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Purpose: The phase delay of stimulus frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAEs) has been proposed as a noninvasive, objective, and fast source for estimating cochlear mechanical tuning. However, the implementation of SFOAEs clinically has been thwarted by the gaps in understanding of the stability of SFOAE delay-based tuning estimates and their relationship to behavioral measures of tuning. Therefore, the goals of this study were (a) to investigate the relationship between delay-based tuning estimates from SFOAEs and simultaneously masked psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) and (b) to assess the across- and within-session repeatability of tuning estimates from behavioral and OAE measures. Method: Three sets of behavioral and OAE measurements were collected in 24 normal-hearing, young adults for two probe frequencies, 1 and 4 kHz. For each participant, delay-based tuning estimates were derived from the phase gradient of SFOAEs. SFOAE-based and behavioral estimates of tuning obtained using the fast-swept PTC paradigm were compared within and across sessions. Results: In general, tuning estimates were sharper at 4 kHz compared to 1 kHz for both PTCs and SFOAEs. Statistical analyses revealed a significant correlation between SFOAE delay-based tuning and PTCs at 4 kHz, but not 1 kHz. Lastly, SFOAE delay-based tuning estimates showed better intra- and intersession repeatability compared to PTCs. Conclusions: SFOAE phase-gradient delays reflect aspects of cochlear mechanical tuning, in that a frequency dependence similar to that of basilar membrane tuning was observed. Furthermore, the significant correlation with PTCs at 4 kHz and the high repeatability of SFOAE-based tuning measures offer promise of an objective, nonbehavioral assay of tuning in human ears., In evaluating the auditory system, combining tests of thresholds and tuning may provide a more detailed, sensitive, and accurate portrayal of the auditory system compared to the current standard of [...]

Online social networks greatly facilitate social exchange among friends. At times, for amusement, individuals may be targeted by friends' playful teases, which often involve exposing individuals' private embarrassing information, such [...]

What explains organizational search and choice when multiple opportunities are available to the decision makers? Drawing on the behavioral view of the firm, and on the attention-based view, this study [...]

Using behavioral and stakeholder theories, we suggest that family firms may have family-centered non-economic goals and that these goals could influence firm behaviors. This study extends the literature by hypothesizing [...]

Behaviorism as a philosophy of science began with an article by John B. Watson in 1913, and its several varieties inform different behavior-related disciplines. During the past 100 years, disciplinary [...]

The conversation of humankind and the future of the planet depend on an objective realist understanding of truth in science and morality. While Richard Rorty's pragmatist break with post-Cartesian philosophy is sound in part, his utopian agenda for 'the conversation of mankind' is weakened by his 'epistemological behaviorism', which offers no purchase on extra-human reality for universal truth claims. This leaves Rorty committed to an ethnocentric, liberal view promoting 'the best we can be' through persuasion but without an appeal to truth. Michael Polanyi and Hans-Georg Gadamer also turn away from the quest for guaranteed knowledge, but offer a realist alternative., INTRODUCTION Human-induced climate change and universal human rights are two intimately connected issues that highlight cognitive dissonances in contemporary scientific and moral/theological discourses. How remarkable that in an age of [...]

The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that critically examines the foundations, assumptions, methods, products, and implications of the activity called science. The present sketch reviews the historical development of the philosophy of science, representative individuals in the field, and topics of longstanding interest The sketch is intended to prepare readers for subsequent discussions on behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and the meaning of mental terms. Key words: philosophy of science, logical positivism, operational definition, intervening variable, hypothetical construct, mediational neobehaviorism, radical behaviorism, ********** The philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that critically examines the foundations, methods, products, and implications of the activity called science. Representative topics in the philosophy of [...]

We provide a sketch of J. R. Kantor's (1959, 1971) psychological interbehavioral field (IBF) theory by identifying 9 essential point and briefly discussing each. The main emphasis of this sketch is on the foundation of Kantor's thinking, the IBF. Suggestions for further study are provided. Keywords: interbehavioral psychology, interactional history, psychological events, interdependent events, interbehaviorism, J. R. Kantor, field theory, theory, We provide a sketch of J. R. Kantor's (1959, 1971) psychological interbehavioral field (IBF) theory in the following nine major points and the accompanying discussion of each. This article emphasizes [...]

Professor Delprato's review focuses on comparisons of Mind and Its Evolution: A Dual-Coding Theoretical Approach with Kantor's and Skinner's behavioristic analyses of 'mentalistic' phenomena, touching as well on other cognitive [...]

PAIVIO, ALLAN (2007) Mind and Its Evolution: A Dual Coding Theoretical Approach Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Pp. xii + 517. ISBNs 0-978-0-8058-52-2, 0-8058-5259-X (cloth) This book's title, hereafter referred to as [...]

The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of B.F.Skinner's Verbal Behavior, a book that by Skinner's own account was his most important. The received view, however, is [...]

When explaining risk taking, intertemporal allocation, and distributing behavior, economists rely on risk, time, and other-regarding preferences but offer no guidance on how these three crucial aspects are interrelated. We report on an experiment exploring such interrelation. For this sake, we compare evaluations of several prospects, each of which allocates certain or risky and immediate or delayed payoffs to the actor and to another participant. We find that individuals are self-oriented as to social allocation of risk and delay and other-regarding with respect to expected payoffs. (JEL C91, D63, D81), I. INTRODUCTION There is ample empirical evidence that people do not behave rationally when rationality implies maximization of one's own material rewards. To gain flexibility, economists have taken into account [...]

Factors that influence choice between qualitatively different reinforcers (e.g., a food item or a break from work) are important to consider when arranging treatments for problem behavior. Previous findings indicate that children who engage in problem behavior maintained by escape from demands may choose a food item over the functional reinforcer during treatment (DeLeon, Neidert, Anders, & Rodriguez-Catter, 2001; Lalli et al., 1999). However, a number of variables may influence choice between concurrently available forms of reinforcement. An analogue for treatment situations in which positive reinforcement for compliance is in direct competition with negative reinforcement for problem behavior was used in the current study to evaluate several variables that may influence choice. Participants were 5 children who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and who engaged in problem behavior maintained by escape from demands. In the first phase, the effects of task preference and schedule of reinforcement on choice between a 30-s break and a high-preference food item were evaluated. The food item was preferred over the break, regardless of the preference level of the task or the reinforcement schedule, for all but 1 participant. In the second phase, the quality of the break was manipulated by combining escape with toys, attention, or both. Only 1 participant showed preference for the enriched break. In the third phase, choice of a medium- or low-preference food item versus the enriched break was evaluated. Three of 4 participants showed preference for the break over the less preferred food item. Results extend previous research by identifying some of the conditions under which individuals who engage in escape-maintained behavior will prefer a food reinforcer over the functional one. DESCRIPTORS: choice, differential reinforcement, behavioral economics, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, escape-maintained behavior

On the basis of the behavioral approach system (BAS) dysregulation theory of bipolar disorder, this study examined the relation between occurrence of a BAS activation-relevant life event--goal striving--and onset of hypomanic and depressive episodes and symptoms. In particular, the authors examined the relation between preparing for and completing final exams (a goal-striving event) and onset of bipolar spectrum episodes and symptoms in college students with bipolar II disorder or cyclothymia (i.e., 'soft' bipolar spectrum conditions). One hundred fifty-nine individuals with either a bipolar spectrum disorder (n = 68) or no major affective psychopathology (controls; n = 91) were further classified on the basis of whether they were college students (i.e., completed final exams). Consistent with the BAS dysregulation theory, preparing for and completing final exams was associated with an increase in hypomanic but not depressive episodes and symptoms in individuals with a soft bipolar spectrum diagnosis. Furthermore, self-reported BAS sensitivity moderated the presence of certain hypomanic symptoms during final exams. Keywords: bipolar spectrum disorders, goal striving, life events, BAS

Galton's problem has been troubling the anthropologists for over half a century and it has motivated the creators of all the major cross-cultural sampling frames to advocate selection of a single ethnographic description from each of up to hundreds of internally homogenous culture areas. Galton's problem disappears when it is considered as a theoretical issue of correct specification of a model.

Behaviorism is the most radical branch of twentieth century experimental psychology, which combines scientific, anti-mentalist attitude with faith in practicability and improvement. Samuel Beckett's works time and again, allude to behaviorist concepts and satirize learning experiments, and themes and motifs pertaining to experimental psychology form a distinct pattern in his novels and plays.

The experience of revolution is examined by experimental psychology as cognitive science replaced behaviorism in the mid-20th century. This transition in the scientific account of human nature involved making normal what had once been normative and in the process, the normative philosophy of science that cognitive scientists used to reshape the discipline of psychology and characterize themselves became, at the same time, the descriptive model of human nature.

A behavioral approach to overcome the problems of internal consistency of choices in the set of critiques developed by A. Sen, against the revealed preferences theory is presented.

Adaptive behaviour in bimanual coordination was examined with the use of a bimanual circle-tracing task. Circle diameter and tactile information were manipulated to form four tracing conditions: tracing a pair of 3-cm diameter circles with the tips of the index fingers (3F) or hand-held styli (3S) and tracing a pair of 10-cm diameter circles with the tips of the index fingers (10F) or hand-held styli (10S). Movement frequency was increased in all conditions. In the 3F, 3S, and 10S tracing conditions, an abrupt transition from asymmetric to symmetric coordination was the main adaptive response, while in the 10F tracing condition, phase wandering was the main adaptive response. Enhancement of fluctuations in relative phase, a signature of loss of stability, occurred before the transition from asymmetric to symmetric coordination. Movement frequency and movement amplitude interact as control parameters in this task. The results are discussed with reference to tactile surface contact and joint motion as sources of sensory information that can be used to stabilize bimanual coordination patterns. The presence or absence of tactile information is directly linked to the specific form of adaptive behaviour (phase transition or phase wandering) that emerges as a function of required movement amplitude and required pacing frequency.

The authors review psychology's historical, competing perspectives on human motivation and propose a new comprehensive theory. The new theory is based on evolutionary principles as proposed by C. Darwin (1859) and modified by W. D. Hamilton (1964, 1996), R. L. Trivers (1971, 1972), and R. Dawkins (1989). The theory unifies biological, behavioral, and cognitive approaches to motivation. The theory is neuropsychological and addresses conscious and nonconscious processes that underlie motivation, emotion, and self-control. The theory predicts a hierarchical structure of motives that are measurable as individual differences in human behavior. These motives are related to social problem domains (D. B. Bugental, 2000; D. T. Kenrick, N. P. Li, & J. Butner, 2003), and each is hypothesized to solve a particular problem of human inclusive fitness. Key words: evolutionary psychology, motivation, motives, WE PROPOSE AN EVOLUTIONARY THEORY of human motivation, wherein motivation is defined as purposeful behavior that is ultimately directed toward the fundamental goal of inclusive fitness. We also propose that [...]

Byline: R. Duncan Luce (1), A. A. J. Marley (2) Keywords: coalescing; component summing; event commutativity; gains decomposition; ranked additive utility; ranked weighted utility; utility representations Abstract: A number of classical as well as quite new utility representations for gains are explored with the aim of understanding the behavioral conditions that are necessary and sufficient for various subfamilies of successively stronger representations to hold. Among the utility representations are: ranked additive, weighted, rank-dependent (which includes cumulative prospect theory as a special case), gains decomposition, subjective expected, and independent increments*, where * denotes something new in this article. Among the key behavioral conditions are: idempotence, general event commutativity*, coalescing, gains decomposition, and component summing*. The structure of relations is sufficiently simple that certain key experiments are able to exclude entire classes of representations. For example, the class of rank-dependent utility models is very likely excluded because of empirical results about the failure of coalescing. Figures 1--3 summarize some of the primary results. Author Affiliation: (1) University of California, Irvine (2) University of Victoria and University of Groningen, Groningen Article History: Registration Date: 01/01/2005 Article note: JEL Classification D46, D81

Byline: Paul S. Strand (1), Yvonne Barnes-Holmes (2), Dermot Barnes-Holmes (2) Keywords: matching law; Relational Frame Theory; choice; verbal behavior; education Abstract: New conceptions of what constitutes meaning for the organism have recently arisen within the behavioral tradition. These conceptions are a function of reformulations of traditional topics such as reinforcement and verbal behavior. This paper will review these reformulations and discuss their implications for education. It is argued that teachers are in need of a more comprehensive framework for understanding human behavior than the technique-based behaviorism to which they are frequently exposed. The present paper suggests that advances in our understanding of choice behavior and verbal behavior put us within reach of a comprehensive framework for making sense of the interconnectedness of social, self, and academic development. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Richland, WA (2) National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland Article History: Registration Date: 05/10/2004

Byline: John C. Malone (1) Keywords: modern behaviorism; matching law; relational frame theory; traits and states; autism Abstract: Behaviorism has changed over the past half century and its modern form is not familiar to many educators and other applied professionals. Put briefly, behaviorism has changed from the molecular and absolutist form of years past, when basic researchers, therapists and educators sought to modify isolated 'target behaviors.' Modern behaviorism is relativistic and molar and the articles included in this issue are meant to illustrate this changed emphasis. The first article shows how the matching law has redefined the old 'law of effect' and how that affects application. The second shows how relational frames provide a behavioral treatment of cognitive variables that dispels the stereotyped view of 'behavior modification.' The third treats molar classes of behaviors as 'traits,' and individual behaviors as 'states,' applying that distinction to aspects of the relative frequencies of behaviors of children at home and at school. Finally, the last article shows specifically how behavioral methods have been (and are) applied to the behavior of autistic children, in a program that has been extremely successful over the past few years. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996-0900 Article History: Registration Date: 05/10/2004

Abstract The two general learning streams in psychology, namely behaviorism and cognitivism, have so far provided the agenda for the education system. With the tremendous and multi-faceted changes and demands [...]

Research has been conducted on the male green turtles. The use of the satelite telemetry in investigating the movements and submergence behaviour of these turtles on their mating ground at Ascension Island is described and the results indicate that at the end of their mating ground residence they conduct long dives to rest before the migration away from the island.

Research has been conducted on the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. The field observations of the sea urchin covering and migration have been carried out and the effect of the interacting variables on the behaviour of the sea urchins has been examined via the log-linear analysis.

Research has been conducted on the tropical benthic carnivorous fish. The use of different foraging modes by these fish such as vigorous digging in the substratum resulting in disturbance to the benthos is described and the results indicate that the polychaetes which are the main prey item for all size classes have been selected against.

Reinforcement of variability may help to explain operant learning. Three groups of rats were reinforced, in different phases, whenever the following target sequences of left (L) and right (R) lever presses occurred: LR, RLL, LLR, RRLR, RLLRL, and in Experiment 2, LLRRL. One group (variability [VAR]) was concurrently reinforced once per minute for sequence variations, a second group also once per minute but independently of variations, that is, for any sequences (ANY), and a control group (CON) received no additional reinforcers. The 3 groups learned the easiest targets equally. For the most difficult targets, CON animals' responding extinguished whereas both VAR and ANY responded at high rates. Only the VAR animals learned, however. Thus, concurrent reinforcers - contingent on variability or not- helped to maintain responding when difficult sequences were reinforced, but learning those sequences depended on reinforcement of variations.

The scope of explanation for retirement behavior could be greatly enlarged by acknowledging workers' extended engagement with the question before the event- its 'givenness' in their future, and their course of action toward it. This study provides evidence for such extended involvement among workers aged 51 to 61 in the 1992 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) who saw themselves being within 15 years of retiring. To the extent that workers foresaw less time left at work, they reported more frequent thinking and talking about retirement. This pattern was quite general. The consideration given to retirement was, as expected, more frequent in circumstances that might orient workers toward the future. However, even absent these circumstances, subjective proximity still predicted the topicality of retirement. Widely held, albeit individual, timetables for retirement demonstrate its embeddedness in the subjective life course of older workers.

Functional behaviorism is an evolutionary stimulus-response psychology that applies to all behavior from reflexes to personality. It treats psychological phenomena as compounds of 3 processes - cognition, affect and reaction tendency - which are governed by 3 fundamental operating principles: (a) Behavior is an expression of potentials activated by instigation; (b) behavior is under the simultaneous control of excitation and inhibition; and (c) behavior is a blend of adaptation to events the individual cannot control and coping when control is possible. This view provides an organization that brings unity to science of psychology. It is an offering to peace to the warring factions in the field. It holds out the hope of creating coherent programs of education in the discipline.

A total of 431 independent supervisor and subordinate dyads from the United States, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong evaluated the perceived job role boundary of the subordinates. Participants rated the degree to which they agreed that the behavior described in the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) scale developed by P. M. Podsakoff, S. B. MacKenzie, R. H. Moorman, and R. Fetter (1990) was an expected part of the subordinate's job. Each supervisor was paired with only one subordinate, and all participants held the same jobs in the same company but with branches in these 4 nations. The scale used was found to have conceptual equivalence across all subsamples. Results indicated that supervisors had broader definitions of job roles than subordinates. Participants from Hong Kong and Japan were also more likely to regard some categories of OCB as an expected part of the job than were participants from the United States and Australia.

In a recent paper by Hayes, Adams, and Dixon (1997), Skinner's radical behaviorism was criticized on conceptual and philosophical grounds. The criticisms centered around certain types of alleged confusions between observed events and the verbal constructions used in the description of those events. In examining the arguments presented by Hayes et al. (1997), however, certain inconsistencies may be seen regarding the central issues, and problems are found in the application of the arguments to Skinner's work, given a thoroughgoing behavioral view of language. For example, the word 'cause' might be viewed in Skinner's writings as implying hidden metaphysical forces, but such an interpretation would ignore the historical influence of Mach in Skinner's usage of the term as well as Skinner's repeated refutation of such metaphysical implications., In a recent article entitled 'Causal Constructs and Conceptual Confusions,' Hayes, Adams, and Dixon (1997) proposed and described a number of conceptual and philosophical problems that they contended were derivable [...]

Forsyth (1997), a third-generation self-described member of the behavior therapy movement, suggests that behavior therapy has had a checkered history over the past 30 years: at times progressing, at times stagnating, and at other times regressing. He laments the decline of theory, and the lack of influence by basic research, as two primary elements missing from contemporary behavior therapy. I agree with almost everything Forsyth says, but would cast the problem in a somewhat different context. In this commentary I suggest that the problem is not the absence of theory in contemporary behavior therapy, but rather the absence of behaviorism. Behaviorism, in my view, is not a theory, but an epistemology that provides a methodology for studying and changing behavior. I do believe that there is very little in basic science that is relevant to the practice of behavior therapy, and that theory is all too plentiful, rather than absent. However, plentiful does not necessarily mean helpful.

Nineteen elderly hearing impaired subjects participated in an experimental treatment study and received either behavioural hearing tactics or served as untreated controls. Treatment was supplied in the form of a self-help treatment manual supplied with telephone contacts during 4 consecutive weeks. The treatment manual included applied relaxation, communication strategies training, advice to relatives, information, and coping skills. Assessments (pre-post) were conducted in a structured interview measuring coping behaviour. In order to evoke behavioural compensation small acoustic provocations were included in the interview. Pre-post assessments also included questionnaires, daily registered hearing problems, and hours of daily hearing aid use. Results showed significant beneficial effects in favour of the treatment in terms of self-assessed problems and behaviour change.

Humans show a resurgence of responding to changes in derived relations that remains consistent with their early training. The contingency of punishment acts as a contextual cue to regulate the derived responses. Behavior variations occur under extinction conditions, but the variability is limited by the individual's reinforcement history. Despite the variability, humans show a preference for the previously learned relations.