Client Reaction to Counselor's Use of Self-Experience

This study sought to determine if counselor use of self-experience may be useful in increasing self-confidence, self-disclosure, perceived genuineness, and empathic understanding. Volunteer graduate students in education interested in participating in a series of group counseling sessions structured to deal with problems of the graduate student were used in this study. 30 graduate students were divided into 6 groups of 5 each. 3 groups were experimental groups and 3 groups were control groups. In the control groups self-experience examples were not used by the counselor, but in the experimental groups they were used extensively. Questionnaires, taped sessions, and post-counseling interviews were used in evaluation of results. The experimental groups perceived the counseling relationship as less genuine than the control groups. The results of the study did not support the use of counselor self-experience examples in group counseling.     

Choice, experience, and the generalized matching law

Five pigeons were exposed to different pairs of concurrent variable-interval, variable-interval schedules on nine experimental conditions of 30 sessions each. For every session, the parameters of the generalized matching equation were computed for the first five, six, seven, eight, and nine experimental conditions. The exponent a, both for response and time distribution, tended to decrease with increases in number of experimental conditions and to increase with number of sessions per condition, but values of k (bias) varied unsystematically. When the subjects were exposed to five new pairs of schedules, with 55 sessions per condition, the findings were confirmed. Data from the literature on the generalized matching law suggest that the variability of exponent values may be explained in part by the use of naive or experienced subjects in different investigations and by the variability in number of experimental conditions and in number of sessions per condition.     

Increasing engagement in a home for the elderly by providing an indoor gardening activity.

This project investigated the effect of a new recreational activity on the generally low level of engagement of residents in two lounges of a Local Authority home for the elderly physically frail. Indoor gardening sessions open to all residents were held on one afternoon each week in the dining room of the home. In the setting-up phase a researcher ran the gardening sessions, developed a set of written instructions on how to organize the activity and used these. plus performance feedback, to train a volunteer to run the sessions. The experimental phase evaluated the residents' level of engagement during the weekly gardening sessions and on another afternoon each week when there were no planned recreational activities. The results show that indoor gardening was very successful in producing sustained activity by the residents attending and that engagement of the residents was significantly higher on gardening than on non-gardening days.     

Lingual vibrotactile threshold alterations in response to varying stimulation levels of intensity and duration.

Lingual vibrotactile thresholds were obtained at a frequency of 250 Hz by using an ascending-continuous series of stimulation during five sessions. Each of three adult male Ss attended a control session which included a prescribed period of constant tongue positioning, a pre-experimental session where the mean of six thresholds was obtained as a basis of further testing, and three experimental sessions. In the experimental sessions vibrotactile thresholds after exposure to vibratory stimulation of varying levels of intensity and duration were obtained. The findings of the control session reflected a slight pattern of decreased lingual sensitivity indicative of the influential factor of constant maintenance of tongue positioning. Results from the experimental sessions demonstrated shifts toward progressively decreased lingual sensitivity after exposure to vibratory signals of increased levels of intensity and duration. A recovery phase to near-normal sensitivity followed each stimulus presentation.     

The reduction of anxiety in children: a comparison of the effects of 'systematic desensitization in vitro' and 'systematic desensitization in vivo'

Twenty-four children between the ages of 5 and 10. selected on the basis of fear of water, as determined by parents and swimming teachers, were divided into two experimental groups and one control group. One of the experimental groups was treated with four sessions of in vitro desensitization (gradual imaginal exposure to fear evoking stimuli plus relaxation), followed by four sessions of in vivo desensitization (real-life exposure to fear evoking stimuli plus relaxation). The other group received eight sessions of in vivo desensitization. The control group took part only in the tests, which were administered at the commencement of treatment, after four sessions, and at the end of the course of treatments. In testing, a behavior observation record was used to score the subject's behavior in the given situation; in addition, two teacher's records were used, in which swimming teachers recorded their evaluation of the subject's anxiety in each situation.Better results were achieved by desensitization in vivo than by desensitizalion in vitro or by the control procedure. No differences were found between the latter two groups. It could not be demonstrated that desensitization in vitro increased the effectiveness of subsequent desensitization in vivo     

Oral concentration of volatile sulphur compounds in stressed rats

Stress has been identified as a halitosis-inducing factor. Halitosis may be measured by the determination of oral volatile sulphur compound levels (VSC). Since immobilization and swimming are two experimental protocols widely used to induce stress in laboratory animals, the aim of this work was to investigate the influence of stress on VSC in rats. Male Wistar rats were submitted to three swimming or immobilization sessions over consecutive days. The oral VSC increased 3 h after the first and third swimming or immobilization sessions. The results in the present study support the hypothesis that stress may be an etiological factor in halitosis. Also, the animal experimental design may represent a new approach to research concerning the relationship between halitosis and stress.     

Behavioral economics and within-session changes in responding

Pigeons and rats responded on fixed-ratio schedules with requirements ranging from 5 to 120 responses. Consistent with past results from several schedules and procedures, responding usually changed systematically within experimental sessions. The within-session changes were usually larger and were less symmetrical around the middle of the session for schedules that provided higher, rather than lower, rates of reinforcement. These results suggest that similar variables contribute to within-session changes in responding under different schedules. When an economic demand function was fit to the data, the intensity and elasticity of demand for food and the percentage of the variance accounted for decreased within sessions, although the trend for elasticity did not reach statistical significance for pigeons. These results suggest that relatively short sessions should be used to study economic demand in open economies and that demand may differ at different times in a session and in sessions of different lengths. Within-session changes in intensity, but not necessarily elasticity, of demand are consistent with behavioral economic theories.     

Blood pressure hyperreactivity in non-human primates during dietary sodium combined with behavioral stress

The potential for behavioral stress alone or combined with dietary salt to augment pressor reactivity to the onset of daily experimental sessions was examined in normotensive, intact baboons over the course of four months. During twice daily experimental sessions, adult male baboons experienced food/shock conflict such that lever pulling not only served to earn food, but was also occasionally punished with cued mild electric shock. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured during a baseline period of fixed-ratio food reinforcement (3 weeks), during conflict stress (2 weeks), and after dietary salt was added to the daily conflict protocol (CONFLICT + SODIUM, 3 weeks). Reactivity, i.e., acute changes in blood pressure and heart rate to the daily experimental sessions, was not evident during food reinforcement sessions nor during the CONFLICT stress alone condition. The addition of a high salt diet virtually doubled blood pressure increases and heart rate decreases to the onset of experimental sessions. Average reactivities during CONFLICT + SODIUM periods were 11.2/7.9% delta for SBP/DBP (systolic/diastolic blood pressure, mmHg), and -5.65% delta for HR (heart rate, BPM). Neither atenolol nor hydrochlorothiazide diuretic significantly altered cardiovascular reactivity during CONFLICT + SODIUM in comparison to a preceding non-drug CONFLICT + SODIUM period. When atenolol and diuretic effects were directly compared, atenolol mildly augmented, while diuretic mildly decreased DBP but not SBP reactivity during CONFLICT + SODIUM. Reactivity was eliminated after salt loading and behavioral sessions were terminated. These findings provide evidence that enhanced salt ingestion may synergistically act with behavioral stress to produce pressor hyperresponsiveness to otherwise benign environmental events.     

Collective Efficacy as a Mediator of the Trustworthiness – Performance Relationship in Computer-Mediated Team-based Contexts

The current study investigated the role of trustworthiness perceptions at the individual level and collective efficacy at the team level on team performance in computer-mediated teams using multi-level structural equation modeling (MSEM). It was hypothesized that trustworthiness perceptions and collective efficacy would predict team performance, and collective efficacy would partially mediate the trustworthiness – performance relationship in computer-mediated teams. Sixty-four teams (five participants each) engaged in a computer-mediated task across two experimental sessions. Trustworthiness measured after session 1, collective efficacy measured after sessions 1 and 2, and team performance measured of sessions 1 and 2 were used to build the MSEM. The half longitudinal model for assessing mediation was used to examine the influence of trustworthiness perceptions on performance through collective efficacy over time. Results demonstrated support for the hypothesized model, such that trustworthiness perceptions demonstrated indirect effects on performance through collective efficacy. These findings extend past research by identifying an emergent mechanism by which trustworthiness is important for team performance in computer-mediated teams.     

Fluctuations of answer and confidence rating in a general-knowledge problem task: Is confidence rating a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring?

In order to examine whether confidence rating is a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring, a general-knowledge test was used. A question set was answered in experimental session 1, and the same question set was employed in session 2. Subjects chose one answer from two alternatives. No significant difference in answer accuracy was found between sessions, which suggests that identical information processing was carried out, and that any difference between sessions was based on probabilistic fluctuation. The major results were as follows: (a) In both sessions, answer accuracy was an increasing function of confidence. (b) Answer-change rate (rate of different answers to the same question between sessions) decreased monotonically with confidence. (c) The distributions of confidence rating in session 2, conditional on the rating in session 1, were nearly identical in no-answer-change and answer-change cases. These results suggest that confidence rating is not a result of monitoring memory-relevant output itself but an estimation of possibility of answer fluctuation.     

Effects of reinforcement schedule on facilitation of operant extinction by chlordiazepoxide

Learning and memory are central topics in behavioral neuroscience, and inbred mice strains are widely investigated. However, operant conditioning techniques are not as extensively used in this field as they should be, given the effectiveness of the methodology of the experimental analysis of behavior. In the present study, male C57B1/6 mice, widely used as background for transgenic studies, were trained to lever press on discrete-trial fixed-ratio 5 or fixed-interval (11 s or 31 s) schedules of food reinforcement and then exposed to 15 extinction sessions following vehicle or chlordiazepoxide injections (15 mg/kg i.p., administered either prior to all extinction sessions, or prior to the final 10 extinction sessions). Extinction of operant behavior was facilitated by drug administration following training on either schedule, but this facilitation only occurred once a number of extinction sessions had taken place. The extinction process proceeded more rapidly following fixed-interval training. Resistance to extinction was equally high following training with either schedule type, and was reduced by drug administration in both cases. These phenomena were evident in individual cumulative records and in analyses of group data. Results are interpreted in terms of phenomena of operant extinction identified in Skinner's (1938) Behavior of Organisms, and by behavioral momentum theory. These procedures could be used to extend the contribution of operant conditioning to contemporary behavioral neuroscience.     

SMOKING AND NIGHT DRIVING

Two experiments were performed with an apparatus simulating night driving conditions in order to study the effect of smoking on detection time and redetection time after glare. In the experimental sessions the subjects smoked two standard cigarettes during 15 min. There were no significant differences in results between these sessions and the control sessions without smoking. The conclusion is that the effect of tobacco smoking on the ability to detect objects on the road is from a practical point of view negligible.     

Training generative verb usage by imitation and reinforcement procedures

Three retarded children were trained, using imitation and reinforcement procedures, to produce past and present tense forms of verbs in response to verbal requests. Two types of experimental sessions were arranged: training sessions and probe sessions. During training sessions, a child was trained to produce one verb in both the past and the present tense. Then, in a probe session, the generalization of this training was tested by presenting to the child a series of untrained verbs interspersed with previously trained verbs. Responses to untrained verbs were never reinforced. Training sessions alternated with probe sessions throughout a multiple baseline design involving four classes of verb inflections as the baselines. The results showed that, as past and present tense forms of verbs within an inflectional class were trained, the children correctly produced past and present tense forms of untrained verbs within this class. When verbs from two or more classes were trained, the children correctly produced the verb tenses from each of these classes. Thus, the imitation and reinforcement procedures were effective in teaching generative use of verb inflections.     

Within-session changes in operant responding when gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) serve as subjects

Recent research has demonstrated that rate of responding frequently changes in a robust and systematic manner during experimental sessions in which organisms engage in operant responding. One potential cause for these changes in response rate is that levels of exploration change during experimental sessions and that high levels of exploration interfere with operant responding. Several studies have shown that gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) explore at a constant rate during experimental sessions. The present study examined the response pattern produced by gerbils responding for food delivered by several simple schedules of reinforcement. Results indicated that robust changes (between 200 and 400%) in response rate occurred during the experimental sessions. These data argue against a role for exploration in the production of within-session changes in operant response rate.     

Treatment Fidelity of a Randomized Controlled Trial for Suicidal Risk

Treatment fidelity is a crucial consideration within randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The present study relies on data from a feasibility RCT conducted with 62 treatment-seeking suicidal college students. Issues of experimental fidelity were germane in this investigation because the same clinicians provided both the experimental (the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality—CAMS) and the control (treatment as usual—TAU) care. The first aim of the current study was to determine adherence to the CAMS model within the experimental (CAMS) and control (TAU) treatment conditions. A second exploratory aim was included to examine how treatment fidelity impacted treatment outcomes (i.e., depression, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and potential treatment moderators). The CAMS Rating Scale (CRS.3-R) was used to determine treatment adherence to the CAMS model and to ensure between-group fidelity within the trial. The CRS.3-R was completed throughout the course of care based on reviews of a selected number of video recordings of both CAMS and TAU sessions to measure treatment fidelity. Mean CRS.3-R scores revealed differences across treatment conditions such that clinicians were successfully able to provide each treatment separately without contamination. Further, higher CRS.3-R scores in CAMS sessions resulted in decreased hopelessness over the treatment period. Higher CRS.3-R scores in TAU sessions resulted in an increased likelihood of suicidal ideation and less reduction in hopelessness over the treatment period. Overall, clinicians can serve as their own controls in a RCT and levels of adherence to the CAMS model have different effects on suicidal ideation and hopelessness.

     

Constancy of individual exponents for category production of inspired lung volume

Individual exponents for production of inspired lung volume were compared both within experimental sessions (after a delay of 5 to 10 min.) and between sessions (after a delay of 1 yr.). Reliable correlations were observed between pairs of individual exponents regardless of the time elapsed between repetitions of the task. Constancy of exponents may reflect a propensity for subjects to respond in characteristic ways to psychophysical scaling tasks.     

Influences of Fertility Status on Risky Driving Behaviour

The effects of hormones on human behaviour have been extensively studied, but little attention has been paid to the influence of ovarian hormones on risky driving. Twenty‐five normally cycling women took part in three sessions, including an ovulatory phase estimation session and two experimental sessions: high vs low fertile phases. These two phases were monitored through a urine‐based luteinizing hormone predictor test. In the two experimental sessions, participants were administered the Driving Behaviour Questionnaire and the Vienna Risk‐Taking Test. Results showed that women are more risk‐averse in their driving behaviour during their high‐fertile phase. The influence of hormonal fluctuations on self‐perception of risk attitude when driving was non‐significant. Findings are discussed from an evolutionary perspective. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interpersonal problem-solving skills training with aggressive young children

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an interpersonal problem-solving training program with aggressive young children. There were 13 children in the experimental group and 11 children in the contact control group. Both experimental and contact control group children were evaluated at pretest, posttest, and follow-up on the Behavioral Interpersonal Problem Solving Test (BIPS). Experimental group subjects were exposed to the interpersonal problem-solving skills training program for 50 training sessions. The contact control group participated in reading-story sessions during the same time period. Results and discussion reflect the efficacy of the training procedure and the nature of the change in interpersonal problem-solving behavior in aggressive young children.     

Within-session changes in operant responding when gerbils ( Meriones unguiculatus ) serve as subjects

Recent research has demonstrated that rate of responding frequently changes in a robust and systematic manner during experimental sessions in which organisms engage in operant responding. One potential cause for these changes in response rate is that levels of exploration change during experimental sessions and that high levels of exploration interfere with operant responding. Several studies have shown that gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) explore at a constant rate during experimental sessions. The present study examined the response pattern produced by gerbils responding for food delivered by several simple schedules of reinforcement. Results indicated that robust changes (between 200 and 400%) in response rate occurred during the experimental sessions. These data argue against a role for exploration in the production of within-session changes in operant response rate. This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number IBN-9207346 awarded to FKM. The authors would like to thank Kelly S. Johnson, Samantha Swindell, and Dawn Miller for their help and useful suggestions concerning this project.     

A comparison of attachment outcomes in enactment-based versus therapist-centered therapy process modalities in couple therapy

Attachment issues are viewed by many therapists as lying at the heart of couple distress. It is critical to empirically validate therapy processes that facilitate couples in responding to each other's attachment needs. This study examined enactments as a therapy process and change mechanism to promote secure attachment in couple therapy. Sixteen couples were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 experimental groups--1 group received 3 therapist-centered sessions followed by 3 enactment-based sessions, and a second group received 3 enactment-based sessions followed by 3 therapist-centered sessions. To measure between-session and within-session change, each spouse completed presession and postsession measures of attachment security each week. Results showed that couples who received enactment-based sessions first reported greater increases in attachment security than those receiving therapist-centered sessions first. These same couples continued to show improvement after switching to the therapist-centered sessions. Conversely, couples who received therapist-centered sessions first did not increase attachment after switching to enactment-based sessions. For wives, enactment-based sessions produced the greatest improvement in attachment, yet both therapy process modalities led to some improvement. Conversely, for husbands, attachment improved only when they received enactment-based sessions first. Enactment-based sessions may therefore be more important for husbands than wives. Overall, with some qualification it appears that enactment-based therapy process may improve attachment more than a therapist-centered process. These observed trends and findings are generally consistent with previous research supporting use of enactments in couple therapy.