Sources of meaning in the acquisition of complex syntax: the sample case of causality

The study reported here is concerned with how children acquire complex sentences for expressing their beliefs about causally related events, in the transition in language development from simple to complex syntax. Subjects were three girls and four boys, observed longitudinally from 26 to 38 months of age in their homes. Data analysis began with those observations in which each child began to produce causally related propositions without syntactic connectives, and continued until the children were about 3 years old. Two broad categories of causal meaning were expressed in the children's causal statements. Objective meaning concerned means-end and consequence relations that were evidential and fixed in the physical world. Subjective meaning expressed causal connections concerned with personal, affective, or sociocultural beliefs. While most of the children's statements expressed subjective meaning overall, the acquisition of syntactic connectives was associated with objective meaning. These results are discussed in terms of the development of these children's understanding of causality and the acquisition of increasingly complex language.     

Hypertonic saline mimics the effects of vasopressin on inhibitory avoidance in the rat

Rats tested in a step-through inhibitory avoidance task were administered hypertonic saline (2 ml of 0.25. 0.5, and 1.0 M intraperitoneally) or arginine vasopressin (1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 micrograms) injected subcutaneously (sc) after the training trial where the rats received a mild footshock (0.2 mA, 3 s). Both hypertonic saline and vasopressin produced significant increases in latency to reenter 24 h later. These treatments failed to increase reentry latencies in animals that received the same procedure but no shock. The facilitation of inhibitory avoidance produced by hypertonic saline was reversed by sc administration of 25 micrograms of the vasopressor (V-1) vasopressin antagonist, dPtyr(Me)AVP. The results suggest that the endogenous release of vasopressin can be behaviorally significant in situations of acute homeostatic challenge.     

Use of systematic desensitization in the treatment of airplane phobic patients

There have been several studies of the phenomenon of airplane phobia mostly dealing with professional aviators and aircrews (Goorney, 1960; Aitken, 1970). There has also been a report of the use of penthranization in the in vivo desensitization of an airplane phobic patient (Mildman, 1969). Recently one case of successful in vivo desensitization using flight simulators and flight instruction has been reported (Bernstein and Beaty, 1971).This paper describes the application of Wolpe's (Wolpe, 1969) technique of systematic desensitization for persons with an airplane phobia.     

Eye contact as a setting event for infant learning

Three-month-old human infants received social reinforcement contigent upon each vocalization. The experimenter wore eye glasses with lenses composed of clear acetate, skin-toned opaque shields, or life-size photographs of the experimenter's eyes (with direct or averted gaze), and maintained visual contact with the infant's eyes (via pinholes in the lenses) during all sessions. Each group of three subjects experienced two of the four possible lens conditions. During baseline and extinction sessions vocalization rate was quite similar under each lens condition. During conditioning sessions, however, vocalizations exceeded baseline rates in all but the opaque lens condition. In this study eye contact was neither a reinforcing, discriminative, nor eliciting stimulus. Eye contact was a setting stimulus (catalyst) for the response-reinforcement relationship.     

Major stimulus dimensions determining detection of simulated breast lesions

Five adult humans palpated silicone breast models in a lump-detection task. The effects on detection of several lump and model characteristics were studied in three phases, using both discrete trial (restricted search procedure) and “free response” (free search procedure) psychophysical methods. Size and depth of fixed steel lumps were varied in Phase 1. Depth and hardness of uniformly sized, fixed lumps were varied in Phase 2. The presence and depth of simulated breast nodularity were also studied in Phases 1 and 2. In Phase 3, all breast models were uniformly nodular and lumps varied along dimensions of size, depth, hardness, and fixation. In Phase 1, lump detection was greatest with maximum lump size and minimum depth within the model. Neither lump hardness nor depth differentially influenced detection of the fixed lumps in Phase 2. When breast lumps were mobile, in Phase 3, size and hardness were major stimulus dimensions determining detection. These results suggest physical parameters for realistic breast models and lumps to be used in training effective breast self-examination and breast lump detection.     

An administrative model for close monitoring and managing high risk individuals.

The public expects central government to have immediate knowledge of the condition and circumstances of certain vulnerable or dangerous individuals such as insanity acquittees, and to take action in individual cases to protect the individual and the public. Therefore, such persons conditionally released to community settings require an unusual degree of close monitoring and management. Being immediately aware of the condition and circumstances of its assignees, together with other duties of a board or commission responsible for that monitoring and management, is largely an information management function. The Psychiatric Security Review Board in Oregon is used to illustrate this unique mission, operations, and information management. In this paper, the Psychiatric Security Review Board is described in terms of its core and secondary businesses, together with a model information system that is based on information and information management processes actually employed by the Board.