Summation of excitatory and inhibitory control produced by traditional tone-shock contingencies and autocontingencies

Previous research has demonstrated that rats can use unsignaled shock to predict subsequent periods free from shock. This shock-no shock stimulus arrangement, termed an autocontingency, has appeared less likely to exert behavioral control when a traditional tone-shock contingency was simultaneously available. The present research examined the generality of CS-US contingency dominance in a conditioned suppression paradigm by using a summation test in which “probe” stimuli derived from tone-shock contingencies were superimposed upon responding maintained by an autocontingency. In experiment 1, an inhibitory CS accelerated responding only when responding was normally suppressed by the autocontingency. In experiment 2, an excitatory CS failed to yield conditioned suppression during an inhibitory (accelerative) period produced by the autocontingency. Unlike our previous findings (e.g., Davis, Memmott & Hurwitz, 1975), these results do not support a general notion of tone-shock contingency dominance over autocontingencies. Behavioral control by autocontingencies appears robust and “holds its own” in summation with both excitatory and inhibitory CSs derived from traditional contingencies.     

STIMULUS GENERALIZATION AND EQUIVALENCE CLASSES: A MODEL FOR NATURAL CATEGORIES

Two three-member classes were formed by training AB and BC using a conditional discrimination procedure. The A and B stimuli were nonsense syllables, and the C stimuli were sets of “short” or “long” lines. To test for equivalence, C1 or C2 was presented as a sample with A1 and A2 as comparisons. Once the class-related comparison was chosen consistently, different line lengths were substituted for the training lines in the CA tests. In general, the likelihood of choosing a given comparison was an inverse function of the difference in the length of the test line from the training line. Stimuli in an equivalence class became functionally related not only to each other but also to novel stimuli that resembled a member of the equivalence class. The combination of primary generalization and equivalence class formation, then, can serve as a model to account for the development of naturally occurring categories.     

Longitudinal changes in term and preterm infant night wakings: The role of caregiver anxious-depression

Changes in infant night waking during the first year of life are associated with individual (e.g., prematurity) and family (e.g., caregiver psychopathology) factors. This study examined the association between infant night waking and caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms during the first year of life in preterm and term infants. We considered between-person differences and within-person changes in caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms in relation to changes in infant night waking from 2- to 9-months. Racially (30.0% Black, 60.4% White, 9.5% multiracial/other) and socioeconomically (40.0% below median household income) diverse caregivers (N = 445) of full term (n = 258) and preterm (n = 187) infants were recruited from hospitals and clinics in two midwestern states. Caregivers completed measures of anxious-depression and their infant's night waking at four sampling periods (2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-months). Infant night wakings declined from 2- to 9-months. Between-person differences were observed, such that caregivers with higher average anxious-depressive symptoms or infants born full term reported more night wakings. Within-person effects of caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms were not significant. Caregiver anxious-depression is closely associated with infant night wakings. By considering a caregiver's average severity of anxious-depression, healthcare providers can more effectively plan infant sleep interventions. If caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms are ameliorated, night wakings may also decrease.     

The definition of sociology and the sociology of definition: Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method and high school philosophy in France

Despite his attempts to break with philosophy and found a science of society, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) was involved with philosophy throughout his career. Academic philosophy in France was a highly centralized institution that produced professors capable of teaching a standard curriculum. These professors made up a significant portion of the audience whose support Durkheim hoped to win for his sociological project. The concepts of Pierre Bourdieu and the literature on the rhetoric of the human sciences can help reconstruct the field of academic philosophy, Durkheim's relationship with it, and the ways in which he drew upon it to formulate his method and to persuade his philosophical colleagues. Durkheim's definition of the social fact in The Rules of Sociological Method can only be understood in the context of French academic philosophy. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Faculty genealogies in five Canadian Universities: Historic-graphical and pedagogical concerns

For those who are both scholars and teachers of the history of psychology, a dilemma arises concerning the historiographic versus pedagogic value of institutional genealogies. As part of the undergraduate History of Psychology course, faculty genealogies were constructed at five Canadian psychology departments (Calgary, Guelph, Toronto, Western Ontario and York); an operational definition of “Ph.D. supervisor” represented mentor-student “institutional” linkages. Seventy-five per cent of the 212 faculty were traceable to nine pioneer figures such as Wilhelm Wundt or William James. In contrasting historiographic pitfalls with pedagogic merits, we suggest that integrating a reflexive and critical examination of histriographic problems may tip the scales in favour of pedagogic reasons for conducting such genealogical research.     

Rethinking student participation in the college classroom: Can commitment and self-affirmation enhance oral participation?

The literature suggests that in-class oral participation is associated with various positive outcomes that directly contribute to academic success. The goal of the current study was to investigate the role played by psychological barriers to oral participation, focusing on commitment and self-affirmation as methods to bypass barriers to participation. The results of the semester-long experiment (N = 157) demonstrate that committed individuals who had an opportunity to self-affirm outperformed both committed students and affirmed students, as well as members of the control group. Interestingly, the interplay between self-affirmation and commitment increased oral participation, irrespective of whether students had high or low self-esteem and high or low self-efficacy. The current results offer some room for cautious optimism, as they highlight the importance of self-affirmation and commitment as a route to academic success.     

The relationship between work status congruence and work-related attitudes and behaviors

Research investigating differences in attitudes among full-time and part-time employees has a long history. Unfortunately, the empirical results have been mixed and conflicting. To resolve inconsistencies in prior research, the authors conducted 2 studies. In the 1st study, the authors developed a measure of work status congruence, which measures the degree to which employers match employee preferences for full-time or part-time status, schedule, shift, and number of hours. The authors hypothesized that a match or congruence between worker preferences and organizational staffing practices would be associated with positive employee attitudes and behaviors. In the 2nd study, the authors tested these hypotheses. The results indicate that work status congruence is positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee retention, as well as in-role and extra-role performance.     

The development of gaze following and its relation to language

We examined the ontogeny of gaze following by testing infants at 9, 10 and 11 months of age. Infants (N = 96) watched as an adult turned her head toward a target with either open or closed eyes. The 10- and 11-month-olds followed adult turns significantly more often in the open-eyes than the closed-eyes condition, but the 9-month-olds did not respond differentially. Although 9-month-olds may view others as 'body orienters', older infants begin to register whether others are 'visually connected' to the external world and, hence, understand adult looking in a new way. Results also showed a strong positive correlation between gaze-following behavior at 10-11 months and subsequent language scores at 18 months. Implications for social cognition are discussed in light of the developmental shift in gaze following between 9 and 11 months of age.     

Race, income, and perceptions of the U.S. court system

This article reports on the effect of income within race on African Americans' perception of the courts. Our findings are somewhat consistent with the previous research on black middle-class relative dissatisfaction with various American institutions. That is, unlike whites and Latirios in our study, we find that higher-income African Americans are more skeptical of the notion that blacks receive equal treatment in the courts. This same group also reported less confidence in the court's handling of specific types of cases (e.g., civil, criminal and juvenile delinquency cases.) However, better off blacks were more likely than poor blacks to have confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court and community courts. These findings point a more complex account of African American perceptions of the courts, an account that draws a distinction between diffused and specific support of the courts.     

The occlusion illusion: partial modal completion or apparent distance?

In the occlusion illusion, the visible portion of a partly occluded object (eg a semicircle partly hidden behind a rectangle) appears to be significantly larger than a physically identical region that is fully visible. This illusion may occur either because the visual system 'fills in' a thin strip along the occluded border (the partial-modal-completion hypothesis) or because the partly occluded object is perceived as farther away (the apparent-distance hypothesis). We measured the magnitude of the occlusion illusion psychophysically in several experiments to investigate its causes. The results of experiments 1-3 are consistent with the general proposal that the magnitude of the illusion varies with the strength of the evidence for occlusion, supporting the inference that it is due to occlusion. Experiment 4 provides a critical test between apparent-distance and partial-modal-completion explanations by determining whether the increase in apparent size of the occluded region results from a change in its perceived shape (due to the modal extension of the occluded shape along the occluding edge, as predicted by the partial-modal-completion hypothesis) or from a change in its perceived overall size (as predicted by the apparent-distance hypothesis). The results more strongly support the partial-modal-completion hypothesis.