Behavioral engineering: postural control by a portable operant apparatus

Recent studies suggested a general behavioral engineering approach to behavioral disorders by portable operant treatment instruments. The approach was applied to the problem of poor posture, specifically rounding of the back or slouching. An apparatus was developed that provided a warning stimulus followed by an aversive tone for the duration of slouching. Slouching was thereby punished by onset of the tone, and non-slouching was reinforced by tone termination and postponement. Twenty-five adults wore the apparatus during their normal working day during alternate periods in which the aversive tone was connected and disconnected experimentally. A miniature time-meter recorded the duration of slouching. The results showed that slouching decreased for each subject during each period in which slouching produced the aversive tone. For two subjects, a second control procedure was applied in which slouching terminated the tone. The result was an increase of slouching, demonstrating that the postural changes were controlled by the scheduled relation between the aversive tone and the response, and not by other factors such as simple response feedback. The substantial changes in posture indicate that the present procedure may prove to be an effective treatment alternative and suggests the general value of the behavioral engineering approach.     

Behavioral engineering: two apparatuses for toilet training retarded children

Daytime incontinence is a major problem for retarded children. A training procedure for eliminating this problem should be facilitated by an apparatus that provided the trainer with an immediate signal when the child voided so that the trainer could react immediately. Two apparatuses were developed for this purpose: a toilet-chair apparatus to signal proper toileting and a portable pants-alarm apparatus to signal wetting of the pants. A reprimand was given when pants wetting occurred whereas positive reinforcement was given for proper toileting. Results with four profoundly retarded children indicated the reliability of the apparatuses in practice and the effectiveness of a toilet training program that used the two apparatuses.     

A versatile cat-restraint system

A new method and apparatus for restraining the awake cat is described. The restraint system comfortably and adequately restrains virtually any cat and requires little or no adaptation. The restraint box is inexpensive to construct, lightweight, and portable. The unit requires minimal maintenance, can be easily used by one person, and may be modified for use in a variety of situations.     

Adolescent males' sexual behavior and contraceptive use: implications for male responsibility

A recent US survey of single 17-21 year old men, indicated that 17.1% used a condom at 1st intercourse and 15.5% used a condom at the most recent intercourse. Withdrawal is also used: 10.0% and 7.4% respectively. Condom use was correlated with being older at 1st intercourse, having a higher educational level, closer association to partner, and sense of male contraceptive responsibility. The data used for this analysis was taken from a sub-sample of 624 sexually active males in 1979. The mean age at 1st intercourse was 14.8 years and mean age at most recent was 18.9 years. The pill was also used at 1st intercourse (8.8%) and a total of 43.5% used some method of contraception. In the most recent intercourse cases, 64.7% used some method of birth control and the pill was used 26.5% , condom 15.5%, and withdrawal 7.4%. Conclusions from this data indicate that male methods are important in teen contraception. Condom use at 1st and most recent intercourse was related to both positive and negative characteristics. It appears that males show some contraceptive responsibility initially but later give the responsibility to females. The declining use of condoms indicates it to be a transitional form of birth control. Programs should promote continued use of condoms since use of the pill is low and unwanted pregnancy risk is high. Communication on contraception should be encouraged, so both partners are aware if neither one is contracepting. With the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic, condom use takes on a whole new context in relation to the decline in use by adolescents.     

Visual discrimination of horizontal and vertical rectangles by rats on a new discrimination training apparatus

A new visual shape discrimination apparatus for use with rats is described. Rats were trained on a simultaneous discrimination using stereometric shapes, and the reward was milk which was delivered through the middle of the shapes. Animals were trained to discriminate vertical and horizontal rectangles on the apparatus, and it was found that they took as many trials to learn as on a Lashley jumping stand. Because of the speed at which individual trials may be conducted, less actual time is spent on training in this apparatus than in a Lashley jumping stand. Some transfer tests were conducted and indicated that: (1) although the bottom halves of the shapes were more important for rats than the top halves, animals had learned something about the shapes as a whole; (2) animals transferred to discontinuous shapes; (3) they transferred better to larger shapes than to smaller; (4) they had learned both to approach the positive shape, and to avoid the negative shape.     

Electronic monitoring and counseling to improve medication adherence

Electronic caps, pill caps that record the date and time of pill bottle opening provide an objective measure of adherence to prescribed medication. A promising intervention to improve adherence, cue-dose training, involves reviewing patients' pill cap-generated reports concerning their medication-taking and offering individualized recommendations for remembering to take medications at specific times of day. In this preliminary study, 79 patients prescribed the antihyperglycemic medication metformin had adherence assessed during a 4-week baseline period. Adherence, defined as proportion of prescribed doses taken within a predetermined 4-h window, was measured using electronic MEMS caps. Those who had less than 80% baseline adherence (n = 33) were randomly assigned to either receive 4 months of cue-dose training (n = 16) or to a control group (n = 17). Cue-dose training was associated with significantly better adherence to metformin (mean improvement of 15%). The effects of cue-dose training on adherence to other antihyperglycemic medication did not reach statistical significance. Glycosylated hemoglobin (a measure of blood sugar control) did not differ between groups. Data from nine patients who reviewed pill cap-generated data with their primary care providers suggested that both patients and providers found the discussion moderately helpful and not at all uncomfortable.     

An apparatus for studying operant activity of captive coyotes

We describe a portable apparatus designed to examine the free-operant food preferences of captive coyotes in their home kennels. Because leverpressing for food access was the dependent variable, we measured food preference independently of food ingestion. Using successive approximation, we trained 8 out of 19 coyotes (42%) to use the apparatus. This percentage is similar to training rates for dogs. We used fixed and variable ratio schedules of reinforcement to further test 4 of the trained coyotes. All 4 produced response curves similar to those of other species on similar schedules of reinforcement.     

The exercise pill: should we replace exercise with pharmaceutical means?

New physiological and pharmacological research points to the possibility of a pill that produces the complete physiological effects of exercise. Is replacement of exercise with a pill a good idea? And if so, under what circumstances? To explore answers, I have examined three approaches to the understanding exercise. From a dualist point of view, exercise is explained mechanistically in terms of physiological cause and effect relationships. From this perspective, and in particular for reluctant exercisers, there seems to be no strong argument against the use of a pill. From a phenomenological point of view, exercise is understood from a first person perspective focusing on experiential qualities. It is argued that a pill can never replace the embodied, experiential values of exercising and their potential ethical significance. In other words, the use of a pill is rejected. From a critical social constructivist point of view, exercise is understood as an expression of sociocultural values. Exercise can be a source of both bodily alienation and embodied self-realization and meaning. It is argued that in settings of alienating exercise malpractice, an exercise pill can be a temporary lesser evil approach. It is pointed out, however, that the long-term solution to malpractice is not a pill but a change of practice. In a final section, the possibility of the exercise pill is contextualized in the larger, bio-ethical debate on human enhancement.     

A synchronization effect and its application to stuttering by a portable apparatus

The present study attempted to determine how a rhythmic beat affects ongoing behavior. A regular stimulus beat was presented to normal subjects who had been instructed to push a bar from side to side. Other subjects had been instructed to emit a vocal response. The individual vocal and motor responses became synchronized with the individual beats of the rhythm. The time between stimulus beats determined the modal interresponse time. These results indicate a synchronization effect: ongoing behavior tends to become synchronized with an ongoing stimulus rhythm. An attempt was made to apply these findings to the problem of stuttering, which can be considered as a disturbance of the natural rhythm of speech. Stutterers were instructed to synchronize their speech with a simple regular beat presented to them tactually by a portable apparatus. The result was a reduction of 90% or more of the stuttering for each subject during the period of synchronization. This effect endured for extended periods of spontaneous speech as well as for reading aloud and was found to be attributable to the rhythmic nature of the stimulus and not to other factors.     

Community and health facility influences on contraceptive method choice in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

CONTEXT: Although a growing number of studies have examined how community factors influence contraceptive use, few have explored how such factors affect method choice. METHODS: Data from the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey and the 1998 Eastern Cape Facility Survey were used to examine community and health facility influences on the method choices of 1,165 women aged 15-49 who lived in the Eastern Cape. Relative risk ratios from multilevel multinomial models assessed how method choice varied between communities. RESULTS: The likelihood of using the pill or a more permanent method rather than the injection rose with the proportion of women in a community who controlled their earnings (risk ratios, 3.2 and 3.8, respectively). In communities with higher proportions of females with only a primary education, women were less likely to use the pill instead of the injection (0.1). Higher doctor staffing levels were associated with a greater likelihood of using the pill or a more permanent method (1.5 and 1.4), and having more expired methods in stock was associated with increased use of a more permanent method (2.1). Several facility factors were associated with a decreased likelihood of using the pill rather than the injection: higher numbers of community health workers in an area and higher numbers of facility nurses who had received training on HIV/AIDS in the last year (0.9 for each). Yet a substantial amount of variation in method choice was not accounted for by these variables. CONCLUSION: Future research should emphasize the collection of community-level data on structural, behavioral and cultural factors to help explain the variation in method choice between communities.     

A longitudinal evaluation of computer-assisted instruction on contraception for college students.

This study assessed changes in contraceptive knowledge of 58 white female undergraduate college students following use of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program on contraceptive methods. The CAI program consisted of a personal-computer-based instructional lesson covering facts about and appropriate use of oral contraceptives and barrier methods, and myths about sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases. Baseline contraceptive knowledge was first compared with 171 white female undergraduate students. This comparison indicated that, overall, there were knowledge deficits regarding the safety of oral contraceptives and what to do if oral contraceptives are not used correctly. At immediate posttest, significant knowledge gains were observed for danger signs associated with using oral contraceptives, the rationale for triphasic and biphasic pills, potential medication synergism, health benefits of using oral contraceptives, potential contraceptive effect of withdrawal, and the reasons women stop using the pill. At six-month follow-up, students evidenced long-term knowledge gains on duration of pill use, the rationale for triphasics and biphasics, appropriate contingencies for missing two days of the pill, danger signs associated with using contraceptives, medication synergism, and health benefits of using oral contraceptives. The results of the evaluation are considered in the context of the widely held assumption that young women's contraceptive failure is unrelated to knowledge deficits about methods of birth control.     

Is dissonance phenomenologically aversive?

This study examined whether dissonance is, phenomenologically, an aversive state. Experimental subjects were induced to write counterattitudinal essays under a high-choice condition. One group of subjects was led to believe that a pill, which they had just taken in the context of a separate experiment, would cause them to feel pleasantly excited. A second group was led to believe that the pill would make them feel tense. A third group was given no information about the pill's potential side effects, while a fourth group expected to have no side effects at all. In this last condition, the results yielded the usual dissonance effect: subjects stated attitudes more congruent with the essay than did subjects in a survey control condition. When subjects were given an opportunity to attribute their arousal to an arousing, but nonaversive pill (i.e., the pleasant excitement condition), this effect was unchanged. In contrast, when subjects could attribute their arousal to an aversive pill (i.e., in the tensè and the no information conditions), this effect was virtually eliminated. These results are consistent with the notion that dissonance is an aversive state and that subjects will seize, when possible, an external attribution for this state.     

A tracking procedure for determining the cat's frequency discrimination

A tracking procedure was used to investigate the time required to train cats to discriminate between a frequency-modulated tone and a steady tone. The animal was reinforced with food on a VR schedule only when the steady tone was present and the animal pressed the correct bar (one of two). After reinforcement, the steady tone usually changed to a frequency-modulated signal; by pressing the other bar, the tone could be changed to its steady state and the reinforcement then obtained as before. A major difficulty was the lack of control by the auditory stimulus on the cat's responses. This problem was solved by introducing interpress time outs which forced the animal to hesitate after every press. The use of light cues to signal the time outs and the correct bar to press accelerated the rate at which the training progressed.

With cats, this conditioning procedure apparently requires a much longer training period before the actual threshold determinations than the more commonly used avoidance conditioning procedures. However, when animals are to be tested repeatedly over a period of several months or longer, the procedure may prove the more desirable one because it reduces experimental neurosis.

     

Cross-cultural music cognition: cognitive methodology applied to North Sami yoiks

This article is a study of melodic expectancy in North Sami yoiks, a style of music quite distinct from Western tonal music. Three different approaches were taken. The first approach was a statistical style analysis of tones in a representative corpus of 18 yoiks. The analysis determined the relative frequencies of tone onsets and two- and three-tone transitions. It also identified style characteristics, such as pentatonic orientation, the presence of two reference pitches, the frequency of large consonant intervals, and a relatively large set of possible melodic continuations. The second approach was a behavioral experiment in which listeners made judgments about melodic continuations. Three groups of listeners participated. One group was from the Sami culture, the second group consisted of Finnish music students who had learned some yoiks, and the third group consisted of Western musicians unfamiliar with yoiks. Expertise was associated with stronger veridical expectations (for the correct next tone) than schematic expectations (based on general style characteristics). Familiarity with the particular yoiks was found to compensate for lack of experience with the musical culture. The third approach simulated melodic expectancy with neural network models of the self-organizing map (SOM) type (Kohonen, T. (1997). Self-organizing maps (2nd ed.). Berlin: Springer). One model was trained on the excerpts of yoiks used in the behavioral experiment including the correct continuation tone, while another was trained with a set of Finnish folk songs and Lutheran hymns. The convergence of the three approaches showed that both listeners and the SOM model are influenced by the statistical distributions of tones and tone sequences. The listeners and SOM models also provided evidence supporting a core set of psychological principles underlying melody formation whose relative weights appear to differ across musical styles.     

An electronic guidance system for multihandicapped blind persons: Evaluating its effectiveness and likableness

An electronic guidance system was used to help two multihandicapped blind persons move and carry out activities within a large setting. Both subjects had previously been exposed to a robot-assisted program. The electronic guidance system consisted of three parts: a control unit, infrared light sources, and a portable device. The portable device provided the subjects with direction feedbacks concerning the activity places. Data showed that both subjects learned to use the device and thus could profitably engage in mobility and activity. When allowed to choose between the new system and the robot, one subject preferred the robot, the other the new system. A group of parents, who were shown video-tapes of the two subjects while working with the new system and with the robot, preferred the new system. Efficacy, likableness and cost of this system and of the robot are discussed.     

From the Heterogeneity Problem to a Natural-Kind Approach to Pleasure

The heterogeneity problem, which stems from the alleged difficulty of finding out what all pleasant experiences have in common, is largely considered as a substantial issue in the philosophy of pleasure, one that is usually taken as the starting point for theorizing about the essence of pleasure. The goal of this paper is to move the focus away from the heterogeneity problem and toward an alternative approach to pleasure. To do this, I first show that, although the approach stemming from the heterogeneity problem has led to an interesting discussion about the essence of pleasure, it has usually endorsed an introspectionist methodology and other problematic assumptions that have led to doubtful results. I thus propose a natural-kind approach to pleasure, which seeks to determine what, if any, the natural kind of pleasure would consist in. This approach broadens the investigation of pleasure by enabling the use of a larger range of methodological tools, thus opening new promising directions for research.     

An introduction to hearing loss and screening procedures for behavioral research

Hearing loss is a confounding variable that is rarely addressed in behavioral research despite its prevalence across the life span. Currently, the most common method of experimental control over hearing acuity is through self report of perceived impairment. We argue that this technique may lack sensitivity and that researchers should more commonly utilize standardized hearing screening procedures. Distinctive patterns of hearing loss are reviewed with attention to populations that commonly participate in behavioral research. We explain standard techniques for conducting pure tone hearing screening using a conventional portable audiometer and outline a procedure for how researchers can modify a conventional laptop computer for audiometric screening when a standard audiometer is unavailable. We offer a sample hearing screening program that researchers may use toward the development of their own protocol. This program is freely available for download at www .psychonomic.org/archive.     

On the independence of stimulus evocation of fear and fear evocation of responses

Dogs in an experimental group were first trained in a shuttlebox on a free-operant avoidance response; then a second, discriminative avoidance response was trained in a second apparatus to a tone. Following criterion, the second avoidance response was “extinguished” through unsignaled. response-independent US presentations. Finally, the tone was presented in the shuttlebox as a test for residual fear. The tone produced as much facilitation of the free-operant avoidance responding as it did in two control groups; one control had not had the second avoidance response extinguished, while the other had received only Pavlovian conditioning in the second apparatus. Thus, the elimination of a discriminative avoidance response to a CS does not impair the CS's ability to control a second independent avoidance response. This result reflects and confirms the separability and independence of the CS-fear and fearavoidance response links hypothesized by two-process theories.     

A portable system for studying head movements in infants in relation to contingent and noncontingent sensory stimulation

A portable apparatus for studying infant head movements and programming sensory stimulation is described. Remote pushbuttons allow observation of vocalizations, smiles, and visual attention. Lightweight and compact, the system allows recording of data in a variety of locations, including home, hospital, and laboratory.