Smoking research: basic research, intervention, prevention, and new trends

Smoking is a behavior that is influenced by a variety of factors that cut across methodologies, disciplines, and content areas within health psychology. The present article is designed to show the diversity and richness of smoking research by examining smoking from four perspective: basic laboratory research, intervention, prevention and deterrence, and new directions in smoking research. Methodologies that were derived from such varied sources as psychopharmacology, behavioral pharmacology, behavior therapy, clinical psychology, public health and health promotion, and social and developmental psychology have been used to study the smoking problem. The subject populations in these investigations ranged from animal models, to the individual smoker attempting to quit, to communities involved in health promotion and public health approaches. Future research should seek to provide new and improved examples of interdisciplinary research within the field of health psychology to multidisciplinary approaches from the basic and applied sciences.     

Reconciling divergent models of research utilization

Knowledge, Technology &; Policy -     

Articulatory suppression and phonological codes in reading for meaning

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the phonological code that causes errors in printed sentence comprehension is affected by concurrent articulation. Forty adult subjects made speeded judgements of the acceptability of printed sentences. The critical sentences were foils that were (1) orthographi-cally unacceptable but phonologically acceptable (e.g. The palace had a thrown room), and (2) spelling controls that were orthographically and phonologically unacceptable (The palace had a thorns room). Half the subjects performed this task in silence (without concurrently articulating) and showed a marked phonological effect such that false alarms to phonologically acceptable foils were more frequent than false alarms to their spelling controls. The remaining subjects who performed this task with concurrent articulatory suppression showed an increase in false alarm rates, but no effect of phonology. In a control experiment using the same subjects, memory span for visually presented long and short words was measured under conditions of silence or concurrent articulation. The word length effect (Baddeley, Thomson, & Buchanan, 1975) disappeared under suppression, indicating that the suppression manipulation was highly effective. Thus the phonological codes that are used both in sentence comprehension and memory span are highly susceptible to articulatory suppression. We discuss possible relationships between phonological codes that mediate lexical access and those that support short-term verbal memory.     

The binocular representation of uniform motion

In the model of motion perception proposed by Swanston, Wade, and Day (1987, Perception 16 143-159) it was suggested that retinocentric motion and eye movement information are combined independently for each eye, to give left and right orbitocentric representations of movement. The weighted orbitocentric values are then added, to give a single agocentric representation. It is shown that for a physical motion observed without pursuit eye movements this formulation predicts a reduction in the perceived extent of motion with monocular as opposed to binocular viewing. This prediction was tested, and shown to be incorrect. Accordingly, a modification of the model is proposed, in which the left and right retinocentric signals are weighted according to the presence or absence of stimulation, and combined to give a binocular retinocentric representation. In a similar way left-eye and right-eye position signals are combined to give a single binocular eye movement signal for version. This is then added to the binocular retinocentric signal to give the egocentric representation. This modification provides a unified account of both static visual direction and movement perception.     

Suicidal behavior in long-term care facilities

Questionnaires were mailed to a random sample of administrators of 1,080 long-term care facilities, in order to obtain information on the extent and nature of overt suicide and intentional life-threatening behavior (ILTB). Rates were calculated for death for overt suicides and ILTB. In-depth case studies, involving observation, interviews, and examination of medical records, were conducted in four facilities. Quantitative analysis revealed that white males were most at risk. Refusing to eat or drink and refusing medications were the most common suicidal behaviors. Depression, loneliness, feelings of family rejection, and loss were significant factors.     

Perceptual learning in maze discriminations

In Experiment 1, rats were trained on a discrimination between rubber- and sandpaper-covered arms of a maze after one group had been pre-exposed to these intra-maze cues. Pre-exposure facilitated subsequent discrimination learning, unless the discrimination was made easier by adding further discriminative stimuli, when it now significantly retarded learning. In Experiment 2, rats were trained on an extra-maze spatial discrimination, again after one group, but not another, had been pre-exposed to the extra-maze landmarks. Here too, pre-exposure facilitated subsequent discrimination learning, unless the discrimination was made substantially easier by arranging that the two arms between which rats had to choose were always separated by 135°. The results of both experiments can be explained by supposing that perceptual learning depends on the presence of features common to S+ and S-.     

Book reviews

Buckley, Key W. (1989). Mechanical man: John Broadeus Watson and the beginnings of Behaviorism. New York: Guilford Press. Pp. 293. ISBN 0-89862-744-3. $32.45/£18.00.

Colgan, P. (1989), Animal Motivation. New York and London: Chapman and Hall. Pp. 168. ISBN 0412-31850. £25.00 (hardback). ISBN 0412-31860, £10.95 (paperback).

Antinucci, F (Ed.) (1989). Cognitive structure and development in nonhuman prinates. Hillsdale, Nj: Laweence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Pp. 266. ISBN 0-8058-0544. £16.50 (Hardback).

Parker, S.T. & Gibson, K.R. (Eds.) (1990). “Language” and intelligence in monkeys and apes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 590. ISBN 0-521-38028-6. £40.00 (hardback).

Ley, Ronald (1990). A whisper of espionnage: Wolfgang Koehler and the apes of Tenerife. Garden City Park, NY: Avery Publoshing Corporation. Pp.264. ISBN 0-89529-432-x. $19.95.