Performance of pigeons on delayed simple and conditional discriminations under equivalent training procedures

A pair of experiments investigated the short-term memory of pigeons under delayed simple and conditional discriminations. Trial sequences in both discriminations consisted of a color as the sample stimulus, a memory interval, a line orientation as the test stimulus, and a trial outcome, which was either food reinforcement or blackout. Pecking rates during the test stimulus defined discrimination performance. In the simple discrimination, the sample provided the necessary information regarding the subsequent trial outcome. In the conditional discrimination, the sample and test stimuli conjointly provided this information. In Experiment 1, the two procedures were compared with independent groups of pigeons. In Experiment 2, the comparison was made within subjects. The simple discrimination was acquired more quickly and was performed better with a memory requirement. Introduction of long delays disrupted performance even at shorter delays in both discriminations. Postulation of prospective as well as retrospective mediating processes facilitates the interpretation of these results.     

The aftermath of heresy: a response to Pendery et al.'s (1982) critique of "Individualized Behavior Therapy for Alcoholics"

A point-by-point response is presented to Pendery et al.'s (1982) critique of the study “Individualized Behavior Therapy for Alcoholics (IBTA)”. Two independent, external investigations have critically examined the original records from the IBTA study. The IBTA study compared two different techniques for treating poor-prognosis, chronic alcoholic state hospital patients. It was found that a broad-spectrum behavioral treatment oriented to controlled drinking was a more effective treatment than was the standard hospital treatment program based on conventional wisdom. The Pendery et al. critique gave the appearance of being a refutation by presenting findings for only one group of Ss in a comparative study. In this response, it is shown that the experimental and control Ss were justifiably classified as gamma alcoholics, that Ss were randomly assigned to groups, and that the two groups were comparable in terms of pretreatment characteristics. Moreover, as regards the originally reported 2-yr treatment outcome findings, it is shown that Pendery et al, reported no specific events which were not already documented in the original study records which formed the basis for publications about the IBTA study. Finally, even in terms of long-term outcomes, i.e. mortality rates 10–11 yr after treatment, the experimentally-treated group (20% mortality) continued to fare better than the traditionally-treated group (30% mortality). Ironically, rather than Pendery et al.'s report being a refutation of the original published accounts of the IBTA study, it is concluded that the data reported by Pendery el al. actually strengthen the validity of the original publications. The attack on the IBTA study can be meaningfully viewed as a reflection of the scientific revolution presently underway in the alcohol field. The central impetus for conceptual change in the alcohol field, however, derives less from controlled-drinking research than from the lack of empirical support for conventional wisdom. Ideas are changing because the traditional view no longer inspires progress.     

The effects of onset and offset warning and post-target stimuli on the saccade latency of children and adults

Two studies, involving children (mean age = 10 years) and adults, investigated the effects of visual stimulus onsets and offsets on the latency of saccades to peripheral targets. Saccade latency was reduced when foveal stimulus onsets or offsets preceded the target. When stimulus onset occurred 100 msec after target onset, the stimulus interfered with responding, with this interference effect significantly greater for children than for adults. When stimuli were presented in the peripheral visual field facilitation and interference effects were similar for children and adults. These results were interpreted as indicating that oculomotor processes are similar in children and adults while the stimulus intake processes that follow stimulus onset at the point of fixation have a greater interference effect on children's than on adults' eye movements.     

Comparative assessment of a coping model for school adolescents

Four brief, interpersonal coping courses were conducted in a junior high school setting for early adolescent students who volunteered for the experience. Two of the classes (N=24) consisted of students who regularly utilized school guidance personnel; the remaining two classes (N=19) consisted of adolescents from the general school population. Course objectives included higher self-esteem and increased ability to perceive, interpret, and express nonverbal communication and feeling. Session tape recordings provided verbal data for analysis by the Hill Interaction Matrix (HIM) procedure. Results showed that the intervention had significant impact on students' patterns of interaction: interactions were fewer, but longer; conventional interactions decreased, while speculative ones increased; and personal and relationship content increased. Generally, the two class types exhibited similar patterns and changes, although some specific differences were detected. Social class background, stressful life events, and the intensity of the problems experienced by the two types of student were postulated as the sources of this variability. When coupled with ancillary postcourse data, these results support the conclusion that students' interpersonal coping skills were improved by the experience.     

The determinants of beliefs in human nature

This study set out to examine which of a range of ‘demographic’ factors best predicted peoples' beliefs in the heredity vs environmental determinants of specific features in human nature. Ss' sex, age, education, class, voting pattern and religion were related to their beliefs in the heredity vs environmental determinants of six human characteristics: physical characteristics, psychological skills, personality, beliefs, psychological problems and physical problems. Both univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated the close relationship between the independent demographic variables, particularly education and voting pattern, and the dependent belief variables, particularly personality and beliefs. The literature on correlates of political beliefs was examined and related to the findings in this study.     

Vocational behavior and career development, 1983: A review

This article reviews the literature related to vocational behavior and career development published during 1983. Journals in the fields of psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior were examined, and 445 relevant articles published in 42 different journals were identified. The review is organized around issues pertinent to the counseling psychology perspective (i.e., career development, vocational choice, vocational behavior of women, assessment, intervention strategies) and the industrial/organizational psychology perspective (i.e., personnel functions, worker adjustment problems, work adjustment) on vocational behavior.     

Exposure and response prevention of morbid ruminations and compulsive avoidance

Two patients with morbid ruminations and compulsive avoidance behavior were independently treated by the authors with exposure and response prevention strategies. The patients were quite different with respect to age (23 vs 58), occupational status (student vs civil servant) and length of disorder (2 vs 40 years), although their disorders were quite similar. The present report describes the patients and treatment procedures and reports on dramatic behavioral changes that occurred within brief time periods.     

A multitrait-multimethod examination of affect structure: hedonic level and emotional intensity

Past research on the personality structure of affect suggests that hedonic level and emotional intensity are two separate major dimensions. The present study employed a multitrait-multimethod approach to verify this finding. Seventy-four University of Illinois students completed daily mood reports and self-report questionnaires, and their parents completed a questionnaire about them. Both hedonic level and intensity measures were used. The convergent validities (monotrait-multimethod correlations) were all significant and tended to be highest for emotional intensity. The multitrait-monomethod coefficients were nonsignificant, as were the correlations based on different measures of different traits. The data were interpreted as supporting the distinction between hedonic level and affect intensity, as well as supporting the validity of the measures.     

Self-schemas,depression, and the processing of personal information in children

Recent research in information processing has yielded evidence supporting the self-as-schema model with adults. Further self-schema research with depressed and nondepressed persons has suggested the existence of negative self-schemas in depression, lending support to a content-specificity self-schema model. The present studies were designed to investigate the applicability of the self-as-schema model to children and to examine the extent of negative self-schemas in relatively depressed children. A depth-of-processing incidental recall memory paradigm was employed with two groups of normal third- to sixth-grade children. Results supported the self-as-schema model as applied to children, even the youngest group, by indicating superior recall for words encoded under self-reference instructions, compared to semantic or structural orienting instructions. The content-specificity hypotheses were tested with relatively depressed and nondepressed children, and were supported only for the nondepressed children, who recalled mostly positive content words. The relatively depressed children did not demonstrate content specificity in their recall, showing a more “confused” pattern, and the results were discussed in terms of a developmental model of acquisition of depression vulnerability requiring repeated depressive experiences over time. Although the results were consistent with a self-schema approach, current controversies over the implications of depth-of-processing methods require further research to clarify mechanisms of enhanced self-reference recall.     

Effects of noise on sensitivity of introverts and extraverts to signals in a vigilance task

Forty Ss, previously classified as introverts or extraverts on the basis of scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory, performed a visual vigilance task while being stimulated with noise at an intensity level of either 65 or 85 dB. Introverts given noise of 65 dB intensity showed an improvement in detection rate across trials, whereas introverts given noise of 85 dB intensity showed a decline in detection rate. Extraverts responded to noise of 65 dB intensity with a slight decrease in detection rate, but showed an improvement in detection over trials when noise of 85 dB intensity was given. When noise of the lower intensity was given, introverts showed greater sensitivity to signals than extraverts. When noise of the higher intensity was given, introverts and extraverts were equal in sensitivity. The results are discussed in terms of a hypothesized relationship between stimulation and arousal, with E-I as a moderator variable.     

Personality correlates of retrieval processes in intentional and unintentional forgetting

Early accounts of intentional forgetting relied exclusively on mechanisms that operate at encoding. The results of more recent experiments indicate that memory-retrieval inhibition also is involved, thus linking waking intentional forgetting with hypnotic amnesia. The present Experiment 1 was designed to provide further support for the retrieval-inhibition hypothesis by testing four alternative explanations for some of the recent results. Experiment 2 examined the role of word affect in both intentional forgetting and unintentional forgetting to evaluate theoretical interpretations of the retrieval mechanisms thought to be involved. Unintentional forgetting of negative words was consistent with a repression-like interpretation, whereas intentional forgetting of negative words appeared to be limited by sensitization. Personality correlates of the recall results were identified and were found to be in support of these interpretations.     

Variations in explicitly unpaired training are differentially effective in producing conditioned inhibition

To evaluate a contingency interpretation of conditioned inhibition (CI), rats were given “explicity unpaired” training in which the locus and duration of a CS within the inter-US (shock) interval were systematically manipulated for different groups. Summation and retardation tests in Experiment 1 indicated that stronger CI resulted from both a backward and a trace CS than from a midlocus CS of equal or greater duration. Complementing these findings, the same tests in Experiment 2 showed that, by comparison with novel-stimulus controls, CI developed to a trace CS but not to a mid-locus CS, nor to a trace CS that was accompanied by an immediate signal for the US. These findings argue against a contingency interpretation of CI and favor a contiguity interpretation stressing the short-term rehearsal of stimulus events. Such rehearsal of the US allows a backward CS, but not a mid-locus CS with an extended US-CS interval, to be discriminated as a signal for nonreinforcement, and thus to develop as a conditioned inhibitor. Similarly, excitatory conditioning to the memory trace of a CS allows the nominal trace CS to develop as a signal for nonreinforcement, and thus as a conditioned inhibitor, but not when its memory trace is overshadowed by another CS that immediately precedes the US. In short, the development of CI is facilitated when excitation is mediated by the memorial processing of either the US or a discrete CS for the US rather than by contextual cues.     

Formal assessment of problem-solving and planning processes in preschool children

While much is known about adult problem-solving, the materials, analyses, and theoretical issues from the adult literature rarely make contact with the tasks typically used to investigate children's thinking. This paper examines the behavior of 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children attempting to solve a novel variant of the Tower of Hanoi task. Problems varied in difficulty (one to seven moves for the minimum path solution) and in goal type: tower (all objects on one peg) or flat (all pegs occupied). For each problem, children gave verbal statements of their complete solution plan. The Plan Analysis examined performance as a function of goal type and age. Better performance was observed for tower ending problems, and among older children. The Error Analysis revealed that specific error propensities were related to both age and goal type. The Strategic Analysis compared the first move profiles of 6-year-olds to those of several plausible move selection models, and a high degree of correspondence was obtained between specific models and individual children. Young children appear to have rudimentary forms of many of the problem-solving processes previously identified in adults, but they may differ in encoding and representational processes.     

Avoidance extinction in goldfish

Independent groups of goldfish trained to avoid shock in a shuttlebox situation were presented with several extinction procedures in which the relationships between the conditioned stimulus and shock were altered and/or response contingencies removed. Random shock presentations, equivalent to the number of shocks received during avoidance acquisition, resulted in response decrements similar to those obtained when the conditioned stimulus was presented alone. Pairing the conditioned stimulus with shock on every trial, however, served to maintain response levels. When response-contingent punishment was superimposed upon these Pavlovian pairings, performance was facilitated slightly although punishment alone resulted in somewhat faster response reduction than that produced by exposure only to the conditioned stimulus. Extinction of avoidance responding produced by exposure to the conditioned stimulus alone was dependent on the total duration of exposure and independent of both number of stimulus onsets and response prevention. These experiments demonstrated that, in general, the procedures used to reduce avoidance responding in rats were equally effective for goldfish, with one exception: the introduction of a Pavlovian contingency following avoidance acquisition, making the previously avoidable shock unavoidable, maintained response probabilities near previously established levels.     

Storage and retrieval processes in sentence memory

Two experiments investigated how much time Ss take to verify a sentence with respect to a set of subject-verb-object (SVO) propositions they had learned. Three triplets of SVOs provided differing degrees of equivocation, including (1) unique SVOs, (2) a V with 3 SOs, and (3) an SV with 3 Os. A general class of models was proposed regarding the representation of prepositional trees in memory and an algorithm by which a probe tree might be verified against a set of trees in memory. In Expt I, verification times were least for Condition (1), slower and equal for Conditions (2) and (3). In Expt II, a fourth condition, an SO with 3 Vs, produced verification times as slow as those in Condition (3). Of several models considered, the closest-fitting one assumed parallel search processes proceeding simultaneously from S, V, and O positions of the probe, scanning through memory trees structered according to the HAM (Human Associative Memory) theory of Anderson and Bower.     

Forgetting of recently acquired or recently reactivated memories

Four experiments compared the rates of forgetting following acquisition of a conditioned aversion and following a reactivation treatment given long after conditioning had been completed. The “reactivation treatment” consisted of a single presentation of the unconditioned stimulus, a procedure known to reinstate, following substantial forgetting, the behavior seen immediately after conditioning. It was first determined that the decrement in performance 1, 3, or 7 days later tended to be more rapid just after original conditioning than following a reactivation treatment given 27 days after conditioning. Subsequent experiments confirmed that the forgetting seen 3 or 7 days after original conditioning was in fact greater than forgetting 3 or 7 days after the reactivation treatment that had followed conditioning by 27 days; also, tests permitted rejection of the hypothesis that this effect could be attributed to nonassociative (systemic) consequences of the conditioning situation. Finally, tests indicated that retention 24 hr after a reactivation treatment was significantly better if the reactivation treatment followed conditioning by 27 days than if it were given just 3 min or 24 hr after conditioning. The central observation emerging from this study, that forgetting is more rapid following original learning than following a temporally remote reactivation treatment, was discussed in terms of potential interactions between the age (or accessibility) of a memory and processes that might be instigated by a reactivation treatment.