Effects of relation similarity on part-whole decisions

Subjects were presented with word pairs (e.g., bed-mattress) and timed as they decided whether one word named part of the item named by the other word. Yes responses were facilitated, and no responses were impeded, by relation similarity (i.e., the similarity of the relation between the two stimulus items to the part-whole relation). Item similarity, the similarity of the two stimulus items to each other, had no effect. The results support the view that similarity effects in semantic decision tasks are due to the comparison of elements of the relation between the two stimulus words against relation elements that serve as criteria for the target relation that the subject has been asked to identify.     

Marriage Guidance Training and the Trainee's Own Marriage: A Prospective Study

Twenty trainees and 18 partners took part in a study of the effects of a marriage guidance training programme on their own marriage. Changes were assessed in two ways: retrospectively ('perceived' changes as assessed following training) and prospectively (changes calculated by comparing scores obtained before training and those obtained after training). For most dimensions there was little correspondence between 'perceived' change and 'calculated' change. This has important methodological implications, which are discussed. The 'calculated' change indicated poorer marital adjustment following training. The trainees' scores suggested that they had become less 'abasing' and less 'nurturant' towards their partners; also that they had more disagreements about 'philosophy of life' and 'dealing with in-laws'. Their comments suggested that a number of the trainees had become more analytical of their own marriages, and that training had heightened their awareness of their own needs and individuality.     

Effects of Fluprazine Hydrochloride on Three Aversively Motivated Tasks

The Psychological Record - Treatment with 8.0 mg/kg fluprazine hydrochloride had no effect on the acquisition of a step-down avoidance response but retarded its extinction. The drug also impaired...     

Gender differences in emotional development: A review of theories and research

Theories, data, methodological and conceptual problems concerning the study of gender differences in the development of defenses, emotional expression, recognition, and experiences are reviewed Data indicate gender differences in several areas of emotional functioning, including nonverbal sensitivity, expressiveness, self-reports of anger, fear, and sadness, the quality of defenses, and cognitive correlates of recognition abilities Studies suggest that with development, boys increasingly inhibit the expression and attribution of most emotions, whereas girls increasingly inhibit the expression and recognition of socially unacceptable emotions, e g, anger These differences may be a function of different socialization processes for males and females, which may be adaptations to innate gender differences in temperament, or adaptations to existing sociocultural pressures The present paper argues that emotions motivate and regulate adaptive behaviors, and that researchers must explore gender differences in emotional development as a function of different familial, sociocultural, and interpersonal roles to which males and females must adapt     

Varying response-reinforcer contiguity in a recycling conjunctive schedule

Three experiments describe the effects of manipulating the frequency of response-reinforcer contiguity in a recycling conjunctive schedule. The schedule arranged that a reinforcer was delivered after 30 s provided at least one response had occurred; otherwise the next cycle started immediately. In Experiment 1, this schedule produced the typical pause–respond–pause pattern, with most responses at mid-interval; and, when a limited number of contiguities between responses and food delivery were added, the pattern became more like the monotonic scallop seen on fixed-interval schedules. In Experiment 2, the schedule was initially presented with an additional contingency that allowed contiguity on every trial. Fixed-interval-like behavior occurred and tended to persist as contiguities were gradually eliminated. In Experiment 3, the recycling conjunctive schedule alternated with a condition in which a large number of contiguities occurred. The pause–respond–pause pattern and fixed-interval-like performance occurred with few or many contiguities, respectively. The results of all three experiments illustrate how contiguity interacts with a small number of other variables to determine performance on interval schedules and illuminate previous findings with fixed-interval and fixed-time schedules.     

Temporal control by signals of interval duration within variable-interval schedules

Rats' lever pressing produced sucrose reinforcers on a variable-interval schedule where, in different conditions, the duration of a stimulus presented immediately after reinforcement was either correlated or uncorrelated with the duration of the current interreinforcement interval. Under the baseline schedule, in which no stimulus was presented, the minimum interreinforcement interval was 8 s and the mean postreinforcement pause of each subject approximated this value. Response rates increased slowly over the first 10 to 15 s and then remained roughly constant throughout the remainder of the interval. In both the correlated and uncorrelated conditions, the added stimulus resulted in the postreinforcement pauses lengthening to values in excess of the duration of the preceding stimulus. This resulted in a poststimulus pause which was, in most cases, roughly constant irrespective of the duration of the preceding stimulus, or of the reinforcement contingencies prevailing immediately after stimulus offset. Local response-rate patterns in the uncorrelated conditions were similar to those obtained under the baseline schedule in which no stimulus was presented. However, in the correlated condition local response rates increased across the remainder of the interreinforcer interval. Further, the rate of acceleration was inversely related to the duration of the preceding stimulus. These results show that a correlation between stimulus duration and the ensuing time to reinforcement can control behavior—a type of temporal control not previously reported.