Psychophysiological assessment of imagery in obsessive-compulsives: a pilot study

In a within-groups design, four obsessive-compulsive patients imagined four different types of scenes: (1) exposure to feared situations; (2) exposure to feared situations followed by engaging in ritualistic behavior: (3) engaging in ritualistic behavior without provocation; and (4) neutral situations. Each scene type was presented three times with order of presentation randomized. Beat-by-beat heart rate samples were taken during the visualization of each scene and converted to second-by-second heart rate. An examination of second-by-second heart rate for each scene type suggested that scenes involving exposure to feared situations elicited defensive responses (DR), whereas those that did not elicited orienting responses (OR). The implications of these results for compulsive behavior, the fear-reduction model and Sokolov's (1963) OR-DR model, are briefly discussed.     

Massed vs. spaced exposure sessions in the treatment of agoraphobia

The differential effects of massed and spaced sessions of exposure in vivo were investigated with 11 agoraphobics in a crossover design. Clients were randomly assigned to one of the following two groups: (a) 10 daily sessions followed by 10 weekly sessions, or (b) 10 once-weekly sessions followed by 10 daily sessions. The results indicated that both massed and spaced sessions of exposure in vivo effected changes in avoidance behavior and subjective anxiety of agoraphobics, massed practice being superior especially with respect to avoidance. It was suggested that the superiority of massed practice is due to the lack of opportunity to engage in avoidance or escape during short inter-session intervals. The relationship between subjective anxiety and avoidance were considered and the differences between clinical and statistical significance were discussed.     

Factorial similarity of the WISC-R for Anglos and Chicanos referred for psychological services

Two- and three-factor principal factor solutions to the WISC-R (Wechsler, 1974) were compared across race for referred Anglo and Chicano children. Additional comparisons of these factor solutions were made with those for normal Anglo, Chicano, Black, and Papago students (Reschly, 1978, Note 1) and the WISC-R standardization sample (Wechsler, 1974). Substantial congruence occurred across race for both the two- and three-factor solutions, though the two-factor solution was clearly most appropriate for the present sample.     

An investigation of racial differences on vocational variables among college women

This study used a sample of black and white college women matched on Duncan's (1961) socioeconomic indicator ratings to explore possible racial differences on vocationally relevant variables. There were no differences between the groups on age or educational level. The distribution of the parents' occupations by Holland type and the distribution of the subjects by their VPI type appeared to be quite similar. There were no significant differences based on: the relationship of the parents' occupational types to the subjects' VPIs: the relationship between the subjects' VPI types and their occupational choice or college major; the estimated likelihood of reaching the career goal; satisfaction with career choice or college major; and scores on two recent scales designed to measure vocational indecision. While no differences were found on the number of possible factors listed that might impede career goals, the distribution of the most important of these factors indicated there were differences between the two groups. These findings are discussed relative to their implications for interpreting previous research and carrying out future studies.     

Children's memory for line orientation: A reexamination of the “oblique effect”

A theory of orientation memory is advanced to explain why 5- and 6-year olds fail to discriminate between mirror-image obliques. It is argued that children can code the left-right orientation of an oblique line in relation to an adjacent reference feature, but are limited in their ability to recognize this stimulus-referent relationship when it is altered by changes in frame location. According to this view simultaneous presentation of the correct and incorrect comparison, typical of traditional testing paradigms, leads to failure because of trial by trial shifts in the frame location of the target orientation. The findings of the two experiments reported are consistent with this hypothesis. In Experiment 1 kindergarteners who performed poorly under the simultaneous condition discriminated oblique orientations with ease when stimuli were successively presented. Moreover, performance was not significantly affected by variations in the plane of presentation. In Experiment 2 children who discriminated successively presented obliques when stimuli were shown in a constant frame location had great difficulty when the left-right frame location of the stimuli was varied over trials.     

Decomposing the reaction time distribution: Pure insertion and selective influence revisited

This paper investigates the consequences of extending the assumptions of pure insertion and selective influence (popular in RT theorizing) to the level of the distribution. In the case of pure insertion and under the additional assumption that the additive random variable is exponentially distributed, a solution is obtained which not only allows estimation of the exponential-rate parameter but also provides a test of the assumptions. The result is shown to be applicable not only when processing is serial but also for certain parallel models. In addition, discrimination between self-terminating and exhaustive search strategies is provided, and in the case of either, both parameter estimation and tests of the model are possible. Extensions to nonexponential models are investigated and a general method of moments solution is outlined. In the case of selective influence a general nonparametric alternative to Sternberg's additive factor method is developed. The problem of empirical estimation and application is then considered. Simulations which place bounds on the type I and II error are reported. Finally the first theorem is provided an illustrative application with data from a memory scanning experiment. The results provide some support for the double assumption of pure insertion and that the additive random variable is distributed exponentially.     

Stimulus control of defensive burying in the rat

Rats shocked once through a wire-wrapped stationary prod mounted on the wall of a test chamber incorporated the bedding material covering the chamber floor into a defensive reaction. When tested 1 min later, they approached the prod and buried it. Evidence was provided by three separate studies of this burying response that rats had learned about the association of both the position and brightness of the prod with shock after this single conditioning trial. In Experiment 1, the amount of burying decreased if either the position or brightness of the prod had been changed prior to the test. In Experiments 2 and 3, rats were shocked through one of two prods (white or black) mounted on opposite walls of the test chamber. When the positions of the prods were unchanged for the test, almost every subject buried the prod through which it had been shocked, even when the conditioning-test interval was 24 hr; whereas, each rat directed substantial amounts of bedding material at both prods when the positions of the two prods were reversed. Thus, discriminated “avoidance” learning can be rapid, reliable, and enduring when shock is administered “by” a clearly defined stimulus object, i.e., when cue and consequence are spatially contiguous.     

Utility of extension of functional equations—when possible

Jean-Claude Falmagne observed in 1981 [On a recurrent misuse of classical functional equation result. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 23, 190-193] that, even under regularity assumptions, not all solutions of the functional equation k(s+t)=k(s)+k(t), important in many fields, also in the theory of choice, are of the form k(s)=Cs. This is certainly so when the domain of the equation (the set of (s,t) for which the equation is satisfied) is finite. We mention an example showing that this can happen even on some infinite, open, connected sets (open regions). The more general equations k(s+t)=?(s)+n(t) and k(s+t)=m(s)n(t), called Pexider equations, have been completely solved on R². In case they are assumed valid only on an open region, they have been extended to R² and solved that way (the latter if k is not constant). In this paper their common generalization

k(s+t)=?(s)+m(s)n(t)     

Multigenerational stress and nuclear family functioning

This longitudinal study tested Bowen theorys assumption that stressors in the interdependent multigenerational family influence variation in nuclear family functioning. Forty-nine newly developing nuclear families and their multigenerational families were studied over five years. Quantitative analysis demonstrated an association between the perceived impact of multigenerational stressors and variation in nuclear family functioning. Multigenerational stressors, as compared to individual or nuclear family stressors, had a stronger association with nuclear family functioning. The stress response was manifested in symptomatic outcomes of the nuclear family emotional process. Generally, the number of stressors and the total impact of stressors increased over time, stressors in some years associated with functioning in subsequent years, nuclear family-of-origin stressors demonstrated a decreasing association over time, and developing nuclear family stressors demonstrated a somewhat increasing association over time.