SOCIAL-SKILLS TRAINING TO MODIFY ABUSIVE VERBAL OUTBURSTS IN ADULTS

Social-skills training was used to modify abusive verbal outbursts displayed by two adult psychiatric patients. Five target behaviors—looking, irrelevant comments, hostile comments, inappropriate requests, and appropriate requests were monitored during role-played situations. Social-skills training, consisting of behavior rehearsal with modelling, focused instructions, and feedback, was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across individuals. Training improved all target behaviors. The improved behavior generalized to: (1) novel scenes role-played with the original respondent, (2) training and novel scenes role-played with a different respondent, and (3) interpersonal situations on the hospital ward.     

Reinforcement contingencies and signal detection.

Pigeons were trained to discriminate temporal stimuli in a discrete-trial signal-detection procedure. Pecks to one side key were reinforced intermittently after exposure to one duration, and pecks to the other side key were reinforced intermittently after exposure to a different duration. In Experiment I, the allocation of reinforcers was varied systematically for correct responses and for errors, using a procedure that controlled the obtained numbers of reinforcers. When reinforcers were allocated symmetrically, the level of discrimination decreased as the proportion of reinforcers for errors increased. When reinforcers were allocated asymmetrically, the decrease in discrimination was less systematic. Bias toward one or the other side key roughly matched the ratio of reinforcers obtained by pecks at those keys, independent of the level of discrimination. In Experiment II, the overall rate of reinforcement for correct responses was varied both within and between experimental conditions. The level of discrimination was positively related to the overall rate of reinforcement. The discrimination data of both experiments were interpreted in relation to the contingencies of reinforcement and nonreinforcement, characterized by the average difference in reinforcement probability for correct responses and errors.     

Overshadowing in operant conditioning as a function of discriminability

Pigeons were trained in an operant, go/no-go, discrimination by successive presentations of discrete, positive and negative trials. In separate groups, the rate of discriminaion learning based on an auditory cue, on visual cues of different discriminability, and on combined auditory and visual cues was determined. The auditory cue was tone/no-tone, the visual cue was a difference in brightness level on the key. Following discrimination training, stimulus control was tested in extinction by presenting tone or notone at each of four key-brightness levels.Learning was more rapid with two cues than with either cue singly, demonstrating summation. The contribution made by the tone cue to the learning of the discrimination decreased with increasing discriminability of the light cue. The control exerted by the tone cue also decreased (i.e., the tone cue was overshadowed) with increasing discriminability of the light cue. In certain cases, the tone cue decreased control by brightness, showing that in two-cue discriminations each cue may reduce the control exerted by the other.     

Observing stimulus sources that signal food or no food

Pigeons were given a choice between observing a stimulus source that was uncorrelated with food or one that was informative. The informative source was either positive, in which a stimulus change signalled food, or negative, in which change signalled no food. If observing is supported by the reduction of uncertainty, the negative as well as the positive source should be preferred to the uncorrelated source. On the other hand, if observing requires support by conditioned reinforcement, the negative source should not be preferred to the uncorrelated source. Two keys served as stimulus sources in a discrete trial procedure. The keys were lighted together, remained on for a variable length of time, and went off together. A key could change color 1 sec before going off. In the uncorrelated source, the change occurred equally often on trials ending with or without food. In the positive information source, the change occurred only on food trials, whereas in the negative information source, it occurred only on no-food trials. All stimulus changes and food delivery were response independent. As measured by orientation and autoshaped pecking, the positive information source was preferred to the uncorrelated source. However, the uncorrelated source was preferred to the negative information source. The latter result does not support the view that observing behavior is reinforced by the reduction of uncertainty. The positive and negative information sources reduced uncertainty equally but only the positive source provided a signal that could act as a conditioned reinforcer by virtue of its relation to food.     

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 effects of marital disharmony on prepubertal children

The study investigated the association between marital disharmony and childhood behavior problems in a sample of families drawn from a general population. Eighty-three families where the marital relationship had previously been rated as disharmonious were matched with an equivalent number of families where the marriage was rated harmonious. Mothers, fathers, and children were interviewed, using a semistructured interview format. Children living in disharmonious homes had significantly more problems than children from harmonious homes, and control for confounding variables, such as the mothers' mental health, did not alter this relationship. The main effects found were in antisocial symptomatology. Gender differences and differences according to the accounts of different respondents were found. One possible interpretation is that mothers perceived their sons as more affected by marital disharmony, while evidence from children suggested that boys and girls were equally affected.     

Providing systematic individual teaching for severely disturbed and profoundly mentally-handicapped adults in residential care

An organizational system for providing individualized behavioural teaching to severely and profoundly mentally-handicapped adults was developed by adapting the materials and procedures used in the Portage model of domiciliary teaching. Implementation of the system following a short training workshop was monitored in four residential units in turn over a 3-month period. The progress of each of 6 severely and profoundly mentally-handicapped adults in each unit was assessed on a defined task before and subsequent to teaching using a multiple time-series design. Little skill acquisition was found and the results are contrasted with evaluations of Portage services to pre-school mentally-handicapped children. Methodological considerations in the evaluation of progress in profoundly mentally-handicapped adults are raised.     

An instrumental cigarette smoke monitor designed for the direct measurement of smoke particulate matter generated in human smoking studies

An instrumental cigarette smoke monitor (CSM) system designed for human smoking studies has been developed and validated using a smoking machine as a human surrogate. The cigarette holder contains both smoke-mixing and flow-measurement orifices and a smoke-concentration sensor. Smoke flow through the holder and smoke concentration in the holder are determined simultaneously. The two signals are multiplied electronically and the product signal integrated. The integrated response is directly proportional to the amount of particulate matter collected immediately downstream of the holder, regardless of cigarette type or the particular way in which the cigarette is smoked. The CSM is sufficiently sensitive to quantitatively determine the amount of smoke TPM generated from cigarettes in the 1-mg Federal Trade Commission tar-delivery category.     

Language learning impairment: Integrating research and remediation

Timing cues present in the acoustic waveform of speech provide critical information for the recognition and segmentation of the ongoing speech signal. Research has demonstrated that deficient temporal perception rates, that have been shown to specifically disrupt acoustic processing of speech, are related to specific language-based learning impairments (LLI). Temporal processing deficits correlate highly with the phonological discrimination and processing deficits of these children. Electrophysiological single cell mapping studies of sensory cortex in brains of primates have shown that neural circuitry can be remapped after specific, temporally cohesive training regimens, demonstrating the dynamic plasticity of the brain. Recently, we combined these two lines of research in a series of studies that addressed whether the temporal processing deficits seen in LLIs can be significantly modified through adaptive training aimed at reducing temporal integration thresholds. Simultaneously, we developed a computer algorithm that expanded and enhanced the brief, rapidly changing acoustic segments within ongoing speech and used this to provide intensive speech and language training exercises to these children. Results to date from two independent laboratory experiments, as well as a large national clinical efficacy trial, demonstrate that dramatic improvements in temporal integration thresholds, together with speech and language comprehension abilities of LLI children, results from training with these new computer-based training procedures.