Rated funniness and dissimilarity of figures Divergence from expectancy

Abstract.— Three experiments were conducted to test whether funniness of a stimulus could be interpreted as a function of divergence from expenctancy concerning the stimulus as a member of different classes.
Stimuli were combinations of two moving, successive, non-representational figures projected onto two screens. Funniness of the figure to the right was rated, as was divergence in qualities between the figure to the right and the preceeding one on the left. The main prediction was that data would show a decrease after an increase in funniness with increasing divergence for a certain right-hand stimulus. An increase should reflect a series of similar classes, a decrease a transition to another series. In some instances a decrease did occur after an increase, as predicted; in others the series of combinations seemed to overlap. Funniness could be interpreted as formulated initially.     

Individual response patterns and the effects of different behavioral methods in the treatment of claustrophobia

The importance of individual response patterns in claustrophobic patients was examined in the present study. Thirty-four psychiatric outpatients with a phobia of enclosed spaces were assessed in a small test chamber. During the test their overt behavior was video-taped, heart-rate was measured continuously, and self-ratings of experienced anxiety were made at certain intervals. On the basis of their reactions in the test situation, the patients were divided into two groups showing different response patterns—behavioral and physiological reactors. Within each group the patients were randomly assigned to one behaviorally-focused method (exposure), one physiologically-focused method (applied relaxation) and a waiting-list control group. The patients were treated individually in eight sessions. The between-group comparisons showed that both exposure and applied relaxation were significantly better than the waiting-list condition. Furthermore, exposure yielded better results than applied relaxation for the behavioral reactors, while applied relaxation was better than exposure for the physiological reactors. The improvements were maintained at a follow-up assessment 14 months after the end of treatment. The results support the hypothesis that greater effects are achieved when the method used fits the patient's response pattern than when it does not.     

Subjectively rated physiological and cognitive symptoms in six different clinical phobias

The purpose of the present study was an attempt to describe clinical symptoms in terms of physiological reactions and negative cognitions experienced by phobic patients. A total of 267 clinical phobic patients divided among blood phobia, small animals phobia, dental phobia, claustrophobia, social phobia and agoraphobia, participated in the study. The patients within each phobic category were separated into a Conditioned and an Indirect Acquisition group, based on their answers to a set of specific questions concerning the etiology of the phobia. All patients rated (0–4) how intensively they experienced 11 specified physiological reactions and 10 negative cognitions when confronted with their phobic situation in vivo. A mean score was calculated for each item within each group, and an item rank-order hierarchy was set up for each group. Differences between items within each hierarchy were statistically evaluated by one-way ANOVAs and Turkey's HSD-tests. Results showed particular idiosyncratic patterns of responding for the blood phobic, agoraphobic and social phobic groups as well as several commonalities among all the groups concerning activation of specific physiological reactions and negative cognitions. A more fine-grained analysis of the data is best made by direct visual inspection of the figures in this paper.     

Remembering successes and failures: rehearsal characteristics influence recollection and distancing

We investigated the relationship between components of rumination, brooding and reflection, and autobiographical remembering by testing whether voluntary and involuntary rehearsal mediated rumination-related variation in the sensory-affective and metacognitive features of memory experience. We focused on achievement and failure memories as both are goal-related events, yet they represent distinct experiences in terms of valence and functionality. For failure memories, brooding was associated with intense recollection and reduced psychological distance. Brooding was related to enhanced distance of achievements, indicating the disruptive effects of brooding on remembering. Although reflection attenuated the recollective experience for both achievement and failure memories, it brought achievement memories to a subjective closer past. Structural equation modelling demonstrated the mediating role of involuntary remembering on the pattern of remembering experience.     

Midwives’ Approach to Genetic Diseases and Genetic Counseling in Denizli, Turkey

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Denizli midwives’ self-reported knowledge of genetic diseases and genetic counseling. Data was collected on forms that obtained information about midwives approaches to basic genetics, genetic disorders, and genetic counseling (response rate = 70.1%). The highest response rate of midwives describing themselves as “knowledgeable” about basic genetic information was for mitosis and meiosis with 4.8%, about genetic disorders was for phenylketonuria with 61.1%, and about genetic counseling was for recommending ultrasonography during pregnancy with 98.1%. The source for basic genetics information for 56.4% of participants was in their school level classes. None of the midwives felt that they had sufficient knowledge about genetic counseling or screening and 76.4% would like to attend an educational course. Even though the midwives have recognized their knowledge deficit they occasionally give genetic counseling. As a result of this study a genetics course is planned for midwives so they can actively participate in the prevention and early diagnosis of genetic diseases.     

Recognition failure and integration

If a recognition test is followed by a cued recall test then the probability of recognition given recall generally follows the Tulving-Wiseman function. Despite this regularity two types of exceptions have been discovered. Both poor integration and cue overlap causes an observed value of recognition given recall that is higher than predicted. The present study explores the first type of exception by proposing and testing an analytical tool, which emanates from confidence ratings given to recall responses, for relating poor integration directly to variations in the degree of deviation from the function. It is demonstrated that very poor integration produces a deviation above the function, whereas a very good integration produces a deviation below the function. The effect of integration (and cue overlap) is explained by means of a conceptualization cue dependency. Support is also given to the notion that an enhanced variability of goodness of encoding contributes to an enhanced dependence between recall and recognition.     

The importance of contextual elements in taste-aversion learning

The effect of exteroceptive contextual cues, presented during the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) intervals, upon the later development of conditioned saccharin aversions was studied in two experiments. It was found that the presence of the contextual cues during the CS + US and CS intervals resulted in a greater degree of saccharin aversion; the presence of these cues during the US interval was relatively less important. These findings are discussed in terms of conditioning models and retrieval models derived from animal learning and human information-processing data.     

Acquisition of phobias and anxiety response patterns in clinical patients

The ways in which phobic patients (N = 106; animal-, social- and claustrophobics) acquired their phobias were investigated in the present study. The results showed that a large majority (58%) of the patients attributed their phobias to conditioning experiences, while 17% recalled vicarious experiences, 10% instructions/information and 15% could not recall any specific onset circumstances. There was no clearcut relationship between the ways of acquisition and anxiety components (subjective, behavioral, physiological), nor did the conditioning and indirectly acquired phobias differ in severity. However, some interesting trends emerged in the data, showing that animal phobics who recalled conditioning experiences to a larger extent also responded physiologically. For patients with indirect onset experiences (for all three types of phobias) the reverse was true, i.e. they responded to a larger extent in a cognitive-subjective way, rather than with increased physiological arousal.     

Attentional demands and recall of verbal and color information in action events

Two experiments addressed the influence of secondary task performance at encoding on recall of different features of subject-performed tasks (SPTs) involving objects (e.g., turn the wallet). In Experiment 1, memory for verbs and colors of objects was assessed, with object names serving as cues. In Experiment 2, object and color memory were assessed, with verbs serving as cues. Results from both experiments indicated a greater deterioration of memory performance under divided attention for verbal features than for colors. In addition, intention to remember did not affect performance for any feature in either experiment. The overall pattern of outcome is discussed relative to the view that encoding of verbal features of SPTs is more attention-demanding than encoding of physical task features, such as color.