EVALUATION OF COMPONENTS OF RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT BY MEDICAID ICF-MR SURVEYS: A VALIDITY ASSESSMENT

We evaluated the proficiency of the federal Medicaid program's survey process for evaluating intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded. In Study 1, an observational analysis of active treatment during leisure times in living units suggested that these surveys did not discriminate between certified and noncertified units. In Study 2, a reactivity analysis of a survey indicated that direct-care staff performed differently during the survey by increasing interactions with clients and decreasing nonwork behavior. Similarly, results of Study 3 showed increases in client access to leisure materials during a survey. In Study 4, questionnaire results indicated considerable variability among service providers' opinions on the consistency, accuracy, and objectivity with which survey teams determine agency standard compliance. Results are discussed regarding effects of the questionable proficiency of survey processes and the potential utility of behavioral assessment methodologies to improve such processes.     

Lateral stimulus-response compatibility effects in the oculomotor system.

Eye movement reaction time (RT) was measured in simple and choice RT situations in which monaural tones were presented to the left or right ear. In the choice RT conditions, tones of one frequency signaled a left looking response and tones of another frequency signaled a right looking response. In the simple RT condition, tones were presented in 2 blocks signaling right or left looking responses. RTs were measured by electro-oculogram (EOG), with electrodes placed over the outer canthus of each eye. In the choice RT condition, oculomotor RTs were faster when the tones signaling right or left looking were presented in the ears corresponding to the direction of looking than when they occured in the opposite ear. No such correspondence was present in the simple RT condition. Ss also performed a manual choice RT task. The lateral stimulus- response (S-R) compatibility effects obtained confirmed previous findings and were of the same magnitude as those obtained in the oculomotor response modality. Asymmetry in correlations between oculomotor and manual compatibility effects suggests differential hemispheric mediation.     

Some problems concerning the logic of grammatical modifiers

This paper consists principally of selections from a much longer work on the semantics of English. It discusses some problems concerning how to represent grammatical modifiers (e.g. slowly in x drives slowly) in a logically perspicuous notation. A proposal of Reichenbach's is given and criticized; then a new theory (apparently discovered independently by myself, Romain Clark, and Richard Montague and Hans Kamp) is given, in which grammatical modifiers are represented by operators added to a first-order predicate calculus. Finally some problems concerning applications of adjectives to that-clauses and gerundive-clauses are discussed.     

Limbic networks and associative learning: I. Entorhinal contributions to instrumental conditioning

The hippocampal formation is a highly delineated brain structure that is believed to play a prominent role in learning and memory. The present experiment evaluated the contributions of medial and lateral perforant path input to bar press-conditioning under (a) continuous and (b) differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) schedules, and (c) shuttlebox avoidance conditioning. Bilateral deafferentation of either pathway had no effect on the acquisition of bar press responses or on performance under the DRL schedule. Deafferentation of the medial pathway facilitated acquisition of avoidance responses in a manner much like the effects seen in hippocampectomized animals. It is suggested that the medial perforant path participates in the expression of correlated patterns of neuronal discharge known to develop within the hippocampus and that this “model” serves to modulate the temporal characteristics of simple conditioned reflexes. Loss of the modulatory influence of the model may affect acquisition and extinction rates. Contributions of other hippocampal circuits are discussed in relation to established deficits. Preliminary results of this experiment were presented at the second annual convention of the American Psychological Society, Dallas, Texas, June 1990.     

Limbic networks and associative learning: I. Entorhinal contributions to instrumental conditioning

The hippocampal formation is a highly delineated brain structure that is believed to play a prominent role in learning and memory. The present experiment evaluated the contributions of medial and lateral perforant path input to bar press-conditioning under (a) continuous and (b) differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) schedules, and (c) shuttlebox avoidance conditioning. Bilateral deafferentation of either pathway had no effect on the acquisition of bar press responses or on performance under the DRL schedule. Deafferentation of the medial pathway facilitated acquisition of avoidance responses in a manner much like the effects seen in hippocampectomized animals. It is suggested that the medial perforant path participates in the expression of correlated patterns of neuronal discharge known to develop within the hippocampus and that this “model” serves to modulate the temporal characteristics of simple conditioned reflexes. Loss of the modulatory influence of the model may affect acquisition and extinction rates. Contributions of other hippocampal circuits are discussed in relation to established deficits. Preliminary results of this experiment were presented at the second annual convention of the American Psychological Society, Dallas, Texas, June 1990.     

The structuralist view of mathematical objects

This paper is based on lectures given to meetings of the Society for Exact Philosophy in Toronto, May 17, 1985, and of the Association for Symbolic Logic in Washington, DC, December 29, 1985. Some of the material had been presented in lectures at Dartmouth College in 1981 and at the University of Padua in 1983. I am indebted to comments from all four audiences, and also to correspondence with Michael Resnik and especially W. W. Tait. This paper was written while I was at Columbia University, to which I and it owe much. Support of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.