A preliminary examination of the evocative effects of the establishing operation

We attempted to isolate the evocative effects of the establishing operation for positively reinforced problem behavior with 2 participants. The study consisted of three phases. First, a functional analysis identified tangible items (Participant 1) and attention (Participant 2) as maintaining problem behavior. Second, access to tangible items and attention was systematically controlled (continuous access vs. no access) immediately prior to functional analysis sessions in which these consequences were delivered contingent on problem behavior. Results of this phase indicated that problem behavior occurred at higher levels when access to tangible items and attention was restricted. In the third phase, prior access was again controlled, but problem behavior produced no consequences. Results of this final phase indicated that problem behavior occurred at higher levels during extinction sessions when participants did not have prior access to the reinforcers.     

Intentions in teasing: when "just kidding" just isn't good enough

Teasing is ambiguous. Although the literal content of a tease is, by definition, negative, seldom do teasers intend for their tease to be taken literally. Toward this aim, teasers often attempt to mitigate the negative surface content of the tease by communicating via gesture, facial expression, or tone of voice that they are "just kidding." The research presented here suggests that such attempts often fall on deaf ears. Despite teasers' attempts to mitigate the tease, targets are often unaware of--and unmoved by--the teaser's benign intentions. As a result, teasers and targets systematically differ in their perceptions of teasing: Although it is often seen as innocent and playful by the teaser, it tends to be construed as considerably more malicious by the target.     

Promoting fluency of performance during morning dressing by two persons with multiple disabilities

This study investigated the possibility of promoting fluency of performance, i.e., a performance independent of caregiver's guidance and without serious interruptions, during morning dressing in two adults with multiple disabilities. The intervention program relied on the use of assistive technology including optic and pressure sensors to monitor the participants' task responding and tape players to present preferred stimuli in relation to such responding, as well as messages of encouragement. Analysis showed that the intervention program was effective with both participants. In fact, they became capable of performing the dressing sequence with only occasional guidance from research assistants, and the time they required for dressing dropped significantly from baseline levels. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Does attention follow the motion in the "shooting line" illusion?

When a line is presented in the vicinity of a recent luminance change (peripheral cue), it is perceived to be drawn over time away from its "cued" end even though the line is actually presented all at once. This study was designed to determine whether attention, exogenously attracted to the cue, would come under the exogenous control of this illusory motion and follow the drawing motion from the cued end to its terminus. Each trial began with the display of four small squares at the corners of an imaginary square centered about fixation. On the critical trials, one of the four squares brightened briefly, after which a horizontal line was presented joining either the two upper or the two lower squares. Shortly thereafter, the distribution of attention was determined by asking the observer to indicate the nature of a change that was equally likely to occur to one of the squares. Responses to targets presented at a noncued location that was at the end of an illusorily drawn line were as fast as those to targets at the cued location and were much faster than those to targets at the remaining noncued locations. This pattern was not shown when the line preceded the cue, strongly suggesting that attention follows the motion in this illusion.     

Religious Coping Style, Concept of God, and Personal Religious Variables in Threat, Loss, and Challenge Situations

This study explored the important mediating role of personal religious variables and God concept in the use of religious coping in threat, loss, and challenge situations. One hundred and twenty-nine undergraduates completed questionnaires which included a God concept adjective checklist (Schaefer and Gorsuch 1992), a stressor scenario (Bjorck and Cohen 1993), and a measure of religious coping adapted from the BAV model (Gorsuch 1988). Results suggest that personal variables such as God concept and perception of others' beliefs played important mediating roles in religious coping in stressor situations. The relationship between coping style and stressor scenario was not entirely state-dependent, but influenced by personal variables. Strong relationships existed among God concept, the importance individuals placed on their religious and spiritual lives, and participation in religious activities.     

Evidence against signal enhancement as a mechanism of direct selection by color

Two of the possible mechanisms that have been put forward to explain precuing effects are signal enhancement and uncertainty reduction. Signal enhancement leads to processing advantages for valid information because the signal at the known input channel is enhanced, whereas uncertainty reduction allows observers to ignore confusing distractor items in a display. Both mechanisms have been reported to be involved in location precuing, but it is still unclear which of these two mechanisms is responsible for color cuing effects. Two experiments are reported in which expectancy for a certain color in a single-item display was created. Targetswere presented briefly and were masked. If color cues produce signal enhancement, then a color cuing effect should result. If color cues only allow uncertainty reduction, however, there should be no color cuing effect because there are no distractors in single-item displays. The results of both experiments favor uncertainty reduction as the mechanism behind color cuing, because no signs of signal enhancement-based cuing effects were observed.     

Volition and the idle cortex: beta oscillatory activity preceding planned and spontaneous movement

Prior to the initiation of spontaneous movement, evoked potentials can be seen to precede awareness of the impending movement by several hundreds of milliseconds, meaning that this recorded neural activity is the result of unconscious processing. This study investigates the neural representations of impending movement with and without awareness. Specifically, the relationship between awareness and 'idling' cortical oscillations in the beta range (18-24Hz) was assessed. It was found that, in situations where there was awareness of the impending movement, pre-movement evoked potentials were associated with a decrease in beta range oscillations. In contrast, when awareness of the impending movement was not present, the onset of the pre-movement potential was associated with tonic levels of beta range oscillations. A model is considered where by distributed neural activity remains outside of conscious awareness through the persistence of tonic slow wave cortical oscillations.     

Manipulating the evocative and abative effects of an establishing operation: influences on challenging behavior during classroom instruction

In this study we examined the evocative and abative effects of an establishing operation on challenging behavior during classroom instruction for a student with severe disabilities including autism. A prior functional analysis indicated that his challenging behavior was maintained by access to preferred snack items. During classroom instructional sessions these snack items were visible but not available to the student. In other words challenging behavior was placed on extinction during instruction. Immediately prior to instructional sessions the student received either access to snack items or did not receive access to snacks. Access versus no access to snacks prior to instruction was systematically controlled using a multi‐element design. Results demonstrated higher levels of challenging behavior during instruction when the student did not have access to snacks prior to instruction. Very little challenging behavior occurred during instructional sessions when the student had prior access to snacks. Implications for considering the evocative and abative effects of establishing operations when implementing operant extinction in applied settings are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A pilot study of cognitive-behavioral therapy of insomnia in people with mild depression

In some cases, insomnia and depression may have a reciprocal relationship, in which each aggravates and maintains the other. To test the hypothesis that reduction of insomnia would result in reduction of depression in patients (N=10) with both disorders, a repeated-measures design was used comparing depression and insomnia levels before and after 6 sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy of insomnia. Posttreatment, 100% of completers (n=8) had a normalized sleeping pattern, and 87.5% had normalized depression scores. Significant posttreatment improvement was seen in sleep onset latency (-31 min), wake time after sleep onset (-24 min), total sleep time (+65 min), sleep efficiency (+14%), and sleep quality (+19%), which was maintained at 3-month follow-up. A decreasing trend occurred in depression scores from pre- to posttreatment, which reached significance at 3-month follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses showed similar results.