A comparison of response patterns on fixed-, variable-, and random-ratio schedules

The behavior of individual pigeons on fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, and random-ratio schedules was examined. Within each type of ratio schedule the size of the ratio was varied in an irregular sequence. At various ratio sizes (5, 10, 40, 80) no differences were found among overall response rates (postreinforcement pause plus running response rate) as a function of ratio type. This similarity in overall response rates held despite noticeable differences in the microstructure of performance both within and across subjects; the primary performance difference on the three types of ratio schedules was the relatively longer postreinforcement pause duration on the fixed-ratio schedule. We concluded that the gross temporal characteristics of performance determined by the relative weightings of the postreinforcement pause and running response rate were primarily controlled by the type of ratio schedule (fixed, variable, or random), whereas the overall rate of responding was controlled by the size of the ratio.     

STAR: A unique embedded performance assessment technique

STAR (The Strategic and Tactical Assessment Record) is a versatile research tool designed to evaluate the effects of sustained performance and other stressors on integrated, complex cognitive functioning. This completely automated task is presented in the form of a highly motivating computer game. However, unlike typical computer games, successful performance of STAR depends on an individual’s ability to rapidly and accurately assess risk/benefit ratios in a variety of situations, and on the skilled use of an array of multipurpose control systems. STAR is unique in that approximately 80 performance measures are unobtrusively embedded in the operations required to “play the game”; no obvious performance assessment interferes with task presentation. STAR provides multiple measures of psychomotor function, attention, memory, information processing, decision making, risk-taking behavior, subjective state, errors, and error paths. In this report, we describe STAR, and summarize two preliminary experiments designed to separately evaluate the effects of task difficulty and task stress level on complex performance.     

Employee Eldercare Responsibilities: Should Organizations Care?

The question "Should organizations be concerned with the eldercare responsibilities of their employees?" was addressed from several perspectives: (1) prevalence of need, (2) the relationships among eldercare responsibilities, satisfaction with eldercare arrangements, and workplace attitudes and outcomes, and (3) support for organizational eldercare programs. Our sample was predominately female and we defined eldercare responsibilities broadly; however, only 5 of 885 employees reported eldercare responsibilities. The majority relied on family arrangements and reported dissatisfaction with these arrangements. Dissatisfaction was related to interruptions at work, leaving early, and intent to quit. Eldercare-givers did not differ from other groups on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but were absent from work significantly more often. There was strong employee support for employer-sponsored eldercare programs.     

Mothers' representations of their relationships with their toddlers: links to adult attachment and observed mothering.

Mothers (N = 125) and their firstborn sons were studied over an 11-month period to examine relations between mothers' representations of their relationships with their children (measured at 15 months by using the Parent Development Interview [PDI]), adult representations of attachment (measured at 12 months by using the Adult Attachment Interview [AAI]), and observed mothering (measured at 15 and 21 months). Results indicate (a) that mothers classified as autonomous on the AAI scored highest on the joy-pleasure/coherence dimension of the PDI and mothers classified as dismissing on the AAI scored highest on the anger dimension of the PDI and (b) that mothers scoring higher on the joy-pleasure/coherence dimension of the PDI engaged in less negative and more positive mothering.     

Arousal-Mediated Memory Consolidation: Role of the Medial TemporalLobe in Humans

Although the influence of emotional arousal on declarative memory has been documented behaviorally, the mechanisms underlying arousal-memory interactions and their representation in the human brain remain uncertain. One route through which arousal achieves its effects on memory performance is by regulating consolidation processes. Animal research has revealed that the amygdala strengthens hippocampal-dependent memory consolidation in a limited time window following participation in an arousing task. To examine whether this integrative function of amygdalo-hippocampal structures extends to the human brain, we tested unilateral-temporal-lobectomy patients on an adaptation of a classic paradigm in which levels of physiological arousal at encoding modulate retention over time. Subjects rated emotionally arousing (taboo) and neutral words on an arousal scale while their skin conductance responses (SCRs) were monitored. Recall for the words was assessed immediately and after a 1-hr delay. Both temporal-lobectomy patients and control subjects generated enhanced SCRs and arousal ratings for the arousing words at the time of encoding. However, only control subjects exhibited an increase in memory for the arousing words over time. This group difference in the effect of arousal on the rate of forgetting suggests that the role of medial temporal lobe structures in memory consolidation for arousing events is conserved across species.     

Correlations of glucose metabolism and structural damage to language function in aphasia

Studies of aphasic patients using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron computed tomographs have shown areas of metabolic depression in the left hemisphere larger than the area of infarction noted on CT. To evaluate these metabolic differences in relationship to language abnormalities, 11 patients had metabolic scans, CT, and were administered the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Battery and the Porch Index of Communicative Ability. Correlation analyses were computed between metabolic, CT, and language data. CT demonstrated reliable correlations of speaking, oral reading, and repetition to Wernicke' area, consistent with current anatomic language models, while metabolic data from areas posterior, inferior, and superior to the traditional Wernicke's area and the head of the caudate nucleus also had reliable correlations with aphasic language function. The utilization of both structural and metabolic brain measures may improve our understanding of the anatomy of language as related to aphasia.     

Children's responses to overt and relational aggression

Investigated children's responses for coping with overt and relational aggression. Children in Grades 3 through 6 (N = 491) in a rural Midwestern public school district completed a survey designed to assess how students cope when they are the targets of peer aggression. Children endorsed greater use of internalizing and distancing strategies for coping with relational aggression and greater use of externalizing strategies for coping with overt aggression. In addition, older children reported greater use of externalizing and less use of internalizing and distancing strategies than younger children. Significant differences were also found between boys and girls. Regardless of type of aggression, girls endorsed greater use of problem-solving and support strategies and less use of externalizing strategies than boys. Coping of high target children and of children who frequently received prosocial treatment from peers were also examined.     

Rethinking Debt: Theology,Indebted Subjects,and Student Loans

This article focuses on the way in which a theological understanding of debt resonates with moral and economic debt, with particular attention paid to student loan debt. Although the so‐called satisfaction theory of atonement, which grounds itself in the debt we owe to God, resonates with the logic of contemporary capitalism, this article suggests that other theological traditions concerning debt, which conceive of debt variously as something owed to the devil or as something that God owes to us, provide avenues for rethinking debt, theologically, morally, and economically.