An empirical couple typology based on differentiation

Both spouses of 100 married, heterosexual couples completed the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-Q). A cluster analysis of the couples' scores on the four intimacy and fusion scales of the PAFS-Q produced four clusters that were meaningfully distinct in the patterns of differentiation of the wives and husbands. Couples comprising these clusters are described in terms of intergenerational theories of family interaction.This paper is based on the master's thesis of the first author submitted to the Graduate School of Texas Woman's University. A presentation based on this work was given at the 1988 annual convention of the Southwestern Psychological Association, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The authors thank Glenda Peters and Joe Natale for their contributions to the preparation of this paper. A more extensive report of the methodology and results of this study can be obtained from the second author.     

Using neutralizing routines to reduce problem behaviors.

Establishing operations can alter problem behaviors by changing the momentary value of reinforcers associated with those problem behaviors. If establishing operations (EOs) precede the presentation of discriminative stimuli (S^Ds) for problem behaviors, it may be possible to introduce neutralizing routines that both reduce the value of reinforcers associated with problem behaviors and decrease the occurrence of problem behaviors. The present study examined this logic with 3 adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities. Initial functional analyses indicated that problem behaviors were motivated by either escape or tangible items. Functional assessment interviews identified possible establishing operations that were associated with the occurrence of problem behavior and indicated that these establishing operations occurred over 1 hr before presentation of the S^D for problem behaviors. We used an alternating treatments design to examine problem behaviors during instruction under four conditions: EO + S^D, S^D only, EO only, and neither S^D nor EO. For all 3 participants, problem behaviors occurred almost exclusively during the EO + S^D condition. A further analysis compared the EO + S^D condition when neutralizing routines were embedded between the EO and the S^D. Results from an ABAB reversal design supported the effectiveness of neutralizing routines to reduce these problem behaviors. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Excluded middle and bivalence

I consider two related objections to the claim that the law of excluded middle does not imply bivalence. One objection claims that the truth predicate captured by supervaluation semantics is not properly motivated. The second objection says that even if it is, LEM still implies bivalence. I show that LEM does not imply bivalence in a supervaluational language. I also argue that considering supertruth as truth can be reasonably motivated.     

Some cautionary notes regarding the use of aggregated scores as a measure of behavioral stability

The utility of the method of aggregation as a measure of behavioral consistency was examined in 26 studies involving computer-generated, repeated-measurement data. The first series of studies involved rectangular distributions in which score constant. A second series of studies used normally distributed z scores, and score consistency was manipulated by inducing a desired correlation between the scores in adjacent trials. In both sets of studies, the aggregate stability coefficient was a strictly increasing function of the number of aggregated trials, and even trivial amounts of score stability resulted in large stability coefficients. In a third series of studies, high stability coefficients occurred when computed on combined unstable subsamples which differed from each other only in central tendency. Terminal aggregate coefficients were compared with Spearman-Brown prophecy and Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients computed on the experimental data. It was concluded that the method of aggregation produces spuriously high estimates of behavioral consistency. It was further shown that the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula and coefficient alpha accurately predict the results of the aggregation method, suggesting that aggregation is an internal consistency reliability procedure. The equating of stability with traditional notions of reliability was questioned.     

Irrelevance of mitigating circumstances in retaliatory behavior at high levels of excitation

Subjects were aggressively instigated by a provoker. They then performed either a nonstrenuous or a strenuous task in order to be placed in either a moderate or an extreme state of sympathetic arousal. Following the task, they either learned or did not learn about mitigating circumstances behind the provoker's behavior. This information was received prior to the provision of an opportunity to retaliate. Under conditions of moderate arousal, mitigating circumstances were found to reduce retaliation. In contrast, these circumstances failed to exert any appreciable effect on retaliation under conditions of extreme arousal. In addition, the induction of extreme arousal was observed to increase retaliatory behavior. The findings were considered to support a model of hostility and aggression that postulates a specific interdependency of cognitive and excitatory processes.     

A correction to “The retinal reference of the tilt aftereffect” by Coltheart and Cooper

Coltheart and Cooper (1972) reexamined the data of Day and Wade (1969) concerning the retinal or gravitational reference for normalization and the tilt aftereffect. Their analysis contained a factual error concerning the procedure employed in the latter investigation, which is here corrected. Day and Wade did not, however, distinguish between normalization and aftereffect. When this distinction is made, the data from the two studies taken together indicate that deviation of an inspection line from the vertical retinal meridian is not sufficient to produce normalization but does yield a visual tilt aftereffect.     

Induced subject-relative movement: Persistence of apparent movement of a stationary point after removal of inducing stimulus

It was observed by chance that perceived movement of a stationary spot of light in a dark featureless field persists after its induced movement by a moving frame. When the frame was suddenly occluded, apparent movement of the spot persisted in the same direction as prior induced movement. The effect which is compelling and readily reported and referred to as induced subject-relative movement (ISRM) was confirmed and further investigated in four experiments. In the first, the informal observations of ISRM were confirmed using manual tracking to index perceived movement, and in the second, it was shown to occur only very slightly and briefly when the frame merely stopped. In the third experiment, ISRM was shown to occur following two different paths of induced movement, and in the fourth, not to occur following real movement of the spot, which was almost indistinguishable from its induced movement. It is suggested that the effect arises from the absence of a signal for cessation of perceived movement when the frame disappears.     

Interpretations of sexual harassment: An attributional analysis

Two studies were conducted to examine an attributional model of judgments of sexual harassment. The key assumption of the model is that judgments of sexual harassment involve the attribution of negative intentions (e.g., hostility or callousness) to an actor with regard to a sexual behavior. The two studies effectively demonstrated that many factors known to influence the attribution of intentionality play an important role in judgments of sexual harassment. The findings are discussed with regard to understanding how people differ in their judgments of sexual harassment.The studies described in this article were reported in a presentation at the 1986 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago.     

The representation of uniform motion in vision

For veridical detection of object motion any moving detecting system must allocate motion appropriately between itself and objects in space. A model for such allocation is developed for simplified situations (points of light in uniform motion in a frontoparallel plane). It is proposed that motion of objects is registered and represented successively at four levels within frames of reference that are defined by the detectors themselves or by their movements. The four levels are referred to as retinocentric, orbitocentric, egocentric, and geocentric. Thus the retinocentric signal is combined with that for eye rotation to give an orbitocentric signal, and the left and right orbitocentric signals are combined to give an egocentric representation. Up to the egocentric level, motion representation is angular rather than three-dimensional. The egocentric signal is combined with signals for head and body movement and for egocentric distance to give a geocentric representation. It is argued that although motion perception is always geocentric, relevant registrations also occur at the three earlier levels. The model is applied to various veridical and nonveridical motion phenomena.