Nonconsummatory and consummatory behavioral CRs elicited by lithium- and amphetamine-paired flavors

Various behavioral CRs elicited by saccharin solution previously paired with either lithium or amphetamine were measured in a series of four experiments. With one conditioning trial, lithium (Experiment 1), but not amphetamine (Experiment 2), produced nonconsummatory behavioral evidence of conditioning in the form of chin-rub CRs; both drugs, however, produced strong flavor aversions. With 3 conditioning trials, lithium- and amphetamine-paired flavors elicited a pattern of agitated activity, characterized by increased general activity, rearing duration, and body temperature, when the flavor was forcibly presented through an intraoral cannula (Experiment 3). When the flavor was presented in a single-bottle test (Experiment 4), 3 conditioning trials produced a similar pattern of agitated activity characterized by increased general activity, rearing (duration and frequency), stretching (duration and frequency), and limb flicking. Although both drugs supported the pattern of increased agitation-related CRs, only the lithium-paired flavors elicited chin-rub CRs (Experiments 1, 3, and 4). The difference between the drug conditions was not the result of a greater saccharin aversion in the lithium-conditioned group than in the amphetamine-conditioned group (Experiment 4). The results are related to findings that suggest that flavor aversions are mediated by a shift in the hedonic properties of the drug-paired flavors.     

Primary obsessional slowness: a nursing treatment programme with a 13-year-old male adolescent

A 13-year-old male adolescent inpatient with a 5-year history of primary obsessional slowness was treated using a nursing intervention programme involving prompting, pacing and shaping, or participant modelling of four types of self-care behaviour. The treatments produced an immediate increase in response rate of three of the four behaviour targets. Treatment gains were not maintained during the gradual fading of the intervention programme. Possible reasons for failure to achieve treatment maintenance are discussed in light of the literature on primary obsessional slowness.     

The holophrastic hypothesis: Conceptual and empirical issues

A conceptual distinction is drawn between a structural and a functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis. The structural version of this hypothesis views the single-word utterances of children as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic structural relations, while the functional version views each of these utterances as consisting of a single lexical item which is used for a particular communicative function. The arguments which have been proposed in favour of these two versions of the hypothesis are critically examined in the light of the empirical evidence which is currently available. It is concluded that this evidence only supports the functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis, there being no evidence available to support the interpretation of children's single-word utterances as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic relations.     

Parents' and preschool children's choices of disciplinary childrearing methods

Forty preschoolers individually were shown a videotape containing six 30-second scenes depicting common parent/child conflicts. The children were asked to tell the experimenter what they would do if they were the parent on the tape, and what their own parents would do if this happened at home. In addition, 15 mothers of these children were selected randomly to view the same scenes and to indicate their choice of conflict resolution methods. Taped responses of parents and children were then coded as verbal/physical coercion or no coercion. Results indicated that preschoolers tended to choose disciplinary actions in accordance with their perceptions of their parents' manner of dealing with the same situation, and also revealed a high congruence between parent and child on consequences for discipline. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the development of childrearing methods at an early age and the intergenerational transmission of family violence.     

Control of social desirability in personality inventories: Principal-factor deletion

Rational and statistical techniques for controlling social desirability (SD) in scales derived from self-report inventories are reviewed. The principal-factor deletion technique is explained in detail. It is applied during factor analysis when derived content scales are expected to be tainted with SD. If one principal factor is found to represent social desirability, the implicated factor is dropped and the communalities adjusted before the remaining factors are rotated to a desired simple structure criterion. Subscales derived from resulting factors are free of SD bias. Principal-factor deletion is compared with other approaches including rational techniques, covariate procedures, and target rotation.     

Capacity and strategy for syntactic comprehension after left or right hemidecortication

The left and right hemispheres perform different encoding and decoding operations on a syntactically complex sentence in order to identify its meaning. Hemispheric asymmetry for syntax involves not only variations in capacity, but also differences in the strategy used to effect similar language performance.     

Clinician's molar and molecular stuttering analyses of expanded and nonexpanded speech

Twenty speech pathologists measured total words and completed molar and molecular stuttering analyses from audio-recorded contrived samples of stuttered speech. Each subject completed a criterion referenced test prior to performing the experimental tasks. Analyses were performed under two conditions: Condition I consisted of samples presented at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm as recorded (nonexpanded condition); Condition II consisted of parallel samples recorded at 100 wpm but presented at 59 wpm via a speech time expander. Results indicate that presentation of expanded samples (Condition II) significantly increased subject accuracy for the specific disfluency form-types word repetitions and part-word repetitions. Similar trends were noted for sound prolongations and hard contacts. Theoretical, experimental, and clinical implications are offered.     

Modality-specific information processing and intellectual ability

Two groups of children, one of below average intelligence and one of above average intelligence, were adminitered nine tasks involving matching information between auditory and visual modalities and temporal and spatial presentations. The below average intelligence children made more matching errors than the above average intelligence group, with no indication that matching problems were particular to one modality or particular to cross-modal as opposed to intramodal matching. Factor analyses did suggest, however, that matching processes varied according to levels of intelligence. The results are discussed in terms of the differences between modality-specific and nonmodal theoretical views of sensory systems, and it is noted that neither view alone is adequate to account for the variations found for the two intelligence groups. It is suggested that the results are consistent with Luria's research on neurological organization.     

A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations

This paper describes an early phase in the development of new research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. The scale is meant to be a sort of operational definition of the procedures that go into making global ratings of psychopathy. While the interrater reliability of these ratings is very high ( > 0.85) they are difficult to make, require a considerable amount of experience, and the procedures involved are not easily communicated to other investigators. Following a series of analyses, 22 items were chosen as representative of the type of information used in making global ratings. Two investigators then used interview and case-history data to complete the 22-item checklist for 143 male prison inmates. The correlation between the two sets of total checklist scores was 0.93 and coefficient alpha was 0.88, indicating a very high degree of scale reliability. The correlation between the total checklist scores and global ratings of psychopathy was 0.83. A series of multivariate analyses explored the factorial structure of the scale and demonstrated its ability to discriminate very accurately between inmates with high and low ratings of psychopathy. Preliminary indications are that the checklist will hold up well to crossvalidation.