Within-compound associations in a variety of compound conditioning procedures

Three experiments used a flavor-aversion preparation to demonstrate the occurrence of within-compound associations in various conditioning procedures. In Experiment 1 rats first received two separate two-flavor compounds, each followed by a mild US. They then received one element from one compound paired with a strong US and one element from the other compound nonreinforced. A subsequent choice test of the other two flavors from the compounds revealed that the consumption of each test flavor reflected the conditioning history of the element with which it had been paired. Rats drank less of the flavor whose associate had been paired with the strong US than of the flavor whose associate had been nonreinforced. In Experiment 2 within-compound associations were observed using a similar design in a blocking procedure in which one element from each of the two compounds was conditioned previously. Experiment 3 identified within-compound associations in a procedure where reinforced single element presentations were intermixed with nonreinforced compound presentations, as in a conditioned inhibition paradigm. These results suggest that within-compound associations occur in several important conditioning procedures which use multiple CS presentations.     

A comparison of dichotic and visuo-acoustic competition in hemispherectomized patients

Following hemispherectomy, patients performing dichotic listening tasks have great difficulty reporting items presented to the ear ipsilateral to their intact hemisphere. One possible cause is an attentional imbalance which, when competing inputs are received from both sides of space, restricts the patient's attention to the stimulus contralateral to his remaining hemisphere. If this explanation is true, then a similar ipsilateral ear decrement should occur when a competing visual stimulus is presented in the contralateral field. In the present study, however, hemispherectomy patients easily reported a digit presented to the ear ipsilateral to their intact hemisphere despite the concurrent presentation of a visual digit to their contralateral field.     

Effects of real vs pretend shock on semantic differential judgments and the GSR in some classical conditioning paradigms

In two experiments subjects were shown different color 1-sec lights, one just before the end of a 4-sec UCS and the other coming 10 sec after UCS termination and 25 sec before the next UCS. For some groups the UCS was strong electric shock; for others it was a tone which subjects were instructed to imagine was a strong shock. The primary data were changes in semantic differential ratings of the lights before and after 12 “conditioning” trials. There were no differences among the groups. In a third experiment a 6-sec delay CS was used for GSR conditioning, some subjects receiving actual shock and others pretend shock. Only the former showed conditioning. The results are discussed in terms of a model of experimental demand.     

A parent-offspring adoption study of cognitive abilities in early childhood

Do cognitive abilities in early childhood relate genetically and/or environmentally to isomorphic abilities in adulthood? Are specific cognitive abilities diffentiated in early childhood in terms of their prediction of adult cognitive abilities? The present study, the first behavioral genetic analysis of specific cognitive abilities in early childhood, explored these questions using parent-offspring data for 186 adopted children and 151 nonadopted children tested in the longitudinal Colorado Adoption Project at 3 years of age and 162 adopted children and 138 nonadopted children tested at 4 years. The children's Stanford-Binet IQ and scores for four specific cognitive abilities (verbal, spatial, perceptual speed, and memory) were correlated with corresponding measures for their parents—the biological and adoptive parents of the adopted children and the natural parents of the nonadopted children. Significant correlations were found between biological mothers' IQ and the IQ of their adopted away offspring at 3 and 4 years of age, suggesting genetic influence for IQ. However, specific cognitive abilities yielded no significant correlations between biological mothers and their adopted-away offspring. These results suggest that substantial genetic continuity exists for IQ from early childhood to adulthood, but not for specific cognitive abilities.     

Self-monitoring behavior in a case of severe auditory agnosia with aphasia

This case report describes an unusual combination of speech and language deficits secondary to bilateral infarctions in a 62-year-old woman. The patient was administered an extensive series of speech, language, and audiologic tests and was found to exhibit a fluent aphasia in which reading and writing were extremely well preserved in comparison to auditory comprehension and oral expression, and a severe auditory agnosia. In spite of her auditory processing deficits, the patient exhibited unexpected self-monitoring ability and the capacity to form acoustic images on visual tasks. The manner in which she corrected and attempted to correct her phonemic errors, while ignoring semantic errors, suggests that different mechanisms may underlie the monitoring of these errors.     

A reevaluation of the absenteeism-job satisfaction relationship

Previous reviews of the relationship of employee absenteeism to job satisfaction have largely neglected the size of the relationships reported and the artifacts that can affect statistical tests of significance. This paper applies the F. L. Schmidt-J. E. Hunter (1977, Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 529-540) model of validity generalization in assessing the nature and strength of the relationship of absence to attitudes. Issues concerning the reliability and validity of absence measures are addressed, correlations between absence and job satisfaction are compiled and summarized, and an agenda for future research is set out. Considering the reliability estimates reported for the Frequency, Attitudinal, and Time Lost indices, the Time Lost Index was found to be the most reliable (r xx = .66, SD = .28). Factor analyses of intercorrelations among absence measures provided tentative support for a voluntary-involuntary absenteeism distinction. Combining all measures of satisfaction and all measures of absences, the mean correlation between absence and attitudes is -.09 (SD = .13). In addition to more comprehensive theory-guided multivariate research, future studies should aim toward a reconceptualization of absenteeism as a construct to take into consideration the perceptions of the workers themselves.     

Development of mental rotation: A speed-accuracy study

Pairs of letters and numbers were shown to 11-, 14-, and 19-year-olds. One stimulus in a pair was presented upright. The second, which was either identical to the first or a mirror image of it, was rotated 0 to 150° from the vertical. Individuals judged if the stimuli in a pair would be identical or mirror images if presented at the same orientation. They did so under instructions that emphasized accurate responses, fast responses, or fast and accurate responses. Typically, responses were (1) most accurate and slowest when accuracy was emphasized, and (2) least accurate but fastest when speed was emphasized. The data from the three instructional conditions were used to derive measures of response times in which accuracy of response was equated for the three age groups. At 95% accuracy 14- and 19-year-olds mentally rotated stimuli at the same rate, which was faster than 11-year-olds' rate. At 100% accuracy, 19-year-olds mentally rotated stimuli more rapidly than both 11- and 14-year-olds, who did not differ from one another.     

Oscillations: Zen & Psychoanalytic Versions

The author provides a personal and experiential account of Zen Buddhism and psychoanalysis. The notion of oscillations serves as an organizing structure. Drawing from the British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion and the American Zen teacher Robert Aitken, the notion of suffering, meaning here to permit, is considered as the central motivating force and organizing principle for both disciplines. As a critique of traditional psychoanalytic writing an experiment in dialogue is offered that draws from a variety of writing styles including prose, poetry, free-association, stream of consciousness, traditional teaching stories and case material to discuss various experiential states such as linearity, circularity, resistance, ambivalence, passion, rage and the potential for a mutually supportive dynamic between Zen and psychoanalysis.