Using pretreatment and posttreatment assessments to enhance and evaluate existing treatment packages.

Pretreatment assessment data were used to enhance an existing treatment package to reduce aggression and to increase positive social interactions between a young boy and his peers. Based on the results of pretreatment assessments, additional reinforcement (differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with adult attention) and punishment (performing a nonpreferred task during time-out) components were added to an existing nonresetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (access to peers unless aggression occurred) plus time-out procedure. A posttreatment component analysis of the additional treatment components indicated that the reinforcement component facilitated positive social interactions and the punishment component suppressed aggression towards peers.     

The role of inhibition in a spreading-activation model of language production. I. The psycholinguistic perspective

Spreading-activation models of language production are only workable to the extent that they manage to solve the heat death problem, i.e., the danger that too many nodes in the network are overactive at the same time. Therefore, a delicate balance between activational and deactivational forces has to be struck. Of the three prevailing dampening mechanisms of decay, self-inhibition and other-inhibition, the latter has been selected for closer scrutiny. The key proposal of this two-part article is that activation-based models of language production cannot afford to do without an inhibitory component, in particular lateral inhibition among nodes of the same level. Psycholinguistic evidence is reviewed in an attempt to insulate inhibitory from excitatory mechanisms. Although it is difficult in normal adult language use to distinguish between the effects of excessive activation and insufficient inhibition, some patterns from language acquisition and aphasia can be shown to follow from inhibitory rather than excitatory problems, thus demonstrating the reality of inhibition. In a system of activational and deactivational forces, other-inhibition is claimed to have the excitatory mechanism of syntax as its natural opponent. It is finally argued that other-inhibition offers an explanation for some puzzling findings from the experimental literature.     

Productive and perceptual constraints on speech-error correction

Summary Two incentives underlie the present study on speech-error detection and correction. First, this area of research has up to now almost completely been approached through experimental techniques. Since it is not at all clear whether speakers' detection and correction behaviour is identical inside and outside the laboratory, a comparison is made between experimental and naturalistic data. While the experimental materials are taken from the literature, the naturalistic findings are based upon the analysis of a corpus of more than 6,000 German slips of the tongue. It is shown that the same trends emerge in both data sets, thereby confirming the ecological validity of the experimental, and the reliability of the naturalistic, results. Secondly, the question arises as to the reasons for error correction and its occasional failure. Two working hypotheses are explored. Speakers fail to correct their errors because they have not detected them or because they assume that the error does not interfere with the listener's decoding process. The former reason is understood as a productive, the latter as a perceptual, constraint on the correction of self-produced errors. The empirical analysis discloses a large overlap between the effects of perceptual and productive constraints. However, whereas perceptual constraints can be subsumed under productive ones, the reverse is not possible. On the basis of this outcome it is argued that productive constraints are primary, and perceptual constraints secondary, reference points for error correction. Although the empirical data do not require the postulation of perceptual constraints, it is suggested that both speaker- and listenerbased aspects form part of à highly integrated processing system.     

Fluency and eye contact as factors influencing observers' perceptions of stutterers

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of different levels of eye contact and fluency on observers' perceptions of a speaker. One of four videotapes depicting an actor (playing the part of a supervisor) interviewing another actor (who played a subordinate) were shown to 127 college students. The four videotapes represented four different conditions comprising combinations of fluent vs nonfluent speech and normal vs low eye contact. Results indicated that these combinations of fluency and eye contact differentially influence listeners' perceptions of a speaker. Highest ratings were obtained for the fluent-normal eye-contact speaker, with lower ratings for all other conditions. In addition, it was determined that the frequency of eye contact rather than fluency was more strongly related to listeners' perceptions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Coping Activities in Solitary Confinement of U.S. Navy POWs in Vietnam1

A questionnaire was developed and administered to 137 Navy aviators, who were repatriated prisoners of war (RPWs) from North Vietnam, to investigate the usefulness of specific “time-killing” activities or adaptational strategies for coping with extensive periods of solitary confimement during captivity. Factor analysis of the usefulness scores resulted in the derivation of four factors accounting for 32% of the variance: (1) Captor-Captive Relationship, (2) Reliving the Past, (3) Repetitive Behavior, and (4) Self-development Activities. Factor 1 coping activities were rated as most useful, and Factor 3 as least useful. Factor 2 activities were used by most RPWs during the first few weeks in solitary, while Factor 4 activities were not used until later. In addition, the usefulness of all four factors increased significantly over time. The results were discussed in terms of the personality characteristics of aviators, and theoretical formulations emphasizing the individual's need for optimal stimulation.     

The startle response and auditory temporal summation in neonates

The present study assessed temporal summation of transient and sustained stimuli in the startle eyeblink response system in neonates during quiet sleep. Subjects received 100-dB(A), fast-rising broadband noise bursts of two types: (a) single stimuli varying in duration from 20 to 100 ms and (b) pairs of 3-ms bursts presented at interpulse intervals corresponding to the single-stimulus durations. In addition, a single 3-ms pulse was used as an anchor point for both stimulus types. For startle amplitude, single stimuli were more effective than were paired stimuli, but the temporal summation functions were similar for the two types of stimuli. Response amplitude increased as stimulus duration/interval increased to 50 ms, but not beyond. For startle probability, temporal summation was similar for single and paired stimuli at 20 ms. Pairs of pulses were equally effective at 20, 35, and 50 ms, beyond which the second pulse was not effective. Increasing the duration of single stimuli from 20 to 35 ms resulted in increased probability, illustrating a contribution of sustained summation beyond that of transient summation. Response latency was generally greater for paired than for single stimuli. The results suggest that temporal summation of brief stimuli is deficient in the neonate. These data were compared to adult data from an analogous study, and suggest that the transient system is immature in infants, and that this immaturity is expressed differently by startle amplitude, probability, and latency.     

An interview with a child to assess psychiatric disturbance: A note on its reliability and validity

Forty-six children with enuresis were given a psychiatric interview. The two writers made independent ratings of 10 behavioral variables. Seven of these showed satisfactory interrater reliability. No relationship was established between child psychiatric disturbance assessed in this way and estimates of disorder obtained from information given by mothers and teachers.Professor Max Hamilton, Department of Psychiatry, University of Leeds, kindly provided computing facilities. The work was supported by a grant from the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority.     

Strange bedfellows? Reflections on bioethics' role in disaster response planning

This essay considers the potential role of bioethics in disaster response planning and preparedness. Bioethicists can make substantial contributions, by ensuring that decision-making and distribution of resources during crises is carried out in a fair and just manner, as well as by examining the assumptions upon which disaster planning are based. Bioethicists should also be aware of potential pitfalls of overly-hasty engagement with this new field.     

A structural account of phonological paraphasias

The aim of this study is to develop a partial theory of phonological paraphasias which has some cross-syndrome and cross-linguistic validity. It is based on the distinction between content and structural units and emphasizes the role of the latter. The notion of structure holds the key to an understanding of the differences among the following three types of data: slips of the tongue, slips of the pen (defined as errors committed by healthy, competent adults), and paraphasias. A comparison of these three data types reveals that slips of the pen and paraphasias display striking similarities whereas slips of the tongue stand apart. This pattern emerges very clearly in an analysis of nine empirical effects all of which are found to be of a structural nature. On the basis of these results, it is argued that both the written output of normals and the oral output of aphasics are generated under a reduced structural representation (i.e., weak activation of structural nodes). However, the reasons for the diminished sensitivity to structure are not the same in the two modalities. While the impoverished structural representation is a likely consequence of the relatively slow production rate in writing, it may stem from an impaired transmission of activation among structural nodes in aphasia. By contrast, the normal speaking process occurs under the sway of a full-fledged structural representation. Hence, slips of the tongue are highly sensitive to structural effects.