The Effect of Stress on Spontaneous Nest Leaving Behavior in the Mouse: An Improved Model of Stress-Induced Behavioral Pathology

The present experiments were conducted to develop a more sensitive and reliable model of stress-induced behavioral pathology in the mouse. Male mice were housed singly in nest cages connected to either a circular tunnel, a recreational cage or a large box with food foraging apparatus. Spontaneous nocturnal out of nest activity or food foraging behavior in these environments was continuously monitored for a two week period during which time the effects of stress were examined. It was found that both repeated restraint and aggression stress markedly and persistently reduced out of nest nocturnal activity or food foraging behavior in all 3 environments but did not alter activity in a novel open field or plus maze or food or saccharin intake in the nest cage. In a preliminary experiment the reduction in out of nest activity by stress was attenuated by prior chronic treatment with the antidepressant, desmethylimipramine. Plasma corticosterone was elevated immediately after aggression stress but reduced 5 hr after chronic aggression stress. The reduction in activity did not appear the result of increased anxiety as measured by spontaneous risk assessment behavior in the nest. It is concluded that the decrease in out of nest activity after stress in the present studies models a withdrawn behavioral state and may be due to either or both a decrease in appetitive motivation to leave the nest or an increased aversion to the external environment which does not apparently involve anxiety.     

Family Impact of Tourette's Syndrome

Tourette's syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by vocal and motor tics. TS is also associated with several behavior disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, conduct disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. We examined the impact of Tourette's syndrome with and without comorbid psychiatric disorders on the family. TS complicated by comorbid disorders had a greater impact on the family than uncomplicated TS. Tourette's symptom severity was significantly correlated with the level of impact on the family and with the number of comorbid disorders. TS is a disorder with effects that extend beyond motor and vocal tics.     

Reactions to AIDS and other illnesses: reported interactions in the workplace

Previous research on the public's response to AIDS has been concerned with attitudes and knowledge in relation to the disease itself. The present study investigated American students' willingness to interact in the workplace with AIDS patients and compared this with their reactions to cancer and hepatitis patients. The effects of perceived control over the cause of the disease were also examined. Exposure to the diseases was manipulated with written scenarios. Results demonstrated that the type of illness affected a willingness to interact with individuals--AIDS patients were reacted to least positively, followed by hepatitis, and cancer patients. Perceived control over the cause of the disease did not affect reactions.     

Hypnosis, the timing of its introduction, and acceptance of misleading information

Allocated independent sets of 16 Ss to a crossed 2 (level of susceptibility: high, low) x 2 (information: misleading, nonmisleading) x 2 (state instruction: hypnosis, walking) design to examine the prediction that hypnosis will facilitate memory distortion when hypnotic instruction precedes the exposure of Ss to incorrect, misleading information. E. F. Loftus's recognition procedures were used to focus on the predicted effect. Free recall was also examined for memory distortion effects. Results indicated the presence of significant memory distortion for both recognition and free-recall memories. The distortion effects accompanying hypnosis, however, were not reliably greater than those accompanying waking instruction. Results are examined in relation to the operation of multiple parameters affecting memory distortion in hypnosis. Pertinent factors include the procedures for testing the effects of distortion and the level of Ss' aptitude for hypnosis.     

Influence of rapport on hypnotically induced pseudomemory.

Three studies examined the influence of rapport on pseudomemory. Study 1 tested eight groups of 22 subjects in a 2 (level of susceptibility: high, low) x 2 (state instruction: hypnosis, waking) x 2 (rapport: present, reduced) design, rapport being inhibited by the hypnotist criticizing subjects' performance. Pseudomemory was tested by a second experimenter who also criticized subjects. Study 2 varied level of susceptibility and rapport for 88 hypnotically instructed subjects where criticism was offered only by the second experimenter. Study 3 analyzed effects among 44 highly susceptible hypnotic subjects where the second experimenter refrained from criticizing subjects. Data indicated a significant association between rapport with the hypnotist and pseudomemory in cued recall, strength of pseudomemory being appreciably lowered when negative hypnotist rapport was reinforced by the person testing pseudomemory.     

"Let a Hundred Translations Bloom!" A modest proposal about Being and Time

Continental Philosophy Review -     

Artifact and Barber's model of hypnosis: A logical-empirical analysis

Two studies examined the relevance of artifact to Barber's model of hypnosis. Study I analyzed subjects' perceptions of instructions employed by the paradigm and demonstrated strong social pressure in the model's task motivational set not present in its standard set of hypnotic induction instructions. Study II coped with the artifact by applying the standard methodology of the model but employing a set of modified hypnotic instructions equivalent in constraint to the task motivational set. Results for 88 subjects indicated a possible behavioral consequence of the artifact variable involving an interaction between type of instruction and ease of hypnotic test item; individual differences in suggestibility also appeared to discriminate conditions with respect to the artifact in question. Collectively, results indicate that the major inference drawn from the paradigm regarding the expendability of the concept of trance should be accepted with caution.     

Role of the feedback signal in electromyograph biofeedback: the relevance of attention

This article describes two experiments designed to examine the hypothesis that the critical role of the feedback signal in frontalis electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback is an attentional one. In both experiments, high- and low-absorption subjects were assigned to either a biofeedback condition, a no-feedback condition, or an attentional demand condition in which external stimuli, related to relaxation, were presented as an attentional focus. The two experiments differed essentially in the type of attentional demand condition that was employed and varied the compelling nature of the demand on subjects for an external attentional focus. The pattern of results was consistent with the attentional hypothesis. For low-absorption subjects, performance in the biofeedback and attentional demand conditions was equivalent and appreciably greater than in the no-feedback condition. For high-absorption subjects, an interference effect of biofeedback was observed, but data indicated a similar interference effect on the performance of subjects when the attentional demand condition was most compelling. The pattern of results obtained point to the special relevance of attentional processes and highlight their lack of emphasis in contemporary theoretical models of EMG biofeedback.