The order of continuous,partial and nonreward trials and resistance to extinction

In the first experiment rats were given either 16 or 48 nonrewarded or continuously rewarded trials prior to 24 continuously or partially rewarded trials, followed by extinction. Increased resistance to extinction was found for increasing numbers of nonrewarded trials when they were followed by partial reward, but not when followed by continuous reward. Similarly, more continuously rewarded trials followed by partial reward tended to increase resistance to extinction. Because of the theoretical importance of the effect of continuous reward followed by partial, a second experiment was performed where the range of the number of continuously rewarded trials was extended to 0, 48, and 96. Contrary to many theoretical predictions, resistance to extinction increased as a function of increasing amounts of continuous reward.     

Tests of symmetry in three-way contingency tables

Three-dimensional contingency tables are analyzed, with one variable (e.g., sex) as a factor, and with a natural relation between the other variables (e.g. left and right eye vision). Models of special interest, like symmetry and proportional symmetry between the related variables, and homogeneity across the factor levels, are investigated. Maximum likelihood estimators of parameters and partitions of chi-square goodness-of-fit statistics are explicitly presented; the independence of certain models is noted, and an example is discussed.     

Tokens for stuttering

Four young stutterers were observed during 10 weekly sessions. Each session was divided into pretreatment, treatment, and posttreatment segments. Redeemable tokens were administered contingent upon stuttering behaviors in the treatment segment of the Experimental condition. In a Parallel Control condition, no tokens were administered during the entire session. The differences between the pretreatment and treatment segments were compared for the two conditions. Three subjects had dramatically fewer stuttering behaviors when tokens were being administered, while the fourth had more stuttering under the same condition. The subject whose stuttering increased had a history of therapy in which voluntary, “faked” stuttering had been called for, and the behaviors that increased were judged to be of this type. The decreases were interpreted as suggesting that the contingent tokens acted to countercondition the aversiveness of the stuttering experience, which reduced the anticipation of stuttering and hence the stuttering itself. The increase was felt to be simple reinforcement. The counterconditioning interpretation was borne out in two clinical applications in which money was presented contingent on stuttering behaviors judged to be aversive to the stutterer, and in which dramatically sudden, but long-lasting, improvement was seen.     

The effects of individual differences in test anxiety and type of orienting task on levels of organization in free recall

In Experiment 1, high and low test-anxious subjects recalled a list composed of words that could be organized either by taxonomic categories or first letters. High-anxiety subjects showed less recall and conceptual clustering. There was no anxiety difference in alphabetic clustering, but low-anxiety subjects used alphabetic clusters to bridge transitions between conceptual categories more often than did high-anxiety subjects. An initial orienting task which required semantic processing reduced the recall deficit for high-anxiety subjects but not the clustering deficit. Low-anxiety subjects seemed minimally affected by a nonsemantic-orienting task. Experiment 2 used a list that could be organized by associates or rhymes. High-anxiety subjects recalled less and exhibited less clustering of both types. The nonsemantic-orienting task depressed performance for both anxiety levels, though the effect was somewhat greater for high-anxiety subjects. Overall, these results provide little evidence to support the hypothesis that high-anxiety subjects process differently only for semantic content, but methodological limitations preclude unequivocally rejecting that view.     

Self-consciousness,self-report of aggressiveness,and aggression

Private self-consciousness consists of attending to one's thoughts, feelings, and motives. Public self-consciousness consists of attending to oneself as a social object. The effect of dispositional self-consciousness on the accuracy of self-reports was studied in research on aggression. High- and low-private self-conscious subjects rated their own aggressiveness. Several weeks later their aggressive behavior was objectively measured. The correlation between self-report of aggressiveness and aggressive behavior was significantly higher for high-than for low-private self-conscious subjects. The correlation between self-report and behavior was unaffected by public self-consciousness. The implications of these findings for self-consciousness theory and personality dispositions are discussed.     

Prediction as a means of inducing tolerance

Female subjects were exposed individually to the attitude item responses of a similar or dissimilar stranger. They were asked either to copy down the stranger's attitudes or to predict (with accurate feedback) how the stranger answered each item. Predict subjects were found to be more tolerant of the dissimilar stranger than were Copy subjects, while both groups were equally attracted to the similar stranger. It was suggested that training people to anticipate disagreements may be a useful way of fostering tolerance.     

Experiential and physiological responses associated with anger and aggression in women and men

In a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design, 48 male and female college students were either given a “sex-appropriate” provocation or were not provoked. Half of the subjects were then requested to give a “stream of consciousness” (SOC) report. Throughout the experiment, three physiological measures were monitored. Finally, all subjects delivered noxious sounds to their same-sex partner as part of a Buss-type learning task. No sex differences were found for subjects not giving the SOC report; provoked men and women were equally angry, hostile toward their partner, and displayed equal amounts of aggressive behavior. Provoked men reporting on their SOC, however, appeared to stimulate themselves to more aggression, whereas women seemed to adopt a nonhostile strategy for coping with their anger, thus reducing their inclination to behave aggressively. These patterns of results were closely paralleled by physiological changes. The relative validity of systolic and diastolic blood pressure as indicators of anger arousal was also discussed.     

Effects of attack and uncontrollable noise on aggression

After being either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by an experimental confederate, male subjects shocked the confederate while being stimulated by loud noise. Among previously attacked subjects, possession of control over offset of the noise led to the delivery of shocks significantly shorter in duration than those given by subjects who did not have control. Mere predictability of noise offset did not have the same effect. Subjects who could control the noise did not differ from those who heard no noise with respect to the duration of shocks given. Noise had no effect on shock duration among nonattacked subjects. In a follow-up study subjects who were given bogus information that they were aroused by noise were less punitive toward an attacking confederate than subjects given no such information. The overall conclusion is that noise facilitates aggression in subjects who have been instigated to aggress to the degree that noise-produced arousal is misattributed to the instigating stimulus.     

Evaluation and recall of evidence: Authoritarianism and the Patty Hearst case

By using the Patricia Hearst case as the stimulus material, two experiments were conducted to examine the relationship between authoritarianism and recall of evidence. In Experiment I it was found that high authoritarians recall more prosecution evidence than defense evidence. This was not the case for the low authoritarians. Results concerning the hypothesis that high authoritarians would recall more character information than low authoritarians were equivocal. In Experiment II a trend indicating that high authoritarians draw more direct inferences from incriminating evidence than do low authoritarians or an attorney was obtained. The results are discussed in terms of previous findings, authoritarian theory, and characteristics of the Patricia Hearst case.     

The effect of punishment and reinforcement procedures on a stutterer's factor II avoidance response

The purpose of this clinical experiment was to investigate the manipulability of a Factor II avoidance response (arm movement). The substantive hypothesis under test was that its suppression would be enhanced by repeated punishment sessions. During the first of nine therapy sessions response-contingent negative stimulation was not delivered. In the next five, after a base-rate period, “wrong” was made consequent upon the target response. In each of these sessions the suppression of arm movement was apparent. However, the magnitude of the suppression decreased from session to session. Evidently, the continued use of punishment did not enhance suppression. Because of this finding procedural changes were introduced in the next three therapy sessions. Verbal praise was added as a consequence of increasingly stringent omission criteria and three consecutive units of praise led to time-out from the reportedly fatiguing task of continuous speech. A marked reduction and then complete extinction resulted. Moreover, learning was evidenced since the frequency of arm movement lessened in the base-rate period of each session.