Retrieval of bindings between task-irrelevant stimuli and responses can facilitate behaviour under conditions of high response certainty

Repetition priming can be driven by the encoding and retrieval of stimulus–response (S–R) bindings. When a previously encoded S–R binding is retrieved, and is congruent with the response currently required, it can bias response-selection processes towards selecting the retrieved response, resulting in facilitation. Previous studies have used classification tasks at retrieval. Here, two (or more) response options are competing, and it is likely that any evidence (e.g., an S–R binding) in favour of one option will be utilized to effect a decision. Thus, S–R effects are likely to be seen when using such a task. It is unclear whether such effects can be seen under conditions of higher response certainty, when participants are explicitly cued to make a response. Across two experiments, evidence for a modulating influence of S–R bindings is seen despite using a response cueing method at retrieval to minimize response uncertainty and despite stimuli being task irrelevant. Finally, the results suggest that responses within these S–R bindings are coded at the level of left versus right hand, and not a more fine-grained within-hand thumb versus index finger. The results underline the resilience of S–R effects, suggesting that they are present even under conditions where no explicit object-oriented decision is required.     

Contracting, prompting, and reinforcing substance use disorder continuing care: a randomized clinical trial.

Although continuing care is strongly related to positive treatment outcomes for substance use disorder (SUD), participation rates are low and few effective interventions are available. In a randomized clinical trial with 150 participants (97% men), 75 graduates of a residential Veterans Affairs Medical Center SUD program who received an aftercare contract, attendance prompts, and reinforcers (CPR) were compared to 75 graduates who received standard treatment (STX). Among CPR participants, 55% completed at least 3 months of aftercare, compared to 36% in STX. Similarly, CPR participants remained in treatment longer than those in STX (5.5 vs. 4.4 months). Additionally, CPR participants were more likely to be abstinent compared to STX (57% vs. 37%) after 1 year. The CPR intervention offers a practical means to improve adherence among individuals in SUD treatment.     

Relation between aging and research productivity of academic psychologists

Using a cross-sequential design involving four birth cohorts and five measurement periods, a curvilinear relation between aging and research productivity was found for more than 1,000 academic psychologists. Productivity typically began at a low rate in the 20s, increased to a peak around age 40, then decreased in the later years. Substantial individual differences were also observed. Those who began as high publishers remained more productive than the low or medium groups at each age level examined, and even at ages 55-64 they were more productive than the medium or low publishers were at their highest rate. Altogether, across cohorts and publishing levels, age accounted for 6.5% of the variance in publication rate from ages 25-34 to 55-64.     

The effect of location on the discrimination of spatial vibrotactile patterns

The present study examined whether the locations of patterns on the skin affected the ability to process information about their shapes. In Experiment 1, pairs of spatial vibrotactile patterns, using the array from the Optacon, were presented sequentially to subjects’ left index fingerpads. The location of each pattern in a pair was varied randomly among four locations on the skin. The subjects responded “same” or “different” on the basis of the shapes of patterns, regardless of their locations. Discrimination accuracy was highest and response time fastest when patterns occupied identical locations (ILs), and performance suffered with increasing distance between patterns. In Experiment 2, pairs were presented to corresponding points or to noncorresponding points on separate fingerpads. When patterns occupied corresponding points on separate fingers, accuracy was lower than when patterns occupied ILs on a single finger, but higher than when patterns occupied noncorresponding points on separate fingers. The results suggested that discriminability declined partly because patterns did not occupy ILs, and partly because separate locations had different densities of innervation.     

Using neutralizing routines to reduce problem behaviors.

Establishing operations can alter problem behaviors by changing the momentary value of reinforcers associated with those problem behaviors. If establishing operations (EOs) precede the presentation of discriminative stimuli (S^Ds) for problem behaviors, it may be possible to introduce neutralizing routines that both reduce the value of reinforcers associated with problem behaviors and decrease the occurrence of problem behaviors. The present study examined this logic with 3 adolescents with severe intellectual disabilities. Initial functional analyses indicated that problem behaviors were motivated by either escape or tangible items. Functional assessment interviews identified possible establishing operations that were associated with the occurrence of problem behavior and indicated that these establishing operations occurred over 1 hr before presentation of the S^D for problem behaviors. We used an alternating treatments design to examine problem behaviors during instruction under four conditions: EO + S^D, S^D only, EO only, and neither S^D nor EO. For all 3 participants, problem behaviors occurred almost exclusively during the EO + S^D condition. A further analysis compared the EO + S^D condition when neutralizing routines were embedded between the EO and the S^D. Results from an ABAB reversal design supported the effectiveness of neutralizing routines to reduce these problem behaviors. Applied and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Increasing mentally retarded adolescents' verbalizations about current events

The effects of antecedent and consequent events on the verbal behavior of three institutionalized mentally retarded adolescents were examined. Verbal statements, related to current national and international events, were recorded after exposures to television news programs. The study examined the accuracy of verbalizations as a function of: (1) exposures to television news presentations in massed (i.e., viewing the entire news program before an opportunity to describe it) versus distributed from (i.e., viewing each news item separately with each followed by an opportunity to describe it), and (2) contingent tokens and social praise for correct verbal responses (i.e., statements corresponding to news items presented). Both the temporal distribution of news presentations and the reinforcement procedures improved the accuracy of verbal statements emitted by the subjects.     

A comparison of discrimination and identification of vibrotactile patterns

Both discrimination and identification tasks have been used to assess subjects' abilities to perceive vibratory spatial patterns presented to the skin. The present study examined discrimination and identification performance under comparable conditions. In Experiment 1, subjects attempted to discriminate a pair of patterns on some blocks of trials and to identify both members of a pair on other blocks. For both tasks, the time between the members of the pair was varied. Discrimination performance could be predicted accurately from identification data. Analysis of performance on identification trials indicated that subjects used discriminability information to identify pairs. In Experiment 2, discrimination and identification were compared when the temporal separation between patterns was fixed and a masking stimulus followed each pattern after a variable delay. Results suggest that temporal masking, rather than the time available for processing pattern information, is the major limitation in both discrimination and identification of sequences of tactile patterns.