Comparing stimulus preference and response force in a conjugate preparation

Researchers used a conjugate preparation to evaluate how response force changed based on participants' preferences for visual stimuli. First, researchers used a verbal preference assessment to evaluate each participant's preference for viewing for five object categories of visual stimuli; this process identified high preference (HP) stimuli and low preference stimuli for most participants. Thereafter, researchers exposed each participant to the five stimulus categories in a randomized order while using a force dynamometer to measure their response force to increase visual clarity of each stimulus. Results indicate the majority of participants' HP stimuli corresponded to the stimulus category for which they exerted the highest mean force. These preliminary findings suggest conjugate preparations involving response force may provide another option for measuring the relative value of some stimulus events.     

An Intelligence Survey of a Typical Town School

In this study, the authors investigated the relation between early social contingency experiences and infants' competencies to detect nonsocial contingencies. In this study of 87 three-month-old infants, the authors operationalized early social contingencies as prompt, contingent maternal responses and coded microanalytically on the basis of video-recorded mother-infant interactions. The authors assessed competence to detect nonsocial contingencies by 2 methods: (a) the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between the infants' actions (kicking) and nonsocial consequences (mobile moving) and (b) the visual expectation paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between 1 event (a smiley face projected on a screen) that was followed by a 2nd event (a complex picture projected on the other side of the screen). The results showed that early social contingencies are related to the competency to detect nonsocial action-consequence contingencies in the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm.     

Multiple schedules of conjugate reinforcement and extinction: A translational model for assessing automatically reinforced behavior

This study evaluated the extent to which a conjugate reinforcement schedule (CONJ) involving a contingency between pedaling a stationary bike and viewing a preferred movie could serve as a translational preparation for the analysis of automatically reinforced behavior. In part, researchers examined whether providing participants with either an accurate or an inaccurate rule about the extinction (EXT) component of a multiple schedule (MULT) contributed to the development of control by the MULT (CONJ EXT) schedule. Results show schedule control emerged for four of five participants who received the accurate rule and none of the five participants who received the inaccurate rule. In addition, participants who received accurate rules typically increased pedaling during CONJ components that followed two consecutive EXT components, suggesting that they experienced deprivation for audio and visual stimulation generated by pedaling. These preliminary findings suggest that researchers could use this translational preparation to identify matched interventions for some automatically reinforced behavior.     

The multiple-stimulus-without-replacement preference assessment tool and its predictive validity

This study demonstrates the use of two web-based programs, one to identify video preferences and the other to assess their reinforcing effects. We used the Multiple-Stimulus-Without-Replacement Preference Assessment Tool (MSWO PAT) to identify the video preference hierarchies of seven participants, ages 4–11 years old. We then used a customized reinforcer assessment program that arranged a concurrent-chains preparation with programmed conjugate schedules of reinforcement. Button presses emitted by participants modulated the quality (volume and opacity) of selected videos on a moment-to-moment basis, allowing us to identify the reinforcing effects of the videos in little time. The results showed that the preference assessment had predictive value for five of seven participants. We discuss the MSWO PAT, parameters that may affect the identification of preferences and the use of conjugate schedules to identify reinforcers.     

Dual scaling of comparison and reference stimuli in multi-dimensional psychological space

Dzhafarov and Colonius (Psychol. Bull. Rev. 6 (1999)239; J. Math. Psychol. 45(2001)670) proposed a theory of Fechnerian scaling of the stimulus space based on the psychometric (discrimination probability) function of a human subject in a same-different comparison task. Here, we investigate a related but different paradigm, namely, referent-probe comparison task, in which the pair of stimuli (x and y) under comparison assumes substantively different psychological status, one serving as a referent and the other as a probe. The duality between a pair of psychometric functions, arising from assigning either x or y to be the fixed reference stimulus and the other to be the varying comparison stimulus, and the 1-to-1 mapping between the two stimulus spaces X and Y under either assignment are analyzed. Following Dzhafarov and Colonius, we investigate two properties characteristic of a referent-probe comparison task, namely, (i) Regular cross-minimality—for the pair of stimulus values involved in referent-probe comparison, each minimizes a discrimination probability function where the other is treated as the fixed reference stimulus; (ii) Nonconstant self-similarity—the value of the discrimination probability function at its minima is a nonconstant function of the reference stimulus value. For the particular form of psychometric functions investigated, it is shown that imposing the condition of regular cross-minimality on the pair of psychometric functions forces a consistent (but otherwise still arbitrary) mapping between X and Y, such that it is independent of the assignment of reference/comparison status to x and to y. The resulting psychometric differentials under both assignments are equal, and take an asymmetric, dualistic form reminiscent of the so-called divergence measure that appeared in the context of differential geometry of the probability manifold with dually flat connections (Differential Geometric Methods in Statistics, Lecture Notes in Statistics, Vol. 28, Springer, New York, 1985). The pair of divergence functions on X and on Y, respectively, induce a Riemannian metric in the small, with psychometric order (defined in Dzhafarov & Colonius, 1999) equal to 2. The difference between the Finsler-Riemann geometric approach to the stimulus space (Dzhafarov & Colonius, 1999) and this dually-affine Riemannian geometric approach to the dual scaling of the comparison and the reference stimuli is discussed.     

A bayesian approach to confirmatory factor analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis is considered from a Bayesian viewpoint, in which prior information on parameter is incorporated in the analysis. An iterative algorithm is developed to obtain the Bayes estimates. A numerical example based on longitudinal data is presented. A simulation study is designed to compare the Bayesian approach with the maximum likelihood method.Computer facilities were provided by the Computer Services Center, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

Positive behavioral contrast in 3-month-old infants on multiple conjugate reinforcement schedules.

Positive behavioral contrast was assessed in two experiments with young infants using multiple conjugate reinforcement schedules. Reinforcement was produced by footkicks which activated the objects of an overhead crib mobile in a manner proportional to the vigor and rate of responding. Distinctive color/pattern cues on the sides of the objects served as discriminative stimuli for components of the multiple schedule. In Experiment 1, infants were trained with one cue (S+) only before insertion of S+ into a multiple schedule with an extinction component. A control group received S+ throughout all sessions. In Experiment 2, a multiple schedule was introduced at the outset, and responses in both components were reinforced before the introduction of extinction in the second component. In a final phase, reinforcement was reintroduced into the second component. Positive behavioral contrast occurred in both experiments. Response reduction in the extinction component was seen only in individual relative response curves. In both experiments, negative emotional behaviors accompanied the extinction component, and in Experiment 1, cooing accompanied presentations of S+.     

Easy bayes estimation for rasch-type models

A Bayes estimation procedure is introduced that allows the nature and strength of prior beliefs to be easily specified and modal posterior estimates to be obtained as easily as maximum likelihood estimates. The procedure is based on constructing posterior distributions that are formally identical to likelihoods, but are based on sampled data as well as artificial data reflecting prior information. Improvements in performance of modal Bayes procedures relative to maximum likelihood estimation are illustrated for Rasch-type models. Improvements range from modest to dramatic, depending on the model and the number of items being considered.This research was supported by ORN Contact #00014-86-K0087. We wish to thank Sheng-Hui Chu and Dzung-Ji Lii for providing intelligent and energetic programming support for this article. We also thank one of the reviewers for pointing out several interesting and useful perspectives.     

Ontogeny of early event memory: II. Encoding and retrieval by 2- and 3-month-olds

The ability of 2-month-old infants to discriminate changes in a 5-object crib mobile following a retention interval of 24 hr was assessed using the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm. Infants were trained in 3 daily 15-min sessions to produce mobile movement by footkicking. Twenty-four hr later, independent groups received generalization tests with mobiles containing 1–5 novel objects substituted into their original training mobile. A control group was tested with the original training mobile. These findings were compared with findings of 2 previous studies involving identical procedures with 3-month-olds, reanalyzed for measures of individual performance over successive test minutes. Although, in absolute terms, 2-month-olds had a flat generalization gradient relative to 3-month-olds, when each infant's kick rate during the generalization test was expressed relative to that infant's kick rate before, and at the end of, training, it was found that the generalization gradients of 2- and 3-month-olds were indistinguishable. The relative response measures indicated a surprising degree of specificity by both age groups: Test mobiles containing more than 1 novel object did not cue retrieval, but test mobiles containing no more than 1 new object yielded perfect retention and complete generalization. These data indicate that infants as young as 2 months are capable of encoding and maintaining a representation of the specific details of their training context for at least 24 hr and, after that delay, can perform fine discriminations based on the discrepancy between their test context and that representation.     

Ontogeny of early event memory: I. Forgetting and retrieval by 2- and 3-month-olds

In 2 experiments, 2-month-olds, trained in the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm for two daily sessions, showed retrieval deficits relative to 3-month-olds. In Experiment 1, tests of simple forgetting administered to 2-month-olds after retention intervals of 1, 3, 6, and 9 days (a period over which 3-month-olds remember the contingency) indicated that their forgetting was complete after delays greater than 1 day. In Experiment 2, reactivation treatments administered to 2- and 3-month-olds alleviated forgetting after a retention interval of 28, but not 35, days in the 3-month-old group only. Previously, alleviated forgetting by a reactivation treatment had been demonstrated in 2-month-olds after a delay of 18 days. In both of the present experiments, performance of the two age groups did not differ during the immediate retention test at the end of training. These results suggest that neither the age of the infant nor the age of the memory determines memory retrieval after long delays; instead, it appears to be determined by the length of time that a memory has been inaccessible (i.e., forgotten). We propose that factors which delay simple forgetting will correspondingly increase the length of the interval over which a retrieval cue can still be effective in a reactivation paradigm, irrespective of the age of the infant or the age of the memory.     

Riemannian Newton and trust-region algorithms for analytic rotation in exploratory factor analysis

In exploratory factor analysis, latent factors and factor loadings are seldom interpretable until analytic rotation is performed. Typically, the rotation problem is solved by numerically searching for an element in the manifold of orthogonal or oblique rotation matrices such that the rotated factor loadings minimize a pre-specified complexity function. The widely used gradient projection (GP) algorithm, although simple to program and able to deal with both orthogonal and oblique rotation, is found to suffer from slow convergence when the number of manifest variables and/or the number of latent factors is large. The present work examines the effectiveness of two Riemannian second-order algorithms, which respectively generalize the well-established truncated Newton and trust-region strategies for unconstrained optimization in Euclidean spaces, in solving the rotation problem. When approaching a local minimum, the second-order algorithms usually converge superlinearly or even quadratically, better than first-order algorithms that only converge linearly. It is further observed in Monte Carlo studies that, compared to the GP algorithm, the Riemannian truncated Newton and trust-region algorithms require not only much fewer iterations but also much less processing time to meet the same convergence criterion, especially in the case of oblique rotation.     

Together – apart: in touch in a time of separation

This paper explores the experience of working as a Jungian analyst through the various phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic, examining the importance of the physical containing space alongside the analyst’s internal mind and how technology can both help and hinder understanding. A number of clinical vignettes illustrate the challenge of communicating over a distance, paying particular attention to the way countertransference phenomena can become re-attuned. Reference is made to mythology and symbols of hope, and consideration given to the meaning and purpose of the pandemic.     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

Phenotypic plasticity and archetype: a response to common objections to the biological theory of archetype and instinct

Since Jung’s death in 1961, scholars have attempted to integrate growing biological science data into Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious, instincts and the archetypes. This enterprise has been challenging due to persistent false dichotomies of gene and environment occasionally arising. Recent works by Roesler (2022a, 2022b) for example, have raised objections to the biological theory of archetypes, but the objections are plagued by such dichotomies. The concept of phenotypic plasticity, however, helps to both avoid this problem as well as bridge the gap between competing theories into a more integrated model with solid biological foundations.     

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.     

Kann Es Ein Argument Für Den Skeptizismus Geben? Das Epistemische Problem Der Irrtumsmöglichkeit

Summary  Is there any argument for scepticism? The epistemic problem of the possibility of error. Arguments for scepticism rest on the assumption that knowledge claims are fallible. For this reason the concept of knowledge appears to be questionable. Since it is necessary to distinguish doubts from possible doubts, the arguments for scepticism appear to be unconvincing. If we take it into account that we know something that is immune to doubt, we should draw the conclusion that, contrary to scepticism, knowledge claims have to be compatible with being fallible. Thus any knowledge claim is capable of being doubted.     

The transcendent function in Spitteler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus

In August 2020, John Beebe and Steve Myers met via Zoom to discuss their differing interpretations of psychological typology and the different sources within Jung’s writings that influenced their books: Integrity in Depth: Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (Beebe), and Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation (Myers). The discussion centred on Spitteler’s epic poem Prometheus und Epimetheus, which forms the basis of chapter V of Psychological Types. This is both the largest chapter and one of two chapters that Jung highlighted in the Argentine foreword as containing the essence of the book. Jung’s book is primarily about the transformation of personality rather than the categorization of people. Although it contains a critical psychology that deconstructs the nature of consciousness, that is only one half of the book and a stepping-stone to the other half, which is the reconciliation of opposites with particular emphasis on the relation of consciousness and the unconscious. Jung assumed that readers were already familiar with Prometheus und Epimetheus, an understanding of which sheds light on the nature of the transformation that Jung described – the development of a new attitude towards attitude itself.     

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY

This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.     

Seeing in the Dark: A View into Dissociation and Healing

In this paper, I will explore the role of art-making, the experience of trauma and dissociation, and the process of working with self-states from an analytic and creative frame. Relevant literature on dissociation, trauma, and the use of art will be discussed. A case involving my work with an adolescent girl who had experienced sexual abuse from a family member will be shared, with an emphasis on the meaningful role images played during the therapeutic process. Both Jungian and psychoanalytic models of conceptualizing and working with dissociation are included, following Donald Kalsched’s (2013) recommendation for a “binocular stance” to treatment, including both a focus on the inner, intrapsychic world and the interpersonal, relational realm, and how art images both illuminated and expressed these realms. Within the therapeutic process, art images allowed the therapist a view into the client’s unconscious process, and created a meeting ground for dissociative barriers to be gradually seen, felt and known, by both therapist and client. The experience of dissociation, in images and in session, provided a reference point for myself and my client, Taylor, to develop a shared understanding and a framework for growth.