Associative regulation of Pavlovian fear conditioning: unconditional stimulus intensity, incentive shifts, and latent inhibition.

Conditional stimuli (CS) associated with painful unconditional stimuli (US) produce a naloxone-reversible analgesia. The analgesia serves as a negative-feedback regulation of fear conditioning that can account for the impact of US intensity and CS predictiveness on Pavlovian fear conditioning. In Experiment 1 training under naloxone produced learning curves that approached the same high asymptote despite US intensity. Shifting drug treatment during acquisition had effects that paralleled US intensity shifts. In Experiment 3 naloxone reversed Hall-Pearce (1979) negative transfer using a contextual CS, indicating that conditional analgesia acquired during the CS-weak-footshock phase retards acquisition in the CS-strong-footshock phase. Experiment 5 used a tone CS in both a latent-inhibition and a negative-transfer procedure. Only negative transfer was blocked by naloxone. Therefore, negative transfer but not latent inhibition is mediated by a reduction of US processing.     

Variations in characteristic perceptual asymmetry: modality specific and modality general components.

The current study investigates sources of between-subjects variation in asymmetry scores on visual half-field and dichotic listening tasks. For each of these presentation modalities, subjects were given multiple laterality tasks. Results indicate that about 50% of the between-subjects variations in asymmetry scores in each modality is attributable to individual differences in perceptual asymmetries that are not stimulus-specific, referred to as "characteristic perceptual asymmetries" in this paper. In addition, the question of whether individual differences in characteristic perceptual asymmetries are modality specific, modality general, or both was investigated by entering subjects' asymmetry scores from visual half-field and dichotic listening tasks into a principal component analysis. The results of this analysis indicate that there are both modality specific and modality general influences on subjects' characteristic perceptual asymmetries.     

The utilization of genetic counselors within a newborn screening program

Genetic counselors have participated in the Michigan Newborn Screening Program on a contractual basis since 1988. Their role includes newborn screening education and training, newborn nursery site visits, and monitoring newborn screening in hospitals. Their impact has been to improve the quality of newborn screening services by reducing errors and increasing completion of data fields on newborn screening cards, improving hospital nursery cooperation and problem solving, and enhancing health department response to specific problems.     

The effects of baby bath and massage by fathers on the family system: The sunraysia australia intervention project

Instruction in baby massage and the Burleigh Relaxation Bath technique was given to one-half of our sample of 32 couples who had just had their first child. This brief intervention, given at 4 weeks post-partum, led to beneficial behavioural and psychological effects for the family system when assessed at 12 weeks postpartum. Depression and marital satisfaction were assessed with mothers and fathers at 4 weeks and 12 weeks after the birth of their child, and self-esteem was measured at 12 weeks only. The mothers and fathers who were shown baby bathing and massage techniques showed higher degrees of marital satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as lower levels of depression at 12 weeks post-partum, than parents who did not receive instruction. It seems likely that brief interventions which educate new parents concerning functional techniques of baby care may favourably affect their feelings of competence and be of benefit to the entire family system.     

Fodor's nativism

Conclusion The upshot of all this is that very many lexical concepts arenot triggered. Not is triggering is a brute-causal, non cognitive process. Concepts, by and large, are not acquired through the inductive confirmation of definitions. I think Fodor is right about that. But the experience that leads to their acquisition is not arbitrary, and is cognitively processed. It's not just switching on a little cognitive machine already there, or kick-starting an endogenously controlled process.     

Performance of the vertical position in synchronized swimming as a function of skill, proprioceptive and visual feedback

This experiment assessed the efficacy of proprioceptive and visual information for the performance of "vertical position" by synchronized swimmers. Three skill groups of 5 senior, 5 intermediate, and 5 novice synchronized swimmers performed 40 vertical positions under four conditions. The conditions were: self-initiated with and without vision, and following experimenter perturbation, with and without vision. The dependent measure was degrees of error from true vertical. Analysis indicated that either proprioception or proprioception and vision may be used in performing vertical positions. A significant main effect was found among skill groups.     

The Drinking Expectancy Questionnaire: A revised measure of alcohol-related beliefs

Alcohol-related expectancies have been recently proposed as potentially important determinants of drinking behavior. This study describes the development of a New Zealand measure of such beliefs, the Drinking Expectancy Questionnaire (DEQ). Items selected through interviews, literature review, and the modification of other relevant questionnaires were piloted on 333 drinkers in a community sample and 275 college students. Factor analyses of both samples revealed nine alcohol reinforcement domains relating to assertiveness, affective change, sexual enhancement, social enhancement, relaxation, cognitive impairment, dependence, carelessness, and aggression. The potential clinical and research possibilities using this revised expectancy measure are briefly discussed, along with the scale's strength and weaknesses.The financial assistance of the Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council of New Zealand in conducting this study is gratefully acknowledged.     

Programming simulations of cognitive processes: An example of building macrostructures

Information is provided on the process of creating psychological simulations using LISP. A simulation is described, and the difference between progamming and simulation and “normal” programming is also provided, along with programming and debugging tips.     

Do alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome patients acquire affective reactions?

In this study we report two experiments that investigate the acquisition of affective reactions. In Experiment 1, unfamiliar melodies were played to Korsakoff's syndrome patients and alcoholic and nonalcoholic control subjects who were matched with them according to age and education. Following a retention interval of 5 min, subjects received a preference test on old and new melodies. Korsakoff's syndrome patients showed the same increase in preference for old melodies as a consequence of prior exposures as control subjects did, but their recognition of melodies was significantly impaired in comparison with controls. In Experiment 2, the same subjects saw photographs of two men. Fictional biographical information depicted one as a "good guy" and the other as a "bad guy." After a retention interval of approximately 20 days, Korsakoffs recalled virtually none of the biographical information; however, 78% preferred the good guy, and impression ratings were less favorable for the bad guy. Korsakoff patients developed preferences and impressions even though they did not have voluntary access to the information on which the preferences were based. However, their impression ratings were less extreme than those of controls. The pattern of results of the two studies is discussed in terms of Johnson's (1983) MEM model of memory.