Function-altering effects of contingency-specifying stimuli

Contingengy-specifying stimuli (CSSs) can function differently than discriminative stimuli. Rather than evoking behavior due to a history of discrimination training, they alter the function of other stimuli and, therefore, the behavioral relations involving those stimuli. CSSs can alter the evocative function of discriminative stimuli, establishing operations, and conditional stimuli, as well as the efficacy of reinforcing and punishing stimuli and of stimuli that can function in second-order respondent conditioning. The concept of function-altering CSSs has implications for such areas of interest as stimulus equivalence, the terminology involving "rules" and "rule-governed behavior," and the way in which behavior analysts view the effects of such basic processes as reinforcement and punishment.     

Developing stimulus control of preschooler mands: an analysis of schedule-correlated and contingency-specifying stimuli

The present study replicates and extends previous research on stimulus control by arranging teacher attention for preschooler's mands into a multiple schedule and conducting a component analysis of the effects of schedule-correlated stimuli and contingency-specifying stimuli (rules) on the development of discriminated manding.     

Auditory–Visual stimuli: Effects on derived relations with compound stimuli

This research explored the effect of teaching conditional discriminations with three procedures on the derivation of 36 stimuli relations (derived relations). The stimuli used consisted of three characteristics musical instruments, along with the corresponding picture. In the first experiment six university students were trained with simple stimuli and tested with compound auditory–visual samples; therefore, a one‐to‐many structure was used. In the second experiment, auditory stimuli were replaced by visual stimuli, for the samples used, for new students. A third experiment was implemented with an extra phase of training with compound stimuli for six new students. The structure of the experiments was: pretests (Xbcd–A; Xacd–B; Xabd–C; Xabc–D), training (A–B; A–C; A–D), and posttests (same as pretests). The difference between these conditions was the kind of stimuli used and a new phase of teaching used in condition 3: (Xbcd–A). The results indicate that training with simple stimuli on discriminations that include stimuli that are easy to discriminate from each other (words and sounds) is a sufficient condition for good posttest performance. However, when comparisons are made difficult (words only), participants show better performance on new tests if they have a learning history with compound stimuli.     

IBM PC Tachistoscope: Text stimuli

Due to cost, speed, and flexibility, the IBM PC and compatibles are good computers for laboratory use. Outlined here is a program that allows a computer from this class of machines to be used as a tachistoscope. The example given is for visual half-field presentation and can be easily modified for other presentation paradigms.     

Rules: The Invisible Family

Family rules occur in groups of five and more. Because they are implicit and multidimensional, family rules are beyond visualization. These characteristics have unsettling effects on clinicians and researchers. Knowing the rules of a family, however, allows precise intervention, and using rules concepts makes learning family therapy techniques less threatening to students. The concept of homeostasis in the context of rules has been examined and placed in an understandable perspective. Rules provide the connection between family process and individual behavior. They also constitute an integrated theory of families and individual personality development.     

Deprivation and reward stimuli as compound stimuli

In Experiment 1 the experimental group was tested with a deprivation level and a reward magnitude which it had experienced previously but which it had not experienced in combination. This group was inferior in test performance to a group which had experienced the test deprivation-reward combination prior to test. These results were interpreted as indicating that deprivation stimuli and reward stimuli form a compound stimulus and training on the elements of the compound produces performance inferior to training directly on the compound. In Experiment 2, the decrement associated with two different shifts in deprivation and reward did not differ despite the different size change of total incentive involved in the two shifts. The results were interpreted as indicating that the deprivation-reward stimulus is not produced by a single underlying incentive mechanism.     

Hedonic contrast and condensation: Good stimuli make mediocre stimuli less good and less different

Loud sounds make soft sounds softer (contrast) and also make them less discriminable (which we callcondensation). We report on parallel phenomena in hedonics: Good stimuli reduce the pleasantness of less good stimuli, and also reduce people’s preferences among the less good stimuli. In Experiment 1, subjects rated the pleasantness of fruit juices diluted to approximate hedonic neutrality. Subjects who had just previously drunk and rated some good-tasting full-strength juices rated the diluted juices lower than did subjects who had not (hedonic contrast). In Experiment 2, subjects drank pairs of diluted juices and rated their preference for one juice over the other. Subjects who had just previously drunk and rated pairs of full-strength juices gave lower preference ratings between the diluted juices than did subjects who had not (condensation). Thus the same stimulus set produced contrast in Experiment 1 and condensation in Experiment 2, paralleling results in loudness.     

The role of fear-relevant stimuli in visual search: a comparison of phylogenetic and ontogenetic stimuli

It has been argued that phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli elicit preattentive capture of attention. To distinguish between fear relevance and time of appearance in evolutionary history, the authors compare phylogenetic and ontogenetic fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli in a visual search task. The authors found no evidence for a special role of phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli; it seems that fear relevance in general is more important than is the evolutionary age. The pattern of results indicates that attention toward threatening stimuli is mainly affected by a late component that prolongs the disengagement of attention.     

Binocular rivalry and dichoptic masking: suppressed stimuli do not mask stimuli in a dominating eye

Reaction time was used to gauge the sensitivity of an eye during its dominant and suppressed phases of binocular rivalry. During dominance, performance was uniformly good in detecting both stimuli that were spatially identical to the suppressed stimulus and those that were different in spatial frequency. When suppressed eyes were tested, performance was poor when the stimulus was different from the dominating stimulus, but even worse when the test stimulus and the dominating stimulus were spatially identical. The results favor the view that suppression operates nonselectively on a monocular visual channel, prior to the point at which dichoptic pattern masking occurs.     

The control of responding by auditory stimuli: interactions between different dimensions of the stimuli.

Sounds have position in addition to other dimensions, such as intensity and frequency. Position rapidly gains control of spatially contiguous responses and this may interfere with control of responding by other acoustic dimensions. These experiments investigated interference of a tone-noise discrimination by the discrimination of acoustic position. Squirrel monkeys were studied when responding was differentially reinforced in the presence of both spectral content (tone-noise) and positional differences between the stimuli, and when responding was differentially reinforced only in the presence of spectral differences. Under the first condition, responding rapidly came under the control of the position of the noise in the two monkeys tested. The position of the tone controlled responding in one monkey; in the second monkey, responding came under the control of the spectral content of the tone. Under the second condition, responding was initially under the control of the noise in all three monkeys tested. This persisted for the duration of the condition for two of the monkeys; in one monkey, responding came under the control of the spectral content of the noise. Under the second condition, responding was also initially under the control of the position of the tone for all monkeys, but control by spectral content of the tone relatively rapidly developed in two of three monkeys.     

Facial reactions to auditory stimuli: Sex differences

This study explored whether males and females differ in facial muscle activity when exposed to tone stimuli with different intensity. Males and females were repeatedly exposed to 95 dB and 75 dB 1000 Hz tones while their facial electromyographic (EMG) activity from corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions were measured. Skin conductance responses were also measured. It was found that 95 dB but not 75 dB tones evoked increased corrugator activity. This effect differed significantly between males and females. Thus, it was only females that reacted with a significant increased corrugator response to the high intensity tone. While facial responses differed between the sexes, the skin conductance response patterns did not. Consistent with previous research it is concluded that females are more facially expressive than are males.     

Detection models: Experimental tests with electrocutaneous stimuli

Contemporary psychophysical procedures were employed to determine the nature of the process for detecting rectangular electrical pulses delivered to the skin. Earlier experiments had shown that the somatosensory system is exceedingly responsive to small changes in the energy of an electrocutaneous stimulus, suggesting that sensory noise may be relatively unimportant in this modality. However, a rating scale study showed that both the high-threshold theory and Luce’s low-threshold theory cannot describe the detection process. The form of the ROC curve is consistent with a signal-detection model that assumes a greater variance for the signal plus noise distribution than for the noise distribution. Additional support for signal detection theory came from an experiment that examined the likelihood of a correct second choke when the first was incorrect in a four-alternative forced-choice paradigm. Therefore, the sensory excitation caused by internal noise can sometimes be greater than the excitation produced by an added stimulus. Electrocutaneous detection differs from auditory or visual in that d’ increases at a greater rate as stimulus intensity changes.     

Spatial-frequency-contingent color aftereffects: Adaptation with one-dimensional stimuli

The McCollough effect was shown to be spatial-frequency selective by Lovegrove and Over (1972) after adaptation with vertical colored square-wave gratings separated by 1 octave. Adaptation with slide-presented red and green vertical square-wave gratings separated by 1 octave failed to produce contingent color aftereffects (CAEs).However, when each of these gratings was adapted alone, strong CAEs were produced. Adaptation with vertical colored sine-wave gratings separated by 1 octave also failed to produce CAEs, but strong effects were produced by adaptation with each grating alone. By varying the spatial frequency of the test sine wave, CAEs were found to be tuned for spatial frequency at 2.85 octaves after adaptation of 4 cycles per degree (cpd) and at 2.30 octaves after adaptation of 8 cpd. Adaptation of both vertical and horizontal sine-wave gratings produced strong CAEs, with bandwidths ranging from 1.96 to 2.90 octaves and with lower adapting contrast producing weaker CAEs. These results indicate that the McCollough effect is more broadly tuned for spatial frequency than are simple adaptation effects.     

Novel stimuli are negative stimuli: evidence that negative affect is reduced in the mere exposure effect

Repeated exposure of a nonreinforced stimulus results in an increased preference for that stimulus, the mere exposure effect. The present study repeatedly presented positive, negative, and neutrally affective faces to 48 participants while they made judgments about the emotional expression. Participants then rated the likeability of novel neutrally expressive faces and some of these previously presented faces, this time in their neutral expression. Faces originally presented as happy were rated as the most likeable, followed by faces originally presented as neutral. Negative and novel faces were not rated significantly differently from each other. These findings support the notion that the increase in preference towards repeatedly presented stimuli is the result of the reduction in negative affect, consistent with the modified two-factor uncertainty-reduction model and classical conditioning model of the mere exposure effect.     

对刑事证据规则的反思:基于侦查取证规则

侦查取证规则隶属刑事证据规则。构建和完善刑事证据规则,应当将侦查取证规则的制订与适用纳入考虑范畴。按照目的和功能划分,侦查取证规则分为价值性规则、技术性规则和辅助性规则,它们与认证规则之间存在应然的逻辑联系,是确定证据类型的基本依据。无论从内部还是从外面视角审视,侦查取证规则都存在一定问题。应基于刑事证据规则一体化的视角,对侦查取证规则进行完善。