Methamphetamine,Symbolic Boundaries,and Using Status

Meth users construct symbolic boundaries by depicting themselves as functional users, while portraying other meth users as dysfunctional. Here, we compare the symbolic boundaries of women meth users who are in treatment to those who are not in treatment to determine if boundaries differ as a function of treatment status. We find that their accounts revealed mostly shared boundaries. However, we found differences in their boundaries related to using other drugs and their views of the morality of meth use. These findings indicate that people seek to distance themselves from stigmatized others, regardless of their current use status.     

What Is Bayesian Confirmation for?

Peter Brössel and Franz Huber in 2015 argued that the Bayesian concept of confirmation had no use. I will argue that it has both the uses they discussed—it can be used for making claims about how worthy of belief various hypotheses are, and it can be used to measure the epistemic value of experiments. Furthermore, it can be useful in explanations. More generally, I will argue that more coarse-grained concepts (like confirmation) can be useful, even when we have more fine-grained concepts (like credences).     

Unsupervised categorization with a child sample: category cohesion development

Studies into categorization have demonstrated that the ability to form concepts is an essential ability in cognitive development. For example, before a decision about anything can be made, firstly category concepts need to be acquired in order to make efficient decisions about that situation. The present study explored a particular type of category learning, not previously explored in this particular context – unsupervised categorization with 16 items and two dimensions, and comparing specifically children vs. adults. Previous studies have typically focused on simpler designs such as three items of two dimensions in the triad tasks, or a greater number of dimensions but with much fewer items per category in other unsupervised settings. This study investigated unsupervised categorization with two levels of task difficulty, and compared two different populations, children and adults. The findings revealed that adults performed better for the easy condition but there was no difference between these groups for the more difficult category task. The findings also revealed that unsupervised categorization in more complex settings result in more one dimensional sorting, for both children and adults. The results are discussed in the context of unsupervised categorization development abilities in children.     

Clinical Correlates of Dispositional Forgiveness

The present study examined relationships between the variables of depression, shame, guilt, psychological maltreatment, and dispositional forgiveness. The methodology included the completion of questionnaires by 280 university and community college participants. Results indicated that all factors of dispositional forgiveness were negatively related to depression, to shame, and to all factors of psychological maltreatment. Partial correlations further revealed positive associations between guilt and dispositional forgiveness. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated the unique contribution of psychological maltreatment to dispositional forgiveness beyond that of depression, shame, and guilt. Implications of results for clinical practice and future research are discussed.     

Is implicit learning perceptually inflexible? New evidence using a simple cued reaction-time task

Considerable research has been devoted to investigating learning without awareness. Burke and Roodenrys [Burke, D., & Roodenrys, S. (2000). Implicit learning in a simple cued reaction-time task. Learning and Motivation 31, 364–380] developed a simple learning task in which a cue shape predicts the arrival of a target shape (to which subjects respond) in a sequence of rapidly presented shapes, and found that all subjects responded faster to cued targets than to uncued targets, even those classified as unaware of the cue–target relationship. Two experiments were conducted to examine the perceptual flexibility of implicit (and explicit) learning using the paradigm developed by Burke and Roodenrys (2000). Perceptual flexibility was examined by altering the perceptual features of the cue shape. The results of the first experiment indicated the implicit, but not explicit, learning that occurs in this paradigm is perceptually inflexible. However, the second experiment indicated that perceptually flexible implicit learning can be encouraged by varying the nature of the experimental stimuli. These experiments therefore provide support for processing accounts of transfer.     

Emphasizing nonword decisions in word-decision performance

A robust finding in the lexical decision literature is that decisions to words are made more quickly and accurately than decisions to nonwords. When instructions are presented to participants prior to an experiment, an emphasis is usually placed on identifying words. This study assessed whether instructing participants to emphasize nonword decisions would affect the performance of the speed and accuracy of identification. A total of 98 individuals took part, 49 in a Word Instruction condition and 49 in a Nonword Instruction condition. Analysis indicated changes in emphasis on words versus nonwords decreased the difference in mean reaction time between word and nonword decisions. An interesting finding is that the manipulation of instructions affected reaction times to words but not to nonwords. The analysis of accuracy yielded no significant comparisons. Further research is required to assess the importance of the finding that the manipulation of instructions affects only word decisions.