Individual differences in self-reinforcement style and performance in self-and therapist-controlled weight reduction programs

Thirty-seven overweight subjects were recruited from the staff of a V. A. Hospital for a weight reduction program. A self-reinforcement (SR) test was administered prior to treatment and subjects were classified as high or low self-reinforcers. Subjects were then exposed to one of two behavioral weight-reduction programs or a minimal treatment control condition. One treatment program emphasized self-control (SC) and the other incorporated a therapist controlled financial contingency for weight loss (EC). A significant interaction was found between SR group and treatment condition. High SR subjects lost weight at the rate of 1.49 pounds per week in the SC condition and only 0.37 pounds per week in EC. Low SR subjects lost at the rate of 1.06 and 1.01 pounds per week respectively in SC and EC. Implications for treatment and future research were discussed. The financial contingency had either neutral or negative effects. Caution was advised for any future use of that procedure.     

A self-administered program for public speaking anxiety.

Therapist-administered desensitization was compared with a take-home manual for self-administering desensitization, where the self-administering subjects had varying degrees of contact with therapists. These treatments were compared with an attention-placebo procedure and no-treatment controls. None of the treatment procedures had any effect on behavioural manifestations of anxiety in public-speaking phobics, but all treatment subjects showed greater reductions in subjective anxiety than either of the control groups. The drop-out rate was greatest for the no-contact manual group indicating the value of brief supervision in its use. The implications of the failure to change overt behaviour in view of Paul's (1966) earlier findings, are discussed.     

Independence training as a method of enhancing self-help skills acquisition of the mentally retarded

This study examined the effectiveness of independence training which involved using social reinforcement, information feedback, modeling and evaluation of self and others in teaching showering behavior to institutionalized mentally retarded adults. A treatment and a non-treatment group of 36 subjects each were used to assess training and maintenance of the target behavior. Analysis of results showed that treatment and no-treatment groups did not differ on baseline scores. However, residents in the treatment group performed significantly better than no-treatment subjects on post-test and three-month follow-up. Staff were of the opinion at post-test that treatment was perceived to be acceptable and nonpunitive.     

Three-mode factor analytic reference curves for concept identification

Tucker's three-mode common factor analysis is used to explore the intrinsic individual differences in a figural, disjunctive conceptual behavior task. The results reveal differential shifts in the structure of the individual differences during concept identification. Individual patterns can be described by five factors, each of which specifies the parameter vales for the shape of the individual performance functions. A three-way core further identifies the nature of the individual differences factors. These results indicate that averaged curves for the separate response measures would not have adequately reflected the individual data in this sample. The present findings are consistent with earlier work and suggest that a better approach to the study of complex human behavior is to identify the individual differences intrinsic to the situation before mapping antecedent influences on the dimensionality of the behavior.     

Behavioral treatments of primary dysmenorrhea: A review

Behavioral interventions for primary dysmenorrhea are reviewed under four categories: hypnotherapy; Lamaze exercises; biofeedback training; and desensi found in only the last category and even here, the extent to which positive results stem from desensitization-based treatments themselves as opposed to nonspecific factors associated with these treatments is unresolved. Additional issues that bear upon behavioral treatments for primary dysmenorrhea are: (a) the need for further taxonomic refinement; and (b) the need to incorporate pathophysiological findings within the treatment of this disorder.     

Augmentation of in vivo exposure treatment for agoraphobia by the formation of neighbourhood self-help groups

The advantages of selecting agoraphobic patients for treatment by group exposure according to their residential geographic neighbourhood were evaluated in terms of facilitation of ‘homework’ practice and increased social contact. Both ‘zoned’ and ‘unzoned’ groups showed gains in ability to perform hierarchy items after 11 sessions of exposure, relative to a no-treatment control group. However only zoned subjects showed significant reductions in experienced anxiety when executing such items. Self-ratings of overall phobic severity also suggested a zoned group was superior to unzoned while assessors' ratings indicated both groups as equally improved. Only zoned subjects showed a significant increase in social range. Improvements were maintained at 3-months follow-up. No effect of treatment was found on either the Zung measure of anxious mood or on social integration.These results suggest that, where practical, zoning might offer the means for desirable continuation of intensive clinic-based group treatment as well as the benefit of extending treatment into the patients' environment as in home-based treatments. Crucial levels of group cohesion might also be increased although therapists should be prepared to negotiate resistance to a socially demanding programme from patients with significant additional social phobias.     

Social conditioning and its proper control procedures.

In Expt I, eight infants received response-contingent social stimulation, while another eight infants received response-independent social stimulation. Both groups' vocalization rates similarly increased from baseline to stimulation periods and decreased from stimulation to extinction periods. In Expt II, 12 infants were given continuous social stimulation (elicitation treatment) for one period, and, in a second period, stimulation was withheld for 5 sec contingent upon each vocalization (omission treatment). Response rates were similar for both periods, and rates decreased when social stimulation was removed (mobile treatment). In both studies social stimulation increased vocalization rates and rate of responding was insensitive to the programmed contingency. There were, however, fewer “bursts” of responses with the negative and positive contingencies as compared with response-independent stimulation.     

Biofeedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals

Relatively few procedures exist for developing heterosexual arousal in the treatment of sexual deviation (Barlow, 1973) although several recent studies suggest this is a necessary component of treatment (Feldman and MacCulloch, 1971; Bancroft, 1970; Barlow, 1974).In recent years, biofeedback techniques have been applied to many types of disorders (Blanchard and Young, 1974). Basic to biofeedback technology is the notion that providing a person with feedback (or immediate information) of a bioelectric response enables him to learn (gain) self-control of that response. These responses traditionally have been considered involuntary and include heart rate (Scott et al., 1973a). blood pressure (Benson et al., 1971), stomach acid pH (Welgan. 1972), and electroencephalographic activity (Sterman, 1972), In the present experiments, biofeedback and its attendant technology was applied to the problem of generating heterosexual arousal in homosexual males.Frequently, in biofeedback research, reinforcement has been used in addition to feedback in attempting to teach self-control of a response. In fact, an alternate way of conceptualizing and describing the biofeedback research is in terms of operant conditioning (e.g., Weiss and Engel, 1971: Scott et al., 1973b). In one sense, however, feedback and reinforcement are inextricably confounded: the delivery or non-delivery of a reinforcer provides the S with information about the rightness or wrongness of his response and hence, binary feedback about it. Likewise, if feedback or knowledge of whether the response has reached a criterion level or not is effective in leading to a change in the response, then feedback functions as a reinforcer. Reinforcement, however, may be viewed as providing both information about the response (feedback) plus an incentive to change it in the desired direction in addition to any incentive provided by successful performance of a task. Thus, if one provides Ss with a separate, functionally defined reinforcer in such a way that no additional information about the response is conveyed, it becomes possible to detect additive effects of reinforcement over feedback effects. Such was the second purpose of this study.Several recent analogue experiments with volunteers have reported success in modifying erections through feedback and/or reinforcement. Price (1973) found that heterosexual volunteers who received analogue visual feedback as well as binary feedback, provided by a colored light once the needle had passed a pre-set criterion, showed a shorter latency to peak erection and maintained criterion erection longer than a control group receiving no feedback. Both groups were listening to erotic audio tapes. Rosen (1973) demonstrated significant suppression of tumescence in a group of heterosexual volunteers provided with response contingent signal lights. A group receiving non-contingent feedback did not show this effect. In a technical paper, Laws and Pawlowski (1973) have suggested audio feedback of tumescence as a treatment for deficits in sexual arousal.In the clinic, Harbison, Quinn and McAllister (1970), in an uncontrolled case study, reported increasing heterosexual responsiveness in homosexuals through reinforcement of erection. In one of their homosexual patients they were able, over a long series of trials, to increase erection to a heterosexual stimulus (female slide) through rewarding progressively larger responses with sips of iced lime after the patient was water deprived. In addition to the reinforcement, this S was given feedback, of sorts, in that a light was flashed for each successful trial. A second homosexual patient was similarly rewarded for maintaining progressively longer and clearer fantasies of heterosexual behavior. Since other treatments were also applied and no experimental analysis was performed, it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure.In the present experiment the separate effects of feedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals was experimentally evaluated using single case experimental design methodology (Barlow and Hersen, 1973). Since each experiment was somewhat different in design and purpose, each will be described separately.     

A critique of top-down independent levels models of speech production: Evidence from non-plan-internal speech errors

A number of speech errors are examined which are difficult to account for by top-down serial processing models of speech production which hove independent levels of processing. In particular, most of these errors are characterized by the presence of an interfering element which is external to the utterance under current construction. This paper has two main aims: to classify these errors, and to examine the constraints upon them. It is found that phonological similarity between the target and intrusion is a major determinant of error occurrence. The consequences for models of speech production are discussed in a framework consisting of the architecture and control structure of those models. A particular model to account for these data is proposed, consisting of a spreading activation lexical network.     

The effectiveness of behavior modification with spasmodic and congestive dysmenorrhea

Women reporting menstrual discomfort were diagnosed by the Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire as suffering from either spasmodic or congestive dysmenorrhea. Six groups were constructed to form a (congestive vs. spasmodic) × 3 (behavior therapy therapy vs. pseudotreatment vs. waiting list) factorial design. The behavior therapy groups received relaxation combined with premenstrual imagery, and the pseudo-treatment groups engaged in open discussion of personal problems of dysmenorrhea. The Symptom Severity Scale was administered prior to and following treatment as an index of the degree to which menstrual symptoms were experienced. The major finding of clinical significance was that the behavior therapy treatment procedure was highly effective in reducing the reported symptomatology of women suffering from spasmodic dysmenorrhea whereas this approach was not effective in reducing the symptomatology of women suffering from congestive dysmenorrhea. The results are discussed in terms of the need to differentiate type of dysmenorrhea before proceeding with the treatment program herein described.     

Learning and reminiscence in the pursuit rotor performance of normal and depressed subjects

Ten depressed in-patients were compared, after careful age- and sex-matching, with 12 normal controls on a pursuit tracking task which was performed for two 5-min periods, separated by a 10-min rest. The depressives performed significantly worse than the controls, but both groups showed within and between session improvements. This suggests that the depressive state adversely affects the performance but not the learning of a motor skill. Analysis of performance into high and low frequency components showed that the patients had specific difficulty in following high frequency target movements. This inability to follow high frequency movements was significantly correlated with tapping rate for the patient group, implying that both these measures reflect slowed motor responsivity. The result suggests that factors which interfere with the execution of a motor skill (i.e. motor retardation) do not necessarily interfere with the learning of that skill.     

The development of the menstrual symptom questionnaire

The literature has suggested that there are two separate types of primary dysmenorrhea with different physiological bases and different reported symptomatology. The purpose of this study was to construct a questionnaire based on suggestions from Dalton's (1969) theory of congestive and spasmodic types of primary dysmenorrhea, to obtain test-retest reliabilities of items, and to factor analyze the instrument to empirically investigate the two-type theory. The first set of 51 items had mean test-retest reliabilities of 0.76 and yielded two clearly distinct factors in support of the two-type hypothesis. When items with factor loadings less than ±0.35 were discarded, 25 items remained. The mean test-retest reliabilities of these items was 0.78. Again, two clearly distinct factors emerged defining congestive and spasmodic dysmenorrhea consistent with the literature. The retained items from the first questionnaire and the items from the second questionnaire loaded on the same factors both times. It was concluded that two types of dysmenorrhea do, in fact, exist and that this study has provided a reliable means of differentiating them. From a therapeutic standpoint, accurate diagnosis of type may be a prerequisite for prescribing appropriate treatment.     

Identification of cues and control of sexual arousal by rapists

The experiments in this article pertain to factors relevant to rape. The first experiment examined the ability of four groups to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate sexual cues. Rapists detected such cues as well as did either Normals or Non-rapist Inmates, in all but the most assaultive rape tape. Normal subjects who had consumed alcohol prior to testing, detected inappropriate cues earlier in the tapes than did all other subjects. The second experiment addressed the ability of subjects to inhibit sexual arousal when instructed to do so. Rapists and Non-rapists were shown to be equally capable of inhibiting arousal in response to both mutually-consenting and rape cues. These findings negate theories suggesting that rapists differ from other men in that they are unable to exert control over their arousal, and that they have difficulty in identifying inappropriate cues to arousal.     

Social inhibition as a function of observation and recording of performance

In order to compare the relative effects of observation of performance and recording of information about performance on social facilitation/inhibition, 256 college students solved three concept-attainment problems in an orthogonal design. The variables were (a) number of observers (an additional observer or the experimenter alone), (b) videorecording (yes or no), (c) audiorecording (yes or no), (d) task complexity (four, six, eight, or ten total attributes in the problems). Each of videotaping, filming, and audiotaping resulted in poorer performance than the control condition, with no differences between these three recording conditions. The presence of an additional observer had no effect on performance. Pulse measures indicated that the presence of an additional observer increased arousal, but covariance analysis indicated no association between differences in performance and arousal.     

Psychophysiological effects of noxious imagery: Prevalence and prediction

Research suggests that people who generate psychophysiological arousal in emotive imagery therapies are likely to show the largest therapeutic gains. This study investigated the frequency of occurrence and methods of predicting this imagery skill. The effects of five fearful imagery themes on 95 undergraduate volunteers were evaluated in individual sessions by psychophysiological (SRL, EKG and EMG), self-report (anxiety and clarity ratings) and behavioral (motoric expression) measures. Additionally, four questionnaires (Betts, Gordon, APQ and STAI) were administered in a group session. EKG arousal occurred in 66% of our subjects, SRL arousal in 38% and EMG arousal in 16%. Only 9% of our subjects experienced arousal in all three psychophysiological responses and 24% experienced arousal in neither. Motoric expression (overt behavioral emoting) best predicted psychophysiological arousal, self-report ratings were a distant second, and the questionnaires were worthless in this regard. Imagery-induced psychophysiological arousal appears to be a fairly common phenomena, though it eludes convenient prediction. Some training strategies were discussed, (response proposition instructions, biofeedback and motoric coaching), which could be employed with persons deficient in psychophysiological imagery skills prior to their commencing an emotive imagery therapy.     

The nature of curiosity in children

This study examined several behaviors claimed to reflect curiosity in order to determine whether there are one or more types of curiosity. A secondary purpose was to examine the relations between the one or more types of curiosity and sex, social class, intelligence, achievement level, and ratings of personality traits. In two individual sessions 84 American first-grade boys and girls were administered five tasks which measured observation of complex and simple stimuli, preference of complex and simple stimuli, preference for the unknown, structure of meaning, and object exploration. A normalized Varimax factor analysis allowed the extraction of five factors: manipulatory curiosity, perceptual curiosity, conceptual curiosity, curiosity about the complex, and adjustive-reactive curiosity. Only the first factor was related to a demographic variable, sex. The nature of the factors and their theoretical and practical significance are discussed.