Taste-mediated potentiation of noningestional stimuli in rats

Holtzman rats drank saccharin in a distinctive environmental chamber prior to lithium-induced toxicosis. This treatment was administered four times. These animals subsequently drank less water or familiar saline in the chamber than animals which received water in the environment during conditioning. In addition, these environmental stimuli blocked the formation of a lithium-mediated coffee aversion more if they were conditioned in the presence of saccharin than if they were conditioned in the presence of water. Such differential blocking provided further evidence that the presence of a taste during conditioning facilitated aversion learning to the environmental chamber.     

The mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal: A developmental study

Three experiments were conducted examining the relationship between the mental effort requirement of cumulative rehearsal and spontaneous utilization of the strategy by children. Mental effort was assessed by measuring the interference produced by cumulative rehearsal with a simultaneously performed secondary task (finger-tapping). It was found in Experiment 1 that second- and third-grade children experienced significantly more finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal than did sixth-grade children, an effect which, Experiment 2 demonstrated, could not be attributed simply to developmental differences in time-sharing performance. In Experiment 3 it was found that, for children in grades 2 through 5, rehearsal set size during spontaneous rehearsal was negatively correlated with amount of finger-tapping interference during instructed cumulative rehearsal, suggesting that spontaneous use of a cumulative rehearsal strategy was negatively correlated with the mental effort requirement of strategy use. These findings support the view that the mental effort requirement of strategy use may influence children's strategy selection on memory tasks.     

Facial and autonomic manifestations of the dimensional structure of emotion

While subjects viewed and rated a series of 25 emotionally evocative slides, their heart rate and skin conductance were continuously monitored and their facial expressions were covertly videotaped. Judges subsequently viewed the videotapes and rated trial-by-trial the pleasantness and intensity of each subject's facial expressions. Both phasic skin conductance responding and judged facial intensity were curvilinearly related to self-reported pleasantness, with the largest responses occurring at both extremes of the self-report scale. In contrast, phasic cardiac reactions and judged facial pleasantness were linearly related to self-reported pleasantness; extreme pleasantness was accompanied by heart rate acceleration, and unpleasantness by cardiac deceleration. The results suggest that visceral information reflects the dimensions that underlie the organization of affects and, hence, may play a more important role in emotional experience than is assumed in a number of currently held theories of emotion.     

Organization tenure as a moderator of the job satisfaction-job performance relationship

Organization tenure as a moderator of the job satisfaction-job performance relationship was examined with data from a sample of 116 technical employees in a medium-sized industrial firm. Results provide support for a moderating influence of organization tenure on the relationship between job performance and overall satisfaction, satisfaction with work, and satisfaction with supervision.     

Cognitive restructuring treatment: A controlled trial with anxious patients

Cognitive restructuring, modified systematic desensitization and a combined treatment (cognitive behaviour modification) were compared with a no-treatment control group, using a simple randomized design. Twenty seven general anxiety out-patients selected from the hospital waiting list were used as subjects. Assessments were made at the beginning and end of treatment, and at follow-up 1 month later. The assessments included two subjective anxiety measures, the Zung self-rating anxiety scale and fear thermometer scores, a behavioural anxiety measure, a measure of cognitive anxiety as estimated by a diary recording of thinking time, fear survey schedule scores and I/E scores.Cognitive behaviour modification was found to be a superior form of treatment, relative to the no-treatment control and the other active treatment groups as assessed by FSS intensity score. The cognitive behaviour modification group showed greater improvement than the cognitive restructuring group on the diary anxiety scores. The results also demonstrated a relationship between outcome and initial severity of condition. The higher the subjects' initial scores on neurotic symptoms and subjective anxiety level, the greater the degree of positive change after treatment. Moreover, subjects with high levels of internal control prior to treatment responded most to therapy.     

The influence of various types of control on psychophysiological stress reactions

The influence of personal control on reactions to shock was found to differ not only as a function of the type of control, but also as a function of the combination of control conditions. For example, behavioral control in the presence of information (cognitive control) reduced stress, whereas behavioral control in the absence of information augmented stress. These results are discussed with regard to the appropriateness of two different models, a “substitutive” versus an “interactive” model, for understanding the effects of personal control.     

Competency-based training in behavioral consultation

The design of competency-based training in behavioral consultation is described as involving the specification of objectives, training procedures, and evaluation techniques. The relationship of training and evaluation to behavioral-consultation training objectives and the benefits to a competency-based training approach are discussed.     

Field and laboratory studies of littering

Four studies are reported. In the first, it was shown that littering rates vary substantially across areas of a large urban region and that the rate for a particular area is correlated with the amount of litter already present. It was also found that males litter more than females and young people more than old. In the second study, a laboratory experiment, a causal relationship between the amount of litter in an area and the likelihood it will be littered was demonstrated. A third study replicated this latter finding, but did not find a relationship between the amount of stress experienced by a subject and the likelihood that he or she would litter. In the fourth study, a field experiment, subjects who were approached and asked to sign a petition about clean streets littered less than control subjects.     

Occupational level and Holland's theory for employed men and women

The main concern of this study was to investigate occupational level differences among men and women employed in Enterprising environments using the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and the Self-Directed Search (SDS). The VPI and SDS were administered to 84 male and female workers at high (insurance managers) and low (route salespersons) occupational levels. All workers were employed in Enterprising environments. The findings showed that high occupational level workers tend to be more differentiated and more masculine than low occupational level workers. In addition, the results revealed that the employed men and women tend to respond differently to the VIP and the SDS. Finally, the evidence indicated that all of the occupational groups obtained mean scores on the Enterprising scale of the two inventories that were consistent with Holland's theoretical predictions.