Development and validation of the Theoretical Orientation Scale for Clinicians: reflecting solution-focused principles

This article describes the development and validation of the 40-item Theoretical Orientation Scale for Clinicians (TOSCsF), an instrument designed to (a) operationalize attitudes towards the principles of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), and (b) assess clinicians' endorsement of this therapeutic approach. Participants (N=284) were members of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) who responded (63%) to a mail questionnaire containing the TOSCsF. Reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .82) and validity of scores on the TOSCsF are examined in light of the detection of an acquiescent response pattern in 40 respondents. A subsequent three-factor structure derived from a principal components analysis (accounting for 28% of the variance) suggests modest, but positive, support for the construct validity of the TOSCsF. Recommendations for further refinement of the instrument are discussed.     

Preference in rhesus monkeys given a choice between cocaine and d,l-cathinone

Previous experiments have shown that both cocaine and d,l-cathinone can function as positive reinforces when delivered intravenously to rhesus monkeys. However, the relative reinforcing efficacies of these compounds have not been established. In the present experiment, three rhesus monkeys were allowed to choose between saline and several doses of d,l-cathinone or cocaine as well as between several doses of both drugs in a discrete-trial choice procedure. Sufficient doses (.05 to .2 mg/kg/injection) of either drug maintained self-administration and the higher doses were reliably preferred to saline. Doses of d,l-cathinone that were preferred to saline were then compared to a range of cocaine doses in drug-drug choice. As the dose of d,l-cathinone that was available was increased, an increase in cocaine dose was necessary to maintain cocaine preference. Comparison of drug-drug choice data to dose combinations predicted to be chosen with equal frequency revealed that the reinforcing efficacy of d,l-cathinone was equivalent to that of cocaine.     

The development of aversive responses to quinine in hyperthyroid rats

Normal and hyperthyroid rat pups received intraoral infusions of 0.25% quinine hydrochloride at 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 days of age. Chin scraping and paw treading, aversive behaviors that adult rats show to quinine, emerged at 12 to 14 days in normal animals and were accelerated in hyperthyroid animals. Once these behaviors emerged, the hyperthyroid pups showed levels of both paw treading and chin scraping that were typical of controls several days older. Hyperthyroid and control pups did not differ in their intake of quinine at ages at which there were marked differences in chin scraping and paw treading. Other types of responses that pups show to aversive stimuli, such as paw treading. Other types of responses were not affected by the thyroid treatment. These findings suggest that the appearance of chin scraping and paw treading at 12-14 days of age in normal animals results from maturation of motor systems underlying these behaviors, and that this maturation can be accelerated by treatment with thyroid hormones.     

Unilateral olfactory conditioning in 6-day-old rat pups

The potential that early olfactory learning might be laterally organized in the brain was investigated in 6-day-old rats. This hypothesis is based on the finding that the commissural systems that subserve bilateral olfactory communication do not mature until the second week of postnatal life. Pups were trained with pairings of cedar odor and intraoral infusions of milk while one nostril was occluded. Animals expressed a conditioned orientation towards cedar if tested with the trained nostril open. No such conditioning was observed if the untrained nostril was open during testing. Further, when individual pups received cedar odor/milk pairings with one nostril open and orange odor/milk pairings with the other open, they expressed a conditioned preference for orange when tested with the orange-trained nostril open, and a preference for cedar when tested with the cedar-trained nostril open. Classically conditioned oral responses (mouthing) also appeared to be lateralized. However, no such unilateral conditioning occurred with respect to behavioral activation, which is also conditioned in this paradigm. Increases in activity to the odor CS were observed regardless of whether the trained or untrained nostril was open during testing. These results suggest that in developing rodents, olfactory memories may be partly represented in structures that can be unilaterally accessed during training and testing. They provide a starting point for isolation of neural substrates of the olfactory conditioning process.     

Facial aging, attractiveness, and distinctiveness.

A standard facial caricature algorithm has been applied to a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of human heads, those of Caucasian male and female young adults. Observers viewed unfamiliar faces at four levels of caricature--anticaricature, veridical, moderate caricature, and extreme caricature--and made ratings of attractiveness and distinctiveness (experiment 1) or learned to identify them (experiment 2). There were linear increases in perceived distinctiveness and linear decreases in perceived attractiveness as the degree of facial caricature (Euclidean distance from the average face in 3-D-grounded face space) increased. Observers learned to identify faces presented at either level of positive caricature more efficiently than they did with either uncaricatured or anticaricatured faces. Using the same faces, 3-D representation, and caricature levels, O'Toole, Vetter, Volz, and Salter (1997, Perception 26 719-732) had shown a linear increase in judgments of face age as a function of degree of caricature. Here it is concluded that older-appearing faces are less attractive, but more distinctive and memorable than younger-appearing faces, those closer to the average face.