Smoking and academic performance

Smokers and nonsmokers were compared on three aspects of academic achievement. Although exactly the same percentage of smokers and nonsmokers passed the first-year university examination, smokers obtained significantly higher marks. Similarly, smokers achieved significantly higher marks in their final year examinations in comparison with nonsmokers. Finally, a comparison of the tutorial essay marks of the smokers and nonsmokers again showed that smokers obtained significantly higher marks than nonsmokers. These data are consistent with the idea that ambitious students adopt smoking in the belief that it will help them study and sustain concentration.     

A process recording for evaluating group psychotherapy training methods

This paper discusses an exploratory investigation concerned with the long range questions: How does group psychotherapy help patients? and How can psychiatry residency programs best train residents to treat patients in therapeutic groups? Group psychotherapy has come to be accepted in its own right as a decisive contribution to the study of and relief of emotional disorders. As a component of comprehensive psychiatric services it is indispensable. However, while its clinical value has been demonstrated, its scientific validity has not. A Group Process Inventory has been developed by the author and has been utilized for the past two years by psychiatric residents in recording the process of their therapeutic groups in a teaching hospital mental hygiene clinic. The preliminary use of this recording as a clinical-teaching instrument has proven effective. This inventory is being revised to serve as a research instrument.     

Active-interactional cotherapy

In the literature on cotherapy, little attention has been focused on maximizing the effectiveness of two therapists working in tandem with families and couples. While cotherapists may at times share their ideas and feelings with their clients, and after the therapeutic session exchange views between themselves, generally little interaction occurs between them during the session. In this paper, a case is presented for more active interactions between cotherapists during the session, in order to expedite and facilitate change and growth in their clients. Anecdotal examples are provided to illustrate the approach.     

Mechanisms of blocking by contextual stimuli

The influence of contextual stimuli on the conditioning and performance of responding to a discrete stimulus was examined in the US preexposure paradigm using both context shift manipulations and a measure of context conditioning. Four groups of rats received both repeated exposure to an electric shock US in one context (Context 1), and repeated nonshocked exposure to a second context (Context 2). Two additional groups of rats received exposure to these contexts, but never received shock presentations. Rats exposed to shock learned to escape from the stimuli of Context 1, but did not escape from the stimuli provided by Context 2. Rats not exposed to shock failed to escape from either context. All rats then received a single CER conditioning session in which four pairings of a 3-min noise CS and shock US were presented. Half the rats received those CS-US pairings in the excitatory Context 1, while the remaining rats received those pairings in the neutral Context 2. Finally, half the rats in each of the CER conditioning treatments received extinction test trials of the noise CS in Context 1, while the remaining rats received those test trials in Context 2. Thus, this design factorially manipulated the presence of excitatory or neutral contextual stimuli during both conditioning and testing of a discrete CS. In comparison with the two groups of rats never preexposed to shock alone, attenuation in acquisition of conditioned suppression observed during test trials occurred only when CER conditioning had been administered in the excitatory Context 1, and this effect was manifested when testing occurred in either the excitatory Context 1 or the neutral Context 2. These results support the model of R. A. Rescorla and A. R. Wagner (1972) (in A. H. Black & W. F. Prokasy (Eds.) Classical Conditioning II, pp. 64–99, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts) which asserts that contextual stimuli and sicrete CSs compete for limited associative strength supportable by a given US.     

Arousal and T-maze choice behavior in mice: A convergent paradigm for neophobia constructs and optimal arousal theory

Three experiments investigating the effects of arousal on the T-maze choice behavior of inbred mouse strains are reported. In Experiment 1, CBA and NZB mice were administered unrewarded free choice alternation tests on 10 consecutive days under either No Shock, Shock Start (shocked in the start box), or Shock Choice (shocked at the choice point) treatment conditions. Both strain and treatment effects were observed: In the No-Shock condition, the nonreactive CBA strain alternated, but the reactive NZB strain did not. In the Shock Start condition the CBA strain showed only a suppressed alternation, while the NZB strain administered the same treatment perseverated. Both strains perseverated in the Shock Choice condition. In Experiment 2, NZB mice administered identical shocks in the start box and goal arms on both trials of five consecutive tests conducted once a day perseverated to the same goal arm in which they had been shocked on the first trial. In Experiment 3, NZB mice punished for perseverating (with shock continuation) and simultaneously reinforced for alternating (with shock termination) showed a “punishment paradox”; they perseverated despite the reinforcement contingencies. These results, which are congruent with the optimal arousal theory and several characteristics the theory shares with the emergent neophobia construct, support the contention that arousal mediates a symmetrical relationship between approach and avoidance along a novelty-familiarity continuum.