words right out of my mouth!" Kincaid declared.
"Bismuth it is. All we have to do is to make bismuth work in an
atomic pile, then we can run the Proxy Project without this
everlasting nagging about supplying uranium."
Doug Norris felt a warm, happy relief. "Why, it's simple! We should
have thought of it before! Let's get some bismuth out of the supply
room and go over to the Power Station right now!" He leaped to his
feet, eagerly, if a trifle unsteadily. "No time to waste, if the Council
committee's to be on our necks tomorrow!"
Doug Norris felt like singing in his wonderful relief, as he and Kincaid
went down through the now deserted Project building to the supply
room. In fact, he started to raise his voice in a ribald ballad about a
Proxy's adventure with a lady automaton.
"You mus' have had a trifle too much Scotch, Doug," Kincaid
reproved him, with owlish dignity. "Such levity isn't becoming to two
scientists about to make the mos' wonderful invention of the
century."
They got one of the heavy leaden cylinders used for transport of
uranium and filled it carefully with powdered bismuth. Then, in
Kincaid's car, they drove happily toward the big Power Station.
The guards at the barrier gate knew them both, for it was nothing
new for Proxy Project men to bring uranium over to the Station. They
let them through, and the car eased along the straight cement road.
The huge, windowless buildings that housed the massive uranium
piles were a mile beyond. But no one went near those tremendous
atomic piles. Everything in them had to be handled by remote control
by the few technicians in Headquarters Building who kept them
operating.
"Mart, isn't it queer nobody ever thought of usin' bismuth instead of
uranium, before now?" Norris asked, out of his roseate glow.
"Scientists too c'nservative, that's the trouble," Kincaid answered
wisely. His voice soared. "We're about to launch a new epoch! No
more uranium shortage to worry 'bout! No more politicians botherin'
the Project!"
"And I'll be able to fix up old M-Fifty and run him myself again,"
added Doug Norris. He choked up once more. "When I think of that
Proxy that was like a brother to me, lyin' down in that lonely fissure
with the Raddies gloatin' over him—"
"Don't think about it, Doug," begged Kincaid, with tender sympathy.
"Soon's we get these atomic piles changed around, we'll go back
and get good old M-Fifty up again and fix him good as new."

That promise cheered Norris' grieving mind. He got out and helped
Kincaid carry the heavy lead cylinder into Headquarters Building.
The technicians they passed in the lower rooms saw nothing
surprising in the two Project men staggering along under the weight
of the cylinder. Nor did Petersen and Thorpe, at first.
Petersen and Thorpe were the two technicians on duty in the big,
sacred inmost chamber of controls. Visors here gave view of every
part of the distant, mighty atomic piles—the massive lead towers that
enclosed the graphite and uranium lattices, the gas penstocks that
led to giant heat turbines, the gauges and meters. And the banks of
heavy levers here could switch those lattices, make any desired
change in the piles, without the necessity of a man entering the zone
of dangerous radiation.
Petersen had surprise on his spectacled, scholarly face as he
greeted the two scientists.
"I didn't know you had another uranium consignment for us," he said.
Kincaid helped Norris place the lead cylinder in the breech of the
tube that would carry it mechanically to the distant pile.
"This isn't uranium—it's better than uranium," Kincaid announced
impressively.
"What do you mean, better than uranium?" Petersen asked in a
puzzled tone. He opened the end of the lead cylinder. "Why, this stuff
is bismuth! What is this, a crazy joke?"
Young Thorpe had been staring closely at Kincaid and Norris.
"They're both plastered!" he burst out.
Kincaid drew himself up in an unsteady attitude of outraged dignity.
"Tha's what thanks we get," he accused thickly. "We come here to
make a won'erful improvement in your blasted old atomic piles, and
we get insulted."
"Thorpe," Petersen said disgustedly, "get them out of here, and ...
Look out!"
Doug Norris had casually taken the heavy metal handle off one of
the big levers. He tapped Thorpe on the head with it just as Petersen
uttered his warning cry. The young technician slumped.
Petersen, suddenly pale, darted toward an alarm button on his desk.
But before he reached it, Norris' improvised blackjack tapped his
skull. And Petersen also sagged to the floor.
Before Petersen could reach the alarm button, the blackjack hit him.

Norris looked triumphantly at Kincaid, with a warm feeling of


righteous virtue.
"They won't bother us now, Mart. I just put them out for a little while
without hurting 'em."
"Quick thinking, Doug!" Kincaid approved warmly. "Can't let
reactionaries obstruc' course of scientific progress. We'd better tie
'em up in case they come around too soon."
Norris helped tie the two unconscious men with lengths of spare
cable. Then he and Kincaid stood swaying a little as they owlishly

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