Responding under positive and negative response contingencies in pigeons and crows

Four crows were trained to key peck for food. Then, they were exposed to a positive response contingency that required them to peck the key when it was illuminated briefly (the trial) in order to receive food. This procedure resulted in consistent within-trial pecking. When the contingency changed so that food was presented at the end of a trial when no response occurred, but the trial terminated immediately and food was omitted when a response occurred (negative response contingency), responding decreased markedly. Eight pigeons were studied under the same change in contingencies. These birds varied in their response histories from naive to having several years' experience. The previously naive pigeons also showed rapid declines in responding under the negative contingency; the responding of the birds with extended training histories declined much more slowly. Eventually, however, six of the eight pigeons showed little or no responding under the negative contingency, while they responded consistently when re-exposed to the positive contingency. These findings question the power and the generality of the negative automaintenance phenomenon.     

Evidence of interaction between deprivation effects and stimulus control

Discriminative responding in pigeons was studied under multiple variable-interval extinction and variable-ratio extinction schedules, as deprivation was varied. Generally, the greater the accuracy of discrimination that developed during training, the smaller the effect of deprivation upon subsequent performance. This was true both in terms of changes in response rates, and in the relationship between response rates during food reinforcement and extinction. When discrimination was inaccurate, increases in deprivation resulted in disproportionate increases in responding during extinction, as compared to increases during food reinforcement components of the schedule. The results suggest that as stimulus control (accuracy) of responding increases, discriminative performance becomes less and less susceptible to influence by deprivation.     

On the automatic activation of attitudes

We hypothesized that attitudes characterized by a strong association between the attitude object and an evaluation of that object are capable of being activated from memory automatically upon mere presentation of the attitude object. We used a priming procedure to examine the extent to which the mere presentation of an attitude object would facilitate the latency with which subjects could indicate whether a subsequently presented target adjective had a positive or a negative connotation. Across three experiments, facilitation was observed on trials involving evaluatively congruent primes (attitude objects) and targets, provided that the attitude object possessed a strong evaluative association. In Experiments 1 and 2, preexperimentally strong and weak associations were identified via a measurement procedure. In Experiment 3, the strength of the object-evaluation association was manipulated. The results indicated that attitudes can be automatically activated and that the strength of the object-evaluation association determines the likelihood of such automatic activation. The implications of these findings for a variety of issues regarding attitudes--including their functional value, stability, effects on later behavior, and measurement--are discussed.     

A note on sequential blanking

Five-letter pseudowords were presented in all possible spatiotemporal orders at each of nine combinations of letter duration and interletter interval. Subjects were required to report as many letters of the pseudoword as possible. The results confirmed the sequential blanking effect; under certain timing conditions, some spatiotemporal orders result in perceptual blanking. The results show, however, that blanking does not follow the two rules previously thought to describe the phenomenon.     

The prefrontal-thalamic axis and classical conditioning.

Using the New Zealand albino rabbit as an animal model, it has been determined that the medial prefrontal cortex is intimately involved in, and may be necessary for, acquisition of classically conditioned bradycardia. The interconnected nuclei of the medial thalamus, most notably the mediodorsal nucleus, conversely appear to be associated with the development of the tachycardia that accompanies classical conditioning of the eyeblink and nictitating membrane response. Neuroanatomical, electrophysiological, brain stimulation, and lesion data are reviewed, which support the conclusion that the prefrontal-thalamic axis is intimately involved in acquisition of classically conditioned visceral changes.     

“Emotionally, Soulfully, Spiritually ‘Free to Think and Act’: The Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902–59) Memorial Lecture on Psychosomatic Medicine and Pastoral Care”

This essay aims to stimulate rethinking about religious and medical healing and wholeness. While psychiatrist (Helen) Flanders Dunbar (1902–1959) is well known as a psychosomatic investigator and as Medical Director of the Council for Clinical Training, the initial home of Anton Boisen's groundbreaking movement for the clinical pastoral education of institutional chaplains and parish ministers, she is less appreciated as a theologically-trained scholar. This essay explores an earlier era's understanding of the spiritual and the more soulful components of healing and how Dunbar combined these to focus on helping all peoples become free to think and act. This essay was originally delivered as The Helen Flanders Dunbar Memorial Lecture on Psychosomatic Medicine and Pastoral Care at Columbia Presbyterian Center of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York on November 2, 1999.     

Developing a Partnership Model for Cancer Screening with Community-Based Organizations: The ACCESS Breast Cancer Education and Outreach Project

There is growing enthusiasm for community-academic partnerships to promote health in underserved communities. Drawing upon resources available at a comprehensive cancer center, we developed the ACCESS program to guide community based organizations through a flexible program planning process. Over a three-year period, ACCESS partnered with 67 agencies serving various medically underserved populations. Organizations included hospitals, parishes, senior centers, harm reduction programs, and recreational facilities. Program outcomes at the organizational level were quantified in terms of introduction of new cancer information, referral or screening programs, as well as organizational capacity building. ACCESS represents a viable model for promoting partnership to transfer behavioral health programs and adapt interventions for new audiences. Plans to further evaluate and enhance this model to promote cancer screening efforts are discussed. We argue that, ultimately, formation and development of community partnerships need to be understood as a fundamental area of practice that must be systematically integrated into the mission of major academic medical institutions in every area of public health.