A NEUROBIOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE TO THE PERCEPTUAL REINFORCEMENT HYPOTHESIS OF STEREOTYPED BEHAVIOR: A COMMENTARY ON “SELF-STIMULATORY BEHAVIOR AND PERCEPTUAL REINFORCEMENT”

A perceptual reinforcement theory of stereotyped movements is advanced by Lovaas, Newsom, and Hickman (1987) in an effort to integrate a number of diverse observations about the origins and maintenance of this behavior. We, in turn, argue that the theory, as presented, is logically flawed and fails to take into account important biological findings and theory concerning pathological stereotyped acts. An alternative theory, derived primarily from neurological concepts, is briefly described.     

Sex differences in spatial task performance of patients with and without unilateral cerebral lesions

Two visuospatial tasks, the WAIS Block Design and the Street Gestalt Completion Test, were administered to men and women with and without unilateral cerebral lesions. These two tasks represent different categories of visuospatial functions. The Street test is a visual-perceptual gestalt task, requiring the closure of fragmented pictures, whereas Block Design is an analytical, manipulospatial task requiring rotation of spatial coordinates. For the non-brain-damaged group, the men showed a nonsignificant trend toward better Block Design performance relative to the women, whereas there was no sex-related difference in Street performance. For the brain-damaged groups, patients with right hemisphere lesions performed significantly worse than patients with left hemisphere lesions on both the Street test and Block Design, indicating that both tasks were more sensitive to right hemisphere functioning. There was, however, a significant sex X side of lesion interaction on Block Design only, with the men showing a more asymmetrical pattern of scores. These results suggest that sex differences in functional lateralization may underlie sex differences in visuospatial ability, and that sex differences in functional lateralization may be present for only certain visuospatial processes.     

The influence of alcohol and loud music on analytic and holistic processing

The influence of alcohol and loud music on analytic versus holistic processing was examined in classification, concept learning, and embedded figures tasks. In the classification task, loud music reduced analytic responding by individuals who had consumed alcohol and increased analytic responding by individuals who had received placebo drinks. Alcohol also decreased the speed with which individuals were able to generate analytic responses in the classification task and decreased analytic performance on the embedded figures test. Alcohol slowed the rate of learning in the concept-learning task but did not lead to less analytic responding in that task. The results are consistent with the idea that alcohol slows the rate of information processing, particularly in tasks requiring visual analysis of stimuli.     

Test theory and psychometrika: The past twenty-five years

On the occasion ofPsychometrika's fiftieth anniversary, the past twenty-five years' developments in mental test theory are reviewed, with special emphasis on the topics receiving attention in the pages of this journal. (Analogous reviews forPsychometrika's first quarter century were given by Gulliksen and Guilford in 1961.) Much of the recent progress in test theory (and in other branches of psychometrics as well) has been made by treating the problems in this field as being essentially ones of statistical inference. It is concluded that (a) research in test theory is in a healthy state and (b)Psychometrika is an important source of information about that research.     

Book reviews

Current Psychology -     

Duration of negative practice and the reduction of leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of long (1 minute) and short (15 seconds) durations of negative practice for reducing self-stimulatory leg pounding of a traumatically brain-injured adult. In individual social skill training classes, long negative practice and short negative practice were administered concurrently in an alternating treatments design. Generalization of treatment effects outside of training sessions was assessed during the client's lunch period. The results revealed that both durations of negative practice were equally effective in reducing leg pounding during training sessions. However, the effects of training did not generalize to settings in which the practice contingency was not enforced. Pounding was more frequent and negative practice somewhat less effective during periods of high social stimulation.     

Effective functioning in dual-career families: an investigation

This study is concerned with the commonalities inherent in diverse psychotherapeutic strategies, despite seemingly discontinuous theoretical stances. Two approaches were evaluated with respect to effective family functioning, viz. Analytical Psychology and Systems Theory. Analytical Psychology posits the growth of conscious awareness in the individual as the source of therapeutic change. Problem centred systems therapy of the family emphasizes the importance of teaching clinically presenting families to negotiate collectively family rules and expectations and thus to allocate and monitor roles via clear and direct verbal communication. Both positions thus stress the reflective mode as a pivotal factor in effective problem solving. Analytical psychology maintains that conscious awareness expands to the extent that the individual integrates the contrasexual aspect of the personality, that is, the affective, expressive mode or 'feminine principle' in the male, or the instrumental, assertive 'masculine principle' in the female. Such individuals are said to be 'androgenous'. It was therefore hypothesized that such individuals would more readily be able to negotiate family rules and expectations in a manner consistent with a major therapeutic thrust of family therapy. These clinically derived hypotheses were subjected to an empirical test by assessing twenty, non-clinical, dual-career families where both parents pursued careers and were therefore presumably both required to share instrumental and affective roles on the basis of mutual agreement. Results indicated that negotiation contributed significantly to successful role fulfilment and effective family functioning, thus substantiating the focus of family therapy strategies upon clear and direct communication and role allocation.     

Locus of control,choice, and satisfaction with an assigned task

P. E. Spector's (1982, Psychological Bulletin, 91, 482–497) hypothesis that under conditions of freedom of choice persons characterized by an internal locus of control will experience greater satisfaction with an undesirable task than persons characterized by an external locus of control is considered in light of distinctions between perceived control and perceived choice. Perceived choice is proposed as an intervening variable implicit in Spector's argument. This reasoning was tested with 46 male and female college student participants in a 2 (Choice) × 2 (Locus of Control) factorial design experiment. An interaction of Choice × Locus of Control on task satisfaction was obtained such that internals tended to be more satisfied when given a choice while externals experienced greater satisfaction when not given a choice. The implications of this result for Spector' hypothesis and for the manner in which undesirable work is assigned are discussed.     

The co-therapy relationship: Mutuality,agreement and client outcome

This project, utilizing a pretest and posttest design, studied interactions between co-therapists and the relationships of their interactions to client outcome. Six co-therapist pairs at a counseling center saw two clients in multiple treatments yielding twelve cases. The study investigated co-therapist relationships in regard to: (a) their level of mutuality or caring for their partners, (b) their ratings of the quality of their relationships, and (c) their agreement as to perceptions and behavior during sessions. Also investigated were: the relation of co-therapist interaction to client outcome and the personal growth of the therapists over the course of therapy. Results supported success claims of the literature concerning co-therapy.