It is often claimed that applied behaviour analysis is founded on basic behavioural concepts involving the direct extrapolation of data from the experimental laboratory to the analysis of human behaviour. It is claimed that such an approach gives theoretical coherence to a set of procedures, and avoids the pitfalls associated with a collection of unrelated techniques. This presumed experimental base is said to make applied behaviour analysis more rigorous, more effective, more systematic, and easier to teach and learn than other approaches to the modification of human behaviour. There is reason to believe, however, that the link between experimental and applied behaviour analysis is more one of commitment than reality. Previous authors have shown that research findings from the experimental analysis of behaviour are becoming increasingly isolated from other areas of psychology in general. The present study provides evidence that such findings are also isolated from applied behaviour analysis in particular. Experimental data are seldom cited in applied work and, when they are, it is seldom specific or current data to which references are made. It is argued that this state of affairs is attributable to the acceptance, by applied behaviour analysis, of a model of behaviour whose complexity is insufficient to cope with the complex interactive nature of human behaviour. The present work provides an outline of the current applied behaviour analytic model, and then proceeds to discuss some of the major types of data of which the model takes no significant account. An extensive examination of data from the experimental analysis of choice behaviour is given, which reveals the level of complexity to which application may be made. Suggestions as to the practical utilization of these data are made, with particular reference to the areas of self-control and commitment. A case study involving the use of a commitment procedure in the treatment of an exhibitionist and another concerning the application of experimentally-derived procedures to a self-control problem, provide clinical evidence of the usefulness of the direct incorporation of experimental data. Following these applied case studies, a number of other areas of experimental research are examined with respect to their relevance to applied behaviour analysis. Significant data from the study of multiple-schedule interactions, stimulus control, and two specific types of analyses of reinforcement phenomena are outlined and suggestions made concerning their applied potential. Further, data which could determine the limits of the applicability of experimental data, in the context of biological constraints on behaviour, are shown to be capable of further increasing the utility of applied behaviour analytic techniques. Finally, the implications of the data analyzed are discussed in terms of the future training of applied behaviour analysts.

Lesions were placed in several areas of the telencephalon and diencephalon of the brain of the pigeon and the effects on the acquisition of inhibitory dimensional and inhibitory stimulus control were observed. The experimental tasks consisted of both visual and auditory interdimensional discriminations each of which had two components: In the first the stimuli were presented successively on the one response key (the main key) according to a multiple variable-interval extinction schedule. In the second the multiple schedule still obtained but a changeover key was added which, when pecked, changed the main-key stimulus, together with its associated schedule of reinforcement, to the next in a randomly ordered series. The use of these two components allowed the separation of two aspects of inhibitory control in learning: response reduction and stimulus reduction thereby permitting the assessment of discriminative ability in the absence of the confounding factor of response reduction. Inhibitory dimensional and inhibitory stimulus control were assessed by post-discrimination generalization tests and combined-cue tests, respectively. It was found that lesions to areas considered limbic - hippocampus, septum, anterior dorsomedial thalamus - had no effect on the learning of a visual discrimination. Lesions to the dorsolateral thalamus produced a complete inability to learn this discrimination, presumably due to disruption of visual fibres en route to the telecephalon. Lesions to the Wulst produced a visual discrimination learning deficit in some birds but not in others, an inconsistency not accounted for by differences in lesion size. Wulst lesions also produced an auditory discrimination learning deficit and in this case the larger the lesion, the larger the deficit. Lesions to ectostriatum produced a deficit in the visual task and lesions to Field L, an auditory projection area, produced a deficit in the auditory task, but not in the visual task. However, in most cases the discrimination learning deficit which was produced was confined to the multiple schedule where the animal had no control over the presentation or duration of the stimuli. Once the changeover key was introduced most birds obtained the learning criterion very quickly by "switching out" of the negative stimulus. This effective changeover responding, together with unimpaired inhibitory dimensional or inhibitory stimulus control, suggested that although the initial learning deficit might be described in terms of an inability to withhold responding in the presence of stimuli previously correlated with reinforcement, this inability could not readily be explained in terms of a lesion-induced impairment in an inhibitory process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate consequences of concussion. Previous work had either concentrated on memory defects only, included cases of cerebral damage as well as concussion, or examined residual defects persisting after the period of impaired consciousness had ended. It was hoped to determine which function or functions might be affected in concussion by testing only young adult cases of 'pure' concussion in the immediate post-traumatic period. In the main experiment a paced serial addition task was administered to a mildly concussed (MC) and seriously concussed (SC) group at twenty-four-hourly intervals during the hospital period, and thirty to forty days after discharge. A normal control and hospital control group were given the task at similar time intervals. Recent concussion impaired performance and SC Ss needed almost five times as long as controls to process each correct response while MC Ss were about twenty per cent slower, However, responses were qualitatively similar in all groups, and concussed Ss differed only in producing many more late response errors. At retest the MC group had regained control level, but although SC Ss had significantly improved PASAT scores they were still poorer than the other three groups. Experiments II and III investigated stages in the information transmission process which may have produced restricted information processing shown by PASAT results. Reaction and movement times were not longer than normal, although central processing time was. MC Ss did not have significantly slower non-symbolic RTs, or symbolic two- and four-choice RTs, but they differed significantly from controls on eight- and ten-choice symbolic trials. Again this difference between groups was not found at retest four weeks later. Results suggested inefficient 'pigeon-holing' (Broadbent, 1971) as a possible factor in reduced information transmission following concussion. However, a message repetition task indicated no difference between concussed and non-concussed Ss in use of this mechanism. Message repetition also demonstrated that patients had no difficulty in auditory perception of verbal material. In the third stage, normal Ss were given message repetition with and without a concurrent distracting task. Performance during distraction was sufficiently similar to that of recently concussed Ss to suggest that the patient group may have been poorer than controls on the same task only because they also had reduced processing capacity. When given PASAT with a secondary paced task, performance of another group of normal Ss was almost identical to concussed Ss in the first experiment. Finally, to test the possibility that reduced processing capacity was the result of increased distractability, that is, processing task-irrelevant stimuli, an attention task (speech shadowing) was given to a small group of MC Ss and normal controls. There were no instances of intrusions or interference from an irrelevant message to indicate a defect in selective attention, although MC Ss had significantly lower shadowing scores. It was concluded that reduction in processing capacity produced by concussion was a function of patients' lower level of arousal, and that performance resembled that reported in the literature from sleep-deprived Ss and cases of brain-stem damage or dysfunction. A feature of results was the extremely competent performance exhibited by concussion patients, given a reduction in total capacity. Similar optimizing behaviour was evident during distraction tasks, and it was suggested that ability to monitor and control distribution of available processing space by instructions ('set') is a general characteristic of ordered behaviour. This ability was not disturbed by degrees of concussion sustained by experimental Ss in this study. Amnesic symptoms of the immediate post-traumatic period were considered in terms of lowered arousal level. It was proposed that these might be explained by a combination of two factors: (i) processing space insufficient to store items while responding to them, and (ii) tagging of items in storage with levels of concurrent background activity, and thus 'state-dependent' memory. Evidence for a processing deficit existing after termination of the period of PTA was reviewed, and the possibility of permanent effect in terms of increased disability following repeated concussions. Some aspects of results important in considering rehabilitation programmes for head-injured patients were noted.

A series of experiments was undertaken to explore the effect of interaural differences in the intensity of masking noise upon the detection of a signal. The signal was a 2-kHz sinusoid, and the masker was composed of either one or two 800-Hz wide bands of noise. The centre frequencies of the two bands of noise, one above and one below the signal frequency, were varied. On most occasions both noise bands were used to create a spectral notch surrounding the signal. The following factors were manipulated: (1) The width of the notch: from 0 to 1900 Hz. (2) The location of the lower and upper frequency edges of the notch relative to the signal: either equidistant from the signal, or with one edge 150 Hz nearer to the signal than the other edge. (3) The spectrum level of the noise: either 20, 35 or 50 dB SPL. (4) The degree of interaural disparity in the intensity of some components of the noise: either 0 dB, 10 dB or infinite. (5) The ear to which a particular masking noise was sent. (6) The manner in which the noise was presented: either diotically or dichotically. (7) The manner in which the signal was presented: either diotically or monotically. The results of the first two experiments were interpreted as showing that threshold signal levels in the presence of interaural differences in the intensity of masking noise depended principally on the ear in which the signal-to-masker ratio at the output of the auditory filter was larger. To test this possibility, auditory filter shapes were derived from two listeners. These were then used to predict thresholds when there were interaural differences in the spectral envelope of a masking noise. The results of a comparison between the predicted and obtained thresholds were consistent with the previous interpretation. Thus it appears that the detector following the filter can discriminate the output of the two ears and base detection on the better output. This ability may be useful in normal listening, where both wanted and extraneous sounds are subject to change from moment to moment.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Whitaker College of Health Sciences, Technology, and Management, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 1986 / Bibliography: leaves 143-154. / by Christopher Granger Atkeson. / Ph. D. / Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Whitaker College of Health Sciences, Technology, and Management, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

In broad terms, parentification can be defined as a child taking on the role of parent to his or her own parents; though in reality the construct is more complex. Although related constructs (e.g. boundary transgressions, role reversal, ‘hurried child’) have been discussed in the literature for many years, the term ‘parentification’ per se is a relatively new one within the field of psychological research and empirical studies are still limited. When researching in the field of parentification, an issue that is apparent is the lack of adequate measures of parentification available for children and adolescents. The few measures of parentification that exist have been (a) retrospective (asking adults to recall levels of responsibility within their families of origin as adolescents) and/or (b) uni-dimensional (measuring parentification as a single score rather than taking into account different facets such as confidant to one’s own parents, mediator between conflicting parents, ‘pseudo-parents’ to siblings, or excessive household responsibilities). The first aim of the current research was to develop a reliable and valid multidimensional measure of parentification that was appropriate for completion by children and adolescents. The series of studies that follow utilise this newly developed parentification scale to examine parentification of adolescents aged 10-16 years from families undergoing parental divorce. A comparison group of children from two-parent continuously married (not remarried) families were included. A previously validated uni-dimensional measure of parentification, the Parentification Questionnaire – Youth (PQ-Y: Godsall & Jurkovic, 1995) was also used throughout the studies (although in the current sample, this measure was multidimensional, yielding two factors labelled Alienation and Tangible Tasks). Broad research goals of the studies are: 1. to examine parentification (and its association with family functioning and sibling relationship quality) from the perspective of multiple family members, 2. to explore parentification differences between families on variables of age, sex, birth order, family size and parental marital status, and 3. to assess the extent to which parentification affects adolescent psychological adjustment, and how burden of parentification may mediate the relationship between parentification and psychological adjustment. Parents and children aged 10-16 years from 304 families (127 divorcing; 177 married) were invited to participate in a 12-month study of parentification that included questions about demographics, family responsibilities, family functioning, adolescent adjustment, and sibling relationships. In addition, in divorcing families, both parents and one child (target child) were invited to be interviewed regarding their experiences surrounding the separation and divorce. The measure of parentification designed for the current research adapted the multidimensional, retrospective measure written by Mika, Bergner and Baum (1987). This new measure was labelled the Youth Parentification Scale (YPS), and findings suggest that it is a reliable measure of parentification in the current sample of married and divorcing families. Results revealed that children from divorcing families and girls reported higher levels of parentification (across various factors). Results on multiple perspectives within the family were mixed. In general, children were more likely than their parents to report higher levels of parentification within the family, although this effect differed slightly dependent upon parental marital status. Siblings who reported offering support to other members of the family also rated their relationship with their sibling as warmer: this result held true for both firstand second-born children. Additionally, both first- and second-born children agreed that parentification may affect the relative status/power between siblings. While few direct associations between parentification and adjustment existed, negative adjustment outcomes (higher anxiety, higher depression and lower self-esteem) were evident when the burden associated with increased responsibility was taken into account. Taking on the role of confidant to one’s parents, playing ‘pseudo-parent’ to one’s siblings, or feeling alienated within one’s family of origin was associated with higher levels of burden, which in turn led children to report higher depression and anxiety and lower self-esteem. Additionally, taking on a parentified role was associated with higher levels of burden, which in turn was associated with reports of lower levels of family functioning (i.e. lower intimacy, higher conflict, and a more controlling parenting style). The current research has implications for the development and refinement of future measures of parentification for use in empirical studies. The Youth Parentification Scale showed that different facets of parentification do seem to exist, and that offering comfort and support to mothers or fathers seems to have an association with various aspects of adjustment, sibling relationships and general family functioning. Alienation (a factor emerging from the PQ-Y), while not actually associated with increased responsibility or parentification per se, showed associations with parentification that indicate that this may be an important construct to include in future attempts at developing a comprehensive measure of parentification. Additionally, the current research unveiled findings that may have clinical importance. Findings revealed that while children from divorcing families did exhibit higher scores on various scales of parentification, outcomes were not necessarily worse for these children than for children within married families who were similarly parentified. Adolescence is a time of emotional growth when some age-appropriate adoption of adult responsibility is warranted; and in fact for children undergoing the transition of parental separation and divorce, adoption of extra responsibilities may be adaptive, perhaps even protective inasmuch as it may bring the child closer to parents during a time when anxiety about family dissolution is high. Further studies (preferably longitudinal) exploring the adaptive facets of parentification are warranted.

Background: Entrepreneurship potential amongst rural Nama youth should be considered a courageous idea to enhance the motivation and development of the community. At independence in 1990, Namibia developed its own economic and youth policies which were drafted in alignment with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which address concerns about the role rural young people, can play in their own communities. Theoretical Background: This paper explores the role of indigenous entrepreneurship as it pertains to development amongst rural youth in Namibia. It considers the cultural context within which entrepreneurship takes place. To identify and understand the cultural context, the study draws upon the theoretical frameworks of Geert Hofstede, specifically his continuum of individualism/collectivism. The need to continually incorporate new aspects whilst consciously maintaining the traditional, reflects a key African concept, that of "Ubuntu" (unmuntu ngumutu ngabantu). Methodology: An empirical investigation of rural youth in Arandis village was conducted. To explore the significance of entrepreneurship, culture and the notion of Ubuntu in Africa, a comprehensive study of stakeholder views at both a community and national level was also carried out. These investigations were guided by questionnaires, in-depth interviews (supported by story-telling), playback national radio interviews, a panel discussion and a review of Namibian policy documents. Analysis of data also explored practical initiatives and possible forms of enterprise which could contribute to the creation of opportunity for youth in Arandis and in Namibia. Findings: The major findings of this thesis are that: entrepreneurship in Namibia is defined by participants and stakeholders as the efforts made by an individual in accumulating the necessary resources to benefit the community; rural young people in Arandis are potential entrepreneurs (illustrated, by the strong passion they showed to be role models in their community and their strong sense of cultural identity).

Adults can mentally relive experiences from their past and anticipate possible future events, a process called mental time travel (MTT). Recently, several theorists have argued that the ability to mentally travel through time may not emerge until 3- to 5-years of age. This proposal is based on evidence from a wide range of research, including investigations into children’s recall, planning and differentiation of the times of events in the past and the future. However, as yet there has been no dedicated effort to find out how and when MTT develops. The current series of studies brought together a wide range of resources with the aim of designing a series of novel paradigms to measure aspects of MTT development between 3- and 5-years of age. The first of these novel approaches asked children to report events that occurred to them “yesterday” and would occur to them “tomorrow”, revealing that by 4- to 5-years of age most children could accurately do so. Another series of studies examined children’s ability to anticipate a different, future situation, finding that only by 4- to 5-years did children’s behaviour reflect differences in an anticipated future environment. Subsequent studies focusing on children’s discrimination of past and future also suggested that by 4- to 5-years children could distinguish the different causal impact of past and future events on the present. Another task revealed that during the preschool years children become better at differentiating the times of events from throughout their own lifespan. These new data provide support for the claim that the ability to mentally travel into one’s own past and future emerges during the preschool years. This thesis describes the first directed investigation into the development of MTT as a whole, bringing together much of the empirical and theoretical literature for the first time. The tasks designed are new approaches to investigating MTT and represent a starting point for future research. This thesis also introduces and discusses theories for the development of MTT, aiming to stimulate discussion not just of when it emerges, but how, and what processes may underlie the transition.

Adults can mentally relive experiences from their past and anticipate possible future events, a process called mental time travel (MTT). Recently, several theorists have argued that the ability to mentally travel through time may not emerge until 3- to 5-years of age. This proposal is based on evidence from a wide range of research, including investigations into children’s recall, planning and differentiation of the times of events in the past and the future. However, as yet there has been no dedicated effort to find out how and when MTT develops. The current series of studies brought together a wide range of resources with the aim of designing a series of novel paradigms to measure aspects of MTT development between 3- and 5-years of age. The first of these novel approaches asked children to report events that occurred to them “yesterday” and would occur to them “tomorrow”, revealing that by 4- to 5-years of age most children could accurately do so. Another series of studies examined children’s ability to anticipate a different, future situation, finding that only by 4- to 5-years did children’s behaviour reflect differences in an anticipated future environment. Subsequent studies focusing on children’s discrimination of past and future also suggested that by 4- to 5-years children could distinguish the different causal impact of past and future events on the present. Another task revealed that during the preschool years children become better at differentiating the times of events from throughout their own lifespan. These new data provide support for the claim that the ability to mentally travel into one’s own past and future emerges during the preschool years. This thesis describes the first directed investigation into the development of MTT as a whole, bringing together much of the empirical and theoretical literature for the first time. The tasks designed are new approaches to investigating MTT and represent a starting point for future research. This thesis also introduces and discusses theories for the development of MTT, aiming to stimulate discussion not just of when it emerges, but how, and what processes may underlie the transition.

Remembering to complete some future intention (i.e., prospective remembering) is a frequent requirement of everyday activities. Prospective memory failures (e.g., forgetting to take one’s medication) can have devastating consequences. Cognitive psychologists have sought to understand how individuals can successfully fulfill their prospective memory intentions. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to find evidence for specific cognitive mechanisms that could feasibly account for prospective memory behaviors. In part, this is because many theories of prospective memory stipulate that prospective remembering is accomplished through discrete/covert mental processes. In the current set of experiments, eye-tracking technology was used to test these various mechanistic explanations. Using an eye-tracking computer to measure pupillary responses to prospective memory task characteristics allowed for the observation of changes in discrete mental activity during the course of a prospective memory task scenario. Across two experiments, I observed elevated pupil dilation when participants were given additional prospective memory demands. Furthermore, when participants correctly recognized the presentation of a prospective memory target, it appeared that their pupil dilation increased dramatically, and elevated dilation persisted for several trials. This pattern of pupil dilation is consistent with an account of prospective remembering that suggests individuals sometimes engage in actively monitoring for an opportunity to<br>11<br>complete their prospective memory intention, and that at other times, individuals will reduce or discontinue monitoring activity until some cue brings the prospective memory intention back into mind. Consistent with such an account, individual differences in working memory were positively associated with pupil size only when the prospective memory task afforded monitoring. This was in line with recent research implicating the working memory system in facilitating active monitoring during certain prospective memory contexts. Finally, the current set of experiments demonstrated the utility of pupillometric methods for measuring active monitoring in a prospective memory scenario.