A simple technique for correlating film and EMG in locomotion studies

Two recurring problems hampering investigations of muscular activity patterns during locomotion are electrical “noise” and movement artifact in the electromyographic (EMG) signal and proper synchronization of behavioral events to the EMG. A relatively simple technique for achieving these ends is presented. Vigorous locomotor movements of unrestrained animals are recorded on 16-mm film and synchronized with one or more EMGs from selected muscles with little electrical noise or movement artifact interference. The system employs telemetry which is compared to hardwire techniques.     

Judgment of duration relations: Simultaneous and sequential presentation

Four groups of subjects gave category ratings of total duration, average duration, or difference in duration of pairs of temporal intervals presented either simultaneously or successively. The results indicated that temporal information is combined in very different ways, depending on whether the members of the pairs must be monitored in parallel or sequentially. While judgments of successively presented intervals were reasonably consistent with the predictions of the appropriate linear models, judgments of simultaneously presented intervals were not. The latter judgments conformed more closely to the predictions of a vector sum model. These results appear to be in conflict with a model of duration perception recently proposed by Eisler (1975) based on the assumption that judgment of temporal intervals involves a simultaneous monitoring of two intervals even when the intervals to be compared are presented successively.     

Psychotherapy versus behaviour therapy : , , , and . Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1975. 264 pp.

Following the theoretical analysis proposed in 1971, it is suggested that obsessions produce both discomfort and attempts to ‘put matters right’. These attempts are construed as being functionally equivalent to compulsive rituals. A two-part approach to treatment is described. It consists of satiation training and/or the prevention of internal and external neutralizing rituals (i.e. attempts to ‘put matters right’ are prevented). The present analysis is proposed as part of a move towards an integrated, consistent approach to the practice and theory of behaviour modification in dealing with obsessional and compulsive problems.     

Obsessional-compulsive checking

The relations between obsessional-compulsive checking and cleaning, and between phobias are discussed. Separate but related hypotheses are proposed to account for the genesis and the maintenance of compulsive checking and these are followed by 9 predictions. The identification of compulsive checking and active avoidance behaviour is discussed and some conclusions offered.     

Comments on “the measurement of factorial indeterminacy”

Guttman's index of indeterminacy (2² – 1) measures the potential amount of uncertainty in picking the right alternative interpretation for a factor. When alternative solutions for a factor are equally likely to be correct, then the squared multiple correlation ² for predicting the factor from the observed variables is the average correlation _AB between independently selected alternative solutionsA andB, while var ( _AB )=(1 – ²)²/s, wheres is the dimensionality of the space in which unpredicted components of alternative solutions are to be found. When alternative solutions for the factor are not equally likely to be chosen, ² is the lower bound for E( _AB ); however, E( _AB ) need not be a modal value in the distribution of _AB . Guttman's index and E( _AB ) measure different aspects of the same indeterminacy problem.     

Stimulus control of free-operant avoidance: The contribution of response rate and incentive relations between multiple-schedule components

The associations formed in the components of a multiple schedule can be classified as (1) stimulus-response (S-R) associations and (2) stimulus-reinforcer (S-S^R) associations. The present experiments sought to determine the individual contribution of these S-R and S-S^R associations to stimulus control by manipulating them independently. Responses postponed shocks by 25 sec in the presence of a tone alone and a light alone in all experiments. The contingencies programmed in the absence of both tone and light established a reference for the S-R and S-S^R associations in tone and in light. All four possible combinations of signalling response increase or decrease together with incentive increase or decrease were studied. Although the influence of the contingencies operating in the absence of tone and light was difficult to detect from response rates in tone or light, presenting tone and light together revealed clear effects. Response rates in tone and light together relative to those in either alone depended upon the contingency operating in the absence of tone and light. Stimulus-response and stimulus-reinforcer associations appeared to counteract each other when in opposition and combine together to enhance each other when in agreement. This suggested that the associations of a stimulus to response and to incentive combine algebraically in determining stimulus control. An algebraic analysis in terms of the S-R and S-S^R associations conditioned to the stimulus elements comprising the training and test stimuli accounted for the observed patterns of data.