Resurgence of time allocation

The resurgence of time allocation with pigeons was studied in three experiments. In Phase 1 of each experiment, response‐independent food occurred with different probabilities in the presence of two different keylights. Each peck on the key changed its color and the food probability in effect. In Phase 2, the food probabilities associated with each keylight were reversed and, in Phase 3, food was discontinued in the presence of either keylight. The food probabilities were .25 and .75, in Experiment 1, and 0.0 and 1.0 in Experiment 2. More time was allocated to the keylight correlated with more probable food in Phases 1 and 2, and in Phase 3 resurgence of time allocation occurred for two of three pigeons in Experiment 1, and for each of four pigeons in Experiment 2. Because time had to be allocated to either of the two alternatives in Experiments 1 and 2, however, it was difficult to characterize the time allocation patterns in Phase 3 as resurgence when changeover responding approached zero. In Experiment 3 this issue was addressed by providing a third alternative uncorrelated with food such that in each phase, after 30 s in the presence of either keylight correlated with food, the third alternative always was reinstated, requiring a response to access either of the two keylights correlated with food. In this experiment, the food probabilities were similar to those in Experiment 1. Resurgence of time allocation occurred for each of three pigeons under this procedure. The results of these experiments suggest that patterns of time allocation resurge similarly to discrete responses and to spatial and temporal patterns of responding.     

Diversifying counsellor education: a case study of U.S. students of colour

Due to limited research on the experiences of students of colour in counselling programmes, counsellor educators are ill-equipped to implement strategies to promote the graduation of students of colour. In this case study, we explored the protective and risk factors for students of colour enrolled in a counselling programme in the Western U.S. Participants identified three protective factors (diversity, faculty support, and family and friends) and three risk factors (balancing family and school, disconnect from programme, and White dominance) that impacted their post-graduate experience. Implications for the retention of students of colour are discussed.     

Reliability, diagnostic efficiency, and validity of the Millon adolescent clinical inventory: examination of selected scales in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents

This study examined the internal consistency, diagnostic efficiency, and validity of selected scales of the Millon adolescent clinical inventory (MACI; Millon et al., Manual for the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory, National Computer Systems, Minneapolis, MN, 1993). 241 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents were administered the MACI and a battery of established self-report measures and a multidisciplinary team independently assigned DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses at the time of discharge. The internal consistency of MACI scales ranged from 0.71 to 0.93. Conditional probabilities (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, and negative predictive power) were calculated for selected disorders using independently generated clinical diagnoses as the standard. The diagnostic efficiencies for the selected scales were variable, with adequate performance for predicting classes of diagnoses but not for specific diagnoses. The MACI showed good criterion validity for most disorders, with participants with a clinical diagnosis having a significantly higher corresponding MACI scale score than participants not assigned that diagnosis. Concurrent validity, tested by correlating MACI scale scores with those of relevant, validated measures, was generally good. The MACI appears to be a psychometrically sound self-report instrument and appears valuable as a screening instrument for many problems found in adolescent psychiatric inpatients.     

Night-time eating in men and women with binge eating disorder

This study examined the frequency of night-time eating (NE) and its correlates in men and women with binge eating disorder (BED). Two-hundred and seven consecutively evaluated adults (45 men and 162 women) with BED were assessed with semi-structured interviews and a battery of behavioral and psychological measures. Overall, 28% (N = 58) of the participants reported NE. A significantly higher proportion of men (42%) than women (24%) reported NE. Overall, participants who reported NE had a significantly higher body mass index, but otherwise differed little from those who did not report NE. Men and women without NE differed little on behavioral and psychological measures, whereas women with NE had significantly higher levels of eating-, weight-, and shape-concerns than men with NE.     

Factorial structure and diagnostic efficiency of DSM-IV criteria for avoidant personality disorder in patients with binge eating disorder

This study examined the factorial structure and diagnostic efficiency of the DSM-IV criteria for avoidant personality disorder (AVPD). Two hundred and twenty-eight consecutive outpatients (181 females and 47 males) with a primary diagnosis of binge eating disorder were reliably assessed with diagnostic interviews. Internal consistency of AVPD criteria was good, as suggested by coefficient alpha of 0.87, the pattern of inter-item correlations (range 0.41 to 0.64), and the lack of changes in alpha if any criteria are deleted. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a one-factor solution (56% of variance) supporting the unidimensionality of the AVPD criteria. Diagnostic efficiency indices (conditional probabilities, total predictive power, and kappa coefficients) were calculated for each AVPD criterion, for the entire study group and separately by gender. Overall, the best inclusion criterion was 'fears being ridiculed,' which was also the best predictor overall. These psychometric findings did not differ by gender. The findings support certain important aspects of the AVPD diagnosis.     

Prediction of children's empathy-related responding from their effortful control and parents' expressivity

In this study, the linear and interactive relations of children's effortful control and parents' emotional expressivity to children's empathy-related responses were examined. Participants were 214 children, 4.5 to 8 years old. Children's effortful control was negatively related to their personal distress and was positively related to their sympathy. Parents' positive expressivity was marginally negatively related to children's personal distress and was marginally positively related to children's dispositional sympathy. Parents' negative expressivity was positively related to children's personal distress, but primarily at high levels of children's effortful control. Moreover, parents' negative expressivity was negatively related to children's situational sympathy at low levels of effortful control but was positively related to children's dispositional sympathy at high levels of effortful control. There were also quadratic relations between the measures of parents' expressivity and children's empathy-related responses.     

Can small lesions induce language reorganization as large lesions do?

Shift of the cortical mechanisms of language from the usually dominant left to the non-dominant right hemisphere has been demonstrated in the presence of large brain lesions. Here, we report a similar phenomenon in a patient with a cavernoma over the anterolateral superior temporal gyrus associated with epilepsy. Language mapping was performed by two complementary procedures, magnetoencephalography, and electrocorticography. The maps, indicated right temporal lobe dominance for receptive language and left frontal lobe dominance for expressive language. These results indicate that a small lesion, associated with epilepsy, may produce selective shifting of receptive language mechanisms as large lesions have been known to produce.     

Temporal coherence of criteria for four personality disorders

This study sought to investigate the coherence of changes observed in diagnostic criteria for borderline, schizotypal, obsessive-compulsive, and avoidant personality disorders. Five hundred, forty-nine patients were independently evaluated 2 years apart, and correlations of observed changes in each diagnostic criterion with changes in other criteria were examined to determine if there was within-syndrome consistency in these changes. The observed changes in criteria were consistent within syndrome (median alpha = 0.72 across 4 disorders), and reasonably specific to that syndrome relative to the other disorders. The results support the validity of these criterion sets as representing coherent syndromes.