Decision deadlines and uncertainty monitoring: the effect of time constraints on uncertainty and perceptual responses

The behavioral uncertainty response has grounded the study of animal metacognition and influenced the study of human psychophysics. However, the interpretation of this response is debated—especially whether it is a behavioral index of metacognition. The authors advanced this interpretation using the dissociative technique of response deadlines. Uncertainty responding, if it is higher level or metacognitive, should depend on a slower, more controlled decisional process and be more vulnerable to time constraints. Humans performed sparse–uncertain–dense or sparse–middle–dense discriminations in which, respectively, they could decline difficult trials or positively identify middle stimuli. Uncertainty responses were sharply and selectively reduced under a decision deadline, as compared to primary perceptual responses (i.e., “sparse,” “middle,” and “dense” responses). This dissociation suggests that the uncertainty response does reflect a higher-level, decisional response. It grants the uncertainty response a distinctive psychological role in its task and encourages an interpretation of this response as an elemental behavioral index of uncertainty that deserves continuing research.     

Acquisition of a visual discrimination and reversal learning task by Labrador retrievers

Optimal cognitive ability is likely important for military working dogs (MWD) trained to detect explosives. An assessment of a dog’s ability to rapidly learn discriminations might be useful in the MWD selection process. In this study, visual discrimination and reversal tasks were used to assess cognitive performance in Labrador retrievers selected for an explosives detection program using a modified version of the Toronto General Testing Apparatus (TGTA), a system developed for assessing performance in a battery of neuropsychological tests in canines. The results of the current study revealed that, as previously found with beagles tested using the TGTA, Labrador retrievers (N = 16) readily acquired both tasks and learned the discrimination task significantly faster than the reversal task. The present study confirmed that the modified TGTA system is suitable for cognitive evaluations in Labrador retriever MWDs and can be used to further explore effects of sex, phenotype, age, and other factors in relation to canine cognition and learning, and may provide an additional screening tool for MWD selection.     

Effectiveness of Specific Techniques in Behavioral Teacher Training for Childhood ADHD Behaviors: Secondary Analyses of a Randomized Controlled Microtrial

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Behavioral teacher training is an effective intervention for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Intervention...     

Short mindfulness meditation training: does it really reduce perceived stress?

Cognitive Processing - To study whether an 8-week mindfulness meditation training program truly reduces perceived stress without designing a stress reduction program. An experimental study was...     

Personal choice: A blessing or a burden,or both? A cross‐cultural investigation on need for closure effects in two Western and two East‐Asian societies

The present study investigates the role of dispositional need for closure (NFC) in how individuals within a particular culture perceive and appreciate choice. Data sets from the US (283 adults), Europe (263 adults and 427 students), China (218 adults and 309 students) and Singapore (258 students) were collected. The results showed that in Western cultures, people perceived choice in a linear way as either a burden or a blessing, whereas in Chinese culture, such opposition between perspectives did not appear, and individuals generally saw choice as both burden and blessing simultaneously. In Western cultures, high dispositional NFC was strongly associated with viewing choice‐as‐a‐burden, whereas Chinese respondents with a high NFC perceived choice as a blessing and a burden simultaneously. The Singaporean results were similar to the Western pattern. These findings are discussed in terms of the NFC literature and cultural differences in dialectic versus differentiation thinking styles.     

Stress in telephone helpline nurses is associated with failures of concentration,attention and memory,and with more conservative referral decisions

Nurses working for telephone‐based medical helplines must maintain attentional focus while quickly and accurately processing information given by callers to make safe and appropriate treatment decisions. In this study, both higher levels of general occupational stress and elevated stress levels on particular shifts were associated with more frequent failures of attention, memory, and concentration in telephone nurses. Exposure to a stressful shift was also associated with a measurable increase in objectively assessed information‐processing errors. Nurses who experienced more frequent cognitive failures at work made more conservative decisions, tending to refer patients on to other health professionals more often than other nurses. As stress is associated with cognitive performance decrements in telephone nursing, stress‐reduction interventions could improve the quality and safety of care that callers to medical helplines receive.     

A General and Maladaptive Personality Perspective on Youth Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms

Based on Krueger's (2005) conceptual model of the personality-psychopathology relationship, this study examines how personality predicts different youth obsessive–compulsive symptoms, comparing the relative contribution of general and maladaptive personality traits. Three-hundred forty-four adolescents provided self-reports on an obsessive–compulsive scale, and their mothers rated their child's general and maladaptive personality. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that personality differentially predicts obsessive–compulsive symptomatology, and that the relative significance of general versus maladaptive personality predictors differs across various forms of obsessive–compulsive pathology. The results are discussed in terms of the value of including both general and maladaptive personality measures in the assessment of early obsessive–compulsive difficulties.     

Legal and Ethical Implications of Using Religious Beliefs as the Basis for Refusing to Counsel Certain Clients

This article addresses potential legal and ethical implications of lawsuits that have been brought when counselors and counseling students have used their religious beliefs as the basis for refusing to counsel lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual clients. Four lawsuits are reviewed, issues relevant to the cases are identified, and implications for counselor educators and counseling students are discussed.