A quantitative interresponse-time analysis of DRL performance differentiates similar effects of the antidepressant desipramine and the novel anxiolytic gepirone.

We describe an interresponse-time analysis of performance on a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate 72-s schedule. This analysis compares the obtained interresponse-time distribution of individual rats to a corresponding random interresponse-time distribution. The random interresponse-time distribution is a negative exponential probability function; it predicts the relative distribution of interresponse times if the rat emitted the same number of responses randomly (i.e., with a constant probability) with respect to time. The analysis provides quantitative measures of peak location and dispersion of the interresponse times toward random performance. In Experiment 1, an unexpected outcome of this analysis was that the rats would have obtained more reinforcers had they responded at the same rate but randomly. Based on the interresponse-time analysis in Experiment 1, it was shown that rats trained on the differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate 72-s schedule could increase the number of reinforcers obtained in two ways: first, by a coherent shift of the interresponse-time distribution toward longer durations and, second, by dispersal of the interresponse times toward a random interresponse-time distribution. Experiment 2 applied the analysis described in Experiment 1 to the effects of desipramine and gepirone. Both drugs decreased response rate and increased reinforcement rate, but their effects on the distribution of interresponse times were different. The increase in reinforcement rate observed with desipramine was accompanied by a coherent shift of the reinforcement rate observed with gepirone was accompanied by dispersal of the interresponse-time distribution toward the random negative exponential prediction.     

视空间定位的短时记忆的超广度研究

采用视空间定位的短时记忆任务研究记忆负载的增加对空间位置信息和时间顺序信息的记忆成绩的影响。结果表明,在记忆负载较低时,位置记忆和顺序记忆的成绩相同;当记忆负载逐渐增大时,位置记忆的成绩逐渐上升,而顺序记忆的成绩先上升后下降,两者出现显著性的差异。在这个过程中,短时记忆的加工发生相应的变化,体现了短时记忆加工资源的有限性。     

An Integrative Brief Treatment Approach for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This article reports on the integrated application of cognitive therapy, transactional analysis techniques, and the behavioral technique of response prevention using self-instructional training and behavioral substitution in a brief therapy approach. These methods were applied in the case of a young man who presented with compulsions to perform repetitive and ordering rituals with the belief that it would prevent his girlfriend from becoming pregnant. A 21-year-old white male who had performed 3 to 5 hours of rituals daily for several years was able to eliminate the majority of his compulsive behaviors and reduce his level of anxiety after eight clinical therapy sessions. Results were maintained at 6-month follow-up. The clear precipitating factors and the unusual maintaining variables for the disorder in the client are described. The author discusses the case in light of current theoretical, therapeutic, and biomedical understandings of the disorder.     

Moral Responses and Moral Theory: Socially-based Externalist Ethics

The paper outlines a view called social (or two-level) response-dependency as an addition to standard alternatives in metaethics that allows for a position intermediate between standard versions of internalism and externalism on the question of motivational force. Instead of taking psychological responses as either directly supplying the content of ethics (as on emotivist or sentimentalist accounts) or as irrelevant to its content (as in classical versions of Kantian or utilitarian ethics), the view allows them an indirect role, as motivational props to moral teaching and thus to the general institution of moral discourse. However, they are not implied by any particular moral judgment (or speaker), so that amoralism comes out as possible. The response that defines the distinctively moral notion of wrong on this account is the second-level (social) response of forbidding some behavior; but this is ultimately to be understood in terms of (variable) individual reactions. Natural human emotion tendencies thereby constrain the content of ethics, while allowing for some degree of social variation in moral codes.     

弱智儿童在上课时和自由活动时的行为表现

研究了４１名弱智儿童。采用时间样本的方法收集材料,以期从动态角度了解弱智儿童在上课时和自由活动时的行为表现。按园别和智力落后程度两个方面对被试在上课时的８大类行为和自由活动时的７大类行为进行了分析。结果发现：班级人数、不同教学方法和智力落后程度与弱智儿童的行为表现有关。还对收集材料的方法、园别和智力落后程度与弱智儿童的行为表现的关系、高频率的自娱活动等,进行了讨论。最后,根据研究结果对教师提出了教学建议。     

一日龄小鸡的记忆保持及其与脑内加压素（AVP）含量的相关研究

以一日龄小鸡为实验对象,进行一次性厌恶回避反应训练,并应用加压素的放射免疫测定法,分析比较记忆保持测验中,成绩优、劣及对照组动物与其脑内加压素含量的相关。实验结果表明,记忆保持良好的动物,脑内加压素含量明显低于对照组和记忆不良组,而记忆不良组与对照组之间则无明显差异。提示在正常生理状态下,加压素参与记忆过程的调制,并可能在这一过程中有一定的耗竭或合成减少,如适时得以补充,则对记忆的巩固和再现起易化作用。     

The Wall: On the psychology of the reunification of Germany

The fall of the Berlin Wall, which separated West Germans and East Germans for decades, led to emotional catastrophe among the reunited peoples. The authors conducted a psychological research program in Berlin to analyze individual and interpersonal processes in the reunification. They describe four categories used to pinpoint different (largely unconscious) levels of coping and defense strategies used to deal with the changes: control, splitting, symbiosis, and integration.Thomas Krauss, Dr. phil., is a family therapist and teaching supervisor. From 1985–1990 he worked as scientific employee at the Free University Berlin. Angelika Fass, Dr. phil., is a family therapist and teaching supervisor. From 1986–1991 she worked as scientific employee (research and lecturer) at the Technical University in Berlin. Reprint requests should be sent to the authors at Markt 2, D-29493 Schnackenburg, Germany.Translation by Ann Brandt.