Effects of signaling inescapable shock on subsequent escape learning: Implications for theories of coping and "learned helplessness."

The present experiments reveal that shuttle-escape performance deficits are eliminated when exteroceptive cues are paired with inescapable shock. Experiment 1 indicated that, as in instrumental control, a signal following inescapable shock eliminated later escape performance deficits. Subsequent experiments revealed that both forward and backward pairings between signals and inescapable shock attenuated performance deficits. However, the data also suggest that the impact of these temporal relations may be modulated by qualitative aspects of the cues because the effects of these relations depended upon whether an increase or decrease in illumination (Experiment 2) or a compound auditory cue (Experiment 4) was used. Preliminary evidence suggests that the ability of illumination cues to block escape learning deficits may be related to their ability to reduce contextual fear (Experiment 3). The implications of these data for conceptions of instrumental control and the role of fear in the etiology of effects of inescapable shock exposure are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classical conditioning of a flexor nerve response in spinal cats: Effects of tibial nerve CS and a differential conditioning paradigm.

Examined, in 4 experiments using 59 cats, the effects of a differential conditioning paradigm on the deep peroneal motor nerve response. Results show that flexor nerve response increases were produced when the conditioned stimulus/stimuli (CS) was delivered to the whole tibial nerve or to the medial plantar branch. The responses to CS/unconditioned stimuli presentations on the superficial peroneal nerve increased, whereas responses to CS presentations on the tibial nerve remained unchanged. However, lack of extinction effects in the superficial peroneal data suggests that stimulation of the tibial nerve potentiated superficial peroneal evoked responses. Furthermore, responses evoked by stimulation of either nerve increased when paired trials were given on the tibial nerve. These data demonstrate that stimulation of the tibial nerve potentiates responses to superficial peroneal nerve stimulation but that superficial peroneal nerve stimulation has no effect on responses to CS presentations to the tibial nerve. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of a classical conditioning paradigm on hind-limb flexor nerve response in immobilized spinal cats.

Maintained 50 adult cats on Flaxedil after spinal transection at T-12 under ether anesthesia. Experimental Ss were classically conditioned by electrical stimulation of the exposed superficial peroneal nerve (CS), paired with cutaneous shock to the ankle of the same limb (UCS). The CR was the gross efferent volley recorded from the exposed deep peroneal nerve. Controls were divided into unpaired CS and UCS, CS-only, and UCS sensitization groups. Results show that the experimental conditions produced increases in amplitude of the gross efferent volley while unpaired CS and UCS, and CS-only control conditions produced no change or a decrease in amplitude. The UCS sensitization group showed that no sensitization was present at the intertrial intervals used in experimental conditions. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A paradigm of infant-mother reciprocity: A reexamination of "emotional refueling."

Videotaped 7 mother–infant pairs to examine the impact of reunion episodes on the 10–12 mo old infant's expression of emotion and attention. Through pursuit of the mother, the infant regulated high and low levels of arousal before reunion to a more organized attentional and affective state after reunion. Four patterns of intentional reciprocity observed were vitalizing, soothing, mutual attunement, and protective. That an infant can use emerging cognitive awareness and locomotor capacities to cope with the difficulties of its experience reflects a new level of ego organization with implications for the development of internalization, defense, and psychological adaptation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contrast effects in escape conditioning of rats.

In Exp I 39 male Holtzman albino rats ran for 20 trials from an alley where they received .2-, .4-, or .8-ma shocks to a goal box where there was no shock. All Ss were then shifted to .4 ma in the alley for 20 trials. Results show that rapid adjustment of running speeds occurred with shifts in amount of escapable shock. More importantly, however, positive and negative contrast occurred. In Exp I an experimental group (n = 10) received .2 ma on half of the trials and .4 ma on the other half, and 2 control groups (n = 10) received either .4 or .2 ma on all trials. Results show that the experimental group escaped faster on .4-ma trials than the .4-ma control group (positive contrast) and escaped more slowly on .2-ma trials than the .2-ma control (negative contrast). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another example of a paradigm clash: A reply to Bixenstine's "criticisms."

Responds to V. E. Bixenstine's (1977) critique of W. W. Tryon's (see record 1977-04654-001) article on models of behavior disorder. The formal analysis paradigm from which Tryon operated is restated, and the way in which Bixenstine operated from the different phenomenology paradigm is demonstrated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure of "automatic access" in the Brown-Peterson paradigm.

In a study with 100 undergraduates, repeating a to-be-remembered item as part of the distraction task in a paradigm originally presented by J. Brown (1958) and L. R. Peterson and M. J. Peterson (1959) did not lead to recall superior to that obtained when such an item was not present during distraction. (French summary) (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reevaluating evaluative conditioning: A nonassociative explanation of conditioning effects in the visual evaluative conditioning paradigm.

In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether evaluative conditioning (EC) is an associative phenomenon. Experiment 1 compared a standard EC paradigm with nonpaired and no-treatment control conditions. EC effects were obtained only when the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) were rated as perceptually similar. However, similar EC effects were obtained in both control groups. An earlier failure to obtain EC effects was reanalyzed in Experiment 2. Conditioning-like effects were found when comparing a CS with the most perceptually similar UCSs used in the procedure but not when analyzing a CS rating with respect to the UCS with which it was paired during conditioning. The implications are that EC effects found in many studies are not due to associative learning and that the special characteristics of EC (conditioning without awareness and resistance to extinction) are probably nonassociative artifacts of the EC paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Modeling class inclusion strategies": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by Hoben Thomas (Developmental Psychology, 1995[Mar], Vol 31[2], 170–279). On page 174, there were errors in Table 3; a corrected version of the table is provided. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in PA, Vol 82:24623.) B. Hodkin (see record 1988-01105-001) proposed a model for estimating the proportions of 3 possible solution strategies used by children in their responses to class inclusion items: guessing, subclass comparison, and inclusion logic. The model considers guessing, which if not modeled would result in estimates of young children's class inclusion understanding that would be seriously inflated as she demonstrated. However, the model assumes children are consistent in their task strategy. Hodkin's data suggest this assumption is incorrect; moreover, changes in task strategies that occur with development are not revealed by her model. A more general model, of which Hodkin's model is a special case, reveals that the youngest children's responses display mixed response strategies. The results illustrate the need to consider richer models that allow for assessing model parameter estimates and their variances are provided for both models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on Banks's "White preference in Blacks: A paradigm in search of a phenomenon."

A review by W. C. Banks (see record 1977-21037-001) concluded that the evaluative preference and self-identification responses of Afro-American children toward stimulus alternatives representing light- and dark-skinned persons conformed to simple chance rather than indicating a "White preference in Blacks." This interpretation is challenged as misleading because of Banks's dismissal of the importance of comparisons by race in the literature cited and because of his failure to cite a number of relevant studies of race and color bias, the results of which are inconsistent with his conclusion. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural features in multiple response repertoires: Effects of response restriction.

Determined if measurable structural characteristics of an unconstrained multiple response repertoire predicted time allocation choice behavior with constraints in the response repertoire. Three experiments were conducted with 10 male college students (Exp I), 8 preschool children (aged 4–5 yrs [Exp II]), and Mongolian gerbils (Exp III). Ss were given access to an experimental environment where 4 unconstrained activities were measured. Multiple response baselines were established and access to 1 of 4 activities was restricted, and changes in the 3 unrestricted alternatives were observed. In all 3 experiments only one of the alternatives was selected to substitute for the restricted activity. The data indicate that the temporal pattern exhibited by a response during baseline sessions was effective in predicting response changes during the subsequent restriction phase in all 3 experimental preparations. Specifically, the alternative response that had temporal patterns most similar to the restricted response substituted for the latter during the restriction period. Findings suggest that a structural analysis of behavior must deal with the conceptual problem of how one defines the response units in an unconstrained stream of behavior. (French abstract) (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Instantiated features and the use of "rules."

Classification "rules" in expert and everyday discourse are usually deficient by formal standards, lacking explicit decision procedures and precise terms. The authors argue that a central function of such weak rules is to focus on perceptual learning rather than to provide definitions. In 5 experiments, transfer following learning of family resemblance categories was influenced more by familiar-appearing features than by novel-appearing features equally acceptable under the rule. This occurred both when rules were induced and when rules were given at the beginning of instruction. To model this and other phenomena in categorization, features must be represented on 2 levels: informational and instantiated. These 2 feature levels are crucial to provide broad generalization while reflecting the known peculiarities of a complex world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another response to "Homosexuality: The ethical challenge."

Discusses the ethical integrity of accepting a voluntary patient's wish to change his sexual orientation, emphasizing G. D. Davison's article (see PA, Vol: 56:Issue 6) which argues that homosexuality is not pathological state. The problem of how a therapist can discriminate between his/her own values and what is a set of symptoms elicited by environment (e.g., social pressures) is examined. Four tasks must be accomplished before a therapist can attempt a sexual orientation change in a homosexual--deciding how the patient's biological state, past learning, access to information, and the impact of the current environment affect him or her. A therapist, behavioral or otherwise, is obligated to engage in a dialogue involving a scrupulous, nonmystical, time-consuming information exchange with the patient, such interchange being directed toward the clarification in the patient's mind of whether in fact he or she really wants to change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A conventional conditioning analysis of "transitive inference" in pigeons.

As an alternative to a symbolic interpretation of transitivity in the discriminative performance of pigeons, a modified reinforcement theory (value transfer theory) was proposed by L. von Fersen et al (see record 1991-29523-001). Its novel assumption was that the value of the negative member of a pair of stimuli with which an animal is trained is enhanced by the value of the positive member of the pair. In this article, that assumption is shown to be unnecessary. All of the transitivity data for pigeons can be simulated with a simple conditioning model developed for honeybees that retains the conventional independence assumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Does motor programming necessitate response execution?": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by A. Osman et al (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1990, Vol 16[1], 183–298). In Table 3 on page 192, 2 responses for high-complexity sequences should read "1 Ri?+?3 Li or 1 Li?+?3 Ri.' (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1990-13808-001.) The complexity of a movement is known to affect the time it takes to initiate the movement. This effect is thought to reflect changes in the duration of processes that operate on a motor program. This question addressed here is whether programming a movement compels the start of its overt execution. If it does, then the programming processes may be said to occur after the "point of no return.' We report results from an empirical procedure and a theoretical analysis designed to study processes before and after this point separately. According to our results, changes in the complexity of a movement affect only the prior set of processes. From this we argue that motor programming does not necessitate response execution and that the point of no return occurs very late in the information-processing system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Biosyntonic" therapy: Modification of an operant conditioning approach to pedophilia.

Introduces "biosyntonic" therapy, a modified operant conditioning approach for treating sexual behavior problems. Following physiological diagnosis, a male 32-yr-old child molester was successfully taught to alter his inappropriate physiological arousal to prepubescent females without disrupting his arousal to adult females. An extremely elevated heart rate response to pictures of semiclothed female children was eliminated by the administration of electric shock. In addition to eliminating his child molesting, the procedures also improved the correspondence between his physiological and verbal response patterns and decreased his anxiety. The treatment remained successful at a 6-mo follow-up. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "A competence paradigm for psychological practice".

In response to F. Masterpasqua's (see record 1990-05261-001) criticism of rationalist/cognitivist views of mental health, the present author argues that rational-emotive therapy is probably more constructive than the constructivist-developmental theories of Masterpasqua. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Population and health psychology": A response.

Responds to a critique by D. C. O'Connell (see record 1987-21818-001) concerning the present author's (see record 1986-19757-001) article on population, development, and reproductive behavior. The author reiterates that individual, family, and community well-being, an improved quality of life, and freedom of choice in reproductive behavior are becoming areas of priority interest for health psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dogmatic responses to belief dissimilarity in the "bogus stranger" paradigm.

Investigated the relationship between dogmatism and responses to belief dissimilarity in 3 studies, using 599 undergraduates in the bogus-stranger paradigm. In Study 1, 273 Ss completed an opinion survey and were subsequently telephoned and asked to participate in the 2nd phase of the research. Ss were seated individually in a cubicle and shown how another individual (bogus stranger) responded to 7 attitude statements on the questionnaire. Ss were asked to indicate perceived agreement, the relative importance of topics, and attraction to the stranger. In Study 2, 80 Ss were used in a single experimental session. In Study 3, with 246 Ss a single-session, mass-administered procedure was employed. Results show a positive relation between dogmatism and rejection of a disagreeing other. There was also evidence of a positive relation between dogmatism and evaluation of the issues of disagreement and minimization of the discrepancy in opinion. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Smoker networks and the "typical smoker": A prospective analysis of smoking cessation.

Perceptions of the typical smoker (i.e., prototype) were assessed in a sample of 174 adult smokers when they first joined a cessation clinic and were used to predict smoking status at 6-month follow-up. As predicted, consistent with a prototype-based model of health risk behavior (F. X. Gibbons & M. Gerrard; see record 83-01291, in press), smokers with more favorable perceptions were more likely to have relapsed at follow-up. Also as predicted, this prospective effect was moderated by smokers' social networks: Prototypes did not predict status among those who had a lot of friends and family members who smoked, suggesting that these other smokers were inhibiting smokers' attempts to distance themselves psychologically from the prototype. Implications of the results for interventions that use prototypes to discourage smoking are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)