Some notes on conditioned suppression and reinforcement schedules

Two pigeons were trained on an FR 150 schedule of reinforcement. An Estes-Skinner conditioned suppression procedure was then superimposed on this performance at varied intervals. If the CS occurred during the early stages of the ratio run, complete suppression resulted. If the CS occurred during the later stages of the run, the birds continued to respond until the reinforcement was obtained, which was then followed by complete suppression.     

Some notes on time out from reinforcement

Pigeons produced food on a fixed-ratio schedule by pecking at one key, and an S^Δ period by pecking at a second (switching) key. Switching behavior was examined as a function of (a) size of the fixed ratio, (b) whether the S^Δ was of fixed duration or could be determined by the bird, (c) the introduction of a novel food S^D, (d) extinction of food responding, and (e) the stimuli associated with the S^D and S^Δ conditions. No monotonic relationship was obtained between ratio size and switching behavior. Switching behavior was, however, influenced by many variables. The results suggest that an interpretation of switching behavior in terms of its being reinforced by the removal of aversive conditions, is open to considerable question.     

Some mathematical notes on three-mode factor analysis

The model for three-mode factor analysis is discussed in terms of newer applications of mathematical processes including a type of matrix process termed the Kronecker product and the definition of combination variables. Three methods of analysis to a type of extension of principal components analysis are discussed. Methods II and III are applicable to analysis of data collected for a large sample of individuals. An extension of the model is described in which allowance is made for unique variance for each combination variable when the data are collected for a large sample of individuals.     

Some notes on Freud's concept of conversion

Abstract

The author investigates conversion, the process by which psychic contents are transformed into bodily symptoms. The author concludes that this process cannot be explained by libido theory or by assuming the existence of a psychic energy. He argues that although Freud was convinced that “the leap from a mental process to a somatic innervation … can never be fully comprehensible to us,” this process is, nonetheless, comprehensible in terms of Freud's own conceptualisation. To understand this process, one must take the characteristics of the primary process to which the “replacement of external by psychical reality” belongs as radical as his thesis of a hallucinatory wish fulfilment. This thesis includes not only the hallucinatory satisfaction of instinctual wishes, but also the hallucinatory satisfaction of the desire to avoid unpleasure, which is understood as a process by which the internal conditions of this affect are displaced from the presentational world into perceptions via conversion.     

Some notes on the nature of methodological indeterminacy

This paper is an attempt to extend the meaning of the concept of indeterminacy for the human sciences. The authors do this by coining the term methodological indeterminacy and arguing that indeterminacy is better understood when linked to specific methodological techniques. Paradoxically, while specific research techniques demonstrate that the issue of indeterminacy is complex, yielding the possibility of types and degrees, it does not eliminate the problem of translation first raised by Quine. However, the authors go on to argue that, from a research perspective, indeterminacy can and must be approached in such a way that it is possible to reduce cases of it, even though never completely eliminating it in the human sciences.     

Some notes on conducting a psychological autopsy.

This paper outlines procedures for conducting interviews with relatives of suicide victims or survivors of equivocal deaths, by means of the "psychological autopsy." A number of methodological recommendations are made which deal with training interviewers, contacting survivors and using experimental controls.     

Some notes on the relation of moral reasoning and personality

This article offers a critical review of various accepted premises of and persuasive interpretations on whether moral reasoning and personality traits are related. Purposely, this study draws on recent critical examination by Mudrack questioning the paucity of research on the efficacy of a long-established measure of moral reasoning, i.e., Defining Issues Test, together with its relations with basic personality variables of the California Psychological Inventory. Some observations are noted about the validity of tasks that measure personality traits and magnitude of the relation to moral reasoning.     

Some qualifying notes on the development and implementation of behavior modification programs

Value judgements are inherent in the development and implementation of any behavior modification program. However, there is concern that techniques will become the prime originator of values and that a broader new of the child and his terms will be lost.

This article has reviewed three aspects of program planning in terms of the value issues involved. These include the manipulation of both abtecedent and consequent events to the behavior, the inclusion of the child in program planning, and teacher resistance to the program.