Drugs of abuse cause changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and associated regions that impair inhibitory control over drug-seeking. Breaking the contingencies between drug-associated cues and the delivery of the reward during extinction learning reduces rates of relapse. Here we used vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to induce targeted synaptic…

The school is a behavior setting which acts on students and teachers and which produces predictable patterns of behavior. Architects should therefore design schools at the scale of the behavior setting. (Author/LLR)

Within an experimental paradigm that simulated systematic desensitization, the effects of manipulated cognitive expectancy on avoidance behavior were evaluated. The results indicated that both overt avoidance behavior and two verbal indexes were differentially affected by expectancy and that no relationship between avoidance behavior and autonomic…

Five groups of 15 female subjects reporting fear of snakes participated in two behavioral avoidance tests employing a snake as the target object. Results are discussed both in terms of implications for psychotherapy outcome research design and possible usefulness of situational variables in the development of more effective anxiety-reduction…

Results support the hypothesized relationship between meaning and phobia. Semantic desensitization techniques based on counter conditioning of meaning were significantly effective in altering the semantic value of the word from unpleasantness to neutrality. (Author)

Behavior is guided by its consequences. Paper explores the events which occur when people attempt to control other people's behavior using this principle. (Author)

In a case of claustrophobia and in another with fears of flying, Japanese defense activities of the Karate type proved to be effective counter conditioners of anxiety. They were used in the former case in vivo and in the later case both in imagination and in vivo. (Author)

Describes a two-year experiment to begin in July 1977 in which a Yugoslavian, Milutin Veljkovic, will stay underground to study the human physiological and psychological adjustment to the isolation of the cave. Only contact with outside world will be a computer terminal linked to researchers above ground. (CS)

The reactive effect of self-monitoring was examined in three experiments. Some results indicated that self-monitoring was reactive, providing a performance goal or feedback augmented the reactive effects of self-monitoring, and the act of self-recording led to behavior change. (Author)

This study was designed to investigate response-class phenomena and the possibility of indirect contingency control. A 3 1/2-year-old male was the subject for the study. (BD)

Compared effects of six sessions of group counseling of nine chronic home hemodialysis patients with a comparable no treatment control group. Comparisons revealed no significant differences between groups. Subsequent testing a year later suggested that hemodialysis patients use the defensive mechanism of denial in adapting to their condition.…

The influence of peer models on changing the impulsive response styles of fourth and sixth grades was experimentally investigated. (DP)