Reality therapy: Icing on the cake of behavior modification

The paper presents a conceptual model for therapeutic intervention based on a behavioral orientation. Behavioral therapy is viewed on a continuum ranging from basic operant techniques to cognitive strategies applied to human interaction. It is hypothesized that the elements of reality therapy, with its emphasis on human interaction, are needed to provide closure to the therapeutic intervention and to help maintain new coping behaviors. Utilizing the context of an institutionalized client, suggestions for how this process might occur are discussed.     

Forest lights: Notes on the conceptualization of the unconscious

Using the metaphor of lights appearing unexplained in the night, the author argues for a conceptualization of the unconscious based on a posture of trust and acceptance rather than one of fear and explanation.His last book,Idea and Experience, dealt with Husserl's project of phenomenology inIdeas I. He has recently completed another book,The Embers and the Stars: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Moral Sense of Nature.     

Analgesic and opioid involvement in the shock-elicited activity and escape deficits produced by inescapable shock

Three experiments examined the involvement of analgesic processes and endogenous opioids in the production of the shuttlebox escape acquisition and unconditioned activity deficits which follow exposure to inescapable shock. Experiment 1 found that the opiate antagonist naltrexone administered before the inescapable shock session interfered with the shuttlebox escape acquisition deficit which would normally follow. Experiment 2 found naltrexone to completely prevent the unconditioned activity deficit. The final experiment revealed that dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid which abolishes the analgesia produced by inescapable shock, reversed the activity deficit. These results indicate that endogenous opioids may be involved in the production of both the escape acquisition and activity deficits. They also suggest that the analgesia produced by these opioids may participate in the mediation of the activity deficit, even though analgesia is not involved in producing the shuttlebox acquisition deficit.     

The relation between proximity and brightness similarity in dot patterns

The Gestalt studies demonstrated the tendency to visually organize dots on the basis of similarity, proximity, and global properties such as closure, good continuation, and symmetry. The particular organization imposed on a collection of dots is thus determined by many factors, some local, some global. We discuss computational reasons for expecting the initial stages of grouping to be achieved by processes with purely local support. In the case of dot patterns, the expectation is that neighboring dots are grouped as a function of proximity and similarity of contrast, by processes that are independent of the overall organization and the various global factors. We describe experiments that suggest a purely local relationship between proximity and brightness similarity in perceptual grouping.     

Evidence against visual integration across saccadic eye movements

One of the classic problems in perception concerns how we perceive a stable, continuous visual world even though we view it via a temporally discontinuous series of eye movements. Previous investigators have suggested that our perception of a stable visual environment is due to anintegrative visual buffer, a special memory store capable of fusing the visual contents of successive fixations according to their environmental coordinates. In this paper, three experiments are reported that attempted to demonstrate the existence of an integrative visual buffer. The experimental procedure required subjects to mentally fuse two halves of a dot matrix presented in the same spatial region of a display, but separated by an eye movement so that each half was viewed only during one fixation. Thus, subjects had to integrate packets of visual information that had the same environmental coordinates, but different retinal coordinates. No evidence was found in any experiment for the fusion of visual information from successive fixations in memory, leaving the status of the integrative visual buffer in serious doubt.     

Differences in temporal appearance associated with activity in the chromatic and achromatic systems

The temporal appearances of spatially coincident increments that activate the chromatic or achromatic system are different. Whereas near-threshold stimuli that are detected by the chromatic system appear to come on gradually, increments detected by the achromatic system appear to flash or step on. This difference in perception is consistent with previous reports that show differences in the temporal properties of the two systems.     

An Apple II package for computer-assisted telephone interviewing

This paper describes an Apple II (an Apple-compatible) microcomputer package for a computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) system. This system generates random telephone numbers within any number of exchanges that the user supplies, automatically dials the telephone, prompts the interviewer with each question, and records and permanently saves each response. It also provides a printed copy of the collected data by frequency of response in each question category. The Apple II CATI package is readily available, inexpensive, and easy to program in the BASIC language.