Biomedical subjects

J G Holland

Publications and source records attributed to J G Holland.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1979

Control by stimulus features during fading.

Sixteen children were given four successive circle-size discrimination problems with luminance as the fading stimulus. Children who were first presented with a difficult size discrimination failed to acquire this discrimination. Those who first received an easy discrimination learned the difficult discrimination. At the end of each 10-trial block, two probe stimuli were presented to monitor any shift in control from luminance to size. One probe was the same size as the positive stimulus but of different luminance; the other was the same luminance but of different size. If, in the course of fading, size and luminance both controlled responding, fading was successful. If luminance alone controlled responding until the end of fading, the size discrimination was not established. Dual control, and thus successful fading, resulted when the target stimuli were very discriminable, or when the target stimuli were subtly different provided that previous fading series had first established less subtle discriminations.

Child↗

PubMed1978

Behaviorism: part of the problem or part of the solution.

The form frequently taken by behavior-modification programs is analyzed in terms of the parent science, Behaviorism. Whereas Behaviorism assumes that behavior is the result of contingencies, and that lasting behavior change involves changing the contingencies that give rise to and support the behavior, most behavior-modification programs merely arrange special contingencies in a special environment to eliminate the "problem" behavior. Even when the problem behavior is as widespread as alcoholism and crime, behavior modifiers focus on "fixing" the alcoholic and the criminal, not on changing the societal contingencies that prevail outside the therapeutic environment and continue to produce alcoholics and criminals. The contingencies that shape this method of dealing with behavioral problems are also analyzed, and this analysis leads to a criticism of the current social structure as a behavior control system. Although applied behaviorists have frequently focused on fixing individuals, the science of Behaviorism provides the means to analyze the structures, the system, and the forms of societal control that produce the "problems".

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1978

Observations on cell lines derived from a patient with Hodgkin's disease.

Permanent cell lines have been established from a spleen nodule and lymph node of a male Hodgkin's disease (HD) patient whose father has the same disease. Th in vitro growth pattern morphological and cytogenetic characteristics of these lines maintained continuously for over 2 years are described. The cultures contain a population of mixed cell types that grow in suspension. Between 5 and 10% of the cells have surface immunoglobulins M and D. B-cell alloantigens are also detectable. While the cultures are predominantly lymphoid, some of the large cells, by light and electron microscopy, resemble the Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin's cells of the original biopsies. Although the cells maintain the human diploid karyotype, they are heterotransplantable in nude mice. After 14 months of culture, chromosome rearrangement and losses, commonly seen in leukemic bone marrow, occurred. Close to 100% of the cells are Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen positive, but they lack Epstein-Barr viral (EBV) capsid antigen and EBV-induced early antigen. Nucleic acid hybridization tests indicated that there were no more than two EBV genome equivalents per cell. Tests with HD sera free of anti-EBV were negative. Electron microscope examination of the cells revealed the presence of intracellular as well as extracellular rare pleomorphic particles ranging from 400 to 1200 A. The nature of these particles, which increased in number after the cultures were treated with halogenated pyrimidines but not with dimethyl sulfoxide, remains questionable. The cultures derived from the mouse-passaged HD cells, however, had reverse transcriptase activity and readily identifiable type C particles which were probably of murine origin. These cultures have some unique features that make them useful in studying the perplexing pathological entity of HD.

Adolescent↗