Part-list cuing in speeded recognition and free recall

The primary question was whether part-list cuing decrements would occur in a speeded yes/no recognition task and free recall. After studying category exemplars, participants were tested either after re-presentation of a subset of the exemplars (cues) or without re-presentation. Free recall of all study items followed the recognition task in each trial. Across two experiments, results demonstrated part-list cuing impairment in two ways: significant slowing of target recognition and lower free recall of target items in cued than in uncued trials. These findings extend the limited research on part-list cuing in recognition and support retrieval inhibition and retrieval competition interpretations of the phenomenon. Moreover, despite arguments for the necessity of the presence of cues for part-list inhibition, the present experiments demonstrate that the negative effects of cues can persist in their absence.     

Trends in presentations at the annual conference of the association for behavior analysis

The present report analyzes trends in attendance and presentations at the annual conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA). Numbers of registered attendees were plotted over time. The trends show that the number of registered attendees has grown considerably over the last three decades, with the largest proportion of the growth occurring during the last 10 years. This growth is shown to be correlated with the introduction of board certification in behavior analysis (BCBA and BCABA). In addition, conference programs from 1980 through 2007 were coded, and all presentations were categorized into one of four areas (application, basic research, conceptual, and verbal behavior) based on the primary designator codes chosen by the authors at the time of submission. An analysis of the total number of presentations in each category indicates that applied research presentations have always outnumbered the other three categories. The absolute number of presentations related to application has grown faster than presentations in other categories. However, correcting for population growth shows that the relative proportion of presentations in the four areas has remained fairly constant over the last 28 years.     

Attending Religious Services and Its Relationship with Coronary Heart Disease and Related Risk Factors in Older Adults: A Qualitative Study of Church Pastors’ and Parishioners’ Perspectives

A qualitative study was undertaken to explain findings of a cross-sectional study of Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) 4.1 data showing older persons who attend religious services more than once a week, compared to persons who do not attend at all, have lower prevalences of coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes and high blood pressure. Twelve semi-structured interviews with ordained pastors and three focus groups with older parishioners from Canadian churches were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for emergent themes through a process of direct content analysis. All participants claimed that religious service attendance (RSA): (1) enhances mental health; (2) provides social support and activities; and (3) promotes health and lifestyle behaviours that lower CHD risk. These three themes appear to be underlying mechanisms that help to explain the inverse association between RSA and the prevalence of adverse health outcomes found in the CCHS 4.1 data.     

Do common elements predict class merger: A test of Sidman's theory of equivalence

The study presented here investigated the effect of common and uncommon elements on class merger as predicted by Sidman in his reconceptualization of stimulus equivalence suggesting that common elements among contingencies can facilitate emergent performances (1994, 1997, 2000). Eight adult participants were exposed to a procedure that arranged for stimulus–reinforcer correlations in Phase 1 and response–reinforcer correlations in Phase 2 of a 3-phase study. In the common element group, the visual images serving as reinforcers were the same in Phase 1 and Phase 2. In the uncommon elements group, the images serving as reinforcers were different in Phases 1 and 2. In Phase 3, participants were given an opportunity to respond but no feedback was programmed. The results showed that participants' responding was well differentiated in the common element group and undifferentiated in the uncommon elements group. These results are predicted by Sidman's revised formulation of the provenance and scope of equivalence relations. Specifically, these data support Sidman's (1994, 1997, 2000) suggestion that elements of a contingency enter into an equivalence class and common elements among contingencies are sufficient to produce class mergers. The findings highlight an emergent simple discrimination and raise some interesting considerations about the definition of equivalence under the new formulation.     

Integration of Analytic Hierarchy Process with Regression Analysis to Identify Attractive Locations for Market Expansion

Selection of new geographies in which to expand is a key decision for businesses aspiring to go beyond the opportunities in the existing markets. The conventional approaches of market selection can only provide a set of systematic steps for problem solving without considering the relationships between the decision factors. Decision models based on statistical techniques are able to examine the relationship between decision factors but are unable to effectively assist decision makers in identifying the most promising market, particularly in terms of prioritizing across decision factors. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a commonly used approach for choosing alternatives by prioritizing across multiple decision factors. The typical AHP modelling requires knowledge of criteria and/or alternatives along with their relative weights, generally elicited from field experts. Quite often, firms encounter situations where decision makers are aware of only the overall objective and a set of earmarked geographies for setting up market locations while being relatively unaware of decision criteria and relative weights. This precludes using AHP to identify promising market locations. This paper conceptualizes a market selection decision model that integrates AHP with statistical modelling techniques to identify the attractive market locations for the purpose of expansion. The model first uses principal component analysis and multiple regression to determine significant decision criteria and their weights. Thereafter, it applies AHP to prioritize the market locations across the decision criteria. This integrative approach is illustrated for identifying the attractive locations in rural markets for a steel firm in India. The major advantage of this approach is that unlike the existing models, it works in situations when firms have not enough knowledge about factors for evaluating alternative market locations. Another key advantage of the proposed model is that of economizing resources for data collection on variables representing decision factors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Components of disinhibition (vs. constraint) differentially predict aggression and alcohol use

Disinhibition (vs. Constraint; DvC), which has been shown to represent a central aspect of the externalizing domain, consists of several correlated but distinguishable underlying traits, which may have different patterns of association with various externalizing indicators. In a sample of 18‐ to 19‐year old undergraduate students (N = 430; 71.1% female), we examined the specificity and generality of the association between lower order components of DvC and both aggression and alcohol use, externalizing‐related behavioural constructs that have well‐established links to DvC. All three components of DvC—including Disagreeableness, low Self‐Control and low Accomplishment—were associated independently with Reactive Aggression, but only Disagreeableness was correlated significantly with Proactive Aggression. Also, only low Self‐Control was associated with alcohol use. Thus, aggression was broadly associated with components of DvC—although much more strongly with the Disagreeableness domain—whereas alcohol use was specifically correlated with low Self‐Control. These results suggest that lower order components of DvC have distinct patterns of associations with externalizing‐related outcomes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding and Essence

Modal epistemology has been dominated by a focus on establishing an account either of how we have modal knowledge or how we have justified beliefs about modality. One component of this focus has been that necessity and possibility are basic access points for modal reasoning. For example, knowing that P is necessary plays a role in deducing that P is essential, and knowing that both P and ¬P are possible plays a role in knowing that P is accidental. Chalmers (2002) and Williamson (2007) provide two good examples of contrasting views in modal epistemology that focus on providing an account of modal knowledge where necessity and possibility are basic access points for modal knowledge, and Yablo (1993) provides a good account of how we have justified beliefs about modality. In contrast to this tradition I argue for and outline a modal epistemology based on objectual understanding and essence, rather than knowledge or justification and necessity and possibility. The account employs a non-modal conception of essence and takes objectual understanding of essence, rather than knowledge of essence to be basic in modal reasoning. I begin by articulating Kvanvig’s (2003) account of objectual understanding, on which objectual understanding of Φ is not equivalent to propositional knowledge of Φ. I then argue that an epistemology of essence that uses property variation-in-imagination is better construed as a model that delivers objectual understanding of essence rather than knowledge of essence. I argue that this is so, since the latter and not the former runs into a version of the Meno paradox. I show how this account can be applied to two issues in modal epistemology: the Benacerraf problem for modality, and the architecture of modal knowledge.