Use of the pigmentometer,a new device for measuring skin albedo: Relating skin color with a series of physiological measures

Use of the Pigmentometer, a new device for measuring skin albedo: Relating skin color with a series of physiological measures. An apparatus has been described for the indirect measurement of skin albedo in human subjects. This device operates on the principle of the reflectance of light as influenced by the lightness or darkness of the skin. This new equipment was used to examine the relationship between lightness or darkness of the skin and the basal level and responsivity of some autonomic nerovus system physiological variables in a series of 46 black and 47 white male and female subjects. It was observed that blacks had significantly lower (darker) skin albedo (PI), a significantly higher skin resistance (SR) and amplitude of the galvanic skin response (GSR), and an insignificant higher basal heart rate (HR). Pearson Product-Movement correlations between all measures from the total population showed significant relationships between PI and SR, SR and GSR and HR and HRR (heart rate response). The further separation of the total population into subgroups of blacks, whites, males, females, and black and white male and female groups, respectively, altered some of these differences and relationships previously observed. These results appeared to support the premise that race is more responsible for influencing the measured physiological responses, particularly SR, than is the lightness or darkness of the skin.     

The effect of vowel similarity and syllable length on acoustic memory

Darwin and Baddeley (1974) argue that the presence of recency, suffix, and modality effects are not attributable to the acoustic properties of the stimuli but, rather, to the acoustic distance between the items comprising the test series. The present study is designed to determine whether stimulus duration is a significant variable in acoustic memory. Eight different blocks of synthetic stimuli were prepared; one block each of 60 msec similar and dissimilar syllables and 190 msec similar and dissimilar syllables. The other four blocks consisted of these same vocabularies, but each list in the block had an eighth syllable suffix of the same duration as the syllables in the block. Significant recency and suffix effects are seen for dissimilar syllables of both durations. No effects are demonstrated for 60-msec similar syllables, but both of the effects are seen for 190-msec similar syllables. These results indicate that whether or not a speech sound is preserved in precategorical acoustic storage (PAS) depends upon not only the acoustic distance between the stimuli, but also on other characteristics intrinsic to the stimuli, e.g., stimulus duration.     

ON SYSTEMS ANALYSIS IN AUTISM INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

Although intervention technology has grown substantially during the past quarter century, the design of intervention systems has not grown apace. This paper examines organizational arrangements that enhance and diminish treatment effectiveness and argues that defining, measuring, and manipulating systemic antecedent and consequent variables are as important as assessment and intervention on an individual client's behalf.     

TEACHING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM TO USE PHOTOGRAPHIC ACTIVITY SCHEDULES: MAINTENANCE AND GENERALIZATION OF COMPLEX RESPONSE CHAINS

We used a graduated guidance procedure to teach 4 boys with autism to follow photographic activity schedules to increase on-task and on-schedule behavior. The multiple baseline across participants design included baseline, teaching, maintenance, resequencing of photographs, and generalization to novel photographs phases. The results indicated that photographic activity schedules (albums depicting after-school activities) produced sustained engagement, and skills generalized to a new sequence of photographs and to new photographs. The acquisition of schedule-following skills enabled these children with severe developmental disabilities to display lengthy response chains, independently change activities, and change activities in different group home settings in the absence of immediate supervision and prompts from others.     

Two-component arterial blood pressure conditional response in rat

The objective of these experiments was to quantify the pattern of change in arterial blood pressure (BP) during a discriminative aversive classical conditioning paradigm in rat using a new “high resolution” computer analysis. Sprague-Dawley rats (n=5) were restrained in a soft, conical cloth pouch and conditioned using a 6 sec. pulsed tone (CS+) followed by a 0.5 sec. tail shock; a steady tone, never followed by shock, served as a CS-. BP peaked at 16.4±6.5 mm Hg (mean±SD) above control at 1.5±0.1 sec. after onset of CS+. This “first component” (“C₁”) also occurred during CS- (12.1±3.8 mm Hg), although the magnitudes of the two were significantly (p<0.05) different. Another group of rats (n=8) was treated identically except the tones were 15 seconds long. The conditional BP response consisted of two components. C₁ was reminiscent of that seen using the short tone: for CS+ a peak of 13.6±5.6 mm Hg at 1.5 sec. or, for CS-, of 10.0±4.3 at 1.3 sec. (p<0.05). In CS+ trials BP peaked again (“C₂,” 7.4±2.5 mm Hg) at 8.3±1.2 sec. There was no statistically significant C₂ for CS- trials, clearly demonstrating discrimination between tones. The unconditional BP response in both groups consisted of two large, closely spaced peaks in BP. Respiration was recorded in 3 additional rats. After shock delivery these subjects often showed a sudden shift between (1) a regular respiratory pattern with moderate chest excursion and (2) apneic episodes interspersed with single, deep breaths. This latter pattern was associated with large, low frequency fluctuations in BP. Continued development of the rat conditioning paradigm is especially warranted because of the ability to record sympathetic nerve activity in intact, awake subjects and the large number of readily available genetic strains, which model human pathological states.     

An emergency situation simulator for examining time-pressured decision making

Between deliberate planning efforts and reactionary decision making lies a realm of time-pressured decision making. A number of real-world occupations deal with this realm on a regular basis, including air traffic controllers and emergency service dispatchers. To study this type of decision making, an emergency situation simulator has been developed, which recreates the stressful environment of the emergency service dispatcher by generating realistic hypothetical emergency situations.     

Development and functional significance of private speech among attention- deficit hyperactivity disordered and normal boys

We compared the development of spontaneous private speech and its relationship to self-controlled behavior in a sample of 6- to 12-year-olds with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and matched normal controls. Thirty-eight boys were observed in their classrooms while engaged in math seatwork. Results revealed that ADHD children were delayed in private speech development in that they engaged in more externalized, self-guiding and less inaudible, internalized speech than normal youngsters. Several findings suggest that the developmental lag was a consequence of a highly unmanageable attentional system that prevents ADHD children's private speech from gaining efficient mastery over behavior. First, selfguiding speech was associated with greater attentional focus only among the least distractible ADHD boys. Second, the most mature, internalized speech forms were correlated with self-stimulating behavior for ADHD subjects but not for controls. Third, observations of ADHD children both on and off stimulant medication indicated that reducing their symptoms substantially increased the maturity of private speech and its association with motor quiescence and attention to task. Results suggest that the Vygotskian hypothesis of a unidirectional path of influence from private speech to self-controlled behavior should be expanded into a bidirectional model. These findings may also shed light on why treatment programs that train children with attentional deficits in speechto-self have shown limited efficacy.Preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant HD22354-01 and a grant from the Graduate School, Illinois State University, to Laura E. Berk. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Douglas Hopper, Christine Mitchell, Mary Ann Snyder, Kathleen Szeminska, Deborah Petrillo, and Eric Zehr in collecting the data. We are also grateful to Benjamin Moore, Clinical Director of The Baby Fold, and Sarah Booth, Vice Principal of Metcalf School, Normal, Illinois, for facilitating the research and to the teachers and children for welcoming us into their classrooms.