Cognition and hearing aids

The perceptual information transmitted from a damaged cochlea to the brain is more poorly specified than information from an intact cochlea and requires more processing in working memory before language content can be decoded. In addition to making sounds audible, current hearing aids include several technologies that are intended to facilitate language understanding for persons with hearing impairment in challenging listening situations. These include directional microphones, noise reduction, and fast-acting amplitude compression systems. However, the processed signal itself may challenge listening to the extent that with specific types of technology, and in certain listening situations, individual differences in cognitive processing resources may determine listening success. Here, current and developing digital hearing aid signal processing schemes are reviewed in the light of individual working memory (WM) differences. It is argued that signal processing designed to improve speech understanding may have both positive and negative consequences, and that these may depend on individual WM capacity.     

Associations of Maternal Prenatal Smoking with Early Childhood Physical Aggression,Hyperactivity-Impulsivity,and Their Co-Occurrence

This study investigated associations between maternal prenatal smoking and physical aggression (PA), hyperactivity-impulsivity (HI) and co-occurring PA and HI between ages 17 and 42 months in a population sample of children born in Québec (Canada) in 1997/1998 (N=1745). Trajectory model estimation showed three distinct developmental patterns for PA and four for HI. Multinomial regression analyses showed that prenatal smoking significantly predicted children’s likelihood to follow different PA trajectories beyond the effects of other perinatal factors, parental psychopathology, family functioning and parenting, and socio-economic factors. However, prenatal smoking was not a significant predictor of HI in a model with the same control variables. Further multinomial regression analyses showed that, together with gender, presence of siblings and maternal hostile reactive parenting, prenatal smoking independently predicted co-occurring high PA and high HI compared to low levels of both behaviors, to high PA alone, and to high HI alone. These results show that maternal prenatal smoking predicts multiple behavior regulation problems in early childhood.     

Stimuli inevitably generated by behavior that avoids electric shock are inherently reinforcing.

A molecular analysis based on the termination of stimuli that are positively correlated with shock and the production of stimuli that are negatively correlated with shock provides a parsimonious count for both traditional discrete-trial avoidance behavior and the data derived from more recent free-operant procedures. The necessary stimuli are provided by the intrinsic feedback generated by the subject's behavior, in addition to those presented by the experimenter. Moreover, all data compatible with the molar principle of shock-frequency reduction as reinforcement are also compatible with a delay-of-shock gradient, but some data compatible with the delay gradient are not compatible with frequency reduction. The delay gradient corresponds to functions relating magnitude of behavioral effect to the time between conditional and unconditional stimuli, the time between conditioned and primary reinforcers, and the time between responses and positive reinforcers.     

Effectiveness of a Comprehensive Worksite Stress Management Program: Combining Organizational and Individual Interventions

A comprehensive worksite stress management program consisting of self-management training and a stressor reduction process was evaluated in a pre-post, treatment-control design in four comparable facilities. Results showed that over a 3-month period those individuals attending self-management training improved on emotional well-being measures. Organizational data suggested that their work-units' productivity increased and absenteeism decreased over the same period. Results support the value of combining self-management training and stressor reduction to produce positive individual and organizational outcomes.     

吉林省医务人员吸烟现况及知识态度分析

为了更好地了解吉林省医务人员的吸烟状况,为进一步开展控烟工作提供科学依据,对吉林省50家医疗机构的3787名医务人员进行问卷调查,调查结果显示,男性医务人员吸烟率较高；医务人员对烟草危害认识不全面,控烟意识较为薄弱.应加强对医务人员烟害知识等方面的培训,以改变其吸烟行为、提高控烟责任意识.     

CONTINGENT PAYMENT PROCEDURES FOR SMOKING REDUCTION AND CESSATION

We assessed the ability of a combined contingent reinforcement and intensive monitoring procedure to promote and sustain temporary smoking cessation among 34 hired research volunteers, and the ability of a smoking reduction test to predict the subsequent initiation of abstinence. During the 5-day cutdown test, subjects were paid from $0 to $6 per day depending on the extent of reduction from baseline CO levels. During the abstinence test, breath samples were obtained three times daily and subjects were paid $4 for each CO reading ≤11 ppm. Sixty-eight percent of subjects initiated abstinence. Of the breath samples collected during the abstinence test (91% of scheduled samples), 96.5% were ≤11 ppm and 80.5% were ≤8 ppm. Subjects who earned more money during the cutdown test were more likely to abstain (r = ?0.51, p < .001). Contingent reinforcement and intensive monitoring procedures appear to have usefulness for analog studies of smoking reduction and cessation.     

Choice As A Function Of Reinforcement Ratios In Delayed Matching-to-sample

Pigeons were studied in two experiments using a delayed matching-to-sample task. In Experiment 1, 4 subjects were exposed to a task in which the proportion of reinforcement associated with matching and nonmatching, and the overall proportion of reinforcement associated with selecting each choice, regardless of the sample stimulus, were varied. Choice was sensitive to both proportions. A least squares regression analysis showed that Wixted's (1989) proportions of reinforcement model closely fit the data from Experiment 1; however, the model failed to make accurate qualitative predictions for some test conditions. In Experiment 2, 4 subjects were exposed to a delayed matching-to-sample task in which the retention intervals and the reduction in delay to reinforcement signaled by the onset of the sample stimulus were independently varied. When the retention interval was short and when the delay-reduction value of the sample stimulus was high, the sample exerted greater control over choice; the control by the overall proportion of reinforcements for selecting each choice stimulus was correspondingly low. Conversely, when the retention interval was long and the delay-reduction value of the sample stimulus was low, the sample exerted relatively less control over choice; control by the overall proportion of reinforcements obtained for selecting each choice stimulus was correspondingly high. A signal detection analysis found that sensitivity to reinforcement varied directly with retention interval. Data were also consistent with misallocation models. No evidence was found to suggest that pigeons ignore the rate at which selecting individual choice stimuli is reinforced, as has been reported in studies with human subjects.     

Consistency Orientation and Models of Social Behavior: Is It Not Time for West to Meet East

The study examined the cultural differences in inconsistency-reducing behaviors by testing the reactions of 110 Japanese and 169 American college students to the inconsistencies arising from a difference of opinion with a significant other on ego-involving issues. It was predicted that (1) the Japanese sample would show more inconsistency support than will an American sample; (2) The American sample will show more preference for active inconsistency-reducing responses than will the Japanese sample; (3) on the hypothesis that contemporary social psychology's models of humans is based upon the American stereotype of the "typical American," the first two predictions will be more strongly confirmed by comparing the American subjects' stereotype of the "typical American" than by comparing their own reported choices. The findings generally supported the first two predictions and strongly supported the third one.     

Facilitation of human tobacco self-administration by ethanol: a behavioral analysis.

The effect of ethanol on the cigarette smoking of alcoholic subjects was studied in a residential laboratory. During daily 6-hr sessions, cigarettes were obtained either by request to the ward staff or by operation of a lever (fixed-ratio 5 or 10). In a mixed sequence across days, sessions involved ingestion of either vehicle (orange juice or vehicle plus ethanol (133.7 g). During ethanol sessions, the rate of cigarette smoking increased from 26% to 117% of vehicle levels. A series of control studies eliminated a number of potential behavorial mechanisms for the observed effect and indicated that the ethanol-induced increase in cigarette smoking occurred under a variety of experimental conditions: (1) when smoking could not occur concurrently with ethanol or vehicle consumption; (2) when subjects were not allowed to socialize; (3) when ingestion of ethanol or vehicle was scheduled for a number of consecutive days; (4) when various doses of ethanol were administered under blind conditions. In control experiments, weighing unsmoked tobacco and counting the number of puffs per cigarette indicated the effect was not due to smoking less of each cigarette. The effect was not limited to the experimental sessions alone, since total daily smoking was higher on ethanol days than vehicle days.     

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY HAZARD REDUCTION THROUGH PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK

A “feedback package” system, designed to prevent occupational accidents and to fit directly into the normal operations of an industrial organization, was analyzed. Eighteen hazardous conditions in six production departments were assessed during seven observation sessions over a 12-week period, plus four follow-up observations over 4 months. The “feedback package” was presented in multiple baseline fashion, across subjects (department supervisors). It consisted of presenting the supervisor with copies of observational data, accompanied by a note which congratulated good practices and suggested ways for improving safety conditions, along with occasional comments from a senior executive. The results indicated that during the feedback phase, hazard rates were lower and less variable than during the baseline phase. Baseline data were highly variable with peaks ranging from 20 to 55 hazards per department. Following intervention, hazard frequencies dropped by 60%, averaged across departments, with decreases ranging from 29% to 88%. During treatment, data stabilized, with the highest frequency reaching 33. A modified feedback system was implemented by the organization following termination of the study, validating the assumption that such a system would tend to maintain.