Drug effects in squirrel monkeys trained on a multiple schedule with a punishment contingency

The behavior of four monkeys trained on a multiple schedule was differentially sensitive to selected pharmacological agents. The three components of the multiple schedule were: (1) a variable-interval schedule in which responses were reinforced on the average of once per minute; (2) a concurrent schedule in which every tenth response was reinforced and every fifteenth response, on the average, was shocked; and, (3) a neutral stimulus in the presence of which responses were neither reinforced nor shocked. Pentobarbital, chlordiazepoxide, and meprobamate increased responding during each of the components. Scopolamine and d-amphetamine decreased variable-interval performance, had minimal effects on performance during the concurrent-schedule component, and increased responding in the presence of the neutral stimulus. Chlorpromazine decreased variable-interval responding and had slight effects on the responding during the other two components.     

Development of knowledge bases and the reliability of a decision support system for behavioral treatment consultation for persons with mental retardation: The Mental Retardation-Expert

The development of expert and decision support systems requires the collection, organization, codification, and storage of a body of specialized knowledge. The development, using reconstructive methods, of two such knowledge bases, the first containing the current scientific literature and the second containing an expert’s knowledge, is described for an automated decision support system, the Mental Retardation-Expert. This system provides practitioners with assistance in the treatment of aggressive, self-injurious, and destructive behaviors displayed by individuals with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. The average interobserver reliability of the expert knowledge base ranged from 92.5% to 95.0% when calculated across four clinicians’ assessments of 31 abstracted cases.     

Procuring organs from a non-heart-beating cadaver: commentary on a case report

Procurement of organs from non-heart-beating cadaver donors raises concerns. Standards for optimal patient care during withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy are evolving and continue to be debated and studied. Consensus on specific procedures and methods has not been attained, however, and protocols for the procurement of organs from patients following the withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies may compromise the evolving standards and harm the patient and the attendant family. In addition, there is little evidence to suggest that such protocols will significantly increase the number of organs procured. "Non-heart-beating cadaver" protocols that do not give comprehensive attention to optimal patient/family care at the time of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy ought not to be endorsed.     

An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Six-month follow-up

Presented the 6-month follow-up findings of an experimental intervention designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners. The intervention involved randomly assigning half the research participants to receive the free services of an advocate, 4 to 6 hours per week, for the first 10 weeks postshelter. One hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed about their experiences immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter: 95% of the sample were interviewed 10 weeks thereafter (postintervention), and 93% were successfully tracked and interviewed 6 months later. At the 6-month follow-up, participants in both groups reported increased social support, increased quality of life, less depression, less emotional attachment to their assailants, and an increased sense of personal power. Although women in both groups reported some decrease in physical abuse over time, there were no statistically significant differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women. Those who were still involved with their assailants continued to experience higher levels of abuse and had been more economically dependent upon the men prior to entering the shelter. Women who had worked with advocates continued to report being more satisfied with their overall quality of life than did the women in the control group. The authors thank the Editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Thanks also to all present and past staff of the Community Advocacy Project, who helped in data collection and analyses. This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 1R01 MH 44849.     

Deficits in visual learning produced by posterior temporal lesions in cats

Eight cats with lesions in the posterior temporal (PT) cortex, seven cats with lesions in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), and eight intact controls were observed on eight tests of visual discrimination learning and of spontaneous responses to salient visual stimuli. The effects of the two lesions were somewhat dissociable. The PT lesions were accompanied by a severe deficit in pattern discrimination learning but no loss in visual tracking or orientation to the silhouette of a threatening cat. The BLA lesions produced a milder and less consistent loss in pattern discrimination but serious defects in tracking and reponse to the cat silhouette. Both operated groups performed well on the visual cliff. The deficit from PT lesions appeared independent of damage to the geniculocortical system. The parallel of symptoms from PT lesions in cats and inferotemporal lesions in monkeys is discussed.     

Tests of symmetry in three-way contingency tables

Three-dimensional contingency tables are analyzed, with one variable (e.g., sex) as a factor, and with a natural relation between the other variables (e.g. left and right eye vision). Models of special interest, like symmetry and proportional symmetry between the related variables, and homogeneity across the factor levels, are investigated. Maximum likelihood estimators of parameters and partitions of chi-square goodness-of-fit statistics are explicitly presented; the independence of certain models is noted, and an example is discussed.