The modification of delusional beliefs: A single-subject evaluation

The multiple-baseline across responses design was used to assess the effectiveness of a belief-modification treatment package to alter the intensity of three delusional beliefs of a chronically mentally ill inpatient. Results revealed reductions in belief intensity to zero levels for all three beliefs. Generalization effects were obtained for an individualized interview and psychiatric rating scale. These results were maintained through a 6-month follow-up period.     

“攻击性行为”社会认知的实验研究

采用两种不同的方法对人类“攻击性行为”社会认知的某些特点进行探索。结果表明：①再认过程中,被试对被攻击者的辨别率（Ａ＇）明显高于攻击者,Ｂ″也具有明显特征。证明人类的外显记忆更多倾向记忆“灾难现象”。②偏好测试中,被试偏好攻击者明显多于被攻击者。证实了“攻击性行为”社会认知实验性分离的存在。也就是说学习攻击性图片在人类记忆中,产生了“攻击性行为”社会认知的启动效应。同时也证实了内隐与外显记忆之间存在任务分离的加工演变过程。③偏好测试中出现被试对陌生人（中性人物）的偏好率明显高于攻击与被攻击者的总和。我们认为这是间接启动效应,是外显记忆和内隐记忆在选择上发生冲突继而导致倾向一致的结果。     

A computer-controlled administration of the matching familiar figures test

The Kagan Matching Familiar Figures Test of Impulsivity/Reflectivity was modified to allow computer control of stimulus presentation and data acquisition via IBM-compatible systems. The comparability of computer administration and traditional hand administration was examined in a split-half study with a sample of 58 students (ages, 18–39 years). Analyses of variance revealed no significant differences between the administration techniques for latency and a small but significant difference for accuracy. Correlations between the two administration techniques were .61 for latency and .40 for error scores. Internal consistency coefficients for computer administration exceeded those for hand administration on both latency and accuracy. These data compare favorably with results reported by others and suggest that computer administration offers a viable alternative to traditional hand administration of the MFFT in research applications.     

RTSYS: A DOS application for the analysis of reaction time data

RTSYS is a menu-driven DOS application for the manipulation, analysis, and graphical display of reaction time data. It can be used either in a single-task environment under DOS, with access to a set operating system commands, or as an application under Windows. All functions have context-sensitive help. RTSYS fits the ex-Gaussian distribution to reaction time data without the difficulties usually associated with numerical parameter estimation. Distribution fitting and flexible censoring and rescaling options allow RTSYS to address the problems of reaction time distribution skew and outlying responses with reasonable sample sizes. RTSYS can automatically process multiple input files from experiments with arbitrary designs and produce formatted output of statistics for further processing by graphical and inferential statistical packages. The present article reviews and explains techniques used by RTSYS and provides an overview of the operation of the program.     

DEFINING,VALIDATING, AND INCREASING INDICES OF HAPPINESS AMONG PEOPLE WITH PROFOUND MULTIPLE DISABILITIES

In this study we attempted to operationalize, measure, and increase happiness among people with profound disabilities. Happiness indices were defined and observed among 5 individuals. Validation measures indicated that (a) increases in happiness indices were observed when individuals were presented with most preferred stimuli relative to least preferred stimuli, (b) increases in unhappiness indices were observed when they were presented with least preferred relative to most preferred stimuli, and (c) practitioner ratings of participant happiness coincided with observed indices. Subsequently, classroom staff increased happiness indices through presentation and contingent withdrawal of activities. Results suggested that a behavioral approach can enhance happiness as one aspect of quality of life among people with profound disabilities. Research directions are offered that focus on using a behavioral approach to investigate other private events that are important among people with disabilities.     

JobShift: A Book Review

Book reviewed in this article: JobShtft: How to Prosper in a Workplace Without Jobs by William Bridges     

Mobilizing positive reinforcement in communities to reduce youth access to tobacco

A community intervention to mobilize positive reinforcement for not selling tobacco to young people was evaluated. The intervention had five components: (a) mobilization of community support, (b) merchant education, (c) changing consequences to clerks for selling or not selling to those under 18, (d) publicity about clerks’ refusals to sell, and (e) feedback to store owners or managers about the extent of their sales to adolescents. A multiple baseline design experiment was conducted, in which two small Oregon communities received the intervention, while two others continued in baseline. Outlets’ willingness to sell was assessed repeatedly by teenage volunteers. The intervention significantly reduced the proportion of stores willing to sell. Mobilizing socia and material reinforcement for stores not selling tobacco to young people is a viable means of reducing such sales. It may be especially valuable in communities where laws against sales to minors go unenforced. This paper supported in part by the National Cancer Institute Grant CA38273.     

Spectral discontinuities and the vowel length effect

Perception of voicing for stop consonants in consonant-vowel syllables can be affected by the duration of the following vowel so that longer vowels lead to more “voiced” responses. On the basis of several experiments, Green, Stevens, and Kuhl (1994) concluded that continuity of fundamental frequency (f0), but not continuity of formant structure, determined the effective length of the following vowel. In an extension of those efforts, we found here that both effects were critically dependent on particular f 0s and formant values. First, discontinuity inf0 does not necessarily preclude the vowel length effect because the effect maintains whenf0 changes from 200 to 100 Hz, and 200-Hz partials extend continuously through test syllables. Second, spectral discontinuity does preclude the vowel length effect when formant changes result in a spectral peak shifting to another harmonic. The results indicate that the effectiveness of stimulus changes for sustaining or diminishing the vowel length effect depends critically on particulars of spectral composition.     

Searching for unknown feature targets on more than one dimension: Investigating a “dimension-weighting” account

Search for odd-one-out feature targets takes longer when the target can be present in one of several dimensions as opposed to only one dimension (Müller, Heller, & Ziegler, 1995; Treisman, 1988). Müller et al. attributed this cost to the need to discern the target dimension. They proposed adimension-weighting account, in which master map units compute, in parallel, the weighted sum of dimension-specific saliency signals. If the target dimension is known in advance, signals from that dimension are amplified. But if the target dimension is unknown, it is determined in a process that shifts weight from the nontarget to the target dimension. The weight pattern thus generated persists across trials, producing intertrial facilitation for a target (trialn+1) dimensionally identical to the preceding target (trialn). In the present study, we employed a set of new tasks in order to reexamine and extend this account. Targets were defined along two possible dimensions (color or orientation) and could take on one of two feature values (e.g., red or blue). Experiments 1 and 2 required absent/present and color/orientation discrimination of a single target, respectively. They showed that (1) both tasks involveweight shifting, though (explicitly) discerning the dimension of a target requires some process additional to simply detecting its presence; and (2) the intertrial facilitation is indeed (largely) dimension specific rather than feature specific in nature. In Experiment 3, the task was to count the number of targets in a display (either three or four), which could be either dimensionally the same (all color or all orientation) or mixed (some color and some orientation). As predicted by the dimension-weighting account, enumerating four targets all defined within the same dimension was faster than counting three such targets or mixed targets defined in two dimensions.