Adaptive learning and forgetting in an unconventional experimental routine

Forgetting is often thought of as the inability to remember, but remembering and forgetting allow behavior to adapt to a changing environment in distinct and separable ways. Learning and forgetting were assessed concurrently in two pigeon experiments that involved the same unconventional routine where the schedule of reinforcement changed every session. Sessions were run back-to-back with a 23-h mid-session break such that in a single visit to the testing chamber, a pigeon completed the second half of one session and the first half of the next. The beginning of a new session was either signaled or unsignaled. Experiment 1 involved concurrent variable–interval variable–interval schedules with four possible reinforcer ratios. Response allocation was sensitive to the richer schedule and was retained through the mid-session break. Experiment 2 involved peak interval schedules of varying durations. Temporal discrimination was rapidly acquired before and after the mid-session break, but not retained. Signaling the session change decreased control by past contingencies in both experiments, demonstrating that learning and forgetting can be investigated separately. These results suggest that the temporal structure of training, such as multiple short daily sessions instead of one long session, can meaningfully impact measurement of animals’ capacity to forget and remember.     

Subjective evaluation and allocation of resources in routine decision making

Routine decision making is a process of identifying goals, evaluating alternatives, and formulating appropriate strategies for attaining these goals. The latter two stages of this process were examined in a two-part experiment. In the first part, subjects scaled alternative combinations of the resources required for goal attainment. The results showed that an explicitly defined goal directly influenced the utility of resources. In essence, mean utilities were equivalent to point estimates of cost-benefit analyses. In the second part, subjects performed a decision-making task, allocating the initial resource combinations to achieve an explicitly defined goal. Task performance was modeled with linear programming techniques which provide a means of evaluating both the subjects' decisions and the process of resource allocation and strategy formulation. Results indicated that only 1 of 12 subjects allocated resources optimally in making decisions, even though all of the subjects had appropriately scaled the utility of these resources in the first part of the experiment. Moreover, half the subjects failed to utilize the maximum available resources in making their decisions. This outcome is discussed in terms of the memory and attentional constraints on routine decision-making processes. The results suggest that these constraints are most severe at the time of strategy formulation, even when the utility of resources and the explicit goal are known.     

Effects of preshot routine on free-throw shooting

The effect of prohibiting the use of a preshot routine on free-throw shooting in competitive situations was investigated. 25 male high school basketball players were instructed to attempt 50 free throws alternating in blocks of 10 between the use of their preshot routine and shooting without it. To make the situation competitive, subjects were run in groups of five and their performance was recorded on a large easel placed to the side of the free-throw line. A significantly larger number of baskets were made in the preshot routine condition than without the routine. A competitive situation led to a greater decrement in baskets than had been reported in 1986 by Lobmeyer and Wassermen during noncompetitive free-throw shooting.     

Outcome of psychodynamic child psychotherapy in routine practice

The aim of the present naturalistic study was to explore the effectiveness of psychodynamic child psychotherapy in routine practice. The sample comprised 207 psychotherapies with children 4–12?years of age with a broad range of mental health problems. Data on two measures, children’s global assessment scale (CGAS) and strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ), were collected pre-post therapy. Within-group changes were analysed using repeated measures mixed-models ANOVA. Individual changes were examined by means of clinical significance. The analyses revealed improvement in general functioning, decrease in problem severity and problem impact on the child’s everyday life, as well as an increase in prosocial behaviour. For CGAS, an interaction effect was discovered suggesting a larger improvement for younger children (4–6?years) than for older children (10–12?years). After therapy, 38% (n 76) achieved clinically significant improvement. Time-limited psychotherapy proved favourable for children assigned to that particular treatment modality. The study generated similar results as previous well-controlled trials, revealing statistically significant results in a large sample and in spite the use of non-specific outcome measures. The study provides everyday evidence to the effectiveness of child psychodynamic treatment with parallel parental work for a broad range of child mental health problems.     

Fear of routine dental treatment in adults: Its nature and management

Abstract

The fear of dental treatment in adults can be characterised in several ways, loosely related, such as anticipating being afraid, avoiding dental check-ups and seeking treatment only under general anaesthesia. Defined thus, at least a quarter of adults are highly afraid of dentistry. The feared experiences are many, including most frequently, pain. Several studies have shown that anxious patients experience less pain during treatment than they expect. It remains to be confirmed that these are typical experiences because other studies show that local anaesthesia can fail to protect patients from sudden pain in 13% of treatments on average. Expectations of pain are highly resistant to change, the result probably of several influences including distortion in recall of pain-free treatment, intermittent experience of sudden severe pain, expecting pain in order to reduce its impact, and uncertainty about treatment. It has yet to be shown that experience free of discomfort can reduce these expectations. However, relaxation instructions and information about pain management and stop signals can reduce pre-treatment fear. To prevent the onset and the maintenance of anxiety: the prevention of pain is essential; controlled behavioural studies of the treatment of pain and other experiences such as panics are needed. Finally, the need for new instruments to assess all aspects of fear of dentistry is described.     

Behavioural treatment of obsessional-compulsive patients in routine clinical practice

There is a paucity of information available about the extent to which findings from research studies of behavioural treatments can be generalised to routine clinical practice. The characteristics and treatment at a series of 36 patients with obsessional-compulsive disorders who were referred to a National Health Service Behaviour Therapy Clinic are described. It appears that the methods developed and evaluated in research trials have been incorporated into everyday clinical practice, with some modifications (e.g. less in vivo practice but more home task assignment). The outcomes reported in the research trials were replicated in the clinical setting, and were shown to be achieved economically in terms of therapist time.