Glen D. King

Intellectual and personality changes associated with carotid endarterectomy

Eleven patients with at least 40-50% carotid artery stenosis were given intelligence and personality tests just prior to and 6 weeks after carotid endarterectomy, a surgical procedure designed to remove arteriosclerotic blockage. When compared with 8 control patients, endarterectomy patients showed increases in Perceptual-Organization IQ, decreases in time to complete a perceptual motor task, and significant reductions in suspicion, confusion, disorientation, and other personality symptoms generally associated with senility.

Wheel running in the rat induced by a fixed-time presentation of water

Four female water-deprived albino rats were given free access to a running wheel and food in baseline sessions with water present for the first 375 sec of each daily 100-min session. In experimental sessions, water was presented intermittently according to a fixed-time (FT) 2-min schedule, which delivered water on a periodic basis independently of the rat’s behavior, resulting in 50 7.5sec presentations of the water tube. Food consumption did not vary as a function of the experimental condition, whereas running increased for all Ss during the schedule conditions. Increases in running appeared to be the result of increases in both initiations of running and run-burst lengths.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a telephone counseling center.

Three-thousand questionnaires were distributed to students on campus to identify a sample of actual telephone counseling center users and their ratings of the effectiveness of the help received and of the counselor. Ratings of help received and impact of counseling on life as it is today were considered for sex of caller and counselor across type of problem. A sample of 66 actual callers was identified who had used the service for personal problems at least once. Of male callers, 67% reported that telephone counseling helped at least somewhat, while 80% of female callers reported favorable results of telephone counseling. Female callers who talked with male counselors reported a significantly greater impact on their life than did the callers in any other caller/counselor sex interaction. Only one average rating of counseling effectiveness by problem type fell below the neutral rating. Results are presented as evidence for the effectiveness of paraprofessional counselors.

EFFECTS OF AUTHORITARIAN, ANTI-AUTHORITARIAN, AND EGALITARIAN LEGAL ATTITUDES ON MOCK JUROR AND JURY DECISIONS

The effects of authoritarian, anti-authoritarian, and egalitarian legal attitudes on verdicts by simulated jurors and juries were investigated. 360 undergraduate students in introductory psychology were classified as authoritarian, anti-authoritarian, or egalitarian in their legal attitudes on the basis of responses to the Legal Attitudes Questionnaire. An equal number (120) of each juror type was selected. They were grouped into six-person homogeneous mock juries and asked to render an individual decision prior to deliberation, an individual post-deliberation verdict, and a group decision. Prior to deliberation the authoritarian student jurors responded more punitively toward a defendant to whom they were similar. The deliberation process exerted a moderating influence, and the egalitarian student jurors were especially susceptible to this influence. Finally similarity to the defendant was the most salient factor in determining the decision, and student juries were significantly more punitive toward a defendant who was similar to them in race and socio-economic status.

MMPI behavioral correlates of spike-5 and two-point code types with scale 5 as one elevation.

Data from 550 student outpatient psychiatric files were extracted and summarized on record sheets. Base rates for the entire population were determined. MMPI profiles were grouped according to their highest two-point elevations or by single elevation when only one scale was elevated above T-score 70. All profiles with only a scale-5 elevation or for which scale 5 was one of the two highest clinical elevations were removed from the profile population, and the corresponding correlates for these groups of profiles were compared to those for the remainder of the population. Spike-5 profiles indicate basically normal adjustment, while 2-5/5-2, 4-5/5-4, 7-5/5-7, and 8-5/5-8 profiles all indicate varying degrees of psychopathology.

DEVELOPMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SCHEDULE-INDUCED POLYDIPSIA

In a developmental analysis of schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP), 8 female, albino rats were exposed to either a FI-60-sec. or a VI-60-sec. reinforcement schedule with 4 Ss in each group. Results indicated that the adventitious reinforcement explanation for SIP is not tenable, since licks did not occur with equal probability in all periods of the interpellet interval during SIP development; lick bursts coming in contact with pellet deliveries were a result rather than a cause of SIP; and SIP developed more slowly on the VI than on the FI schedule.

Behavioral correlates for spike-4, spike-9, and 4-9/9-4 MMPI profiles in students at a university mental health center.

Numerous investigators have noted that spike-4, spike-9, and 4-9/9-4 profiles occur with an unusually high frequency in college students. Five hundred and fifty files of college students who requested outpatient psychiatric services were reviewed, and the data from 47 files were extracted in which the student patient had a clinically elevated spike-4, spike-9, or 4-9/9-4 profile. Numerous significant psychopathological behavioral correlates were found for each profile type, which supports the contention that these profile types are reflective of significant psychopathology and are not examples of benign deviations of a particular sample from the original normative group.

The enhancement of schedule-induced polydipsia by preschedule noncontingent shock

Eight food-deprived female albino rats, with electrode attachments to the back of their necks, were divided into two groups, a shock-before-schedule group and a no-shock-before-schedule group, with four Ss in each group. Ss were subjected to five successive experimental phases, during each of which individual water intakes were recorded for each 200-min daily session. The predicted result, that electric shock preceding the reinforcement schedule condition would lead to increases in water intakes, was generally upheld by the data. Increases in drinking associated with shock appeared to be a result of both increased frequency of drink bout initiation and a lengthening of the lick burst.

The consequences of restricted water accessibility on schedule-induced polydipsia

Twelve naive female albino rats were assigned to three groups (four subjects per group), and each group was given access to water for one of three 20-sec periods during the interpellet interval. Water intakes of all subjects in each group increased substantially relative to baseline conditions with nonsignificant differences in water intakes between groups. Although schedule-induced polydipsia develops under conditions of restricted water accessibility, the concept of reinforcement probability alone cannot adequately predict the relative degree of water intakes, but must be considered in relation to other potent variables.

Behavioral correlates of infrequent two-point MMPI code types at a university mental health center.

Presented interpretive correlates for 95 college students who were seeking mental health services and who generated the following infrequently occurring MMPI code types: Spike 2, 2-0/0-2, 2-4/4-2, 2-6/6-2, 3-4/4-3, 3-9/9-3, 4-7/7-4, 6-7/7-6, 7-9/9-7, and Spike O. Descriptors were derived from intake interview and mental status information collected without knowledge of the MMPI profile. Those items that discriminated between each profile type and the remainder of the student mental health population (Chi Square, alpha = .05, .01) are presented as tentative interpretive descriptors that may be helpful in generating hypotheses for use with college student psychiatric outpatients.