The factorial structure of sleep dissatisfaction

Research into sleep problems has been dominated by a number of theoretical perspectives from each of which useful treatment applications have been derived. However, the rich diversity of problems that are subsumed under insomnia or sleep disturbance often remain unappreciated. This paper reports the results of a factor analysis performed on the combined items of two questionnaires designed to assess sleep disturbance. Six factors are described, two of which relate to cognitive aspects of sleep disturbance; two which map onto sleep onset and sleep maintenance problems; and two which are drawn from dissatisfaction with poor sleep. Correlations of factor scores with measures of neuroticism, worry and various sleep history variables provide a strong level of construct validity. The results are discussed in terms of their treatment implications.     

Articulatory suppression and the treatment of insomnia

The prominence of intrusive thoughts in insomnia suggests the relevance of cognitive techniques to control them. It is suggested that the technique of Articulatory Suppression derived from Baddeley's model of Working Memory provides a relevant approach. The technique is presented as it was developed with a preliminary uncontrolled case series. A single-case experiment is then reported in which Articulatory Suppression was compared with other techniques. The preliminary indications are that it may be particularly helpful for sleep maintenance problems.     

Color is necessary for face discrimination in the Northern paper wasp,Polistes fuscatus

Animal Cognition - Visual individual recognition requires animals to distinguish among conspecifics based on appearance. Though visual individual recognition has been reported in a range of taxa...     

Establishing arbitrary comparative relations and referential transformations of stimulus function in individuals with autism

Relational Frame Theory posits that complex language develops through arbitrarily applicable relational networks, with potential implications for individuals with autism. Responding relationally based on comparison occurs when participants respond to any number of comparative properties, such as “bigger” or “faster.” Experiment 1 established two 3-member comparative networks, in which a stimulus A was conditioned as “bigger” or “faster” than a stimulus B, and the stimulus B was conditioned as “bigger” or “faster” than a stimulus C in 2 children with autism. Both participants met the mastery criterion for the trained relations and demonstrated the emergence of the untrained combinatorially entailed A–C and C–A relations. The participants could also match the arbitrary A stimuli with larger or faster objects and the C stimuli with smaller or slower objects. The results were replicated in Experiment 2 with the same participants, where a 5-member relational network was established for the bigger/smaller relation.     

Environmental context effects in conceptual explicit and implicit memory

Previous research has found environmental context effects for both conceptual explicit and conceptual implicit memory (Parker, Gellatly, & Waterman, 1999). The research presented here challenges these findings on methodological grounds. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of context change on category-exemplar generation (conceptual implicit memory test) and category-cued recall (conceptual explicit memory test). Experiment 2 assessed the effects of context change on word association (conceptual implicit memory test) and word associate cued recall (conceptual explicit memory test). In both experiments, study-test changes in environmental context were found to influence performance only on tests of explicit memory. It is concluded that when retrieval cues across explicit and implicit tests are matched, and the probability of explicit contamination is reduced, then only conceptual explicit test performance is reduced by study-test changes in environmental context.     

Detecting back irrelevant responding on the Personality Assessment Inventory in a psychiatric inpatient setting

The present studies focus on strategies for detecting back irrelevant responding (BIR) on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. C. Morey, 1991). Moderate BIR levels can greatly affect the clinical scales of the PAI. Further, the PAI's Inconsistency and Infrequency validity scales are less than optimal for detecting BIR. L. C. Morey and C. J. Hopwood (2004) developed an alternative strategy for detecting BIR that involves comparison of 2 scales from the PAI short-form with the same 2 scales from the PAI full-instrument. The present study examines how different BIR levels affect the clinical, treatment, and interpersonal scales of the PAI in 2 psychiatric inpatient samples. The effectiveness of various strategies for detecting BIR in an inpatient setting is also discussed. Consistent with previous research, moderate rates of BIR impacted several PAI scales in a meaningful way. The Inconsistency and Infrequency validity scales of the PAI were relatively ineffective for detecting low-to-moderate BIR levels. Conversely, the short-form full-instrument comparison strategy was much more sensitive to BIR. Finally, a new BIR detection indicator is presented that improves sensitivity rates for detecting all BIR levels in an acute setting. The implications of these results for detecting BIR in inpatient settings are discussed.     

Teaching foundational perspective‐taking skills to children with autism using the PEAK‐T curriculum: single‐reversal “I–You” deictic frames

We taught basic perspective‐taking tasks to 3 children with autism and evaluated their ability to derive mutually entailed single‐reversal deictic relations of those newly established perspective‐taking skills. Furthermore, we examined the possibility of transfers of perspective‐taking function to novel untrained stimuli. The methods were taken from the PEAK‐T training curriculum, and results yielded positive gains for all 3 children to learn basic perspective taking as well as for 2 of the 3 to derive untrained single‐reversal I relations following direct training of single‐reversal You relations. All participants demonstrated a transfer of stimulus function to untrained stimuli after the single‐reversal deictic relations had been mastered.     

Why the view of intellect in De Anima I 4 is not Aristotle’s own

In De Anima I 4, Aristotle describes the intellect (nous) as a sort of substance, separate and incorruptible. Myles Burnyeat and Lloyd Gerson take this as proof that, for Aristotle, the intellect is a separate eternal entity, not a power belonging to individual humans. Against this reading, I show that this passage does not express Aristotle’s own views, but dialectically examines a reputable position (endoxon) about the intellect that seems to show that it can be subject to change. The passage’s argument for the indestructibility of intellect via an analogy to perception does not fit with Aristotle’s own views. Aristotle thinks that perception operates via bodily organs, but denies this of understanding. He also requires separability from the body for indestructibility, something this analogy rules out. However, Aristotle’s Platonist interlocutors may well endorse such an argument. My dialectical interpretation best resolves the interpretative difficulties and explains its place in the larger context, Aristotle’s discussion of Platonist views on the soul. Aristotle presents a challenge to his insistence that the soul is subject to change, dialectically resolves that challenge, and then ends by reserving the right to give a different account of the intellect.     

Quantity recognition among speakers of an anumeric language

Recent research has suggested that the Pirahã, an Amazonian tribe with a number‐less language, are able to match quantities > 3 if the matching task does not require recall or spatial transposition. This finding contravenes previous work among the Pirahã. In this study, we re‐tested the Pirahãs’ performance in the crucial one‐to‐one matching task utilized in the two previous studies on their numerical cognition, as well as in control tasks requiring recall and mental transposition. We also conducted a novel quantity recognition task. Speakers were unable to consistently match quantities > 3, even when no recall or transposition was involved. We provide a plausible motivation for the disparate results previously obtained among the Pirahã. Our findings are consistent with the suggestion that the exact recognition of quantities > 3 requires number terminology.     

The psychometric properties of the center for epidemiological studies-depression scale (ces-d) when used with adults with physical disabilities

Abstract

Psychometric properties of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were examined in a sample of 790 adults with physical disabilities and compared to the responses obtained from non-disabled samples (Craig and Van Natta, 1976; Radloff, 1977). Findings suggested the CES-D is a valid measure of depressive symptoms among adults with physical disabilities. Scores on the CES-D scale were not elevated by somatic issues related to physical disability as evidenced by the lack of statistically significant differences in the persistence percentages reported by adults with physical disabilities and non-disabled adults for four of the seven items composing the somatic dimension of the CES-D. Moreover, the factor structure obtained via principal components analysis was highly similar to that obtained with non-disabled adults. Likewise, the Cronbach alpha value for the total score was within acceptable ranges and scores on the CES-D scale were moderately correlated with scores on a number of related but putatively distinct constructs.