CAN SPATIAL TRAINING ERASE THE GENDER DIFFERENCES ON THE WATER-LEVEL TASK?

Spatial training has been only modestly effective at improving the performance of adolescents and adults on the water-level task. Based on previous findings with the task, a self-discovery training procedure was developed that involved having participants proceed from easier to more difficult problems along a dimension of increasingly greater competing perceptual cues. The training was effective in (a) eliminating the gender differences on the drawing task, and (b) significantly improving females' knowledge of the physical (invariance) principle, although not to the level of males. Training effects did not transfer to a related spatial task.     

Evaluative Conditioning: Arti-fact or -fiction?-A Reply to Baeyens, De Houwer, Vansteenwegen, and Eelen (1998)

Baeyenset al.(1998) claim that Field and Davey's (1997) controversial study of conceptual conditioning offers little threat to current conceptions of evaluative conditioning. This article addresses some of the questions posed by Baeyenset al.First, some criticisms of the conceptual conditioning study appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the procedure. Second, we address the issues surrounding the so-called Type-X procedure. Specifically, we begin by reviewing the status of studies that have used a procedure different from the Type-X procedure. It is then argued that, although the Type-X procedure has been used in only a portion of EC research, it has been used primarily in those studies whose outcome has been used to argue that evaluative conditioning (EC) is functionally distinct from autonomic conditioning. We then review the evidence from non-Type-X procedures that EC is a distinct form of learning. Finally, an attempt is made to explain why between-subject controls should be used as a matter of course in this field of research.     

Thalamic modulation of aggression

Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science - This experiment extends Pavlov’s method of contrasts for 8 components of aggression were quantitatively evaluated in 11 freely moving adult...     

Frequency and duration of hierarchy item exposure in a systematic desensitization analogue

Little is known regarding the importance of stimulus presentation variables in desensitization. A repeated measures factorial research design was utilized to investigate the role of hierarchy item frequency and duration in a desensitization analogue. Two frequency levels (1 and 3) and three total duration levels (3,12 and 30 sec) were combined to form six treatment groups; an additional no-treatment control group was also used. Results in both overt behavioral and subjective fear response modes suggest that single exposures are preferable, but that this preference is localized primarily in the longer total duration range. Long single exposures to hierarchy items yielded the greatest and most persistent changes in both response modes. It is suggested that clinicians utilize item presentations of this sort to determine their efficacy in actual therapy conditions. Choice of technique for assessing change and the utility of analogue studies are also briefly discussed.     

Treatment of nocturnal headbanging by behavior modification techniques: a case report

The application of behavior modification techniques to the alleviation of maladaptive behavior occurring during the waking state is well documented (Bandura, 1969; Franks, 1969). Recently, several case studies have been reported which demonstrate the successful extension of behavior modification techniques such as the desensitization procedure to the modification of sleep state maladaptive behavior, e.g. recurrent nightmares (Cautela, 1968; Geer and Silverman 1966; Silverman and Geer, 1968) and sleep walking (Clement, 1969). The present case study illustrates that other sleep state maladaptive behavior, in this case nocturnal headbanging, is amenable to the same behavior modification techniques which are used to modify maladaptive behavior during the waking state. Case background     

On the determination of redundancies in sociometric chains

The use of a matrix to represent a relationship between the members of a group is well known in sociometry. If this matrix is raised to a certain power, the elements appearing give the total number of connecting paths between each pair of members. In general, some of these paths will be redundant. Methods of finding the number of such redundant paths have been developed for three- and four-step chains by Luce and Perry (3) and Katz (2), respectively. We have derived formulas for the number of redundant paths of five and six steps; and in addition, an algorithm for determining the number of redundant paths of any given length.The research leading to this paper was supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.