BIS,BAS, and response conflict: Testing predictions of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory

Gray’s (1970) reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) was recently updated (Gray & McNaughton, 2000), but the changes have not received extensive empirical validation. The study tests three novel predictions of the revised RST. First, the behavioral activation system (BAS) is expected to be sensitive to both conditioned and unconditioned incentives. Second, the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is expected to be sensitive to conflicting incentives such as between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli, and not to avoidance responses or aversive stimuli alone. Third, during approach-avoidance conflicts only, BAS is expected to moderate BIS responses to conflict such that individuals with high BAS show the strongest effect of BIS. In order to test these hypotheses, we developed a novel incentive task that crosses approach/avoidance conditioned responses to appetitive/aversive unconditioned stimuli. Conflict between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli occurred on the approach-aversive and avoid-appetitive trials. Results confirm the predictions and provide support for the revised RST.     

Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits in dyslexia

Speech perception deficits in developmental dyslexia were investigated in quiet and various noise conditions. Dyslexics exhibited clear speech perception deficits in noise but not in silence. Place‐of‐articulation was more affected than voicing or manner‐of‐articulation. Speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits persisted when performance of dyslexics was compared to that of much younger children matched on reading age, underscoring the fundamental nature of speech‐perception‐in‐noise deficits. The deficits were not due to poor spectral or temporal resolution because dyslexics exhibited normal ‘masking release’ effects (i.e. better performance in fluctuating than in stationary noise). Moreover, speech‐perception‐in‐noise predicted significant unique variance in reading even after controlling for low‐level auditory, attentional, speech output, short‐term memory and phonological awareness processes. Finally, the presence of external noise did not seem to be a necessary condition for speech perception deficits to occur because similar deficits were obtained when speech was degraded by eliminating temporal fine‐structure cues without using external noise. In conclusion, the core deficit of dyslexics seems to be a lack of speech robustness in the presence of external or internal noise.     

Anorexia nervosa: the tyranny of appearances

This paper explores the possibility that many families of anorexics are overly preoccupied with appearances, valuing what other people think of them more than healthier families do, and that this influences the origin and maintenance of anorexia. This‘rule’is simple and should be open to testing more widely through research.     

In Memoriam

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Two youths who clutter, but is that the only similarity?

This article describes the clinical profile of two youngsters who clutter. Although both subjects share key characteristics, they differ in other respects. As we gain more systematic information on the nature and symptomatology of cluttering, we may conclude that it is not a homogeneous but a heterogeneous phenomenon.     

Legitimizing the Leader: Endorsement by Male Versus Female Authority Figures

Subjects viewed a videotaped group discussion by a leader and four other group members and evaluated each of them for leadership competence. The leader, either a man or a woman, was either personally endorsed ("legitimized") or unendorsed by either a male or a female authority figure. Legitimation raised both leaders' performance evaluations. Legitimation by the female authority affected the leaders' evaluations, overall, as much as legitimation by a male authority. For the male leader, legitimation by the male and female authority figures produced equal impact. However, legitimation by the female authority figure produced significantly greater impact on evaluations of the female leader's performance than the same legitimation by a male authority figure. The data suggest that female authority figures can be effective legitimizers of both sexes, but male authority's endorsements of a female subordinate may be viewed as suspect.     

Group properties and outcomes: a study of group norms in self-help groups for widows and widowers

Despite the nearly universally shared agreement among group therapists about the importance of group norms, empirical studies have rarely demonstrated a positive relationship between specific norms in psychotherapy groups and patient benefit. The study explored this relationship by examining the linkages between norms, a specific therapeutic process, and patient outcome. Examined were seventy-two spousal bereavement groups. Subjects' responses to a thirty-one item behavioral inventory were used to define norms; outcomes were based upon Time 1/Time 2 differences on a series of eleven measures indexing depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, abuse of psychotropic medication, coping mastery, well-being, self-esteem, target problem rating, several measures of role stress and strain, and stigma. The findings suggest that normative characteristics were linked to a process, reciprocal social exchange, that influences positive outcomes. The results are preliminary, since they only serve to demonstrate such a relationship can exist.     

Reading,spelling, and vigilance in attention deficit and conduct disorder

A group of 51 male children, average age 9.1 years, presenting at a child psychiatric clinic because of attention and conduct problems were investigated for reading and phonetic spelling ability, vigilance, and intellectual level. Each child was given a DSM- III diagnosis prior to being tested. The Boder Test of Reading and Spelling patterns was used to obtain scores for reading age, number of syllables read correctly in the word list at the child's reading level, and number of phonetically correct syllables spelled in the known and unknown word lists, at and just above the child's reading level. A factor analysis with varimax rotation produced two significant factors, a Reading factor with high loadings for verbal and reading scores, aand a second Vigilance factor. Phonetic spelling ability loaded separately from reading into the Vigilance factor. The Vigilance factor was significantly related to the diagnosis of moderate and severe attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH). The correlation of short- term working memory with vigilance in moderate to severe ADDH children is discussed.Fundling assistance was provided by the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry.