Behavior modification and human rights: A legacy of Edward Stanton Sulzer, 1930-1970

Edward Stanton Sulzer was born in New York City on June 4, 1930. He attended school in Laureltown, N.Y., until the age of 15, when, after two years of high school, he was admitted into the University of Chicago. Leaving prematurely due to his mother's death, he returned to New York to work in film production. Sulzer completed his undergraduate work at the City College of New York, studying film production and psychology. In 1953 he entered the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia. Spending two years in the Army during his graduate training, his work was completed in 1958. He then joined the faculty of the Upstate Medical School of the State University of New York, Department of Psychiatry, moving on two years later to the Psychiatry Department at the University of Minnesota. In 1965 Sulzer moved to assume the directorship of the Behavior Modification Program, in the Rehabilitation Institute at Southern Illinois University, where he remained until his death on February 28, 1970.In observance of the 10th anniversary of the death of Edward Stanton Sulzer, these reminiscences are presented. They describe how an individual psychologist could affect the professional and personal lives of many. Edward Sulzer is described in terms of the environment that shaped his values, how they affected the actions of his students and clients, and how they are reflected in current social policy. The account leads to a conclusion that the actions of single individuals may influence the course of human events.     

Impulsivity and paced tapping

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that impulsivity is positively related to both the intraindividual variability and the rate of performance of a paced tapping task. The independent variable in the tapping task were: feedback vs. no feedback; tempo; concurrent cognitive task (counting) vs. no concurrent cognitive task. Three measures of tapping performance were computed: absolute or total error of tapping, tapping rate, and the intraindividual variability of tapping. The results confirm the hypothesis that impulsivity is positively related to rate of paced tapping, although the degree of relationship varied under different experimental conditions within the paced tapping task. Intraindividual variability of tapping was not significantly related to impulsivity, but the results were suggestive of a positive relationship.     

Selective punishment of interresponse times

Lever pressing by two squirrel monkeys was maintained under a variable-interval 60-second schedule of food presentation. When response-dependent electric shock was made contingent on comparatively long interresponse times, response rate increased, and further increases were obtained when the minimum interresponse-time requirement was decreased. When an equal proportion of responses produced shock without regard to interresponse time, rates decreased. Thus, shock contingent on long interresponse times selectively decreased the relative frequency of those interresponse times, and increased the relative frequency of shorter interresponse times, whereas shock delivered independent of interresponse times decreased the relative frequency of shorter interresponse times while increasing the frequency of longer ones. The results provide preliminary evidence that interresponse times may be differentiated by punishment, further supporting the notion that interresponse times may be considered functional units of behavior.     

Variations of the Bender-Gestalt Test: implications for training and practice

Although the Bender-Gestalt Visual Motor Test has been a popular and influential clinical assessment instrument for the last half century, authoritative opinion and a substantial research literature are often inconsistent or contradictory. This paper documents variations in designs, administration procedures, forms, and applications to particular populations. A careful review of scoring systems indicates the current status of objective approaches as contrasted with interpretation that is global, intuitive, and subjective. Some implications of these variations and interpretive procedures for training and assessment practice are discussed. The major conclusions of the review are summarized in seven points.     

The development of derived stimulus relations through training in arbitrary-matching sequences

Five-year-old children were taught three-stage sequences of arbitrary matching: A-C, B-C, A-D; A-C, B-D, B-C; or A-C, A-D, B-C. Each stage refers to a sample-comparison relation between stimuli. Unreinforced test probes revealed untrained arbitrary matches (B-D, A-D, and B-D, respectively), derivable by substitution of stimuli with a common sample or comparison function. Additional probes revealed further untrained sample-comparison relations derivable by substitution and identity, including the commuted relations D-B, D-A, and D-B, respectively. These processes may have relevance to conceptual and verbal behavior.     

The microanalysis of fixed-interval responding

The fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement is one of the more widely studied schedules in the experimental analysis of behavior and is also a common baseline for behavior pharmacology. Despite many intensive studies, the controlling variables and the pattern of behavior engendered are not well understood. The present study examined the microstructure and superstructure of the behavior engendered by a fixed-interval 5- and a fixed-interval 15-minute schedule of food reinforcement in the pigeon. Analysis of performance typical of fixed-interval responding indicated that the scalloped pattern does not result from smooth acceleration in responding, but, rather, from renewed pausing early in the interval. Individual interresponse-time (IRT) analyses provided no evidence of acceleration. There was a strong indication of alternation in shorter-longer IRTs, but these shorter-longer IRTs did not occur at random, reflecting instead a sequential dependency in successive IRTs. Furthermore, early in the interval there was a high relative frequency of short IRTs. Such a pattern of early pauses and short IRTs does not suggest behavior typical of reinforced responding as exemplified by the pattern found near the end of the interval. Thus, behavior from clearly scalloped performance can be classified into three states: postreinforcement pause, interim behavior, and terminal behavior.     

《古兰经》的伦理道德思想(续)

三、敬畏 敬畏是一种宗教美德,《古兰经》用它来确定人与人、人与造物主之间的关系。“敬畏”一词及其派生词大都出现在《古兰经》中有关道德和社会主张的经文中。所谓“敬畏”就是要人类谨防那些使真主恼怒和损人害己的行为。因为“敬畏”一词本意为保护自己。人之所以保护自己,是因有可惧怕的东西存在。安拉是最值得惧怕的,所以因安拉而保护自己是特别重要的。既然惧怕,就     

《古兰经》的伦理道德思想(续)

七、公正 伊斯兰教的理想之一就是责成其信徒要丢掉一切与自身利害有关的考虑,主持人间公道。安拉说:“信教的人们!你们应主持公正,应为安拉而作见证,即使不利于自身,或自己的父母和亲属。不论被见证者是富人或贫人,那安拉是最宜于对付他们的。你们不要徇私,以免偏离公正;如果你们歪曲事实,或拒绝作证,那安拉对你们的作为将是一清二楚。”(4:135)     

Participation by women in behavior analysis

The participation of women in behavior analysis as authors of articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), as members of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), and as contributors to the 1982 ABA convention was examined. Since the inception of JEAB and JABA, men have appeared as authors far more frequently than women, although women have published relatively more frequently in the latter journal than in the former. Across years, there has been an upward trend in the proportion of JEAB authors who are female; this is not the case for all JABA authors, although it does hold for senior authors. In 1980-1981 and 1981-1982, females represented approximately half of ABA's student and affiliate members but less than a third of its full members. Approximately a third of the contributors to posters and symposia and a seventh of those delivering invited addresses at the 1982 ABA convention were women.