Conditional discrimination learning in the pigeon

Four pigeons received conditional discrimination training in which reinforcement contingencies were related to specific combinations of color and form, but were unrelated to either color or form considered separately. During discrete-trial training, each response in the presence of two of four color-form displays produced reinforcement and terminated the trial; responding to the other two displays was never reinforced, and each such response prolonged the particular trial on which it occurred. Subsequently, the subjects received multiple-schedule training in which responding to either of the displays previously associated with reinforcement was now reinforced on a variable-interval schedule, and extinction was the schedule again correlated with the other two displays. After differential responding to the stimuli was clearly evident, intensity of the combination displays was changed in subsequent training sessions. Complex stimulus control was generally maintained across variation in intensity, although there were temporary disruptions in performance associated with onset of some of the intensity changes. Finally, a component-stimulus test revealed considerably more responding to the forms than to the colors.     

Sensory conflict in judgments of spatial direction

Artificial discrepancy was created between information about azimuth coming from different sense modalities. The resolution of this discrepancy was examined for the cases of vision and proprioception, proprioception and audition, and vision and audition. Vision biases proprioceptive and auditory judgments. Proprioception biases auditory judgments and has a small effect on visual judgments. The results suggest that the combinations of sense modalities do not behave as an integrated system and the data are interpreted as indicating that different processes are involved in the resolution of discrepant directional information from different pairs of modalities.     

Auto-shaping of the pigeon's key-peck

Reliable acquisition of the pigeon's key-peck response resulted from repeated unconditional (response-independent) presentations of food after the response key was illuminated momentarily. Comparison groups showed that acquisition was dependent upon light—food pairings, in that order.     

The place of self psychology in group psychotherapy: a status report.

This article reviews the growing contribution of self psychology to group psychotherapy. The basic self-psychological concepts as they are applied to group dynamics and the treatment process are explored. Transference, countertransference, and self-restitutive patterns are illustrated in a clinical vignette that includes a "difficult" patient's impact upon the interactional and group-as-a-whole processes. Several directions for future investigation are described.     

Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity.

This study sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed versus undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. Sixty healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred.     

Modern to postmodern: Social construction, dissonance, and education

Modernist educational practice operates within an overarching norm of consonance, notions of sameness and agreement that permeate schools and classroom life. This paper posits a needed move to postmodern educational theory and practice through dissonance. Following an intellectual contextualization, two sets of philosophical claims are presented. The first promotes social construction of reality and the second poses dissonance rather than consonance. The paper concludes with a look at education from this postmodern perspective.     

Structural constraints on bimanual movements

Summary A theoretical framework is outlined, according to which structural constraints on bimanual movements can at least in part be understood as coupling between parameters of generalized motor programs. This framework provides a conceptual link between reaction-time data from experiments with bimanual responses, successive unimanual responses, and choice between left-hand and right-hand responses on the one hand and performance data obtained with concurrently performed continuous movements or sequences of discrete responses on the other. On the basis of data obtained with different methods for the study of intermanual interactions, a distinction is drawn between steady-state and transient constraints, and the hypothesis that the tendency to coactivate homologous muscles originates from a transient coupling of program parameters is applied to a variety of observations on performance in different tasks. Finally, the notion of transient constraints is applied to other types of intermanual interdependencies and to interpersonal coordination; the possible emergence of transient constraints from steady-state constraints through progressive development of inhibitory pathways in childhood is discussed, as is the potential biological significance of transient constraints.Part of the work reported in this paper was done while I enjoyed the hospitality on the NIAS, Wassenaar (NL)     

The informative functions of research procedures: Bias and the logic of conversation

Conversational rules of everyday communication are applied to the interaction between experimenters and subjects. According to these rules, contributions to a communication should be informative, relevant, true, and unambiguous. It is assumed that subjects determine the pragmatic meaning of instructions and questions on the basis of these rules and the provided context. In contrast to most natural settings, standardized experimental procedures rarely allow for an interactive determination of pragmatic meaning and often preclude feedback as a corrective device. As a consequence, subjects are required to rely heavily on general rules, and even subtle cues may become informationally loaded. The information extracted from context cues may often not be intended by the experimenter. Thus subjects may infer more than they are supposed to, resulting in discrepancies between the experimenter's intended and subjects' inferred meaning of the instructions. If researchers are not sensitive to the information provided by verbal and non-verbal context cues, their interpretation of research results may be based on biased data. Evidence from different research domains is reported to support the presented assumptions and their implications for bias avoiding strategies are discussed.     

Treatment of the chronically mentally ill: an opportunity for the group therapist

This article focuses on the therapist's task of engagement in the group treatment of the chronic mentally ill. The dynamics of individual and group processes are reviewed with an emphasis on the contributions of social, interpersonal, and intrapsychic factors. Drawing upon the observations of Friedman (1988), the presentation explores therapists' efforts to restore their inner balance by (1) acting like a therapist, that is, according to their theory; (2) satisfying their curiosity; and (3) eliciting "something desirable," which is formulated as the therapist's search for interactive responses. Examples illustrate these elements as they emerge in group psychotherapy.