Attitude Comparison: Is There Ever a Bandwagon Effect?1

Will exposure to others' attitudes merely stimulate conformity to the observed norm? We predicted-and observed in an opinion polling experiment-that learning others' attitudes can effect a small, but significant, intensification of attitude responses.     

Undermatching: a reappraisal of performance on concurrent variable-interval schedules of reinforcement

The extant data for pigeons' performance on concurrent variable-interval schedules were examined in detail. Least-squares lines relating relative pecks and time to the corresponding relative reinforcements were obtained for four studies. The between-study group slopes for time and pecks and five of seven within-study group slopes from individual studies were less than 1.00. This suggested the generality that pigeons respond less to the richer reinforcement schedule than predicted by matching. For pecks, a nonparametric test for distribution of points also supported this concept of undermatching (to the richer reinforcement schedule). In addition, using mean squared error as the criterion, a cubic curve fit the peck proportion data better than any line or other polynomial. This indicates that the relation between peck and reinforcement proportions may be nonlinear.     

Program report: “time-in”: A two-year project for the reduction of severe maladaptive behaviors in a center for persons with developmental disabilities

The results of a two-year project designed to organize a unit for 18 developmentally disabled clients with severe behavior disorders (primarily aggression) were presented. Providing tightly organized structure and focusing on appropriate resident behavior resulted in substantial gains. Noted changes included significant decreases in aggression, total number of target behaviors, required uses of restrictive procedures, and residents' injuries. Decreases were also noted in staff injuries and turnover. Subjectively, the unit became a better place to work and live. Difficulties encountered with developing, maintaining, and generalizing the project were discussed.     

A survey of the use of facilitated communication in community agencies serving persons with developmental disabilities

Service providers to individuals with developmental disabilities at seven North Dakota agencies were surveyed on their current and past use of facilitated communication (FC). Perceived validity and effectiveness of FC were also assessed. Seventeen percent of the 177 direct care and supervisory staff surveyed reported that they had never heard of FC, 36% were aware of but had never used FC, 28% had previously used FC, and 18% currently used the technique despite overwhelming experimental evidence that FC is not a valid means of communication for people with disabilities. The results indicated that respondents who had previously used FC, but did not do so currently, gave it the lowest ratings of validity, usefulness, and likability, while current users gave FC the highest ratings. Current users had the fewest years of experience in the field of developmental disabilities. The majority of current users said guardian approval should not be required prior to the use of FC, whereas the majority of past users and non-users said that guardian approval should be required. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alcohol Abuse in Later Life: Issues and Interventions for Counselors

The authors discuss risk factors for late life alcohol abuse and characteristics that differentiate early‐ and late‐onset abusers. Problems in identification, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of older abusers are reviewed. A case example illustrates the dynamics of effective treatment with this population.     

Gay and Lesbian Parents: No Longer a Paradox

The authors discuss parenting as a normative developmental issue for gay and lesbian individuals. Issues and choices that affect decisions concerning parenting, implications for counselors, and suggestions for research are discussed.     

Correlates of suicidal behaviors among Asian American outpatient youths

Medical record abstraction was conducted at an ethnic-specific mental health outpatient clinic to identify correlates of suicidal behaviors in a sample of 285 Asian American youths. Some risk factors, such as parent-child conflict and age, which have been associated with suicidality in majority group youths, predicted suicidality in this sample, whereas other risk factors, such as gender, did not generalize to this sample. Acculturation interacted with the risk factor of parent-child conflict to predict suicidality. Less acculturated Asian youths were at proportionally greater risk for suicidality under conditions of high parent-child conflict than were their more acculturated counterparts. This finding underscores the importance of culture as a context for determining the relevance of stressors for potentiating psychopathology.     

How do people solve the "weather prediction" task?: individual variability in strategies for probabilistic category learning

Probabilistic category learning is often assumed to be an incrementally learned cognitive skill, dependent on nondeclarative memory systems. One paradigm in particular, the weather prediction task, has been used in over half a dozen neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies to date. Because of the growing interest in using this task and others like it as behavioral tools for studying the cognitive neuroscience of cognitive skill learning, it becomes especially important to understand how subjects solve this kind of task and whether all subjects learn it in the same way. We present here new experimental and theoretical analyses of the weather prediction task that indicate that there are at least three different strategies that describe how subjects learn this task. (1) An optimal multi-cue strategy, in which they respond to each pattern on the basis of associations of all four cues with each outcome; (2) a one-cue strategy, in which they respond on the basis of presence or absence of a single cue, disregarding all other cues; or (3) a singleton strategy, in which they learn only about the four patterns that have only one cue present and all others absent. This variability in how subjects approach this task may have important implications for interpreting how different brain regions are involved in probabilistic category learning.