Mindreading deception in dialog

This paper considers the problem of detecting deceptive agents in a conversational context. We argue that distinguishing between types of deception is required to generate successful action. This consideration motivates a novel taxonomy of deceptive and ignorant mental states, emphasizing the importance of an ulterior motive when classifying deceptive agents. After illustrating this taxonomy with a sequence of examples, we introduce a Framework for Identifying Deceptive Entities (FIDE) and demonstrate that FIDE has the representational power to distinguish between the members of our taxonomy. We conclude with some conjectures about how FIDE could be used for inference.     

Stress management for teachers: A cognitive-behavioral program

Urban secondary school teachers participated in a cognitive-behavioral stress management program. Assessment data were also collected from a waiting list control group. Dependent measures included self-reported anxiety and stress, and observations of teacher classroom behavior. Results showed that the training program significantly decreased self-reported stress and anxiety. Follow-up data indicated further decrease six weeks after termination of the training program. Results also indicated decreases in motoric manifestations of anxiety in the classroom as a result of the training.     

A minicomputer program for the resolution of response frequency and latency in classical conditioning preparations

This classical conditioning program is capable of controlling stimulus events and recording response data in experiments using the rabbit’s nictitating membrane and/or iaw-movement responses. The main features of the program, implemented on the PDP·12 computer, are the ability to resolve response latency within a 1 msec error range and to display the response topography on the computer’s cathode ray tube. The extreme accuracy in latency measurement cannot be duplicated either by conventional hand-scoring methods involving oscillographic records or by other minicomputer conditioning programs.     

Evaluation of a cognitive-behavioural program for the management of chronic tic and habit disorders

The aim was to evaluate the efficacy of a manualized cognitive-behavioural program based on habit reversal for the management of chronic tic disorder (CTD) and habit disorder (HD). Forty-seven CTD and 43 HD received a 4-month treatment program. Thirty-eight (22 CTD, 16 HD) were placed on a waitlist control group, which subsequently received treatment. The treatment approach combined awareness training, relaxation (including modification of a tension-producing style of action), and habit-reversal training, with more general cognitive restructuring of anticipations linked to ticcing. Sixty-five percent of completers reported between 75 and 100% control over the tic. At 2-year follow-up, 52% rated 75-100% control. There were also significant changes post-treatment in measures of self-esteem, anxiety, depression and style of planning action. Successful tic/habit modification was associated in CTD and HD groups with successful change in style of planning action. There were no consistent differences in any outcome measures between CTD and HD groups.     

Identifying predictor variables of weight loss outcome: Implications for a stepped program and weight management

Abstract

Four variables were identified that predicted outcome for the minimal and moderate intensity weight control programs presented in sequence. Predictive models for pounds lost and percentage overweight lost were computed for both programs and follow-up and accounted for 33% to 62% of the variance. The predictor variable that contributed to the two programs and follow-up was success in losing weight previously. Greater rate of weight loss in the first five weeks contributed to the model for the minimal intensity program and for follow-up and total number of calories expended in nonroutine physical activity added to the model for the minimal intensity program. Marital dissatisfaction of subjects was a predictor for the moderate intensity program and follow-up. The findings have utility for a stepped program for weight and provide confirmation of variables noted as predictors in prior research. This study may help in the quest to identify consistent predictors of weight loss success.     

Conflict management: A premarital training program in mutual problem solving

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured educational program designed to train premarital couples in communication and mutual problem-solving skills. Twenty-six couples participated in an eight-week, 24-hour problem-solving training program, while 28 similar couples participated in an eight-week, 24-hour relationship discussion group. Results indicated that the problem-solving group, as compared to the relationship-discussion group, showed a significant increase in communication and mutual problem-solving skills. Discussion focused on the benefits for premarital couples of learning effective problemsolving procedures as well as the need for follow-up assessments of both behavioral skill level and relationship satisfaction and adjustment.     

Contingency management and human relations workshops: A school intervention program

Because there will never be enough school psychological personnel to handle adequately the number of currently existing school adjustment problems, the Broward Country, Florida, school psychological service is developing preventive and positive mental health programs. This paper describes one such program, an in-service training workshop offered to school personnel. The workshop is based on the rationale that classroom management techniques and interpersonal relationships are two key variables in promoting optimal academic progress and personal-social development. Two psychologists conducted three-week workshops in one school at a time, spending about 50% of their working time in the given school during the three-week period. Evaluation of the program is discussed in terms of tangible evidence of implementation of ideas and techniques presented in the workshop, and in terms of demand for the workshop.     

Tell me more: The effects of expressed interest on receptiveness during dialog

Two studies investigated the effect of expressed interest on individuals’ openness to opposing viewpoints and perceptions of debate counterparts. Participants in Study 1 engaged in an online conversation with a purported debate counterpart who did or did not express interest in the participants’ viewpoint by asking an elaboration question—that is, a question geared at soliciting additional information. Compared to control participants, participants who received a question rated their debate counterpart more favorably, were more willing to engage in future interaction with their counterpart, and acted in a more receptive manner. Study 2 tested the effects of instructions to prepare elaboration questions on listeners’ responses to a speaker offering counter-attitudinal arguments. Preparing questions caused participants to be more open to the idea of having a conversation with the speaker, to make more positive attributions about typical proponents of the speaker’s viewpoint, and to judge the conclusions of the speech as more valid. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.     

Innovation,research integrity,and change: A conflict of interest management framework for program developers

Psychology and the social sciences have an important role to play in developing innovative solutions to pressing global mental health and social problems. Programs developed by psychologists and other social scientists have immense potential to alleviate suffering and to promote healthy human development across the lifespan. In order to realise this potential program developers must manage the research and development challenges involved in testing an intervention, evaluating, and then preparing it for wider dissemination and scaling. Particular challenges and conflicts can occur in managing the joint roles of being a program developer and a researcher evaluating an intervention or innovation. This article examines the management of various forms of conflicts of interest that have the potential to produce bias and decrease the confidence of policy makers, funders, practitioners, fellow researchers, and the public in the value of psychological interventions. We argue that best practice guidelines are needed to assist developers negotiate the predictable, sometime unavoidable but challenging conflicts of interest that arise in the research process.     

Relationship between inner dialog and ideas of reference and the mediating role of dissociation

Recent lines of research have begun to concentrate on internal dialogue and its relationship to a diversity of psychopathological phenomena present in psychotic disorders. This study was intended as a preliminary exploration of the relationship of internal dialogue, dissociation and ideas of reference. To do this, a sample of 318 students filled in an internal dialogue scale (the VISQ, McCarthy‐Jones & Fernyhough), one for dissociation (DES‐II, Carlson & Putnam) and another for ideas of reference (REF, Lenzenweger, Bennett & Lilenfeld). The results confirm the hypothesis posed in the sense that internal dialogue was positively associated with dissociation and with ideas of reference. A partial mediation effect of dissociation was also found between inner speech and ideas of reference. Lines of future research this study opens and its possible integration in a model on ideas of reference are discussed.     

Reciprocal peer management: Improving staff instruction in a vocational training program

To test the feasibility and utility of involving peers as sources of feedback, 6 subjects, instructors in a vocational program for adults with mental retardation, participated in a staff training and management program. Subjects' teaching interactions were assessed during baseline, in-service training (on effective teaching), return-to-baseline, peer management, and follow-up phases. Peer management was introduced in multiple baseline fashion across pairs of subjects. Members of each pair were trained to monitor peer teaching, to record and graph data, to provide feedback, and to set goals with the peer. Each pair then performed these procedures on the job for several weeks, during which time 4 of the 6 subjects increased their use of effective teaching methods (over baseline). However, inconsistencies in the magnitude and durability of these increases require that the study be viewed as inconclusive, although it has heuristic value as a promising model for involving co-workers in staff management programs.     

Systems use to objectify program evaluation,clinical, and management decisions

The utility of the observational assessment systems at different levels — from local clinical to systemwide management — is outlined. An overview is provided of TSBC information applied to individualized problem identification and programming/monitoring, discharge and competency determinations, and both absolute and comparative program evaluation. The utility of SRIC information for prgoramming/monitoring and for staff training and evaluation is outlined in addition to the applied uses of the information of the assessment systems in combination. Once implemented, the continuous data from the systems allow for empirically based self-corrective improvements in the quality of mental health services while automatically providing a basis for legal documentation and accurate cost/effectiveness comparisons of mental health programs.Preparation of this article and the research and development on which the article is based were supported, in part, by Public Health Service Grants MH-15553 and MH-25464 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and by grants from The Joyce Foundation and the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.Presented at the 87th Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York City, September 1979, as part of a symposium on New assessment systems for residential treatment, management, research, and evaluation.