Control of echolalic speech in psychotic children

Immediate echolalia, a common language disorder in psychotic children, was studied in a series of replicated single-subject designs across six schizophrenic and five normal children. In Experiment 1, each child was presented with several questions and commands, some of which set the occasion for specific, appropriate responses and some of which did not. The former were referred to as discriminative stimuli and the latter, as neutral stimuli. The psychotic children tended to echo the neutral stimuli while responding appropriately to the discriminative stimuli; the normal children, in contrast, typically echoed neither type of stimulus. In Experiment 2, three psychotic children were taught appropriate responses to each of several neutral stimuli. Following this training, the children generally responded appropriately to these stimuli without echoing. A plausible interpretation of these results is that the neutral stimuli were initially incomprehensible or meaningless to the children (whereas the discriminative stimuli were comprehensible or meaningful) and that verbal incomprehensibility may be one important determinant of immediate echolalia. Finally, the results are noteworthy in that they isolate a sufficient treatment variable (i.e., the reinforcement of alternative, nonecholalic responses) for eliminating instances of this language anomaly.     

APE: average potential evaluation software for the LAB-8 system

A paper-tape software system is described which allows the addition and/or subtraction of signal averaging data from the DEC advanced averager program. This pooled averaging data may be plotted, printed, or punched. A DEC LAB-8 system with 4K memory and high-speed reader/punch are required. Several examples of the application of the system to human evoked brain response data are presented, and the application of the system to other problems is discussed.     

On microprocessor-based computers

Economical microprocessor-based computers have been recently developed by Motorola and Control Logic, Inc. Apparently, in response to the price competition, DEC has introduced the PDP-8/A, incorporating the memory characteristics of the microprocessor-based computers. Relative to older minicomputers, the microprocessor-based systems and the PDP-8/A “miniprocessor” require more time to execute an experimentally useful task. However, their real-time operating characteristics would appear to be sufficient for on-line use in behavioral control and data acquisition. The PDP-8/A’s compatibility with older models of the PDP-8 series enables it to use previously developed software, but, for purposes of software development, the microprocessor systems offer a more powerful architecture and instruction set.     

An investigation of relative preference for consistency motivation

The present experiment was designed to determine relative preference for fulfillment of consistency motivation. Ninety-two students rated their attraction to, identification with, and idealization of a hypothetical stimulus person who was represented as having fulfilled particular social motives such as approval, power, achievement and consistency. Results confirmed that subjects prefer persons who have satisfied traditional needs more so than others whose consistency desires have been fulfilled. Implications for the role of consistency motivation in social behavior are considered.     

The law of effect and CR contingent modification of the UCS

A persistent theoretical contention in the American conditioning literature is that Conditional Reflexes (CR) are reinforced through some hidden Thorndikian law of effect. In its most general form, law of effect theories hold that Conditional Reflex-Unconditional Stimulus (UCS) overlap modifies the sensory consequences of the UCS to provide the source of differential reinforcement of CRs. However, consideration of the historical development of law of effect theories reveals they have lacked testability due to the fact that the sources of reinforcement have been alleged to beintrinsically related to the occurrence and topography of CRs. Such a postulated intrinsic relationship has made it difficult to experimentally manipulate the amount of CR-correlated reinforcement, since the source of reinforcement is presumed to be under The Subject’s (S’s) control. Some experiments will be reported in which the relation between CRs and properties of the UCS are madeextrinsic and, accordingly, permit an experimental assessment of law of effect formulations.     

Amplitude of visual suppression during the control of binocular rivalry

To investigate the precise mechanism of control of binocular rivalry, Ss were instructed to attend actively to whichever pattern was momentarily in the nonsuppression phase. Test stimuli were presented tachistoscopically for recognition in either phase of rivalry. Because the differential recognition between nonsuppressed and suppressed phases was no greater for an active condition than for a passive viewing condition, it was concluded that control is not mediated by varying the amplitude of the suppression effect. This result was consistent with control that is exercised by selecting the eye to receive a constant amplitude suppression. In addition, it was found that visual sensitivity of rivalry nonsuppression and nonrivalry were the same for the ocular dominant eye but different for the nondominant eye.