Failure to acquire an inhibitory task following seizure-induced brain damage

Male rats that had displayed limbic seizures following a single pair of systemic injections of lithium and pilocarpine were trained 2 months later on an operant schedule that required differential low rates of responding (DRL). The seizured rats never acquired schedules that required either 6-sec. or 12-sec. inhibition of responses following a reward; these rats displayed more perseverative responding and shorter interresponse times than controls. Histomorphology indicated severe brain damage primarily within the entorhinal cortices (and adjacent amygdala) and dorsal thalamus.     

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome--3 case reports

An account is given of three patients who exhibited a malignant neuroleptic syndrome after the administration of neuroplegics. Like other authors, we identified typical elicitation factors and clinical characteristics. In one case a catatonic dilemma with lethal issue was observed. In the final case dealt with in this paper, the renewed application of neuroplegics following the termination of the malignant neuroleptic syndrome was tolerated without complications, whereas in the case of an epileptic patient with damage to the brain, the malignant neuroleptic syndrome returned upon dosage increase.     

Comments on the clinical analysis of anxiety and depressive affect

In listening to clinical material, the analyst frequently has to decide among several apparently valid avenues of investigation. The author examines an aspect of the way he chooses among technical alternatives. His perceptions of an analysand's motivations are influenced by two complementary affect-defense configurations: inhibition in response to anxiety and enactment of wishful fantasy in response to depressive affect. These conceptualizations act as deep structures at the base of his clinical thinking and give direction to his analytic activity. A connection is suggested between the choice to analyze one or another specific affect-defense configuration and the sequential unfolding of tolerable frustrations and gratifications for the analysand.     

Choice with Concurrent Interval Schedules of Reinforcement: The Effects of Different Timing Procedures

Using a Findley changeover procedure, two groups of rats were exposed to various concurrent variable-time (VT) schedules of milk presentation. The rules governing the operation of the timers for the stimulus events differed for the two groups with resulting differences in the overall degree of changeover responding but not with respect to time allocation measures, which in both cases consisted of undermatching. When an interrupted VT reinforcement timer was reset upon re-entry of that component, the rats tended to emit changeover responses almost exclusively to the more favorable component. When the VT reinforcement timers were left running regardless of which components the rats selected, changeover responses were significantly more frequent and equally distributed among both the more and less favorable components. In comparing the present results with those from a similar procedure in which shock was used (Deluty & Church, 1978), it is apparent that what is basic to choice in concurrent interval schedules is not matching or some mathematical variation of it. Instead, it is a tendency to optimize on the basis of the favorability of the stimulus events and the contingencies regarding how those events are timed and administered.

     

The number of active sweat glands (PSI, palmar sweat index) in stress caused by blood donation

The number of active sweat glands (PSI), heart rate, systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were assessed every 2 minutes in 109 male blood donors. Three measurements were taken at the beginning (adaptation phase), three later but before blood donation (baseline), one during the venous puncture (phase 3), three thereafter but still during donation (phase 4), and four after removal of the cannula (phase 5). Analysis of variance yielded significant differences between phases; PSI and SBP behaved similarly, decreasing from adaptation to baseline, rising during puncture, and decreasing again thereafter. Mean within-subject correlations between variables were significantly above 0. Between-subjects correlations were significantly negative for PSI and DBP. This is best explained by the influence of age on both variables. Correlations of PSI values as determined by three raters had a mean of 0.90. The study shows that the PSI is a very sensitive indicator of stress that is easily accessible also in field studies.     

A Piagetian perspective on mathematical construction

In this paper, we offer a Piagetian perspective on the construction of the logico-mathematical schemas which embody our knowledge of logic and mathematics. Logico-mathematical entities are tied to the subject's activities, yet are so constructed by reflective abstraction that they result from sensorimotor experience only via the construction of intermediate schemas of increasing abstraction. The ‘axiom set’ does not exhaust the cognitive structure (schema network) which the mathematician thus acquires. We thus view ‘truth’ not as something to be defined within the closed ‘world’ of a formal system but rather in terms of the schema network within which the formal system is embedded. We differ from Piaget in that we see mathematical knowledge as based on social processes of mutual verification which provide an external drive to any ‘necessary dynamic’ of reflective abstraction within the individual. From this perspective, we argue that axiom schemas tied to a preferred interpretation may provide a necessary intermediate stage of reflective abstraction en route to acquisition of the ability to use formal systems in abstracto.     

Converging operations on a basic level in event taxonomies

Research on object concepts has identified one level of abstraction as "basic" in cognition and communication. We investigated whether concepts for routine social events have a basic level by replicating the converging operations used to investigate object concepts. In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with event names from a taxonomy and were asked to list the actions comprising the event. Many more actions were listed at the middle than at the highest taxonomic level, without a further increase at the most specific level, paralleling the pattern of superordinate-, basic-, and subordinate-level object concepts. From these action lists, brief stories were composed for each event. In Experiment 2, subjects made pairwise similarity judgments on the stories. The mean similarity of events increased with specificity, as expected. But differentiation of categories (within-category similarity compared to between-category similarity) was highest for super-ordinates, contrary to results with object categories. In Experiment 3, subjects were fastest in recognizing actions as belonging to events named at the basic level. In Experiment 4, subjects predominantly chose basic-level terms to name stories. We conclude that event taxonomies do show basic-level structure, albeit a less sharply defined and less stable structure than in object taxonomies. The benefits and hazards of extending models of object concepts to other entities, such as social events, are discussed.     

Acquiring English at different ages: The English displacement effect and other findings

An analysis of the language backgrounds of 237 persons in a psychology department subject pool is presented. Specific findings indicate that (a) only about two-thirds of the subjects were native speakers of English, (b) native English speakers can be divided into several different groups on the basis of bilingual background and age of acquisition of their second language, (c) the number of native English speakers who would be considered ideal for psycholinguistic experiments in English (e.g., monolinguals and bilinguals who acquired a second language in or after adolescence) is only about a third of the sample, (d) nonnative English speakers appear to have their native, non-English-language abilities reduced as a function of their acquisition of English; that is, English appears to displace other languages that a person knows (the English displacement effect), and (e) age of English acquisition is shown to be an important factor, by correlating negatively with rated English abilities and reported Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, and positively with rated ability in a non-English language.Portions of this research were first presented at the 59th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Buffalo, New York, April 1988. I gratefully thank Doris Aaronson for the numerous comments she made on earlier versions of this paper.     

Stimulus repetition effects and the dimension-feature distinction in alternative targets

The negative repetition effect (NRE) refers to a poorer perception of the target in noise-same-as-target than in noise-alternative-target displays. Using the parenthesis as target and noise that are either identical or different in orientation, we tested predictions derived from a feature-specific inhibition model (Bjork & Murray, 1977) that explains the NRE as arising from inhibitory interactions among channels handling identical inputs. Contrary to our expectation of evidence for orientation-specific inhibition, a positive repetition effect (PRE) was observed. We also found a PRE for the dimension target sets whose stimuli differ only in orientation and an NRE for the feature target sets whose stimuli differ in the number of elements. Further experiments that systematically varied relationships between alternative targets indicate that these basic findings, termed the stimulus attributes effects, do not arise from pattern masking, perceptual strategies, or response bias.