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PubMed1983

The development of derived stimulus relations through training in arbitrary-matching sequences.

Five-year-old children were taught three-stage sequences of arbitrary matching: A-C, B-C, A-D; A-C, B-D, B-C; or A-C, A-D, B-C. Each stage refers to a sample-comparison relation between stimuli. Unreinforced test probes revealed untrained arbitrary matches (B-D, A-D, and B-D, respectively), derivable by substitution of stimuli with a common sample or comparison function. Additional probes revealed further untrained sample-comparison relations derivable by substitution and identity, including the commuted relations D-B, D-A, and D-B, respectively. These processes may have relevance to conceptual and verbal behavior.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1990

The effects of verbal performance descriptions on nonverbal operant responding.

The effect of reinforced verbal descriptions on key-pressing rate was studied in the context of reinforcement for pressing on schedules opposed to the verbal description and schedules delivering a constant or randomly chosen point value regardless of pressing rate (nondifferential schedules). Undergraduates' key presses produced points exchangeable for lottery tickets on alternating schedules. Subjects experienced one of four manipulations. In Experiment 1, after schedule control had been demonstrated using a "medium rate" schedule for each of two response keys, subjects were awarded maximum points for choosing one of five verbal descriptions of "the best way to earn points" for each key. Subjects experienced either (a) maximum points for verbal descriptions of "press very fast" for one key and "press very slowly" for the other, with the schedule gradually moved from medium to oppose this description, or (b) maximum schedule points for a very fast rate on one key and very slow rate on the other, with the maximum points for verbal descriptions gradually moved to oppose the schedule. Key-pressing rates conformed to the active schedule, not to the verbal performance description. In Experiment 2 subjects received maximum points for verbal descriptions of "press very fast" for one key and "press very slowly" for the other while the same nondifferential schedule was operative for both keys. Correspondence of pressing rate to verbal description was either complete, transient, or absent. The precise discriminative control of the schedules employed may account for less verbal response-rate control in the present versus past research. Possible differences between computer- and experimenter-generated verbal behavior are discussed.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

The development of functional and equivalence classes in high-functioning autistic children: the role of naming.

The development of functional and equivalence classes was studied in four high-functioning, preschool-aged autistic children. Initially, all subjects failed to demonstrate match-to-sample relations indicative of stimulus equivalence among two three-member classes of visual stimuli. Then, 2 subjects showed emergence of those relations after they were taught to assign the same name to all members in each class. Next, subjects were taught names for new stimuli outside the match-to-sample format. On subsequent match-to-sample tests, 2 subjects demonstrated untrained conditional relations among the stimuli given a common name. New, unnamed stimuli were then related via match-to-sample training to stimuli from sets of named stimuli. Tests for emergent conditional relations between the new unnamed stimuli and the named stimuli yielded positive results for 1 subject and somewhat mixed results for 3 subjects. Finally, without naming, 2 subjects developed stimulus equivalence among two new three-member classes of visual stimuli. These data suggest that naming may remediate failures to develop untrained conditional relations, some of which are indicative of stimulus equivalence.

Association Learning↗
PubMed2000

Repetitive phenomena in dementia.

OBJECTIVE: Both repetitive talk and behaviors (repetitive phenomena) are common in demented patients and are bothersome to their caregivers and families. The purpose of this preliminary report was to explore these repetitive phenomena in demented patients admitted to a geropsychiatric ward. METHOD: The sample population consisted of 141 demented patients. Patients' caregivers were asked if patients had presented a repetitive fixed pattern of physical action or talk since the onset of dementia. RESULTS: Of the 141 demented patients included in the study, seventy-nine had repetitive phenomena. Patients with these phenomena had various presentations and developed them in the early stage of dementia. CONCLUSIONS: Repetitive phenomena are widespread in dementia, especially for older patients, and may be an early sign of dementia. The characteristics of repetitive phenomena and some likely underlying mechanisms are discussed.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Field dependence--independence, social--non-social play and sex differences in preschool children.

The present study investigated the hypothesis that preschool children who spend more time in social play than in non-social play would be more field-dependent than their field-independent counterparts. Over-all the hypothesis was supported by the results. Although the social-non-social dimension appeared to account for most of the findings, correlations between individual play activities and field dependence suggested that this single dimension could not adequately account for all of the findings. The dimension of perceptual-motor demand required in some of the activities may have been involved as well. Discussion focused on the complexity of the play preference, cognitive findings, and on sex differences as well.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1976

Determinants of personal space in young children: perception of distance cues.

Two methods of assessing personal space in young children were examined in a group of 24 boys and 24 girls, aged 3 to 6 yr. When sex of peer figures and affect attributed to them were varied, 3-yr.-olds made distance-cue judgements based on affect but failed to use affect cues in structuring personal space. However, 4- to 6-yr.-olds readily perceived and used distance to communicate the affective quality of peer relations. On both measures, perception of distance cues increased with age. Only girls also used sex of figures as a social cue in depicting appropriate distances.

Affect↗
PubMed1977

Effects of physical and phenomenological distance on self-disclosure.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of physical and phenomenological distance on self-disclosure. Two physical distances, culturally appropriate and culturally inappropriate, and three degrees of phenomenological closeness were selected. Differences in physical and phenomenological distances had significant effects upon the subjects' (n = 60) durations of self-disclosure. Subjects' feelings toward the experimenter and experiment were affected by differences in physical distance. No significant interactions between physical and phenomenological distance were evident.

Humans↗
PubMed1991

Effects of auditory disruption of lingual tactile sensitivity in skilled and unskilled speaking conditions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of disruption of the auditory feedback channel on lingual vibrotactile thresholds obtained under skilled and unskilled speaking conditions. Each of 22 adults was asked to read an English (skilled) and French (unskilled) passage under conditions of normal and altered auditory feedback. Bilateral presentation of masking noise was utilized to disrupt auditory feedback. Before each of the experimental sessions and immediately following a reading, lingual vibrotactile thresholds were obtained. Analysis indicated that the mean differences in the pre- and postvibrotactile threshold measurements of the skilled auditory disrupted condition varied significantly from the mean differences in the pre- and postvibrotactile threshold measurements of the three other conditions. The role of feedback in the speech production of skilled and unskilled speakers is discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1995

Women reconstruct more details than men for a complex five-minute narrative: implications for right-hemispheric factors in the serial memory effect.

A total of 20 men and 20 women listened to a 5-min. ambiguous narrative (the "Billy" story). When the subjects were asked (unexpectedly) to reconstruct the details of the story as a written narrative 30 min. later, women employed about 50% more words and comparably more accurate detail than the men. Covariance for pre-experimental experiences suggested that the women's proficiency could be related to the greater representation of linguistic processes within the right (non-dominant) hemisphere. The hypothesis that the classic deficit of reconstructional accuracy for events during the middle of a story is related to right-hemispheric inhibition was also supported. Subjects who recalled the fewest details reported more vivid dreaming during the subsequent two days.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Enhancement of images of possible memories of others during exposure to circumcerebral magnetic fields: correlations with ambient geomagnetic activity.

On the basis of results from a special subject who reported information at a distance during exposure to weak, circumcerebral magnetic fields rotating within the horizontal plane, we designed an experiment to discern if the subjective narratives of normal people exposed to these fields could be similar to the comments of emotionally related individuals who were concurrently generating shared memories about a randomly selected stimulus. Blind matching of the comments indicated that the proportions of 44 students who accurately paired the narratives of the field-exposed subject and the comments of the stimulus person as congruent were statistically significant for 5 of the 7 pairs whose narratives were of sufficient length for analysis. The ratings for congruence of the pairs of verbal behaviors for the 7 pairs of subjects were negatively correlated (rho = -.72) with the geomagnetic activity during the 24-hr. interval within which the experiences were conducted. The results suggested consciousness might also be an insulator to myriad stimuli which might be accessible when brain activity is modified by circumcerebral magnetic fields with temporal configurations in the order of 20 msec.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Speakers' knowledge of word meanings: stable and perfect?

This study explored whether the actual state of speakers' knowledge of word meanings is as stable and perfect as Chomsky has claimed. 73 speakers of Japanese (11 men and 62 women, M age=20.6 yr.) each engaged in two tasks, one of defining the meanings of function words and content words and the other of creating a short sentence involving one of these words. Some speakers did a meaning-definition task first and then a sentence-creation task, while others did these tasks in reverse order. Use-dependent definition as an index of insufficient knowledge of word meanings was examined. Findings showed this type of definition occurred more often for the function words than for the content words and that it also occurred more often when the speakers performed the sentence-creation task before the meaning-definition task. The findings suggest that the actual state of speakers' knowledge of word meanings is not as stable nor as perfect as Chomsky has claimed.

Adult↗