Auditory agnosia for speech (“pure word-deafness”): A historical review with current implications

A historical review of thought about the existence, clinical presentation, and mechanism of auditory agnosia for speech is presented. Implications of recent contributions which shed more light on this syndrome are discussed.     

Increases in rewards promote flexible behavior

Offering reward for performance can motivate people to perform a task better, but better preparation for one task usually means decreased flexibility to perform different tasks. In six experiments in which reward varied between low and high levels, we found that reward can encourage people to prepare more flexibly for different tasks, but only as it increased from the level on the previous trial. When the same high rewards were offered continuously trial after trial, people were more inclined to simply stick with doing what had worked previously. We demonstrated such enhancements in flexibility in task switching, a difficult visual search task, and an easier priming of pop-out search task, which shows that this effect generalizes from executive tasks to perceptual processes that require relatively little executive control. These findings suggest that relative, transient changes in reward can exert more potent effects on behavioral flexibility than can the absolute amount of reward, whether it consists of money or points in a social competition.     

Visual marking: dissociating effects of new and old set size

Visual marking makes it possible to ignore old items during search. In a typical study, old items are previewed 1 s before adding an equal number of new items, one of which is the target. Previewing half of the items reduces the search slope relating response time (RT) to overall set size by half. However, this manipulation sometimes only reduces overall RT but not search slope (Experiment 1). By orthogonally varying the numbers of old and new items, Experiment 2 shows that old and new set sizes interactively affect visual marking. Given a constant new set size, the size of the old set has negligible effect on RT. However, increasing the new set size reduces the preview benefit in overall RT. Experiment 3 shows that this reduction may be restricted to paradigms that use temporal segregation cues. Studies should vary old and new set size orthogonally to avoid missing a visual marking effect where one may be present.     

A Transtheoretical Approach to Case Formulation

In answer to the need for a comprehensive, systematic, yet flexible case formulation method, the present article describes the Causal Analysis and Synthesis of Events (CASE) system, a transtheoretical case formulation method. This method of functional case formulation is useful in terms of explicating the problem and identifying potential areas for intervention when dealing with clinical problems of both an intrapersonal and interpersonal nature. Further, this formulation method may improve communication between the therapist and the client during case conceptualization and facilitate dialogue between therapists of different theoretical orientations. This paper describes the case formulation method and includes an example incorporating this case formulation technique for a young man with social phobia.     

Role of conditioned reinforcers in the initiation,maintenance and extinction of drug-seeking behavior

The development of a secondary reinforcer as a result of associating a neutral stimulus (buzzer) with intravenous (IV) doses of morphine was studied in rats. Secondary reinforcement developed in the absence of physical dependence and followed the association of the stimulus with either response-contingent or non-contingent injections of morphine. Strength of the conditioned reinforcer, measured in terms of responding on a lever for the stimulus plus infusion of saline solution, was proportional to the unit dosage of morphine employed in pairings of buzzer and drug. When extinction of the lever-press response for IV morphine was conducted (by substituting saline for morphine solution) in the absence of the conditioned reinforcing stimulus, it was seen later that the stimulus could still elicit lever responses, until it too had been present for a sufficient interval of non-reinforced responding. Similarly, extinction of the response for morphine by blocking its action with naloxone in the absence of the stimulus did not eliminate the conditioned reinforcement. Another study showed that a passive, subcutaneous (SC) dose of morphine served to maintain lever-pressing on a contingency of buzzer plus sahne infusion. Furthermore, the stimuli resulting from the presence of morphine (after a SC injection) were able to reinstate the lever-responding with only the buzzer-saline contingency when such responses had previously been extinguished. Moreover, it was shown thatd-amphetamine could restore responding under the same conditions, and that morphine could also do so for rats in which the primary reinforcer had beend-amphetamine. It is suggested that animal data such as these show that procedures designed for the elimination of human drug-taking behavior must take into account secondary reinforcers as well as the primary reinforcer(s).     

Demographic influences in sensation seeking and expressions of sensation seeking in religion, smoking and driving habits

A large sample of readers of a popular psychology magazine took the Sensation Seeking Scale (form V) and filled out a personal data form. The information in the data form was used to examine the relationship between SSS scores and demographic and experience variables. Sex and age showed strong relationships with the SSS. Education and occupation of the subjects and their parents showed lesser relationships with the SSS and primarily in females. Non-believers in conventional religion and infrequent church-goers had higher SSS scores than those who identify with such religions and attend church regularly. Smokers had higher scores than non-smokers although the relationship with amount of smoking was not a linear one. Driving habits of speeding related strongly to sensation seeking in a linear fashion.