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Biomedical subjects

B Remington

Publications and source records attributed to B Remington.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1986

An evaluation of the relationship between receptive speech skills and expressive signing.

We examined the effects of receptive speech on the acquisition of manual signing among three mentally retarded children. In an alternating treatments design, we compared the acquisition of expressive signs that were, versus were not, in a child's receptive vocabulary. The children were trained via total communication in which pictorial referents were named during sign training. Signs corresponding to known words were generally acquired faster and retained better than signs corresponding to unknown words. We conducted posttests to assess the stimulus control of signing and any changes in expressive and receptive signing and speech. Observed changes in performance could be accounted for by attention to aspects of the stimulus complex during training and functional equivalence of stimuli established by training.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Effects of conditioned stimulus preexposure on human electrodermal conditioning.

Two experiments investigated the effects of conditioned stimulus (CS) preexposure on Pavlovian differential conditioning and extinction of the skin conductance response. In both experiments, half the subjects were exposed to 20 presentations each of the CS+ and CS-, and the other half were exposed to control stimuli. CS duration was 8 sec. The unconditioned stimulus in Experiment 1 (N = 48) was a 1000 Hz tone of 80 dB which signalled a reaction time requirement, and in Experiment 2 (N = 48), it was a 1 sec burst of white noise at 105 dB. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that no-preexposure groups displayed more CS+/CS- differentiation than preexposure groups during acquisition and more resistance to extinction, at least for the first interval anticipatory response. In addition, the results of Experiment 2 indicated that no-preexposure groups displayed more differentiation than preexposure groups in terms of the second interval anticipatory response. These data constitute a demonstration of the latent inhibition effect with human subjects, and imply that there is an intrinsic relationship between the orienting response and the conditioning process.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1984

Effects of stimulus change on the electrodermal orienting response.

This experiment (N = 48) examined recovery of the skin conductance response, following habituation training, to change in type of visual stimulus. Maher and Furedy (1979) have argued that the majority of such studies have not controlled for time, trial, or stimulus-specific effects. These variables were controlled in the present study by using no-change control groups and by counterbalancing training and test stimuli. Experimental groups received either shapes during training and a letter on the test trial (trial 41) or letters during draining and a shape on the test trial; control groups received either shapes or letters for 41 trials. Test trial response magnitude was larger in experimental than control groups, and the effect was independent of the nature of the test stimulus. In addition, responsiveness increased from the last block of training trials to the test trial for experimental groups, but not for control groups. These results demonstrate recovery of the skin conductance response to change per se.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Acquisition of expressive signing by autistic children: an evaluation of the relative effects of simultaneous communication and sign-alone training.

Two methods of training autistic children to use manual signs were compared. Two children, one mute and one capable of some verbal imitation, were taught to use signs as expressive labels for pictures of objects. Using an alternating treatments design, speed of sign acquisition was compared across two training conditions in which signs were presented either accompanied by, or without, the corresponding verbal label. In both conditions, the training procedure incorporated reinforcement, modeling, prompting, fading, and stimulus rotation. The efficacy of training in both treatment conditions was demonstrated by the use of a multiple baseline control across signs, but no clear differences in acquisition speed across conditions were apparent. Posttests conducted to assess stimulus control of signing, and learning of verbal labels when these were present in training, showed that the behavior of the imitative, but not the mute, child was controlled by the verbal stimuli. The implications of the results both for understanding deficits characteristic of autistic children and for developing appropriate language training procedures are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Rules of engagement: toward an analysis of staff responses to challenging behavior.

Through observational analysis, the actions of care staff have frequently been identified as sources of socially mediated reinforcement capable of developing and maintaining challenging behavior. Accordingly, behavioral interventions have often sought to train care staff as behavioral change agents. As yet, however, there have been few attempts to conduct full functional analyses of the behavior of care staff working with people with mental retardation and challenging behaviors. We argue that although direct contingency-shaping of staff behavior has rightly been emphasized, it is possible that many aspects of staff conduct are under the indirect control of verbal formulations. If staff behavior is rule-governed (Skinner, 1969), a range of different sources of control must be considered in a complete analysis. Using this framework, we interpret existing literature on staff behavior and identify research strategies that will extend our understanding of why staff act as they do.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The effect of drink familiarity on tolerance to alcohol.

Cues associated with familiar alcoholic drinks such as beer may, through repeated association with the unconditioned stimulus properties of alcohol, acquire the status of classically conditioned stimuli. It has been proposed that such drug-related conditioned stimuli mediate drug tolerance. Thus, the aim of the present experiment was to test this proposition on cognitive, subjective, and psychophysiological indicators of alcohol tolerance using human subjects. Two groups of subjects received alcohol in the form of a familiar drink (beer) or an unfamiliar drink (blue peppermint mixture). Both drinks contained the same dose of alcohol and were consumed at the same rate. Although conditioned heart rate and skin conductance responses occurring while subjects looked at and tasted the test drinks were weak, there were strong indicators of conditioned tolerance on the performance measures following consumption. Subjects who consumed the unfamiliar drink were significantly poorer on cognitive and motor tasks, and they rated themselves more intoxicated than did those who consumed the familiar drink.

Adolescent↗