Training teachers as mediators: Efficacy of a workshop versus the bug-in-the-ear technique

The implementation of behavior modification techniques in school settings often relies on effective training of teachers as mediators. At the conclusion of Phase I, the performance of an experimental group of 13 teachers who were taught behavior modification by means of an inservice workshop was compared with a no-treatment control group. Although the experimental group scored higher on a paper-and-pencil test of behavior modification, there were no differences between the two groups on selected observed in-class behaviors. During Phase II, half of the experimental group of teachers received two hours of bug-in-the-ear (BIE) training in their own classrooms. BIE resulted in changes in the classroom behaviors of praise and contingency statements. These results are discussed in terms of the situation and response mode specificity of behavior and in terms of the implications for future workshops and research.     

Conditioning in human opiate addicts

Eight volunteers maintained on daily methadone participated in a classical conditioning procedure to determine which if any of the elements of narcotic withdrawal could be conditioned. The unconditioned stimulus was the injection of a small dose of naloxone. The unconditioned response was a brief precipitated withdrawal syndrome. The conditioning stimulus was a tone, odor, and injection of saline. Conditioning was successful in the pilot study in 5 of 8 subjects. The conditioned response consisted of tearing, yawning, lacrimation, systolic blood pressure increase, respiratory irregularities and subjective feelings of narcotic withdrawal sickness (nausea, muscle aches, chills). A second group of 8 subjects showed, in addition to the above, evidence of conditioning of heart rate, respiratory rate and skin temperature decrease. These laboratory findings support the clinical reports of a conditioned withdrawal syndrome and suggest ways to improve treatment results by detecting and extinguishing or modifying conditioned responses.     

Stimulus probability and same-different classification

Three experiments investigated the effect of stimulus probability on same-different classification time. In Experiments I and II, subjects made same responses on the basis of name matches of simultaneously presented letters. Half of the same trials involved letters that were also physically identical. Experiment I showed that the presentation probability of specific letters affected name matches and different responses, but not physical matches. Experiment II varied stimulus contrast as well as probability. Contrast had a main effect but did not interact with probability at any level of processing. In Experiment III, subjects were switched to the physical level of processing. Stimuli that now had the same name but differed in case were called different. In this condition, the probability effects obs(irved in Experiment II disappeared. These results are interpreted as demonstrating that stimulus probability has its effect during the process that derives the name of the stimulus from the visual representation. This process takes place before the name comparison is made, and the name comparison process precedes the determination of the different response.     

Correlations of normality and nervousness with cardiovascular functions in pointer dogs

Methylphenidate, 0.5 mg/kg, injected intravenously, was used in 10 normal (A line) and 10 genetically nervous (E line) dogs in a blind-design experiment to aid in prediction, from cardiovascular recordings alone, of behavioral normalityversus nervousness. The prediction was 75 per cent correct, based on heart rate (HR), form of the electrocardiogram (EKG), pattern of sinus arrhythmia, and pattern of HR response to methylphenidate. Nervous dogs were found to have slower baseline HR’s, delayed return of HR to baseline after methylphenidate, greater occurrence of baseline EKG abnormalities and much greater frequency of these after methylphenidate. Degree of nervousness was found to correlate rather highly (1)negatively with baseline HR level, (2)negatively with speed of BP response, and (3)positively with frequency of some of the EKG manifestations. These data, indicative of a relative inertness of physiological functions of nervous pointer dogs compared with normal pointers, are consistent with the behavioral and some of the biochemical findings previously reported.     

A color aftereffect contingent on complex pattern features

It was shown that a McCollough-type color aftereffect could be induced using a pair of patterns each of which contained lines of many orientations (radial lines and concentric circles). That is, the two patterns appear to be color adapted independently. The effect could simply be a new version of the McCollough effect facilitated by a tendency to fixate the centers of the patterns. Also, the size features of the displays could be used as the basis of a spatial frequency analyzer explanation. Experimental data were used to test both of these suggestions, but very little support was found for either. It was therefore suggested that the major basis of the effect was the color adaptation of “curvature analyzers.”     

Parent and actometer measures of motor activity level in the young infant

Motor activity level is one dimension of infant temperament for which parental judgment can be validated against a truly independent criterion. Two studies were conducted, the first involving a 27-min sample of behavior in a structured, attention-getting situation, and the second involving a 24-hr sample of in-home behavior. In both studies, parent perception of the 3- or 4-month-old as measured by the Activity Level (AL) scale of the Rothbart Infant Behavior Questionnaire was compared to the composited readings from four mechanical motion recorders (actometers) worn, one per limb, by the infant. The AL scale did not correlate with the actometer measure, r=.05 and R=.00, and the expected convergence of the 3-month version of the IBQ activity scale with its mechanical counterpart was not found. In the 24-hr study, birth order and ponderal index were significantly correlated with 24-hr actometer scores; first-borns and thin infants were most active.     

Prevalence and prediction of chemotherapy-related anxiety, nausea and vomiting in cancer patients

Anxiety, nausea and vomiting before, during and after chemotherapy administration were studied in 50 cancer patients. In addition, patient responses to the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire (APQ) and their relation to the anxiety, nausea and vomiting scores was studied. Anticipatory anxiety occurred in 66% and anticipatory nausea in 40% of the patients; 14% showed anticipatory vomiting. The number of patients reporting anxiety decreased to 38% after chemotherapy, whereas nausea and vomiting increased to 47 and 49%, respectively. APQ scores correlated significantly with anxiety and nausea reports during all time periods, but not with the frequency of vomiting.