Children's binary prediction of partially learnable sequences followed by an all-correct procedure

Six groups of 20 subjects each were run individually in a binary prediction situation with each alternative occurring equally often. Two age groups were employed; subjects were either in second or sixth grades. For one-third of the subjects at each age level, the events occurred in runs of either two or six; another third observed events which occurred in runs of either five or six; the other subjects received a random sequence of events. All subjects then received an additional 50 trials in which every prediction was correct. The results indicated some sensitivity to run length characteristics. Fewer errors of all types were made in the prediction of 5–6 sequences. The verbal reports and all-correct trial protocols revealed that at least the sixth graders employed some simple run length structure rules, although many instances of runs other than those presented in training occurred, showing much processing error. The results were discussed in terms of a general limited-capacity model of information-processing.     

The effect of continuous, intermittent, and "placebo" reinforcement on the effectiveness of the conditioning treatment for enuresis nocturna

It has been suggested that intermittent reinforcement may be of value in reducing the rate of relapse in bedwetting conditioning therapy. An experiment was conducted with 30 enuretic boys to examine acquisition and extinction parameters of continuous (100%), intermittent (70% variable ratio), and “placebo” (0%) reinforcement schedules. Reinforced trials were administered as in the typical Mowrer conditioning procedure. Non-reinforced trials were achieved by means of a time delay with the subsequent alarm being activated in the parent's room rather than in the child's room. These procedures required the development of a new conditioning device which could be programmed to automatically administer the desired schedule of reinforcement. The results of the field investigation revealed that continuous reinforcement (CR) and intermittent reinforcement (IR) groups attained acquisition in approximately the same number of trials and with essentially the same success rate. Relapse rate was significantly greater in the CR group than in the IR group. The placebo group showed no improvement over the 6 weeks of treatment. The results of this study may be interpreted as supporting the tenet that relapse can be viewed and treated as an extinction of the acquired response.     

Instigation of assertive behavior through videotape-mediated assertive models and directed practice

Twenty-eight undergraduate college women received an assertive training procedure in which they observed videotape-mediated assertive models and practiced nine types of assertive responses over a seven-week period. They reported significantly (p< 0.01) more assertive behavior and were rated as significantly (p< 0.01) more assertive than subjects receiving a placebo treatment and subjects receiving no treatment. There were also trends (p's = 0.17, 0.19, 0.29) for Ss receiving assertive training to report lower fear of social conflicts than subjects under the two control conditions.     

Electrical aversion therapy with alcoholics: An analogue study

Chronic alcoholic patients matched on age, education and length of problem drinking were assigned to one of three treatment conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Electrical Aversion Conditioning (high shock paired with alcohol sips); (2) Control Conditioning (very low shock paired with alcohol sips); and (3) Group Therapy (confrontation psychotherapy). Groups 2 and 3 were included to control for possible ‘attention-placebo’ and expectancy factors involved in the conditioning procedures. Subjects in each group were given instructions designed to produce high expectancy for therapeutic success. Pre-post measures of alcohol consumption and attitudes toward alcohol were obtained using an analogue ‘taste test’ assessment procedure. No statistically significant differences in reduced alcohol consumption or attitudes toward alcohol were found among the groups. Trends in the data support the contention that effects of electrical aversion may be more related to such factors as therapeutic instructions, expectancy, specificity of the procedure or experimental demand characteristics than to conditioning factors.     

Sometimes frequently means seldom: Context effects in the interpretation of quantitative expressions

Subjects supplied numerical definitions for five quantitative expressions embedded in two high-frequency contexts, one moderate-frequency context, two low-frequency contexts, and with no context specified. Mean definitions differed significantly across contexts and expressions with a Context-Expression interaction (p < .01). The variance in definition of an expression embedded in a context generally increased with the discrepancy between its no-context definition and the context event's estimated frequency (p < .05). Variance in the definitions of the sampled expressions gathered over diverse contexts increased with the expression's no-context definition (p < .05). Thus, the mean and variance of an expression's numerical definitions depended upon both the expression and its context.     

The reduction of attack instigated aggression

Thirty subjects competed with an opponent in a reaction time task to avoid receiving shock. The opponent initially set only the highest possible intensity shock for the subjects. The opponent then adopted one of three strategies to reduce the intensity of shocks set by the subjects. In one condition the opponent set shock intensities which matched those set by the subject. In a second condition the opponent set shocks which were not contingent upon those set by the subject but which were identical to those set by the opponent who matched the subject's settings. The opponent in the third condition suddenly reduced the intensity of his settings and chose only the least intense possible shock for the subject. All three conditions resulted in reduced aggression. This decrement was greatest and most rapid among those subjects who were exposed to a precipitous decrease in the intensity of attack.     

Children's component selection with varying degrees of training

With the component selection measure developed by Hale and Morgan (1973), children's use of selective attention was assessed at six levels of learning, ranging from undertraining to overtraining, and this function was examined at each of ages 4, 8, and 12. It was found that, as the children learned the task, they maintained a relatively wide focus of attention, acquiring information about both features of the stimuli, color and shape. Thus, contrary to the model under investigation, the children did not exercise a high degree of selectivity as they approached mastery of the task; nor did overtraining produce the expected “broadening” of attention, as the children acquired little stimulus information beyond the point at which criterion had been reached. The data were interpreted to be more consistent with a model that assumes the bulk of stimulus learning to occur prior to task mastery.     

Profiles of Peritraumatic Emotions

Researchers have identified peritraumatic emotions as important predictors of who will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, such investigations have not examined full profiles of emotions, perhaps because of the typical emphasis on fear or other Criterion A2 emotions. Such an examination could help us identify which peritraumatic emotions are prominent, and how they relate to important posttrauma outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify distinct profiles of peritraumatic emotions and their correlates using a comprehensive survey of peri- and posttraumatic reactions. We conducted a latent profile analysis of peritraumatic emotions in 398 undergraduate students who reported a DSM–IV A1 trauma and then compared the resulting profiles on trauma type, PTSD, depression, and posttraumatic cognitions. Six distinct profiles emerged: 3 had consistently low, medium, or high levels across the range of emotions, with 3 others primarily characterized by low shame and guilt, high anger and guilt, and low guilt. These profiles significantly differed in terms of trauma type, PTSD, depression, and posttraumatic cognitions. In particular, profiles with high levels of anger, shame, and guilt were consistently related to overall worse functioning. Importantly, fear and associated emotions did not differentiate between profiles. These results have important implications for the phenomenology of posttrauma emotional reactions and strongly suggest that the clinical assessment of traumatic experiences go beyond fear-based conceptualizations.