Prolonging the effects of deposit contracts with smokers

Three group-comparison studies are reported which investigate possible ways of prolonging the effectiveness and increasing the acceptability of deposit contracts with smokers. In Experiment 1 deposits held for a total of 4 months were compared with those lasting 2 months. In Experiment 2 a ‘reinforcement thinning’ procedure in which the intervals between deposit repayments are progressively increased was compared with contracts involving equal intervals between repayments. In Experiment 3 the effects on compliance, drop-out rates and treatment outcome of a cumulative-deposit procedure were studied. Subjects in this condition were asked to supply a deposit in 4 weekly instalments rather than as a lump sum. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 were disappointing. There were no significant differences between treatments, although there was a trend in favour of ‘thinning’ deposits. Experiment 3, however, showed that the cumulative-deposit procedure was effective in influencing more subjects to provide deposits. Neither drop-out rate nor treatment outcome was adversely affected. It is difficult for a straightforward reinforcement model to account for these results. Other models are discussed, and ways of testing them suggested. A larger study is still needed to determine whether certain deposit-contract procedures can add to the long-term effectiveness of behavioural-package programmes for stopping smoking.     

‘What do you mean by depression?’—A study of the relationship between antidepressive activity and personal concepts of depression

This study explores the relationship between a subject's concept of depression and his reported antidepressive activities. A pilot study is reported which was used to develop a method of classification of subjects' concepts of depression in terms of depth of depression and degree of external causality perceived. The majority of the subjects studied fitted into a group who see depression as a major disturbance of mood unrelated to external events; this was true for both the pilot and main studies. The main study applied the depressive classification method to an investigation of the relationship between depressive concept group and qualitative and quantitative aspects of reported repertoires for coping with depression. A major concept of depression was shown to be associated with a high frequency of reported antidepressive activity, but ANOVAR revealed no other significant main effect on quantitative analysis. Various complex interactions of sex. depth of concept and locus of concept were observed. A group of psychiatric inpatients were seen to differ in quantitative and qualitative aspects of reported antidepressive behaviour from the remainder of the population studied; the implications of these findings for further research are discussed.     

The psychological causality implicit in language

We are concerned with the causality implicit in English verbs that name interactions, either mental or behavioral, between two persons, verbs such as like, notice (mental), and help, cheat (behavioral) in such a context as Ted—Paul. Using four different methods, we show that adult native speakers think of causality in such verbs as unequally apportioned between interactants. For behavioral (or action) verbs greater causal weight is given to the Agent argument of the verb (e.g., Ted in Ted helps Paul) than to the Patient argument (Paul). For mental (or state) verbs greater causal weight is given to the Stimulus argument of the verb (e.g., Paul in Ted likes Paul) than to the Experiencer argument (Ted). For English verbs of the type studied, derivational adjectives often exist (e.g., helpful, cheating, likable, noticeable). Such adjectives are attributive to one or the other argument of the verb base (Agent or Patient; Stimulus or Experiencer). We show that the direction of causal attribution in the adjective (e.g., helpful is attributive to Ted the Agent; likable is attributive to Paul the Stimulus) predicts the primary causal weightings assigned in our experimental tasks. We also show that in the English language adjectives derived from action verbs are almost attributive to the Agent and adjectives derived from state verbs to the Stimulus. Because certain facts about English morphology predict certain ways of thinking about causality, our main finding may seem to be a Whorfian one, a demonstration that language affects thought. However, we argue that it is not that but rather a demonstration that two modes of thought (the Agent-Patient Schema and the Stimulus-Experiencer Schema) affect language use. We suggest that the schemas are universals of human thought.     

Waking ultradian rhythms of performance and motility in hyperkinetic and normal children

Waking ultradian rhythms in a visual performance task (detections and false positives) and in motility (global body movements and segmental limb movements during the task, and segmental limb movements during off-task periods) were examined in groups of nonmedicated hyperkinetic (HK) children (N = 11) and matched normal controls (N = 11). Testing was conducted for 5 minutes every 15 minutes (with 10-minute "rest periods") over a 6-hour period on 2 consecutive days. Increased limb movement (p less than .01) during off-task periods on both days. Increased limb movement in HK subjects during the task was marginally significant (p less than .06) on one day. False positives and global body movements failed to differentiate the groups. With regard to ultradian rhythmicity, some subjects in both groups showed evident ultradian peaks, which were present across a wide range of frequencies in one or more variables. There were no significant differences in the incidence of the period of evident ultradian peaks between the two groups.     

Flashbulb memories

Flashbulb Memories are memories for the circumstances in which one first learned of a very surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) event. Hearing the news that President John Kennedy had been shot is the prototype case. Almost everyone can remember, with an almost perceptual clarity, where he was when he heard, what he was doing at the time, who told him, what was the immediate aftermath, how he felt about it, and also one or more totally idiosyncratic and often trivial concomitants. The present paper reports a questionnaire inquiry into the determinants of such memories by asking about other assassinations, highly newsworthy events, and personally significant events. It is shown that while the Kennedy assassination created an extraordinarily powerful and widely shared flashbulb memory, it is not the only event that has created such memories. The principal two determinants appear to be a high level of surprise, a high level of consequentiality, or perhaps emotional arousal (assessed by both rating scales and ethnic group membership). If these two variables do not attain sufficiently high levels, no flashbulb memory occurs. If they do attain high levels, they seem, most directly, to affect the frequency of rehearsal, covert and overt, which, in turn, affects the degree of elaboration in the narrative of the memory that can be elicited experimentally. Parallels are made explicit between the behavioral theory and a less elaborated, speculative neuro-physiological theory of which R. B. Livingston (1967) is the proponent Finally, an argument is made that a permanent memory for incidental concomitants of a surprising and consequential (in the sense of biologically significant) event would have high selection value and so could account for the evolution of an innate base for such a memory mechanism.     

Inferences,affects, and intentions in a model of paranoia

Models of psychopathologies can be construed as modifications to the normal purposive behavior of an organism. The particular elements of purposive behavior to be emphasized here are (1) deriving facts about the environment (inferences), (2) attending to the self's needs, desires, and interests (affects), and (3) choosing directions and goals to fulfill these interests (intentions). A series of processes in a model of paranoia which performs these tasks will be described. We also describe the modifications made by the paranoid processes to the normal processes. A computer simulation has been constructed to test the model.     

The superiority of the pair-comparisons method for scaling visual illusions

Twenty-one Ss scaled the Delboeuf illusion by the methods of pair comparisons, constant stimulus differences, reproduction, and pair reproduction. The method of pair comparisons was clearly superior on all indices of validity, reliability, and efficiency. Pair comparisons forces the S to discriminate between treatment levels and avoids motor responses. Es should consider using pair comparisons or related methods which share these advantages.     

Methylphenidate and stimulus control of avoidance behavior

The introduction of a warning signal that preceded a scheduled shock modified the temporal distribution of free-operant avoidance responses. With response-shock and shock-shock intervals held constant, response rates increased only slightly when the response-signal interval was reduced. The result is consistent with Sidman's (1955) findings under different conditions, but at variance with Ulrich, Holz, and Azrin's (1964) findings under similar conditions. Methylphenidate in graded doses increased response rates, modifying frequency distributions of interresponse times. Drug treatment may have disrupted a "temporal discrimination" formed within the signal-shock interval. More simply, methylphenidate influenced response rates by increasing short response latencies after signal onset; this effect was more prominent than the drug's tendency to increase the frequency of pre-signal responses. When signal-onset preceded shock by 2 sec, individual differences in performance were marked; methylphenidate suppressed responding in one rat as a function of increasing dose levels to a greater degree than in a second animal, but both subjects received more shocks than under control conditions.     

The influence of communality,factor strength,and loading size on the sampling characteristics of factor loadings

A Monte Carlo approach is employed in determining whether or not certain variables produce systematic effects on the sampling variability of individual factor loadings. A number of sample correlation matrices were generated from a specified population, factored, and transformed to a least-squares fit to the population values. Influences of factor strength, communality and loading size are discussed in relation to the statistics summarizing the results of the above procedures. Influences producing biased estimators of the population values are also discussed.This study was supported in part by NSF Grant GB 4230. Computing assistance was obtained from the Western Data Processing Center and Health Sciences Computing Facility, UCLA, sponsored by NIH Grant FR-3.