Comparative costs for institutional services and services for selected populations in the community

Deinstitutionalization of large institutions for individuals with mental retardation has been an ongoing process for almost 20 years. Because the process continues and because there are still many concerns about deinstitutionalization, especially for populations with more challenging behaviors, the question of relative costs of institutional services and community services is raised periodically by legislators, bureaucrats, and advocates. This study compares the costs within one institution, Fairview, in Oregon, with the costs of providing community-based services in five small group homes and an apartment complex serving populations with more challenging behaviors. In general, institutional costs are slightly higher than the community-based programs. However, after equalizing salary rates between the two environments, community-based residences that serve individuals with challenging behaviors are more expensive than the institution.     

Reinforcement sensitivity of sex offenders and non‐offenders: An experimental and psychometric study of reinforcement sensitivity theory

This study tested predictions of Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) in subgroups of sex offenders and male non‐offenders using an experimental choice task consisting of a reward and a non‐reward phase. In addition, RST‐related psychometric measures were used. Both experimental and psychometric data were of interest to determine whether sex offenders could be reliably differentiated from non‐offenders. Paraphilic (N=50) and impulse control‐disordered (N=48) sex offenders showed greater sensitivity to continuous reward than male non‐offenders (N=51). Impulse control‐disordered sex offenders showed less behavioural adaptation under non‐reward than both paraphilic sex offenders and male non‐offenders. In addition, reward sensitivity, rash‐spontaneous impulsivity, and anxiety measures discriminated sex offenders from male non‐offenders. The results suggest that reinforcement sensitivity is a promising personality trait for differentiating subgroups of sex offenders from non‐offenders. The experimental and psychometric results illustrate that predictive accuracy in forensic settings could be improved by combining several types of data.     

Clinical assessment of motor function: a processes oriented instrument based on a speed-accuracy trade-off paradigm

In this study, we developed a digitizing tablet-based instrument for the clinical assessment of human voluntary movements targeting motor processes of planning, programming and execution. The tool was used to investigate an adaptation of Fitts' reciprocal tapping task [10], comprising four conditions, each of them modulated by three indices of difficulty related to the amplitude of movement required. Temporal, spatial and sequential constraints underlying the various conditions allowed the intricate motor processes to be dissociated. Data obtained from a group of elderly healthy subjects (N=50) were in agreement with the literature on motor control, in the temporal and spatial domains. Speed constraints generated gains in the temporal domain and costs in the spatial one, while spatial constraints generated gain in the spatial domain and costs in the temporal one; finally, sequential constraints revealed the integrative nature of the cognitive operations involved in motor production. This versatile instrument proved capable of providing quantitative, accurate and sensitive measures of the various processes sustaining voluntary movement in healthy subjects. Altogether, analyses performed in this study generated a theoretical framework and reference data which could be used in the future for the clinical assessment of patients with various movement disorders, in particular Parkinson's disease.     

Two models of unawareness: comparing the object-based and the subjective-state-space approaches

This article attempts to motivate a new approach to anti-realism (or nominalism) in the philosophy of mathematics. I will explore the strongest challenges to anti-realism, based on sympathetic interpretations of our intuitions that appear to support realism. I will argue that the current anti-realistic philosophies have not yet met these challenges, and that is why they cannot convince realists. Then, I will introduce a research project for a new, truly naturalistic, and completely scientific approach to philosophy of mathematics. It belongs to anti-realism, but can meet those challenges and can perhaps convince some realists, at least those who are also naturalists.     

Bibliographic annex to ‘D. B. Rjazanov and the Marx-Engels Institute: Notes toward further research’

Studies in East European Thought -