Visual and verbal modes of information processing and their relation to the effectiveness of cognitively-based anxiety-reduction techniques

This study examined the interaction between preferred modes of information processing (visual and verbal) and two cognitively-based anxiety-reduction techniques. One technique was based on the use of images as a coping strategy while the other employed a self-instructional approach. Thirty-six subjects reporting high levels of dental fear were assigned to one of three groups (two types of treatment and a no-treatment control). One-half of the subjects in each group had been identified as preferring the visual mode of information processing while for the other half the verbal mode was preferred. After treatment, subjects viewed an anxiety-inducing videotape depicting a visit to the dentist. Results indicated that, while both treatments were significantly effective in reducing self-reports of discomfort while viewing the videotape, there was no significant interaction between the type of treatment and preferred cognitive mode. The results were interpreted as indicating that treatment may override individual cognitive styles. Furthermore, the data suggested that the normal individual has the ability to adapt to divergent and non-preferred forms of information processing.     

The neural pathways mediating quiet-biting attack behavior from the hypothalamus in the cat: A functional autoradiographic study

Electrical stimulation of the region of the lateral hypothalamus produced a consistent form of quiet-biting attack behavior in cats. In one series of experiments, cats, implanted with electrodes from which attack had been elicited, were anesthetized and then were injected with a bolus of ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose at the same time as electrical stimulation was delivered through the attack electrodes. Brains prepared for X-ray autoradiography revealed that lateral hypothalamic stimulation activated the classical medial forebrain bundle pathway supplying the septal region, diagonal band, lateral preoptic area, and ventral tegmental region. Stimulation of quiet-attack sites in perifornical hypothalamus resulted in the activation of a much more extensive projection system which included the central and lateral tegmental fields of the midbrain and pons, and central gray region, as well as the structures described above. In a second series of experiments, ³H-leucine was placed into the region of the electrode tip from which attack was elicited in order to identify more precisely the pathways arising from that site. In general, tritiated amino acid radioautography replicated the ¹⁴C-2-deoxyglucose findings. In addition, the amino acid radioautographic data revealed the presence of extensive projections from perifornical hypothalamus to such pontine structures as the nucleus locus coeruleus, motor nucleus of NV , and the lateral pontine tegmental field. The functional connections between the lateral hypothalamic “attack region” and lateral preoptic zone were also confirmed by electrophysiological methods.     

Conditions affecting retention test performance: A developmental study

Developmental studies of retention have yielded remarkably diverse results: however, it is widely assumed that retention ability increases with age. This study examined this assumption by investigating some of the conditions that might affect retention test performance in third graders and tenth graders. The most important results were the absence of age differences in proportionalized short-term retention, despite substantial differences in the number of items learned, and significant age differences in long-term retention only between groups that had received a different number of learning trials. These and other results suggest that age differences in retention test performance occur only when age is confounded with degree of learning. In short, there do not appear to be any age differences in retention per se.     

Implications of evaluating and intervening with incipient stutterers

A study was conducted to investigate the factors involved in the recovery from incipient stuttering without therapeutic intervention. Fifteen subjects were seen on two occasions, once for an initial evaluation after the reported onset of stuttering, and for a second evaluation to determine if they had recovered or become chronic stutterers. Within the constraints of a small sample, several findings are presented: (1) 80% of the children recovered spontaneously from stuttering, (2) subjects who exhibited more types and frequencies of disfluencies upon onset had a poorer prognosis for recovery, (3) the age of onset, if under 4 years, had little bearing on recovery, and (4) children who were seen professionally soon after disfluency onset had the greatest prognosis for recovery. Possible implications of these results are discussed.     

Perceptions of unresponsive others: Attributions,attraction, understandability,and memory of their utterances

Analyses of the rules governing conversation have frequently pointed to the existence of a rule dictating that responses to others' communications should be relevant. Unfortunately, there have been few systematic theoretical analyses of the consequences of violations of the response relevance rule. The present research was designed to extend our previous analyses of the consequences of responsiveness in dyadic interaction to examine in detail the effects of irrelevant response on processing and retention of response content, and attributions concerning the speaker. It was argued that irrelevant responses will be processed and retained more poorly, because the preceding utterance will provide a less adequate context for their interpretation. In addition, it was argued that unresponsiveness will generally be attributed to the lack of one or more of four factors previously suggested to facilitate responsiveness: attention to the other, understanding of the preceding communication, adequate response repertoire, or motivation to be responsive—along with situational (e.g., distraction) or dispositional (e.g., incompetence) reasons for their absence. These processes were examined in the context of a political debate, in which the relevance of candidates' answers to the questions was varied. As expected, response relevance was shown to facilitate processing (as indexed by ratings of clarity and organization) and retention (both recall and recognition memory) of response content. Further, the unresponsive speaker was perceived to have less clearly understood the questions asked, to possess less knowledge of the facts and understanding of the issues concerning the questions raised, and to be less motivated to discuss the issues raised (as opposed to facilitating his self-presentational goals). Moreover, those attributions were accompanied by attributions of dispositional incompetence. Finally, the unresponsive candidate was perceived as less attractive than the responsive candidate.     

Effects of the recipient's status and responsiveness on physical pleasuring between heterosexual strangers

Previous research relating status to intimate behavior has demonstrated that persons are more reluctant to initiate physical intimacy with another of higher than one of equal or lower status. The present research explored three potential interpretations of the observed relationship: (1) that persons perceive others of higher status as less likely to react positively to intimate behavior, (2) that social norms discourage intimate behavior toward higher status others, and (3) that persons of different status may be differentially liked. Using a modification of the apparatus developed by Davis, Rainey, and Brock, seventy-seven undergraduate subjects chose to give either a verbal or physically pleasurable reward for correct responses to a confederate learner whom they believed to be of either higher (PhD candidate), equal (freshman), or lower (high school drop-out) academic status. The learner was either responsive to the physical reward (expressing enjoyment) or unresponsive (remaining silent). In support of the first interpretation, status affected the magnitude of physical reward only when the recipient remained silent. When clear evidence of positive reaction to the vibrations was provided by the recipient's responsiveness, status differences were eliminated. This indicates that status may be used as a basis for regulating intimate behavior only when direct information about the recipient's reactions is unclear or unavailable. The differential liking interpretation received no support, in that status affected neither rated liking of the recipient nor the magnitude of verbal reward.     

Visual and verbal modes of information processing and cognitively-based coping strategies: An extension and replication

This study was designed to investigate the interaction between the use of an imaginallybased vs a verbally-based coping strategy with subjects who were selected on the basis of strong preferences for either visual or verbal modes of information processing. Forty-eight female students were subjected to a cold-pressor task. Measures of pain tolerance, pain threshold and a pain rating were obtained. The findings indicated that there was not a significant relationship between preferred cognitive style and the types of coping strategy provided. However, the treatments combined were found to be significantly more effective than the no-treatment condition on all three dependent measures. A structured debriefing revealed that use of visual vs verbal coping strategies did not differ as a function of treatment type or preferred cognitive style. It was concluded that individuals may demonstrate considerable flexibility in adapting to different types of cognitively-based coping strategies.