A signal detection analysis of the effects of hearing on the visual recognition of two-digit numbers

A signal detection measure of visual recognition was used to assess the visual recognition of two-digit numbers in three different conditions: (1) voicing of the number as it was presented visually; (2) voicing of a different number than the one presented; and (3) no voicing. The three treatment means were significantly different, with matched voicing resulting in the best performance and no voicing, in the worst. There was no evidence that the treatments differentially affected response criteria.     

Stimulus control and the growth of the infant’s effective visual field*

The size of the infant’s effective visual field was studied weekly in infants starting at 2 weeks of age until they were 10 weeks old, The field was initially quite small, 15 deg to either side of their line of regard. Over the 2-month period of the study, it more than doubled for stimulus conditions in which the peripheral event was in motion and the fixation object static, and it remained approximately the same size when motion was present in the fixation event and the peripheral object was static. As with adults, the infant’s effective visual field is directly related to the stimuli available.     

A suit for protecting chronically implanted devices in monkeys

The plastic barrel suit provides complete protection of chronically implanted fistulas and electrical connectors. The lost time, expense, and the frustrations of having these devices damaged was avoided.     

Humanness: A Therapeutic Variable

Since attempts by adherents to various psychotherapeutic orientations have failed to demonstrate the efficacy of any one of them, this paper tries to explicate the single variable—humanness—that seems to underlie all therapeutic approaches, and may account for the positive results obtained by all approaches. Many investigators have emphasized the importance of a positive relationship as a factor in counseling; but an influential force, behavior modification therapy, has attempted to once again place the role of technique in the spotlight. Their results have not been striking. A second aim, therefore, of this paper is to offer a critique of this position in the light of humanistic and research considerations. The implications of a technique-oriented therapeutic approach are also discussed. A plea is entered for emphasis being placed on, and an investigation of, the role of humanness as the most important variable in the counseling process.     

Delayed reinforcement and runway performance

The Psychological Record -     

Reviews of current books

Pastoral Psychology -     

Fixed ratio and extinction performance of infants in the second year of life

Five 14(1/2)- to 19(1/2)-month-old infants were trained to lever press for snacks on small fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. Within four to nine sessions, responding under FR 10 was established for four subjects and FR 15 for the other. Each subject's last session revealed behavioral patterns similar to animal and human FR trained subjects-a high and constant ratio rate, mixed with a zero rate following reinforcements. Deviations were mostly in the form of prolonged and variable post-reinforcement pauses. These and other irregularities were probably due to the limited deprivation conditions and improper training procedures in which the ratio (for two subjects) was ascended too early and too quickly. Extinction was instituted during the last session. The degree to which extinction performance matched that of other organisms depended upon how stable and "ratio-like" performance was during conditioning.     

BIOLOGY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Abstract. The sciences may be conceptualized as a hierarchy ranked by level of organization (e.g., many-body physics ranks above particle physics). Each science serves as an antidiscipline for the science above it; that is, between each pair, tense but creative interplay is inevitable. Biology has advanced through such tension between its subdisciplines and now can serve as an antidiscipline for the social sciences—for anthropology, for example, by examining the connection between cultural and biological evolution; for psychology, by addressing the nature of learning and the structure of the unconscious; for economics, by examining economically irrational behavior and by comparing economic activity in humans and other species. Sociology, concerned mainly with advanced literate societies, is relatively remote from the genetic basis of human social behavior. However, moving between biological and social levels of organization generates richness and points to new and unexpected principles.