Structuring decision problems and the ‘bias heuristic’

This paper examines our understanding of the decomposition of immediate acts when structuring decision problems. Seven different types of uncertainties are identified, and four of these are shown to be taken explicitly into account in models within the province of decision theory, described in terms of four interlocking systems interfaced with semantic memory (a core act-event system, and systems buffering utilities, probabilities and events, respectively). Requisite decision modeling is shown to require that the remaining three types of uncertainty (procedural uncertainty; how the decision maker will feel about subsequent acts; agency for changing subsequent states of the world) are also resolved. Methods for ‘fixing’ structure are discussed in terms of aiming at a common understanding about the ‘small world’ in which a decision problem is located. Difficulties in resolving uncertainties in doing this are described. An alternative approach, common in studies invoking ‘behavioural decision theory’ is contrasted: imposing structure, assuming common understanding. The latter approach is shown to involve (i) the ‘naturalisation’ of the small world in which the decision problem is located, and (ii) the utilisation of normative models as ‘ideal types’, leading to the use of the ‘bias’ argument in discussing subjects' performance in decision tasks. Using this argument reflexively, the operation of the ‘bias heuristic’ is identified in a survey of published papers referencing this approach to the study of decision making. Effects identified are: availability of tasks, subjects and explanations; representativeness of findings; and anchoring and adjustment of explanations. Implications for practice are discussed throughout the paper.     

Acute pain in a clinical setting: Effects of cognitive-behavioural skills training

The present study evaluated the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural skills training, patterned after stress-inoculation training, as a preventive intervention for the attenuation of acute clinical pain during a noxious X-ray procedure—the knee arthrogram. Thirty-six adult male outpatients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Skills Training. Attention-Placebo, and No-Treatment Control. An experimental pain test was administered before and after the interventions, as a generalization measure. Arthrogram pain was assessed by three dependent measures: patient's ratings, radiologist's ratings and videotape ratings completed by two‘blind’ raters. The results failed to support the efficacy of skills training for the attenuation of acute clinical pain, or its generalization to the experimental pain test. Although Skills Training subjects reported using significantly more coping strategies during the arthrogram. many subjects in the two control groups also reported using their own spontaneous strategies. Equivocal data were obtained on the role of ‘self-efficacy’ expectancies in mediating pain behaviour and experience. Experimental pain threshold but not pain tolerance was significantly related to acute clinical pain experienced during the arthrogram.     

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.     

Natural, unnatural, and supernatural concepts

Five experiments investigating information-processing consequences of concept naturalness and unnaturalness are reported. In particular, an attempt is made to examine the separate and joint effects of simplicity and entrenchment upon reasoning with natural and unnatural concepts. The experiments employed four variants of a concept-selection task in which subjects characterized the state of an object at some future time on the basis of information about the object at that time and at some earlier time. In all five experiments, both simplicity and entrenchment affected ease of information processing. The last two experiments showed that the effect of simplicity was greater than that of entrenchment. An informationprocessing model of task performance provided a very good account of the latency and error data. Scores from the concept-selection task correlated with scores from a set of psychometric inductive-reasoning tests; indeed, the correlations were higher than those usually found between cognitive task performance and psychometrically measured intelligence. Processing of nonentrenched concepts may provide a useful means for studying the nature of intelligent performance.     

Language lateralization and handedness: Estimates based on clinical data

The suggestion that the cerebral representation of language is bilateral in at least some left handers relies on using the proportion of aphasics found in available clinical samples of sufferers of unilateral brain damage as a valid estimate of the probability that aphasia will occur following unilateral brain damage. This results in an overestimate of this probability since the clinical sample includes only cases with both unilateral brain damage and clinical symptoms and excludes cases with unilateral brain damage without clinical symptoms. With adjustment for this overestimate the clinical data are consistent with unilateral cerebral representation of language in left handers.     

The effects of pacing and masking on stutterers' and nonstutterers' speech initiation times

The present study was undertaken to determine whether pacing and masking would facilitate improved speech initiation times (SITs) both for stutterers and for nonstutterers. All subjects were tested in control, pacing, and masking conditions. The results showed that both stutterers and nonstutterers (1) improved their SITs during the pacing condition as compared with the control condition (p = 0.01), (2) had slower SITs in the masking condition as compared with the control condition (p = 0.05), and (3) had faster SITs during the pacing as compared with the masking condition (p = 0.01). The SIT between-group findings demonstrated that stutterers were slower than nonstutterers across all SIT conditions (p = 0.08). The discussion of these results centers on the facilatory nature of novel stimulation in modifying speech-system functioning.     

The precision fluency shaping program: Replication and evaluation

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a two-year project to evaluate the Precision Fluency Shaping Program (Webster, 1980) in a community speech and hearing center. Fifty stutterers participated in therapy. Results indicated that Precision Fluency Shaping was an effective therapy for the treatment of stuttering. In addition, stutterer's perception of their speech changed from pre to post therapy. Follow-up data are presented on 28 clients. Advantages of conducting Precision Fluency Shaping, meeting accountability standards, and procedures for collecting follow-up data are discussed.     

Evoked potentials to consonant-vowel syllables

The hypothesis was tested that CV syllables (10 different consonants but the same vowel /?/) would show different evoked potential latencies and amplitudes. Differences were found which were dichotomised between plosives and other consonants. Although one difference between these two groups of consonants is the duration of that consonant, this duration difference did not adequately explain the prolonged evoked potential latencies and the reduced amplitudes for the non-plosives. However, no differences were found within the group of non-plosives, although they varied in consonant duration. It was suggested that N₁ latency and amplitude reflected processing time at an early stage of analysis of both speech and non-speech stimuli. The results show that consunants of long duration are perceived later than plosives, but well before the onset of the vowel.     

Career stage as a moderator of performance relationships with facets of job satisfaction and role perceptions

The relationship between performance indices and facets of job satisfaction, role ambiguity, and role conflict was studied among 102 full-time faculty members across three career stages. Results indicate that an individual's career stage within a profession has an important moderating effect on facets of job satisfaction and role perception relationships with role-related performance.