Humor and the coronary-prone behavior pattern

The belief is widely held that humor is related to recovery from, and perhaps an increased resistance to, coronary and other stress-related diseases. Such generalizations do not typically distinguish between benign and hostile humor. In the present research, the relationship between a measure of proneness to coronary heart disease (CHD) and appreciation of hostile and nonhostile humor is examined. In two studies, one with college students and one with patients suffering from CHD, the relationship between humor preferences and the coronary-prone (Type A) behavior pattern was examined. Each subject was given the Jenkins Activity Survey as a measure of the coronary-prone personality type, and aggressive and nonaggressive jokes to rate for funniness. Hostile humor was preferred to nonhostile humor by all groups, but among those suffering from CHD, those who could be classified as “Type B’s” preferred nonhostile humor. The results indicate that those less prone to CHD appreciate both hostile and nonhostile humor, while Type A’s seem to enjoy hostile humor only.     

Procedural Justice and Culture

The past fifteen years have seen the development of a considerable research literature on the social psychology of procedural justice (see Lind & Tyler, 1988, for a review). Procedural justice research reveals some serious shortcomings in the exchange theories that have traditionally dominated Western analyses of the social psychology of groups, and in so doing, the procedural justice literature has important ramifications for cross-cultural psychology. Results from a number of studies conducted in the United States and Western Europe show that individualistic, self-interest based models of human behaviour are insufficient to explain procedural justice phenomena. Instead, procedural justice effects frequently reveal strong group-oriented concerns and motivations even in cultural contexts generally thought to be characterized by individualistic orientations. The research literature also shows that if a group's procedures are judged to be fair, people are more likely to show group-oriented behaviour and to hold more favourable attitudes toward the group and its leaders. These findings have led to the development of a theory of justice judgments—the Lind and Tyler group-value theory—which is based on group norms and relations rather than on social exchange theory. We describe a general model of social behaviour that integrates group- and individually-oriented behaviour, and we discuss the implications of the model for social and cross-cultural psychology.     

COVARIATION WITHIN FUNCTIONAL RESPONSE CLASSES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT OF SEVERE PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

Two studies examined the effects of a reductive treatment versus instruction-based treatments on the generalized reduction of problem behaviors. Each study involved a detailed analysis of multiple problem behaviors performed by school-aged youth with severe intellectual disabilities. The analysis examined the contrasting effects of one of two different positive intervention procedures (teaching a positive alternative behavior or providing additional teacher assistance during instruction) versus blocking and/or verbally reprimanding a problem behavior. The focus of each analysis was on the covariation of multiple problem behaviors within functional response classes. Results of the investigation indicated that when only one member of the response class was blocked, a collateral increase was observed in one or more different problem behaviors from the same response class. Alternatively, when 1 participant was taught a functionally equivalent mand response, all problem behaviors in the response class were reduced. Problem behaviors also were reduced for the remaining participant by presenting antecedent teacher assistance. Implications of the research extend to analysis of covariation within response classes and to procedures that result in generalized reduction of problem behaviors within a response class.     

Output and retrieval interference in the missing-number task

Three experiments are reported that represent a reexamination of the missing-number method (Buschke, 1963b) of estimating short-term memory span. The missing-number task involved presenting a random sequence of all but one of the numbers of a known reference set and asking subjects to identify the missing number. Experiment 1 introduced a modified missing-number task that included two missing items and two choices made by the subject. With a large decline in performance for the second choice relative to the first, it is possible that only the second choice was subject to output or retrieval interference. An alternative explanation is that subjects output the number with the weakest memory representation as their first response. By postcuing subjects to report their two choices in a forward or backward sequence, Experiment 2 provided evidence against the importance of output interference and support either for the importance of retrieval interference or for the "weakest-first" hypothesis. However, with a paradigm that replaced only correctly identified missing numbers, a prediction that subjects would select the number with the weakest memory representation as their first response was not confirmed in Experiment 3. Instead, retrieval interference was implicated to explain the first-choice superiority found in Experiments 1 and 3. The results were interpreted in terms of the TODAM model of Murdock (1982, 1987, in press).     

The associative basis of contingent color aftereffects.

According to a conditioning analysis of the orientation-contingent color aftereffect (McCollough effect, ME), orientation stimulus (grids) become associated with color. Contrary to this interpretation are reports that simple forms cannot be used to elicit illusory color and that the ME is not degraded by decreasing the grid-color correlation. The present results indicate: (a) Form stimuli can contingently elicit color aftereffects; (b) even a non-patterned stimulus--the lightness of a frame surrounding a colored area--can contingently elicit color aftereffects; (c) this frame lightness-contingent aftereffect, like the ME, persists for at least 24 hr; and (d) the frame lightness-contingent aftereffect can be used to demonstrate that correlational manipulations affect the ME, as they affect other types of conditional responses.     

Introduction to the epistemology of the brain: Indeterminacy,micro-specificity,chaos, and openness

Given that the mind is the brain, as materialists insist, those who would understand the mind must understand the brain. Assuming that arrays of neural firing frequencies are highly salient aspects of brain information processing (the vector functional account), four hurdles to an understanding of the brain are identified and inspected: indeterminacy, micro-specificity, chaos, and openness.My thanks to the editor of this issue and an unnamed referee for many pointed comments and helpful suggestions.     

Technologies to reliably transduce the topographical details of pigeons’ pecks

Pigeons’ pecking has long been a subject of interest in behavioral research, with the response typically being viewed as unitary. Recent experiments done with computer-controlled devices have revealed that this response is at least bipartite in character, with beak opening and response location (head transport) as its components. In addition, experimental work has demonstrated that these response components may be separately influenced and controlled by respondent and operant conditioning procedures. The detailed topographic analysis and technology that have emerged may provide a background for similar work with other behavioral systems.