Counseling Prisoners: Ethical Issues,Dilemmas, and Cautions

Counseling prisoners involves multiple ethical and therapeutic choices and risks. Prison environments emphasize external control and security. Thus, work in such settings challenges the role of the counselor as a facilitator of client responsibility for independent decision making.     

Conditioned suppression of proboscis extension in Drosophila melanogaster

Food-deprived Drosophila melanogaster extend their proboscises following sucrose stimulation of the front tarsi (the proboscis extension reflex). Médioni and Vaysse (1975) reported that the inhibition of this response can be conditioned over trials if such proboscis extensions are punished by applying an aversive stimulus to the foreleg tarsi. In this study, Médioni and Vaysse's basic observations of conditioning were replicated, with a different strain of flies and a modified conditioning apparatus.     

Color discrimination on Mangaia

Bornstein’s hypothesis that there is a loss of color discrimination in tropical areas was not supported in earlier research in the Cook Islands. Using a more sensitive color vision test (the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test), a loss of color discrimination in the red-purple and blue-green regions of the spectrum was found. The lack of sex differences in this color discrimination loss supports a physiological rather than a genetic explanation of the observed decrement.     

Doctoral training in behavior analysis: Training generalized problem-solving skills

This essay provides guidelines for designing a doctoral program in behavior analysis. First, we propose a general accomplishment for all behavior analytic doctoral students: that they be able to solve problems concerning individual behavior within a range of environments. Second, in order to achieve this goal, we propose that students be trained in conceptual and experimental analysis of behavior, the application of behavioral principles and the administration of behavioral programs. This training should include class work, but it should emphasize the immersion of students in a variety of environments in which they are required to use behavior analytic strategies. Third, we provide an example of a hypothetical graduate program that involves the proposed training. Finally, an evaluation plan is suggested for determining whether a training program is in fact producing students who are generalized problem-solvers. At each step, we justify our point of view from a perspective that combines principles from behavior analysis and educational systems design.     

The effect of masked pictures on the interpretation of ambiguous pictures

Two experiments investigated whether the initial organization of ambiguous pictures presented supraliminally could be influenced by the presentation of semantically related pictures that had been pattern masked to prevent conscious representation. Twenty-two pictures were presented tachistoscopically in a counterbalanced sequence, each alternating with the supraliminal presentation of its ambiguous counterpart. The results supported the hypothesis that pictures precluded from consciousness by pattern masking could nevertheless influence the interpretation of ambiguous pictures. Although the possibility of structural priming could not be completely ruled out in these experiments, there is evidence to suggest that semantic priming is a component. The research potential of semantic priming is also discussed.     

Infants’ sensitivity to the depth cue of shading

Five- and 7-month-old infants were tested for sensitivity to the depth cue of shading. Infants were presented with two displays: a surface in which a convexity and a concavity were molded and a photograph in which shading specified a convexity and a concavity. Each display was presented under both monocular and binocular viewing conditions. Reaching was observed as the dependent measure. Infants in both age groups reached preferentially for the actual convexity in both the monocular and binocular viewing conditions. In the monocular photograph condition, the 7-month-olds reached preferentially for the apparent convexity specified by shading, indicating that they perceived it to be an actual convexity. These infants showed no significant reaching preference in the binocular photograph condition. This finding rules out interpretations of the infants’ reaching not based on perceived depth. The results therefore suggest that the 7-month-olds perceived depth from shading. The 5-month-olds showed no significant reaching preferences when viewing the photograph; thus, they showed no evidence of depth perception from shading. These findings are consistent with the results of a number of studies that have investigated infants’ sensitivity to pictorial depth cues. Together, these studies suggest that the ability to perceive depth from pictorial cues may first develop between 5 and 7 months of age.     

Young children's attention to dyadic conversation as modified by sociometric status

Forty-eight American children, 12 popular and 12 rejected children from Grades 3 and 6, were paired with same-sex friends and nonfriends on an interactive task. Children were videotaped and their interactions judged for the amount and type of attention each child in the dyad gave to each other and the conversation. Main dependent measures included mutual engagements, acknowledgement of the partner, getting the attention of the partner, attention to the conversation, and social impact of the utterances. Both rejected and popular children attended to the conversation and the partner, but rejected children appeared to overattend in several ways. The interactions of rejected children and their matches involved more mutual engagements, conversational initiators, facilitators, terminators, and nonverbal attention-getting devices. Sex and developmental effects were also found.