Accentuation and attitude in social judgment

In two experiments four sets of both favorable and unfavorable verbal material were classified as belonging to four labels, two specific labels (politicians) and two less specific labels (classes of people). Ss' attitudes towards one of the politicians were more positive than towards the other. Ss stored these stimuli in their memory under casual, incidental instructions. Then Ss retrieved information by deciding which one of two labels was formerly connected to the given verbal items. Ss were expected to accentuate on two orthogonal dependent variables: (1) Discrimination performance between labels; (2) response preference for labels. Discrimination performance was improved for politician labels compared to classes-of-people labels but was not affected by the favorableness of the verbal material. However, response preference for one politician label occurred when two conditions were fulfilled: (a) Both the verbal material and Ss' attitudes towards the label were unfavorable, and (b) the content of verbal material was characteristic of the label. The accentuation theories of Bruner-Goodman and Tajfel were reformulated and integrated into a two-level model.     

Self-concept in educable mentally retarded and emotionally handicapped children

A total of 48 educable mentally retarded (EMR) and emotionally handicapped (EH) children ( \(\overline {CA} \) =137.7 months) were pretested on Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), Nowicki-Strickland's Locus of Control Scale for Children (LCSC), and 3 behavioral measures: (1) risk-taking, (2) a chance/skill task, and (3) delay of gratification. One group of 12 children from each population was then exposed to either a self-confident or a control model. After exposure, Ss were given an opportunity to perform successfully on an ambiguous task and answer questions about their success, and were readministered the SEI, LCSC, and 3 behavioral choices. Correlational analyses of pretreatment data revealed significant relationships between defensiveness and LCSC, SEI, and delay of gratification and a near-significant relationship between LCSC and SEI. EMR and EH Ss were both lower on self-esteem than the general population, while EMR Ss were more defensive, more external, and less likely to delay gratification than EH Ss. Both treated groups matched more of the behavioral choices than the control groups, while only treated EH Ss were more likely to attribute their success to internal causes. It was concluded that EMR and EH children differ in self-concept development and that future attempts to modify self-concept should include greater modeling exposure as well as increased opportunity for performance with its resultant feedback.     

Non-cognitive determinants of perceptual problem-solving strategies

The study examined whether extraversion and rigidity were associated with particular types of errors or response tendencies on the perceptual maze test. In addition to examining overall levels of performance, the study included a detailed analysis of specific components of Ss' response pathways. Extraverted Ss solved more mazes incorrectly but this was not reflected in a significantly larger number of errors made in the binary choice configurations, examined by the response analysis program. Extraverted Ss did show one characteristic response, namely an impulsive exit strategy towards the completion of their solution pathway. Rigidity was not associated with overall level of performance but there was a non-significant trend towards more straight-line response in the more rigid subjects. In contrast with previously studied cognitive factors, the non-cognitive factors do not appear to strongly influence Ss' decisions made in localised binary choice configurations.     

The orienting reaction during human eyelid conditioning following preconditioning exposures to the CS

Summary Two experiments on latent inhibition are described in which the electrodermal and alpha blocking components of the orienting reaction (OR) were measured during human eyelid conditioning. In the first experiment the 16 Ss in the experimental group received 20 CS pre-exposure trials. The OR habituated on those trials but reappeared fully after the first conditioning trial. Therefore, after that trial there was no difference in OR amplitude with a no pre-exposure control group. The two groups did not differ in conditioning performance either. In the second experiment two groups of 25 Ss received an equal number of CS pre-exposures but one group was conditioned during the performance of a masking task. This time the reappearance of the OR was only observed in the no-task group. The results of both experiments are discussed in relation to Sokolov's theory on the facilitative effect of the OR on conditioning.The author wishes to thank Ernest van Lieshout and Ad van Oirschot for running the experiments and for help in the data analysis     

Perceptual and Cognitive Processes in Different States of Consciousness: The Waking State and Hypnosis

Hypnosis was assumed to influence perceptual and cognitive functioning in the direction of increased primary process ideation and adaptive regression. The Rorschach test was administered to 32 Ss in the waking state and under hypnosis in counterbalanced order. Hypnosis was induced by a standardized procedure. Ss received identical instructions for the Rorschach in both conditions. Protocols were scored according to Holt's system for manifestations and control of primary process. Hypnotic Rorschachs showed an increase in primary process manifestations, but no changes in defensive and coping functioning, and no overall changes in the Adaptive Regression Score. However, the nature of the data was found to be influenced by Ss' sex and level of adjustment.     

Differential effects of task and reinforcement variables on the performance of three groups of behavior problem children

In a test of Quay's model of differential response tendencies in three basic dimensions of discordant behavior, 36 delinquent boys divided into three behavior groups — Conduct Disorder, Personality Disorder, Inadequate-Immature — del were compared on a verbal paired-associate task under four conditions of task structure: neutral and emotional content, simplicity and complexity; and two reward conditions: material and verbal. Predictions were that the Conduct Disorder and Inadequate-Immature group would perform optimally under conditions of simple emotional task structure and material reward as opposed to the Personality Disorder group, who would demonstrate optimal performance under verbal reinforcement and reflect an interaction effect for task complexity and emotionality. Results confirmed the basic hypothesis of differential responsiveness as a function of subject variables. Directions of the differences indicated that task variables also produced critical effects.     

Subject differences in cross-modality matching

Forty-eight Ss performed four tasks each: (1) magnitude estimation of area, (2) magnitude estimation of numerousness, (3) cross-modality matching of force of handgrip to area, and (4) cross-modality matching of force of handgrip to numerousness. An additional 48 Ss performed Tasks 2 and 4. Psychophysical power functions were fitted to the data of each S for each condition. Higher correlations between individual exponents were found for conditions employing a common response (i.e., estimating or squeezing) than were found for conditions with the same set of stimuli. Individual differences among exponents stem more from the idiosyncratic use of the dependent variable than from different sensory characteristics.     

Water taste in man

Taste quality and intensity shifts following adaptation to NaCl, quinine hydrochloride, sucrose and HCl were investigated in 10 Ss. In each of four sessions, Ss were adapted to water and two concentrations of one taste solution and gave magnitude estimates and quality judgments for a series of concentrations of that solution. Adapting to water produced magnitude estimates which increased with increasing concentration. Quality judgments were typical, e.g., “salty” for NaCl. Adapting to moderate concentrations of taste solutions generally produced magnitude estimates of zero at the adapting concentrations and increasing values for higher and lower (sub-adapting) concentrations. Sub-adapting tastes were atypical. Adaptation to NaCl and sucrose produced bitter sub-adapting tastes and adaptation to HCl and quinine hydrochloride produced sweet sub-adapting tastes. Water, as the lowest sub-adapting “concentration”, produced the largest sub-adapting tastes.     

An experimental approach to the reduction of overactive behavior

An operant, differential reinforcement procedure (DRO) was employed in a playroom setting for the purpose of controlling overactivity. Six overactive, mentally retarded children, aged 8–13 yr were first observed individually for a period of 8 days in the playroom in order to obtain a baseline performance on a specially constructed check-list of hyperactive behavior. Following this, the conditioning phase began under a fixed schedule of reinforcement with tokens as the reinforcing agents (later to be exchanged for candy). A fading-out phase was instituted after the 30-day conditioning period in order to maintain resistance to extinction at a higher level. Post-conditioning observations were then made. It was conclusively shown that the disturbed, hyperactive behavior came under stimulus control with “grasshopper” play decreasing substantially during the latter part of conditioning and extinction periods.     

Aversive conditioning in the sociopath

Results of two experiments on differential conditioning of the skin conductance (SCR) in sociopaths and normal control subjects are described. In the first experiment it was found that an equal number of sociopaths and control subjects were aware of the conditioning contingency. However, only the normal subjects displayed reliable differential SCR conditioning. Sociopaths showed a dissociation between verbal learning and conditioning of a physiological change. The second experiment examined the differential conditioning of normal subjects and sociopaths in partial remission. The number of aware subjects in the two groups did not differ. Aware subjects in both groups showed differential SCR conditioning. Differential conditioning in sociopaths did not persist over trials as it did in control subjects. A deficiency in ACTH 4–10 as well as neurological dysfunctions were considered possible factors in the etiology of sociopathy. Further research on the relation of neuropeptides to the etiology and treatment of sociopathy is suggested.     

RWMODEL: A program in Turbo Pascal for simulating predictions based on the Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning

A Turbo Pascal computer program is described that simulates the Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning. The menu-driven program makes it possible to compute associative strengths for differential conditioning, conditioned inhibition, compound and contextual conditionings, trans-switching, and other designs.     

Acquisition and extinction of signaled avoidance as a function of intermittent reinforcement

Signaled, shuttle-box avoidance responding in female rats of the Fischer₃₄₄ strain was examined as a function of four separate contingencies of intermittent reinforcement. In Experiment 1, when avoidance responses during acquisition were reinforced 25% of the time with prompt CS termination, animals responded equally often during acquisition and significantly more often during extinction than animals who received such reinforcement on a 100% schedule. Similar results were found under a trace procedure in Experiment 2 when avoidance responses were reinforced 25% of the time with informational feedback stimuli. In contrast, during Experiment 3, when animals were shocked on only 25% of the trials on which they failed to respond, the level of avoidance responding during both acquisition and extinction was significantly less than it was when animals were shocked on a 100% schedule. Comparable results were found in Experiment 4 when avoidance responses during acquisition averted shock on only 25% of the trials. Thus, intermittent reinforcement contingencies involving response-contingent feedback stimuli and shock have differential effects on avoidance responding during both acquisition and extinction trials under the signaled avoidance procedure.     

Transswitching and contextual conditioning

An empirical evaluation of temporal aspects of contextual conditioning was conducted in relation to Asratyan’s (1965) theory of transswitching and to an alternative explanation that was partly stimulated by the Rescorla-Wagner model (Rescorla and Wagner 1972). On the basis of a human electrodermal conditioning preparation suggested by Kimmel and Ray (1978), five groups with 12 subjects each were run. The results indicated that the basic phenomena of transswitching are robust and therefore could be replicated; but the Asratyan theory was rejected. All the results supported an alternative explanation: in contextual conditioning, duration of contextual stimuli is less important than order. Phasic switching is due to simultaneous occurrence of stimuli (differential compound conditioning) and is therefore compatible with the Rescorla-Wagner model. Tonic switching is due to signals that occur before a marked sequence of conditioning trials, in part a challenge to the Rescorla-Wagner model. Long delays between critical events can perhaps be compensated for by mediating memory processes.     

Partial reinforcement effects in instrumental escape conditioning

In Experiment I acquisition and extinction of instrumental escape conditioning with rats (N = 64) were studied as a function of reinforcement magnitude under conditions of partial and continuous reinforcement. In Experiment II the effects of partial and continuous reinforcement were studied in rats (N = 96) during acquisition followed by small, medium, and large reductions in reinforcement magnitude. A water-tank escape apparatus was used with temperature as the relevant variable. It was found that (1) with large reinforcement magnitude a continuously reinforced group was superior in acquisition to one that was partially reinforced; there were no differences with small reinforcement; (2) disruptive effects of a nonreinforced trial (a) appear early in learning, (b) are quite strong after each nonreinforced trial, and (c) persist through several succeeding reinforced trials; (3) major competing behaviors persist throughout acquisition for small reinforcement magnitude regardless of schedule, decline with large reinforcement (more so with continuous than with partial), and return to a high level in extinction for all conditions; (4) the partial reinforcement extinction effect occurs after large reinforcement but not after small, and it appears only with large reductions in reinforcement magnitude which approach extinction conditions. Only the first part of the last finding appears to be consistent with the appetitive conditioning literature.     

A comparison of the effects of vicariously instigated classical conditioning and direct classical conditioning procedures

Two groups of Ss received either two or 16 paired classical conditioning trials beyond the peak CR. A third group received the same stimuli as in the 16 postpeak condition but in an unpaired and random order. The stimuli in all three groups were delivered directly to S. Subsequently, all three groups, including a fourth which was not given any prior direct classical conditioning, were exposed to vicariously instigated classical conditioning. This consisted of havingS observe someone (model) employed byE who received the same CS as was delivered during direct conditioning. The CS was paired with the feigned arm movement of the model, simulating a reaction to shock. This vicarious classical conditioning procedure when compared to direct classical conditioning resulted in smaller GSR magnitudes for both the CRs and UCRs. Previous experience with direct classical conditioning seems to have had an attenuating effect on GSR magnitude during the vicarious situation. A postexperimental questionnaire tended to support the results, and the relationship between the present study and current classical conditioning theory is discussed.     

Audiogenic Seizures: Insulin and High Blood Sugar

Inverted black-white photographs of the faces of highly familiar peers (classmates, fraternity brothers, etc.) were presented to 350 Ss ranging from 3 to 20 years of age. In an untimed test session, S tried to identify the person in the inverted photograph. Success in this task was positively correlated with age up to approximately 14 years, but performance deteriorated after this age; college-age S s and preschool Ss' performances were approximately equal. This finding contrasts with the current view that the effects of disorientation on perception becomes less potent with age. A cognitive explanation is offered for the early rise in the performance curve; the subsequent reduction in level of performance is attributed to rigidity of the perceptual mechanism as a function of overlearning of a mono-oriented configuration.     

The Effects of Magnitude-Based Differential Reinforcement on the Skill Acquisition of Children with Autism

A common recommendation for teaching skills to children with autism is to apply differential reinforcement by reserving high-quality reinforcement for unprompted responses (Sundberg and Partington in Teaching language to children with autism or other developmental disabilities, Behavior Analysts Inc., Pleasant Hill, 1998). Earlier research focuses primarily on schedules or quality of reinforcement, rather than magnitude of reinforcement, when evaluating the use of differential reinforcement in practice. The utility of magnitude-based differential reinforcement may be dependent upon evidence that a learner responds differentially to large and small amounts of reinforcement such that he or she selects the large amount of reinforcement over the small amount of reinforcement and engages in more responses that produce the relatively larger magnitude reinforcement. Three individuals with autism participated in a treatment comparison of differential reinforcement. The manipulation of magnitude of differential reinforcement in a skill acquisition program did not have an appreciable effect on the rate of acquisition for any of the three participants.     

Personality and conditioning with appetitive and aversive stimuli

Two studies examining relationships of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N) and psychoticism (P) to conditioning performance are reported. In the first, 31 male volunteers developed electrodermal CRs to appetitive or aversive stimuli of either weak or strong rated intensity. Factor analysis yielded general factors of classical CR acquisition and extinction across reinforcement type. Stability and E loaded the acquisition factor, these Ss, from post-hoc analysis, revealing superior conditioning in the strong appetitive condition. In the second study, 20 of these 31 Ss participated in two series of discrimination motor reaction time trials, in which attainment of criterion RT was reinforced by appetitive slides, and slower-than-criterion responding by aversive slides. Introversion was correlated with greater response acquisition under both conditions, although post-hoc analysis suggested that improvement under positive reinforcement did not differ from simple practice. Results are congruent with a model combining reinforcer preference with response potential to describe personality-conditioning relationships.     

Advantages of recall over anticipation methods in verbal learning

The standard paired-associate anticipation procedure previously has been argued to be inferior to recall (Battig, 1965). Anticipation performance measures provide contaminated and inaccurate estimates of Ss’ current learning level, reflecting the unnecessary confusion produced by requiring S to do too many things at once. The present paper shows these arguments against anticipation procedures to apply equally to other types of verbal-learning tasks. Even stronger advantages of recall over anticipation procedures are demonstrated for serial learning, wherein recall additionally displays a markedly greater sensitivity to the effects of relevant manipulated variables, and does not result in the classical bowed serial-position curve that has proved so difficult to understand under serial anticipation.     

Cardiac arrhythmias in the monkey during classically conditioned fear and excitement

Rhesus monkeys(Macaca mulatto) were tested in classic aversive and appetitive conditioning paradigms following complete coronary artery occlusion (CO) to test the hypothesis that “emotional stress” induces ventricular arrhythmias. Findings were based upon conditioning trials conducted for one or more weeks after occlusion in 13 animals. When all data from each animal for the week following CO were considered, there was no demonstrable tendency for arrhythmias to increase during “fear” conditioned to unavoidable electric shock or during “excitement” in anticipation of food. However, selected trials from six monkeys did reveal instances when changes in the frequency of occurrence of arrhythmias were coupled with behavioral conditioning. While analysis of these trials did not reveal any simple relationship between emotional stress and the development of ventricular arrhythmias after myocardial infarction, certain of the behavioral situations may be more potentially arrhythmogenic than others. For these selected trials, with respect to control, the number of arrhythmias may have increased or decreased upon presentation of the conditional stimulus; the exact response appears to depend upon the immediate physiologic status of the animal as well as on the behavioral condition. “More stressful” situations, such as aversive conditioning, are not necessarily associated with greater numbers of arrhythmias than were “less stressful” situations, such as appetitive conditioning. Arrhythmias appear to occur more frequently when an animal’s heart rate is within a given range; this may reflect underlying cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve activity.