Cognitive processing and time perception

When a visual field is presented for 40 or 80 msec and a subject is asked to judge the duration of the stimulus, judged duration is found to be less when the field is blank than when the field contains three letters, but is the same whether the three letters form a word or not. The perceived difference between “filled” and “blank” fields increases when the subject is required to memorize the presented letters. These data are consistent with a theory which assumes,inter alia, that a stimulus is analyzed by a visual information processor and a timer, that attention is shared between these processors, and that temporal judgments are based on the output of both processors.     

Design considerations for an on-line computer system for automated psychiatric assessment

The computer-assisted multidisciplinary Psychiatric Assessment Unit at the Salt Lake City VA Hospital required a unique computer system. Design considerations and procedures for development of a Psychiatric Real-Time Information System for Management (PRISM) are outlined. This design is presented as an example for others considering implementing on-line systems. Advantages of the approach are discussed.     

The deceleration of inappropriate comments by a natural consequence

The characters of this study were two boys in a class for pupils with learning disabilities. The subject was a nine-year-old boy who emitted certain inappropriate comments in class. The manager throughout this study was a peer of the subject.Following a period of initial assessment, which revealed that the inappropriate verbalizations occurred about twice each day, the peer-manager, contingent on each inappropriate remark, moved away from the subject to another desk. Furthermore, before he moved, he explained to the subject why he was displeased. The peer-manager, after a period of time, returned to his original location contingent on appropriate verbalizations of the subject.This technique proved effective in that the subject rarely responded inappropriately throughout the remainder of the school term. Further, it was reported that follow-up observations taken the next year, when the pupil was in a different class, revealed that the inappropriate verbalizations had not reoccurred.     

The effects of familiarity in a perceptual matching task

Latencies of same-different judgments to pairs of two-digit numerals were recorded for stimuli presented in familiar or unfamiliar (inverted) orientation. Familiar stimuli were responded to more quickly than unfamiliar. For both stimulus types, latencies were correlated with the syllable length of the verbal representation of the numerals, allowing the interpretation that the effect of stimulus orientation is on encoding processes. In two other experiments, it was found that familiarity had no effect on different judgments when the stimuli were relatively simple (e.g., a single digit), but did affect different judgments with more complex stimuli. These results were related to the hypothesis that the complexity of verbal material determines whether different judgments are instigated by visual or by verbal representations of the stimuli.     

Behavioral self-control of on-task behavior in an elementary classroom

Techniques of behavioral self-control were employed in a class where a high level of on-task behavior had been established with externally administered reinforcement procedures. The behavioral self-control techniques maintained behavior at its ongoing high level both immediately following the externally administered reinforcement treatments and during follow-up treatments after five and seven weeks. Variability in on-task behavior was reduced during the behavioral self-control phases of the study.     

Self-versus drug-produced relaxation and the effects of instructional set in standardized systematic desensitization

Snake fearful college students underwent Standardized Systematic Desensitization (SSD) treatment in which they received instructions designed to induce cognitions of either self- or drug-produced relaxation. Half of the subjects in each of these conditions were also given high expectancy therapy instructions and low expectancy therapy instructions respectively. All four SSD groups showed significantly greater improvement than a no-treatment control group on both the behavior avoidance test (BAT) and the self-report measure of fear. No differences between self- and drug-attributions of relaxation were found on any measure. Subjects' high expectancy ratings were significantly correlated with improvement on self-report measures but not related to BAT performance.