Patterns of Response to Out-of-focus Slides of Families with an Emotionally Disturbed Member

Mutual facial recognition was studied in thirty families with and without a disturbed member. It appears that families with a markedly disturbed child have idiosyncratic modes of mutual recognition, particularly in the case of the mother, whereas families without a disturbed member or with a moderately disturbed child do not display idiosyncratic patterns. Although the sample is very small, there is a suggestion that families with a disturbed parent have patterns of recognition that are entirely different from those of the other families in the study.     

REINFORCEMENT OF DISTRESS VOCALIZATION BY PRESENTATION OF AN IMPRINTED STIMULUS

For one group of ducklings distress calls were reinforced using brief presentation of an imprinted stimulus as the response contingent (reinforcing) event. For a second group of ducklings presentation of an imprinted stimulus was contingent upon a more traditional operant (the pecking response). Regardless of which response was being reinforced, the same pattern ensued. Bursts of responding were separated by periods of little or no responding. When subsequently subjected to repeated presentation and withdrawal of the imprinted stimulus under conditions in which neither response was being reinforced, ducklings with a history of reinforcement for distress calls emitted many more calls than ducklings with a history of reinforcement for pole pecks.