MODIFICATION OF COMBINED MIGRAINE-MUSCLE CONTRACTION HEADACHES USING BVP AND EMG FEEDBACK

The effect of blood volume pulse (BVP) and frontalis muscle action potential (EMG) feedback on control of vasoconstriction of the temporal artery and frontalis muscle activity in combined migraine-muscle tension subjects was investigated in a multiple baseline design (across subjects and responses). The data indicated: (a) both subjects obtained an ability to control BVP during BVP feedback and EMG during EMG feedback; (b) there were decreases in frequency of migraine headaches during BVP feedback and decreases in muscle contraction headaches during EMG feedback. The results of this study supported the theoretical explanation of two pain mechanisms involved in combined muscle contraction-migraine headaches as well as the effectiveness of biofeedback procedures that target directly the specific pain mechanism in the elimination of the two types of head pain.     

Polynomial psychophysics of group risk perception

The Coombs and Huang (1970) distributive theory of perceived risk is reinterpreted as a more robust statistical hypothesis to describe central tendencies of noisy replicates drawn from a homogeneous population. Barron's (1976) sample of 13 business faculty rank-order responses are pooled to obtain a replicated complete 3 × 3 × 3 design which is analyzed by a new stochastic conjoint measurement (SCJM) approach to axiomatic data analysis. SCJM implements statistical analogues of the deterministic Krantz and Tversky (1971) diagnostics for error-free data. SCJM diagnosis based on a series of one-sided nonparametric two-cell comparisons at the α = 0.04 level supports the hypothesis of interaction between the expected-value and number-of-plays attributes of gambles yet contradicts Barron's odd-even effects hypothesis. SCJM diagnosis with two-cell α < 0.04 supports an additive statistical model.     

The effects of temporal waveform upon temporal darkness enhancement

Temporal darkness enhancement refers to the finding that decremental flashes of 50–140 msec appear darker than longer flash decrements. The present experiment determined the effects of temporal waveform upon darkness enhancement by obtaining darkness judgments for flashes that had abrupt onset/abrupt offset, abrupt onset/gradual offset, gradual onset/abrupt offset, and gradual onset/gradual offset. Temporal darkness enhancement was found only for flashes that had abrupt onsets regardless of offset waveform. These results are discussed in terms of the role of transients in the coding of perceived darkness.     

An instructional package to teach communication behaviors in a classroom setting

An instructional package consisting of modeling, written and behavioral rehearsal, and feedback was used to teach communication behaviors (simple sentence responses, information responses, and eye contact) to 17 emotionally handicapped students, ages ranging between 11 and 17 years. A multiple baseline analysis indicated that the communication behaviors targeted for training increased significantly following implementation of the instructional package. These behaviors also generalized across settings and nontrained questions and were maintained across time. Finally, the average amount of training time required for each subject was 2 hours, indicating that the use of the instructional package in a classroom setting was economical. These results show that communication behaviors can be delivered effectively and economically in a classroom setting.     

The role of R-S1 expectancy in discrimination and discrimination reversal learning

Four experiments assessed the role of response-reinforcement (R-S¹) expectancy as rats either learned a discrimination or a discrimination reversal. Experiment 1 showed that the higher the percentage of reinforcement during nondiscriminative pretraining the more quickly a subsequent discrimination is learned. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the overlearning reversal effect (ORE) can be obtained even though the overtraining phase consists of responses to a single neutral card. In Experiment 3 subjects were again overtrained on a single neutral stimulus under conditions of varying reinforcement. ORE was apparent under reinforcement of a high percentage of responses but was not apparent under reinforcement of a low percentage. Experiment 4 revealed that the fewer errors a subject makes prior to reversal the better its reversal performance is. Results of these studies were discussed in terms of generalized attention theories and the expectancy notions of Bolles (Psychological Review, 1972, 79(5), 394–409.     

Women's body images: The results of a national survey in the U.S.A.

This investigation was a representative survey, conducted in 1993, of the body images of 803 adult women in the United States. Included in the survey instrument were selected subscales from the standardized Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, which had been used in a U.S. survey in 1985. The results indicated substantial levels of body dissatisfaction, possibly surpassing levels observed in the 1985 survey. Nearly one-half of the women reported globally negative evaluations of their appearance and a preoccupation with being or becoming overweight. Whereas age effects were minimal, significant race/ethnicity effects were found, with clearly more positive body images among African American than Anglo or Hispanic women. The social and clinical implications of the findings were discussed.     

Assessment of sexual preference using a choice reaction time task

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a choice reaction time task, during which slides of sexually explicit and neutral stimuli were used as an interference task, to differentiate between groups of individuals on the basis of their sexual preference. Twenty subjects, in each of the four groups (heterosexual males, heterosexual females, homosexual males, and homosexual females), participated in this study. Sexual orientation was determined by self-report. Subjects were given a choice reaction time with interference task, followed by a recall incidental learning task. A significant higher-order interaction was found among gender, orientation, and stimulus type for all four groups. This interaction indicated a longer reaction time to slides depicting preferred sexual partners than to nonpreferred sexual partners or neutral scenes. These results indicate that sexual arousal does interfere with cognitive processing. A main effect for gender was found for the incidental learning task, with males having the fewest errors.