Behavioral treatments of primary dysmenorrhea: A review

Behavioral interventions for primary dysmenorrhea are reviewed under four categories: hypnotherapy; Lamaze exercises; biofeedback training; and desensi found in only the last category and even here, the extent to which positive results stem from desensitization-based treatments themselves as opposed to nonspecific factors associated with these treatments is unresolved. Additional issues that bear upon behavioral treatments for primary dysmenorrhea are: (a) the need for further taxonomic refinement; and (b) the need to incorporate pathophysiological findings within the treatment of this disorder.     

Orientation in cognitive maps

In 14 experiments, subjects had to “point to” surrounding environmental locations (targets) while imagining themselves in a particular spot facing in various directions (orientations). The spatial information was either committed to memory (cognitive maps) or directly presented on each trial in the visual or tactile modality. Reaction times (RT) indicated that orientation shifts were achieved through mental rotation in the visual task, but not in the cognitive map or tactile tasks. Further, in the latter two tasks targets were located most quickly when they were adjacent to or opposite the imagined orientation. Several explanations of this finding were tested. Various aspects of the data suggest that cognitive maps are not strictly holistic, but consist of orientation-specific representations, and—at least in part—of relational propositions specific to object pairs.     

Behavioural family therapy and the influence of a systems framework

A family approach using the techniques of behaviour modification, to a family presenting with problems of encopressis in a five-year-old boy, is described. The usefulness of taking a broader analysis of the context of the behaviours targeted for modification under the impact of systems theories is emphasized. A one-year follow-up after treatment demonstrated both symptomatic and family changes.     

Tomboys and sissies: Androgynous children?

Psychological studies of masculinity-femininity in children have paralleled those done with adults, which often consider deviations from masculinity for males and femininity for females as abnormal and perhaps pathological. Children who demonstrate cross-sex behaviors, however, may become androgynous adults whose cross-sex behaviors mean flexibility, not pathology. This study had two purposes: (1) to identify potentially androgynous children as those labeled by their peers as tomboys and sissies; (2) to compare personality characteristics of androgynous children with those of peers. Subjects were 312 elementary school children in a midwestern city. Results indicate that the labels tomboy and sissy are not necessarily indicators of androgynous children, but important social behaviors are related to the labels. For males, the possibility of frustrated creativity was raised.     

Indclus: An individual differences generalization of the adclus model and the mapclus algorithm

We present a new model and associated algorithm, INDCLUS, that generalizes the Shepard-Arabie ADCLUS (ADditive CLUStering) model and the MAPCLUS algorithm, so as to represent in a clustering solution individual differences among subjects or other sources of data. Like MAPCLUS, the INDCLUS generalization utilizes an alternating least squares method combined with a mathematical programming optimization procedure based on a penalty function approach to impose discrete (0,1) constraints on parameters defining cluster membership. All subjects in an INDCLUS analysis are assumed to have a common set of clusters, which are differentially weighted by subjects in order to portray individual differences. As such, INDCLUS provides a (discrete) clustering counterpart to the Carroll-Chang INDSCAL model for (continuous) spatial representations. Finally, we consider possible generalizations of the INDCLUS model and algorithm.We are indebted to Seymour Rosenberg for making available the data from Rosenberg and Kim [1975]. Also, this work has benefited from the observations of S. A. Boorman, W. S. DeSarbo, G. Furnas, P. E. Green, L. J. Hubert, L. E. Jones, J. B. Kruskal, S. Pruzansky, D. Schmittlein, E. J. Shoben, S. D. Soli, and anonymous referees.This research was supported in part by NSF Grant SES82 00441, LEAA Grant 78-NI-AX-0142, and NSF Grant SES80 04815.     

Emotionality of encoding activity in face memory

The effects of emotionality of study tasks on face recognition were examined. Subjects made either personality decisions or self-comparisons about the people shown in a series of photographs. The personality traits judged during the encoding tasks had been selected to be either arousing or relatively nonarousing. Face recognition performance was best after an emotional nonself study task, on both immediate and delayed tests. In a companion study examining these manipulations in verbal memory, self-reference study tasks produced the best word recognition, with no difference due to the emotionality of nonself tasks. These results suggest emotionality and self-awareness have different effects on facial and verbal memory. A final study indicated that the effect of emotionality disappeared if it was added to self-reference. As regards self-reference differences in face and verbal memory, this series of experiments seems to rule out an emotionality confounding. It was concluded that self-images are less effective mnemonic aids than the propositional self-concept.     

Tolerance to and residual effects of cocaine in squirrel monkeys depend on reinforcement-schedule parameter.

Lever pressing by 4 squirrel monkeys was maintained under a three-component multiple fixed-ratio schedule of food presentation; components differed with respect to ratio size. For each monkey, acute administration of cocaine (0.03 to 1.3 mg/kg, i.m.) produced dose-dependent decreases in overall response rate in each component. During repeated daily administration of 1.0 mg/kg of cocaine, tolerance developed to the rate-decreasing effects under each of the ratio contingencies, but developed to a greater extent and was evident in earlier parts of sessions for performance under the smaller ratios. Response rates of 2 monkeys increased above nondrug control levels despite the putative reinforcer not being consumed during the session. When saline or a smaller dose of cocaine was substituted for 1.0 mg/kg, response rates often were suppressed below nondrug control-level responding. This suppressive effect was observed in each monkey and was more likely to be observed and/or to be of greater magnitude in large-ratio components for 3 of the 4 monkeys. When saline was administered chronically at the end of the chronic-drug phase, response rates remained suppressed in the large-ratio component for 2 of the monkeys. There was, therefore, a schedule-dependent dissociation between behavioral tolerance and the residual effects: Tolerance was greater when small ratios were arranged, whereas the residual effects were more pronounced when larger ratios were arranged.