Using an Apple II to control a two-field projection tachistoscope

A suite of programs is described that enables an Apple II+ microcomputer to control slide projectors and shutters as a two-field projection tachistoscope. This system is portable and allows more precise exposure timings and more complex visual stimuli to be used than are possible with earlier systems.     

Audit and family systems consultation: evaluation of practice at a child and family centre

This audit of practice at a child and family centre included a 16-month case note review covering 319 cases, a postal survey of 45 families and an interview survey of ten GPs who typically referred cases to the centre. The audit furnished information from three different perspectives on the referral process, the consultation process, and outcome for clients attending the centre. The referral rate was about one new case per day and peak referral times were the beginning of the autumn and winter school terms. Almost half the referrals came from GPs; the remainder were largely from Paediatrics, Education and Social Services. Most clients were seen within two months. Half of the families referred had serious psychosocial difficulties including multiple problem members, multi-problem children, multi-agency involvement, psycho-educational difficulties, child protection problems or child placement difficulties. The majority of cases received six hours of consultation. Families where child abuse had occurred or families containing a multi-problem adolescent received a more intensive service. Between a half and three-quarters of cases had positive outcomes as rated by staff and parents. The service was viewed by GPs to be highly satisfactory. On the negative side, many parents felt ill-prepared for the consultation process and most children did not enjoy the experience.     

Death Attitudes,Palliative Care Self-efficacy,and Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Among Hospice Nurses

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Previous research has linked death attitudes, palliative care self-efficacy, and attitudes toward care of the dying among nursing students and...     

The Study of Perspective-Taking: Contributions from Mainstream Psychology and Behavior Analysis

The Psychological Record - The key purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on perspective-taking from within mainstream psychology and behavior analysis....     

Misconduct and Misbehavior Related to Authorship Disagreements in Collaborative Science

Science and Engineering Ethics - Scientific authorship serves to identify and acknowledge individuals who “contribute significantly” to published research. However, specific authorship...     

Establishing Arbitrary Stimulus Classes via Identity-matching Training and Non-reinforced Matching with Complex Stimuli

The present study investigated whether training on an identity match-to-sample task followed by non-reinforced matching probes with complex stimuli leads to the emergence of multiple arbitrary matching performances and arbitrary stimulus classes in preschool children. In Experiment 1, eight subjects were trained on a colour-matching task (A-A). Then they received tests with complex AB and AC colour-form stimuli (AB-A, B-AB; AC-A, C-AC). These tasks were designed to help subjects respond to both elements of each complex stimulus. Subsequent B-A, C-A, A-B, A-C, B-C, and C-B tests revealed that all subjects had acquired class-consistent colour-form and form-form relations. Experiment 2 examined whether these results could be replicated when subjects were encouraged to respond to the colour elements of some (AB) complex stimuli and to the form elements of other (AC) stimuli. The procedures were the same as in Experiment 1 except that during the first test only A-AB and C-AC tasks were used. Six of eight subjects demonstrated all tested relations.     

Emergent Simple Discrimination via Transfer from Differentially Reinforced S+ Stimuli: A Further Test of the Stimulus-Response Interaction Model

This study examined emergent form discrimination through contiguity of the forms (B stimuli) with colours (A stimuli) associated with different magnitudes of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, children were trained on two colour discriminations. In both, the colour stimuli had the same form: A1B1/A2B1 and A3B1/A2B1. Responding to A1/B1 was followed by three units of reinforcement, to A3B1 by one unit of reinforcement, and to A2B1 by no reinforcement. There followed five tests in which stimuli were presented without programmed consequences. These assessed: (1) the maintenance of accurate performance on the training tasks; (2) S+ preference (A1B1/A3B1); (3) stimulus generalization (A1B2/A2B3, A3B4/A2B5); (4) S+ preference again (A1B6/A3B6); and (5) transfer from the S+ colours to the forms (A4B2/A4B4). On the final test, seven of the eight subjects selected A4B2. Experiment 2 demonstrated that a preference for A4B2 also occurred when the S+ preference tests were omitted. This preference was also found when the total amounts of reinforcement associated with the S+ colours (A1 and A3) were the same (Experiment 3). These findings: (a) indicate that children can acquire new discriminations under non-reinforced conditions through contiguity with differentially reinforced S+ stimuli; (b) support the Stimulus-Response Interaction model (Smeets, 1993) for specifying transfer.     

Memory for emotionally arousing events over time in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Emotionally arousing events are typically better remembered and more resistant to forgetting than neutral events. Findings from word list paradigms suggest that this may not hold for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who also tend to be less accurate as eyewitnesses under some circumstances. To test whether attenuated effects of arousal on memory may be responsible for poorer eyewitness testimonies in ASD, we asked adults with and without the disorder to view either arousing or neutral versions of a narrated slide sequence (Experiment 1) or video clip (Experiment 2) before assessing their memory for the material. Both groups exhibited increases in psychophysiological arousal during the arousing compared with the neutral version of the narratives, and both groups also demonstrated a memory advantage for the arousing events. Contrary to predictions, these observations indicate that stimulus induced arousal modulates memory for naturalistic events relatively typically in ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Context reinstatement effects on eyewitness memory in autism spectrum disorder

The Cognitive Interview is among the most widely accepted forms of police interviewing techniques; however, it is ineffective for witnesses with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of its main components involves mentally reinstating the internal and external context that was experienced at encoding. We report evidence showing that it is the mental reinstatement instructions in the absence of any physical cues that individuals with ASD find difficult. In more supported conditions where they physically return to the same environment in which they learnt the material, they recall as much as their typical counterparts. Our findings indicate that recall in ASD is aided by context, but only when supported by the physical environment. These findings have important implications for investigative interviewing procedures for witnesses with ASD.