The functional neuroanatomy of emotion and affective style

Recently, there has been a convergence in lesion and neuroimaging data in the identification of circuits underlying positive and negative emotion in the human brain. Emphasis is placed on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala as two key components of this circuitry. Emotion guides action and organizes behavior towards salient goals. To accomplish this, it is essential that the organism have a means of representing affect in the absence of immediate elicitors. It is proposed that the PFC plays a crucial role in affective working memory. The ventromedial sector of the PFC is most directly involved in the representation of elementary positive and negative emotional states while the dorsolateral PFC may be involved in the representation of the goal states towards which these elementary positive and negative states are directed. The amygdala has been consistently identified as playing a crucial role in both the perception of emotional cues and the production of emotional responses, with some evidence suggesting that it is particularly involved with fear-related negative affect. Individual differences in amygdala activation are implicated in dispositional affective styles and increased reactivity to negative incentives. The ventral striatum, anterior cingulate and insular cortex also provide unique contributions to emotional processing.     

Detection of brief tones in noise by rats

Two rats were trained to detect brief 8000-Hz tones centered in a one-third octave band of noise. The procedure was analogous to the yes-no method of human psychophysics in that one response was defined as correct and reinforced if the tone were present in the noise, and another response was correct and reinforced if the tone were absent. The percentage of correct responses was determined principally by the energy in the tone for the range of durations studied (75 to 600 msec): if the tone's duration were halved, for example, its power had to be doubled to keep the percentage of correct responses about the same. The ratio of the energy in the tone to the power per cycle of the noise needed to maintain 75% correct responses was about 36 db for one animal and 41 db for the other. Although the two responses were similar, and their consequences equal, biases in responding were sometimes observed.     

Framing effects in judgment tasks with varying amounts of information

Subjects were asked to make evaluations in each of three tasks—a gambling task, a consumer judgment task, and a student evaluation task. Each task involved two important attributes, but information about one attribute was missing on some trials. Half of the subjects received a version of the task in which a key attribute was presented in positive terms (e.g., probability of winning a gamble) and half received a version in which that same attribute was presented in negative terms (e.g., probability of losing a gamble). Even though the information was objectively equivalent in the two versions of each task, there were two significant framing effects. (1) In all tasks, responses to two-attribute stimuli were more favorable in the positive condition than in the negative condition. (2) When the key attribute was missing, evaluations of one-attribute stimuli relative to evaluations of two-attribute stimuli were lower in the positive condition than in the negative condition. Results were discussed in terms of the constructs of prospect theory and information integration theory.     

Effects of stimulus probability and visual similarity on stimulus encoding

Visual similarity, stimulus probability, and stimulus contrast were manipulated in two memory-scanning experiments to determine how stimulus probability affects encoding. Two hypotheses were tested: The first, a featural facilitation hypothesis, localizes the effect of stimulus probability on feature extraction; the second claims that stimulus probability has its effect on stimulus recognition. In both experiments, visual similarity was found to slow encoding, particularly under low-contrast conditions. This effect was larger for low probability stimuli than for high probability stimuli and increased as the difference in probability between two visually similar stimuli increased. These results are inconsistent with the featural facilitation hypothesis, but can be explained in terms of differential priming of internal recognition responses for members of the stimulus set, such that more probable members are more easily recognized.     

Methodological examination of the PEST (Parametric Estimation by Sequential Testing) procedure

Any psychophysical procedure requires arbitrary decisions on the part of E at the beginning of the experiment. Even within adaptive stimulus programming, e.g., PEST, procedures, which are modified according to the moment-by-moment responses of S, E must initialize the procedure. The PEST procedure was employed in three different auditory tasks and examined for its immunity to initializing conditions. PEST, despite its adaptive features, is not entirely immune to initializing conditions. It is suggested that an iterative approach may assist the initializing of conditions for psychophysical procedures.     

Multiple schedules: effects of the distribution of reinforcements between components on the distribution of responses between components

Two pigeons were trained to peck a key under several multiple variable-interval variable-interval schedules of reinforcement; different numbers of reinforcements were scheduled in two components of equal duration which were correlated with red and green illumination of the response key respectively. The results showed: (1) that the total number of responses in a session was proportional to the one-sixth power of the total number of reinforcements delivered in that session; and (2) that the ratio of responses between the two components was equal to the one-third power of the ratio of reinforcements between them. This latter exponent may be regarded as reflecting the sensitivity of the distribution of responses between the components to the distribution of reinforcements. It was suggested that the effects of a number of complex schedules of reinforcement could be summarized by different values of this exponent.     

Challenges and opportunities of a transactional world view: Case study of contemporary Mormon polygynous families

Summarized an ongoing research program on contemporary Mormon polygynous families. Husband-wife and wife-wife relations in plural families are examined from dialectical and transactional world views. Key research issues center on (a) how husbands and wives achieve viable dyadic and communal relationships, and (b) how dyadic and communal issues are managed in social and physical contexts through the life cycle of plural family relationships. I wish to express my appreciation and respect for the individuals and families who welcomed us into their lives and homes during the course of this research. Their honesty, forthrightness, and commitment to religious and family life is deep and honorable. We were personally enriched by having the opportunity to learn about a unique life-style, and hope that our portrayal of aspects of participants' lives is objective, responsible, and understanding.     

Ethical implications in screening for ethics violations

The process of admittance to membership in a psychological organization is an opportune time to take into consideration any questionable behavior in the professional background of a prospective member. Membership application forms of the American Psychological Association (APA) and 58 affiliated organizations are reviewed to determine the kinds of questions that are asked about ethical misconduct. The nature of the inquiry differs considerably from one association to another, with a preponderance of organizations avoiding any direct questions about professional ethics. Discussion is focused on how these different screening strategies impact on the applicant and the organization. There is a demonstrated need for appropriately formulated queries. A case is made for resolving current inconsistencies among associations by adhering to a unified procedure in the ethical screening of psychologist applicants.