Stress Management in Bus Drivers: A Pilot Study Based on the Model of Effort–Reward Imbalance

A number of studies documented associations between work stress and elevated morbidity in professional drivers. The model of effort–reward imbalance (ERI) identifies distinct situational and personal characteristcs which elicit chronically stressful experience at work in terms of a mismatch between high costs and low gain. Fifty-four highly stressed male inner-city bus drivers (mean age 49,5 ± 5,3) were recruited to participate in a 12 weeks stress management program based on the ERI model (intervention group (IG) n = 26, control group (CG) n = 28). Intervention included relaxation, coping with anger and excessive work commitment (“high need for control”), management of conflicts with superiors, and recommendations for structural changes at work. After 12 weeks, mean level of “need for control,” a critical, health adverse style of coping with job demands, was significantly reduced in IG vs. CG, and this effect persisted after 3 months. In conclusion, a theory-based worksite stress management program in an occupational risk group is feasible and shows beneficial psychological effects.     

Verb frequency and enactment in implicit and explicit memory

In this article we report on two experiments concerning the effects of verb frequency and enactment on explicit- and implicit-memory tests. The results showed that verb frequency and enactment had additive effects on (explicit) recognition. Moreover, an (implicit) verb-identification test showed that prior enactment had absolutely no influence on this test, while verb frequency had a clear-cut effect. These results speak in favor of the assumption that verb-frequency and enactment effects are based on different types of information. It is further assumed that the verb-frequency effect is a lexical effect, whereas the enactment effect is not.     

Irrational Beliefs, Interpersonal Perception and Marital Adjustment

To test the hypothesis that the major evaluative beliefs postulated by Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy are related to marital adjustment, 50 married couples completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB). Significant correlations were found between DAS scores and three subscales (Other directed shoulds, Low frustration tolerance and Self worth) of the SPB. On the interpersonal dimension of assumed similarity, females in the high dyadic adjustment group were better able to predict their spouses' awfulizing, low frustration tolerance and self-worth beliefs than were females in the low adjustment group. However, the present study offers only limited support for the hypothesis that interpersonal perception of irrational evaluative beliefs is related to marital adjustment.     

The interaction of semantic features of transitive verbs and their objects

Summary Proceeding from the assumption that verbs imply their potential objects, an attempt was made to vary this implication by combining specific and general verbs (e.g. to adopt/to wash) with specific or general objects, respectively (e.g. boy/child). These 4 verb-object combinations were presented visually in simple subject-predicate-object sentences in a multitrial, free recall learning experiment. A highly significant interaction was found between verb and object variation. Specific verbs were better recalled when associated with general objects while general verbs were better recalled in association with specific objects.

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Zusammenfassung Ausgehend von der Annahme, daß Verben ihre möglichen Objekte bereits implizieren, wurde versucht, die Implikation für spezifische und allgemeine Verben dadurch zu variieren, daß sie mit jeweils einem spezifischen bzw. allgemeinen Objekt kombiniert wurden. Die 4 Verb-Objekt-Kombinationen wurden in einfachen Subjekt-Prädikat-Objekt-Sätzen in einem multitrial free recall Versuch optisch zum Lernen angeboten. Es zeigte sich eine hochsignifikante Wechselwirkung zwischen Verb- und Objektvariation. Spezifische Verben werden besser mit allgemeinen Objekten, allgemeine Verben besser mit spezifischen Objekten behalten.

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The paper is based on an experiment conducted and evaluated by Anke Grashorn, as part of her diploma thesis, under the author's supervision.     

Measures of observer agreement when binomial data are collected in free operant situations

This paper examines a model and defines reasonable assumptions underlying different measures of observer agreement for categorical data collected in free operant situations. It is assumed that two or more observers classify operant behaviors of subjects into occurrences and nonoccurrences by recognition by validated response classes (categories) such that the rates of false positives and observer biases are acceptably low. Thus errors are mostly omissions, i.e., failing to observe events that occur. Four alternative cases are derived, together with formulas for calculating significance tests, variances, and standard errors, three of which do not depend on knowledge of the proportion of time points at which the event does not occur.We wish to acknowledge NICHD Grant HD-10570, The Neuropharmacology of Developmental Disorders, George Breese, Ph.D., and C. T. Gualtieri, M.D., Principal Investigators; NIEHS Grant ES-01104; USPHS Grant HD-03110; and MCH Project 916 to the Division for Disorders of Development and Learning.     

MULTIPLE TREATMENT INTERFERENCE IN THE ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN AS A FUNCTION OF THE INTERCOMPONENT INTERVAL LENGTH

In experimental designs requiring the administration of more than one treatment to the same subject(s), the effect of one treatment may be influenced by the effect of another treatment (Campbell & Stanley, 1963), a phenomenon known as multiple treatment interference. We conducted two studies in which multiple treatment interference in an alternating treatments design was shown to be a function of the length of the intercomponent interval (ICI) separating treatment conditions. In the first study, we evaluated the effects of four different treatments on the mouthing of a severely retarded boy. Under a 1-min ICI no consistent differential responding to treatment was obtained. Differential responding emerged when the ICI was increased from 1 min to 120 min, thus suggesting multiple treatment interference in the lack of differential responding under a 1-min changeover interval. Functional control of the nondifferential and differential responding as a function of the ICI length was replicated in a reversal phase. In the second study, we compared two treatment procedures for the disruptive noncompliant behavior of a moderately retarded boy. Multiple treatment interference (i.e., the lack of differential responding) occurred with the 1-min intercomponent interval. An increase to a 120-min ICI again resulted in differential responding. A replication of multiple treatment interference by a reversal to a short interval phase was not achieved in the second subject. Results of this study support much of the basic literature on discrimination and multiple treatment interference. Major findings of this study are twofold: Multiple treatment interference can depend on the length of the changeover interval between treatments and multiple treatment interference can take the form of a lack of differential responding to various treatments. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Supervaluation-Style Truth Without Supervaluations

Kripke’s theory of truth is arguably the most influential approach to self-referential truth and the semantic paradoxes. The use of a partial evaluation scheme is crucial to the theory and the most prominent schemes that are adopted are the strong Kleene and the supervaluation scheme. The strong Kleene scheme is attractive because it ensures the compositionality of the notion of truth. But under the strong Kleene scheme classical tautologies do not, in general, turn out to be true and, as a consequence, classical reasoning is no longer admissible once the notion of truth is involved. The supervaluation scheme adheres to classical reasoning but violates compositionality. Moreover, it turns Kripke’s theory into a rather complicated affair: to check whether a sentence is true we have to look at all admissible precisification of the interpretation of the truth predicate we are presented with. One consequence of this complicated evaluation condition is that under the supervaluation scheme a more proof-theoretic characterization of Kripke’s theory becomes inherently difficult, if not impossible. In this paper we explore the middle ground between the strong Kleene and the supervaluation scheme and provide an evaluation scheme that adheres to classical reasoning but retains many of the attractive features of the strong Kleene scheme. We supplement our semantic investigation with a novel axiomatic theory of truth that matches the semantic theory we have put forth.