A Behavior Systems View of Conditioned States during Long and Short CS–US Intervals

In the behavior systems view, a long CS–US interval should differentially condition a general search mode and related behavior, while a short CS–US interval should differentially condition a focal search mode and related behavior. Two experiments paired a long or a short CS with food, and then, during an extinction test, compounded the CS with an unconditioned probe-stimulus of a rolling ball-bearing. Presuming that the long CS differentially conditions a general search mode, and that unconditioned contact of a moving stimulus is characteristic of that mode, presentation of the long CS should facilitate interaction with the ball-bearing. Similarly, presuming that a short CS differentially conditions a focal search mode, and that feeder-directed responses are characteristic of this mode, presentation of a short CS should facilitate nosing in the food-tray. Consistent with these predictions, ball-bearing contact increased in rats receiving the long CS, while nosing in the food-tray was higher with the short CS.     

Participant roles and the processing of verbs during sentence comprehension

This paper explores the nature of thematic information made available when a verb is accessed during sentence comprehension. Following Shapiro, Zurif, and Grimshaw (1987), a cross-modal lexical decision (interference) task was employed to examine whether either the number of argument structures or the number of participant (thematic) roles inherent in a verb cause an increase in processing load upon access of the verb. It was determined that there was no evidence for such an increased processing load covarying with the number of argument structures of the verb, at least for those verb types examined in this study. However, there was an increase in processing load as a direct function of the number of participant roles carried by the verb. It is concluded that the participant roles (thematic roles associated with the central meaning of the verb) are stored with the representation of a verb and are made immediately, available upon access of the verb for further processing during comprehension.The first author gratefully acknowledges discussion and advice from Adele Goldberg and the support of grant T32 DC 00041 in pursuing this work. The second author acknowledges the support of NIH grant RO1 DC00494 for the work presented in this paper, and the helpful comments and criticisms of a reviewer.     

Computer games: Paradigms of opportunity

Computer games offer unique opportunities to apply unobtrusive constraints to action that permit meaningful analysis without destroying the integrity of the game itself. To a much greater extent than most traditional laboratory tasks, computer games represent holistic, meaningful, and natural human activity. Considerable concern about the appropriate analysis and interpretation of results, however, remains. One strategy that addresses these concerns involves the adoption of separate but convergent analytic perspectives. This article suggests that three such perspectives (viz., the objective, the subjective, and the empirical) can be combined to provide the necessary logical leverage to allow meaningful research. Alternative analyses of data collected from the playing of a particular arcade-type computer game are used to illustrate this point.     

MENSTRUAL JOY The Construct and Its Consequences

Fifty female college students participated in a study of women's health. In a counterbalanced design, half of the participants completed the Menstrual Joy Questionnaire (MJQ) and the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ) in the first testing session. A week later they completed the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) and the Menstrual Attitude Questionnaire. The other participants completed the MDQ and MAQ in the first session and the MJQ and MAQ in the second. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that those who received the MJQ first reported more positive cyclic changes on the MDQ and more positive attitudes on the MAQ. A follow-up study of 40 college students examined their responses to the MJQ. Participants reported that they were surprised or incredulous; most had not previously considered positive aspects of the menstrual cycle. Thirty percent reported that the MJQ had caused them to look at menstruation in a different way.     

Abortion ethics: rights and responsibilities

Abortion considerations require deep reflection on law, convention, social mores, religious norms, family contexts, emotions, and relationships. I have three arguments. First, a liberal “right to choose” framework is inadequate because it is based on individualist notions of rights. Second, reproductive freedoms should be extended to all women. Third, abortion ethics involves a dialectical interplay between rights and responsibilities, and between social, cultural, and particular contexts, and is best understood in terms of moral praxis.     

Negative priming without probe selection

Responses to an object may be slower or less accurate if that object shares attributes with a recently ignored object(negative priming). Some studies have found negative priming only if the probe trial required selection against a distractor stimulus. In the present experiment, subjects responded to the location of a target (O), ignoring a distractor (X) if it appeared in another location. Reaction time was slower to probe targets that appeared in the same location as the prime distractor, regardless of whether or not the probe target was accompanied by a distractor.     

Measuring How We Preach What We Practice: Psychoeducational Change in Depressed Inpatients

This study investigated the relationship between acquisition of psychoeducational principles and symptomatic improvement in depressed in-patients. One hundred and twenty-three inpatients hospitalized on a Cognitive Therapy Unit were administered the Test of Cognitive Behavioral Principles (TCBP) and the Beck Depression Inventory at admission and discharge. It was predicted that the TCBP scores would be higher at discharge than at pre-testing at admission. Further, it was hypothesized that the higher TCBP scores at post-test would be significantly correlated with lower Beck Depression Inventory scores at post-test. The results revealed that inpatients' TCBP scores improved over the course of treatment supporting the first hypothesis. However, the data did not support the second hypothesis as there was not a significant relationship between the TCBP scores and the BDI scores at discharge. The results are discussed in terms of clinical, theoretical, and methodological implications.     

Aggression Observation Scale for Group Psychotherapy

An observational scale to record aggressive behaviors, defenses, and interventions that occur during a psychotherapy group has been developed. Content and process items were included. The content items focus on the spoken material and are on a continuum of increasing group members' awareness of and responsibility for their anger. The process items are directed to underlying psychodynamic issues on a continuum from avoiding anger, to indirect and then expression of anger. Leader interventions (responses) are also included. The development of the scale, the Aggression Observation Scale for Group Psychotherapy (AOSGP), is described including pilot testing and reliability and validity findings.     

Cultural specificity of support sources,correlates and contexts: Three studies of African-American and Caucasian youth

Levels and correlates of parental support, peer support, partner support, and/or spiritual support among African American and Caucasian youth were examined in three contexts: adolescent pregnancy (Study 1), first year of college (Study 2), and adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15–29; Study 3). Partially consistent with a cultural specificity perspective, in different contexts different support sources were higher in level and/or more strongly related to adjustment for one ethnic group than the other. Among pregnant adolescents, levels of spiritual support were higher for African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, peer support was positively related to well-being only for African Americans whereas partner support was positively related to well-being only for Caucasians. Among college freshmen, family support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment for African Americans than Caucasians; conversely, peer support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment among Caucasians. Among 15 to 29-year-olds, levels of parental support and spiritual support were higher among African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, spiritual support was positively related to self-esteem for African Americans but not for Caucasians. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed. The third study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40963. We thank Monica Greene, Shea Lyda, Wendy Stevenson, and the many undergraduate students who contributed to the three research projects. We also acknowledge the very thoughtful and helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Edison Trickett.