On the independence of physical and nominal codes: a correlational analysis

In studies of college students, normal children at three grades, and learning-disabled children, physical and nominal matching procedures were highly correlated, (range .72-.96). In each instance, expected time differences favoring physical matches were replicated. Comparable results were found with both tachistoscopic and paper-and-pencil methods. In two studies where relevant data were available, correlations were not significantly attenuated when the effects of motor speed were partialled out. The results challenge the premise that nominal and physical matching measures are empirically independent, invalidate their application as measures of independent types of information processing, and help explain inconsistent findings in hemispheric specialization research.     

The use of an intermittent schedule of reinforcement to evaluate detection dogs’ generalization from smokeless-powder

Animal Cognition - Odor generalization is essential for detection dogs. Regardless of its importance, limited research is available on detection dog odor generalization. The objectives of this...     

Effects of social proximity on multiple aggressive behaviors

We systematically manipulated social proximity to examine its influence on multiple topographies of aggression. Aggression occurred at high levels during close-proximity sessions and at low levels during distant-proximity sessions even though social contact was presented continuously during both conditions. Topographies of aggression emerged sequentially across the close-proximity sessions, and all topographies were reduced to zero following extended sessions of this condition.     

Effects of a brief behavioral treatment for PTSD-related sleep disturbances: a pilot study

OBJECTIVE: Sleep disturbances are a core feature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and are often resistant to first-line pharmacological and psychological PTSD interventions. The goal of this pilot study was to explore the effects of a very brief intervention for PTSD-related nightmares and insomnia in victims of violent crimes with PTSD. METHODS: Seven adult victims of violent crimes with a current diagnosis of PTSD received a single, 90-min intervention session that used cognitive-behavioral techniques aimed at reducing post-traumatic nightmares and insomnia. Sleep diary measures, and measures of sleep quality, PTSD severity, anxiety, and depression were completed at baseline and 6 weeks post-intervention. RESULTS: Improvements in self-report and sleep diary measures of sleep quality and dream frequency were observed post-intervention. Clinically meaningful reductions in daytime PTSD symptom severity were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: A very brief behavioral intervention targeting post-traumatic nightmares and insomnia was associated with significant improvements in sleep and daytime PTSD symptom severity. Brief sleep-focused intervention may be helpful adjuncts to first-line PTSD treatments.     

Learned changes in stimulus representations (a personal history)

Almost 40 years ago I began what turned out to be a programme of research on the way in which experience can change the effectiveness of the events used as stimuli in standard associative learning procedures. In this personal history I will describe my early (failed) attempts to find evidence for the acquired distinctiveness of cues, and my conclusion that experience tends to reduce, not enhance the associability of stimuli. I then go on to describe my attempts to square this conclusion with the stubborn empirical fact that, in some circumstances, pretraining with (or preexposure to) stimuli, can facilitate subsequent discrimination between them. I describe experiments (conducted mostly with rats as the subjects) showing how some of these effects can be explained in associative terms. Others, however, seemed to demand an explanation in terms of a new learning process that modulates the effective salience of stimuli. I go on to describe attempts to specify the nature of this process, and (bringing the story up to date) to describe recent experiments investigating the effects of salience modulation in human perceptual learning.