Signalled and unsignalled free-operant avoidance in the pigeon

Pigeons were trained to depress a lever to avoid electric shock under free-operant avoidance schedules without a warning signal, or with a warning signal that could be terminated only by a response. Most birds in the signalled avoidance procedure terminated more than 50% of the warning signals before shock. In the unsignalled avoidance procedure, several birds formed a temporal discrimination and received relatively few shocks; other birds responded only in post-shock bursts, and received many more shocks.     

Rate-dependent effects of drugs: modification by discriminative stimuli of the effects of amobarbital on schedule-controlled behavior

Food-deprived pigeons responded under a 10-min fixed-interval schedule of food presentation. During even-numbered minutes of the schedule, the discriminative stimuli were the same as those present when food was delivered. During odd-numbered minutes there was either a change in keylight color or a change in overhead illumination, either for the entire duration of the odd-numbered minutes, or for 3-sec after each response. Responding during even-numbered minutes showed the usual pattern of positive acceleration; responding during odd-numbered minutes was similarly graded, but rates were much lower. The response-rate-increasing effects of amobarbital were inversely related to control rates of responding for both even- and odd-numbered minutes. However, when the stimulus change during odd-numbered minutes was either keylight color or a change from a darkened to a brightly illuminated chamber, increases in responding were considerably less than predicted on the basis of the effects on responding during even-numbered minutes. When the stimulus change was from a darkened to a dimly illuminated chamber, control rates of responding changed little, but increases in responding during odd-numbered minutes after amobarbital were considerably greater, and of the approximate order expected on the basis of control rate.     

The counselor's role in collective negotiations

The impact of professional negotiations on the current educational scene is examined and related to clarification of the school counselor role. Role confusion continues in the school situation, and negotiations may well be the way to bring about a change in the status quo. Negotiations for counselors are explored from the standpoints of dimensions of negotiations, implementation of negotiations, and attitude of professional associations. Conclusions are that negotiations have significant implications for counselor role delineation.     

When is a counselor …?

A work experience project for low income adults is described. “Counselors” in this project were found to have little experience; little training in interviewing, statistics, psychological analysis, or other guidance and counseling techniques; and inadequate supervision. Results on aptitude tests were reported on the average 26 days after test administration. Occupational information was sadly lacking. The question is raised: When is a counselor… ?     

Need for approval and counseling outcomes

The intent of this study was to determine the effects of a clients' need for approval on the outcomes of counseling. The expectation was that clients who have a high need for approval by others would cooperate more with the counseling process and would more often be successful in the sense of being rehabilitated. The Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was administered to 167 applicants at a state rehabilitation agency immediately after the initial interview. It was hypothesized that successfully rehabilitated clients would obtain significantly higher social desirability scores than those clients who were not successful. The results confirmed the hypothesis at the .01 level of significance.     

Power spectral density changes in the EEG during mental arithmetic and eye-opening

Summary The effect of mental arithmetic (standard multiplication, with eyes closed) and eye-opening on the power spectral density of the EEG (recorded bipolarly from occipital and parietal regions) have been compared. The EEG was recorded on magnetic tape from normal subjects, (medical students) in a constant environment and subsequently analysed by an analogue computer (Noratom Instrument for Statistical Analysis and Computation, ISAC).Absolute measurements made from 15 subjects with eyes closed have shown that peaks of power at 10 Hz vary from 9 to 46 V² per Hz. Qualitatively, suppression of power at 10 Hz is greater due to eye-opening than mental arithmetic.Analysis of pooled power spectral density functions from 11 subjects showed that the effect of eye-opening differed significantly from the effect of mental arithmetic at 2.5 and 12.5 Hz. Suppression of lower frequency alpha activity was more pronounced during calculation than during eye-opening. Compared with the eyes closed condition, eye-opening showed a highly significant suppression at 10 and 12.5 Hz (alpha activity) and from 15 to 25 Hz (beta activity). Mental arithmetic induced significant suppression at 7.5 and 10 Hz and from 15 to 30 Hz. Eye-opening enhanced lower frequency activity which calculation suppressed.Variation was greater between first, second and third calculations in pooled power spectral densities than between corresponding eye-opening epochs. It is suggested that these differences in effects of eye-opening and mental arithmetic reflect differences in underlying cerebral activity, rather than that an underlying factor common to both effects may be orbital in origin.     

Child Participation in Family Therapy

The full involvement of children, particularly those of younger ages, in family therapy presents a personal and professional challenge to the therapist. Out of his own needs he may favor involvement with one or another generation rather than with the complete three generation family. This issue is discussed and suggestions for therapeutic use of younger children are presented.     

Development of social responses in two severely retarded children

The effect of reinforcement dependent on the social responses of two severely retarded withdrawn children was investigated. During 30 training sessions (30 min each) food and praise were administered dependent upon the children's mutual participation in a ball-rolling and block-passing task. Both children showed a progressive increase in social interaction in a non-training situation during this reinforcement period. After the reinforcement procedures were removed, social behavior decreased markedly. Response generalization to children not involved in training occurred.