USE OF EXTINCTION AND REINFORCEMENT TO INCREASE FOOD CONSUMPTION AND REDUCE EXPULSION

Extinction and reinforcement contingencies were used to treat 2 children with feeding disorders. Positive reinforcement and avoidance extinction effectively increased food acceptance but also increased food expulsion. Reduced expulsion and increased swallowing were achieved by repeated presentation of expelled food, a second extinction component.     

Detectability as a function of spatial location: effects of selective attention

In a series of previous reports we have described differences in detectability of a target in a background of nontarget patterns as a function of its spatial location. These differences, referred to as a "detectability gradient," have been attributed to target detection accomplished by a serial processing mechanism--a scan. The mathematical model of such a mechanism, developed in the previous report, is equally applicable to a series of attentional shifts or to a perceptual, i.e., a preattentive, mechanism. The present experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that this scan is attentional in nature. The results provide additional evidence for the scanning hypothesis but do not support the view that this scan represents a series of attentional shifts.     

Central auditory processing : IV. Ear dominance—Spatial and temporal complexity

Ear dominance for dichotically presented tones was measured in 63 right-handed subjects when the frequency difference (Δf) was small compared to the center frequency (f_c) and again when it was large. Although two-thirds of the population exhibited a left-ear dominance in both conditions, a shift toward right-ear dominance occurred when the Δf was increased. An additional study, employing the alternating tone illusion described by Deutsch, revealed the same general effect, i.e., a shift toward right-ear dominance with increasing values of Δf/f_c. The results of these experiments, coupled with a review of previously published data of other dichotic experiments, indicate that as the ratio of Δf/f_c increases, the subjective complexity of the sound image increases, and there is a progressive emergence of a “right-ear advantage” (or ear dominance). A tentative explanation relates these results to the effects of anatomical asymmetries of primary and auditory association cortex and the efferent temporal lobe enhancement mechanism described by R. Efron, P. H. Crandall, B. Koss, P. L. Divenyi, and E. W. Yund (Brain and Language, 1983, 19, 254–263.     

Central auditory processing: I. Ear dominance—A perceptual or an attentional asymmetry?

The phenomenon of ear dominance for pitch described by Efron and Yund has been attributed by them to an asymmetry of sensory origin in the binaural integration of dichotic tone pairs. An explanation of this phenomenon in terms of an attentional bias is rejected on the basis of two experiments where the possibility of such bias was excluded. These and other experiments indicate that a simple explanation of this ear dominance in terms of a hemispheric specialization in the processing of tonal stimuli also must be rejected.     

Temporal ordering deficits following anterior temporal lobectomy

Subjects were required to report the pitch sequence of two 10-msec tones of different frequency presented monaurally while the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the two tones was varied. The value of the SOA at which the subjects achieved an 80% correct sequence report was determined by an adaptive procedure without feedback. This measure was compared in the right and left ears, on subjects with a right or left anterior temporal lobectomy and on a normal control group. The results reveal an elevated threshold for performing temporal order judgments in the ear contralateral to the surgical lesion.     

Some Hypotheses about Hesitations and their Nonverbal Expression in Family Therapy Practice

When people seek therapy they have stories to tell. In the course of the therapeutic conversation the clients continually make selections about what they want to tell, and what they want to keep silent. In this article the author focuses on the border zone between the said and the not-yet-said, and proposes three hypotheses about the client's hesitations about speaking in the family therapy session. In these hypotheses 'hesitation' is used as a metaphor to give meaning to some nonverbal utterances of clients in such a way that space is opened up in a respectful way for as-yet untold stories. I suggest that it is fruitful to think of certain nonverbal utterances of the clients as hesitations to proceed with the conversation, and to use these nonverbal utterances, in the line of Tom Andersen's thinking (1995), as a starting point for a respectful dialogue with the family about the good reasons they might have not to speak. Not only can this open up space for as-yet unspoken stories, it can also help the therapist to establish a collaborative therapeutic relationship with the family. These ideas are illustrated with several case studies.     

Central auditory processing : II. Effects of anterior temporal lobectomy

Ear dominance for the pitch of dichotically presented tonal stimuli was measured in nine patients before and after a unilateral anterior temporal lobectomy. Four subjects had a left and five had a right lobectomy. Every patient exhibited a change of ear dominance consistent with the hypothesis that a unilateral lobectomy decreases the perceptual salience of the tone presented to the ear contralateral to the lesion. Depending on the direction and magnitude of the subject's preoperative ear dominance and the side of the lobectomy, the postoperative results either increased or decreased the strength of ear dominance in a predictable fashion. The results support the idea that within each temporal lobe lie physiological mechanisms which can enhance the perceptual salience of the acoustic signal emitted by one sound source when other, concurrent, spatially separated sound sources are present. It is also argued that the same mechanism operates on speech, melodic, and tonal signals.     

The therapist's inner conversation in family therapy practice: some ideas about the self of the therapist, therapeutic impasse, and the process of reflection.

In this article, a distinction is made between the outer therapeutic conversation and the therapist's inner conversation. The therapeutic conversation is a circle of meaning in which both the therapist and the clients play a part. The therapist's inner conversation is described as a negotiation between the self of the therapist and his role. In this process of negotiation the therapist has to take seriously, not only his observations, but also what is evoked in him by these observations, that is, images, moods, emotions, associations, memories, and so on. Furthermore, therapeutic impasse is conceptualized as a paralysis of the circle of meaning and of the therapist's inner conversation. A process of reflection is proposed as a way out of the impasse. In that process, the inner conversation of the therapist is externalized with the help of an outsider. In the final part of this article, a case study illustrates the importance of these ideas for the family therapy practice.     

The perception of dichotic chords by hemispherectomized subjects

Hemispherectomized subjects display a strong ear dominance in their perception of dichotically presented two-tone chords. The frequency of the tone presented to the ear contralateral to the remaining hemisphere dominated the pitch mixture of the chord. The described effect does not vary with the age at which the hemispherectomy was performed. These results are consistent with the hypothesis, developed to account for findings in normal subjects, that the pitch mixture of a dichotic chord is determined by a subcortical pitch processor. The effects observed in hemispherectomized subjects may result from an interruption of an efferent pathway from the cortex to the subcortical pitch processor or from an asymmetrical degeneration of the processor which may be located in the thalamus (medial geniculate).