Developing algorithms to enhance the sensitivity of cancellation tests of visuospatial neglect

We describe a set of algorithms that enhance the sensitivity of cancellation tests used in assessing visuospatial neglect. The algorithms can be readily implemented on a computer and can provide temporal and nontemporal data on strategies used during cancellation. We also present preliminary results from a group of 68 right-hemisphere brain-damaged patients and 12 age-matched control participants, which demonstrate the clinical significance of the measures we have defined.     

Stroop interference: An input and an output phenomenon

Three theories of Stroop interference are considered: perceptual conflict theory (Hock and Egeth, 1970), response competition theory (Morton, 1969) and conceptual encoding theory (Seymour, 1977). The first two fail to provide a full explanation of the available data, and Seymour's evidence is incomplete. Two experiments are reported. In the first, typical Stroop interference occurs in naming colour patches. In the second, subjects responded to colour patches with learned letter name responses. Both stimulus-related (incongruent colour names) and response-related (incongruent letters) distractors produced interference. These results indicate that any theory which assumes only a single locus for interference is incomplete. Conceptual encoding conflict and a modified form of response competition are suggested as possible dual mechanisms for Stroop interference effects.     

Language as shaped by the brain

It is widely assumed that human learning and the structure of human languages are intimately related. This relationship is frequently suggested to derive from a language-specific biological endowment, which encodes universal, but communicatively arbitrary, principles of language structure (a Universal Grammar or UG). How might such a UG have evolved? We argue that UG could not have arisen either by biological adaptation or non-adaptationist genetic processes, resulting in a logical problem of language evolution. Specifically, as the processes of language change are much more rapid than processes of genetic change, language constitutes a "moving target" both over time and across different human populations, and, hence, cannot provide a stable environment to which language genes could have adapted. We conclude that a biologically determined UG is not evolutionarily viable. Instead, the original motivation for UG--the mesh between learners and languages--arises because language has been shaped to fit the human brain, rather than vice versa. Following Darwin, we view language itself as a complex and interdependent "organism," which evolves under selectional pressures from human learning and processing mechanisms. That is, languages themselves are shaped by severe selectional pressure from each generation of language users and learners. This suggests that apparently arbitrary aspects of linguistic structure may result from general learning and processing biases deriving from the structure of thought processes, perceptuo-motor factors, cognitive limitations, and pragmatics.     

The Utility of the SASSI‐3 in Early Detection of Substance Use Disorders in Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity Acquittees: An Exploratory Study

Previous studies have shown the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 (G. Miller, 1999) to be valid in classifying substance use disorders in forensic and mentally ill populations. The authors found that it also correctly classified substance use disorders in the understudied not guilty by reason of insanity population.     

Associations between a one-shot delay discounting measure and age, income, education and real-world impulsive behavior

There has been discussion over the extent to which delay discounting – as prototypically shown by a preference for a smaller-sooner sum of money over a larger-later sum – measures the same kind of impulsive preferences that drive non-financial behavior. To address this issue, a dataset was analyzed containing 42,863 participants’ responses to a single delay-discounting choice, along with self-report behaviors that can be considered as impulsive. Choice of a smaller-sooner sum was associated with several demographics: younger age, lower income, and lower education; and impulsive behaviors: earlier age of first sexual activity and recent relationship infidelity, smoking, and higher body mass index. These findings suggest that at least an aspect of delay discounting preference is associated with a general trait influencing other forms of impulsivity, and therefore that high delay discounting is another form of impulsive behavior.     

The Price of Pain and the Value of Suffering

ABSTRACT— Estimating the financial value of pain informs issues as diverse as the market price of analgesics, the cost-effectiveness of clinical treatments, compensation for injury, and the response to public hazards. Such valuations are assumed to reflect a stable trade-off between relief of discomfort and money. Here, using an auction-based health-market experiment, we show that the price people pay for relief of pain is strongly determined by the local context of the market, that is, by recent intensities of pain or immediately disposable income (but not overall wealth). The absence of a stable valuation metric suggests that the dynamic behavior of health markets is not predictable from the static behavior of individuals. We conclude that the results follow the dynamics of habit-formation models of economic theory, and thus, this study provides the first scientific basis for this type of preference modeling.     

Folk theory of social change

People have a folk theory of social change (FTSC). A typical Western FTSC stipulates that as a society becomes more industrialized, it undergoes a natural course of social change, in which a communal society marked by communal relationships becomes a qualitatively different, agentic society where market‐based exchange relationships prevail. People use this folk theory to predict a society's future and estimate its past, to understand contemporary cross‐cultural differences, and to make decisions about social policies. Nonetheless, the FTSC is not particularly consistent with the existing cross‐cultural research on industrialization and cultural differences, and needs to be examined carefully.     

Erratum: Do realistic reverberation levels reduce auditory distraction?

The above article (DOI: 10.1002/acp.1300 ) was published online in Early View on 29 September 2006. The initial online publication of this article omitted the second author's name. The correct author names and affiliations are reproduced below: NICK PERHAM^1*, SIMON BANBURY¹ and DYLAN M. JONES^{1,2 1}School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK ²Department of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia     

A laboratory-based study of the relationship between childhood abuse and experiential avoidance among inner-city substance users: the role of emotional nonacceptance

Despite the theorized centrality of experiential avoidance in abuse-related psychopathology, empirical examinations of the relationship between childhood abuse and experiential avoidance remain limited. The present study adds to the extant literature on this relationship, providing a laboratory-based investigation of the relationships between childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, experiential avoidance (indexed as unwillingness to persist on 2 psychologically distressing laboratory tasks), and self-reported emotional nonacceptance among a sample of 76 inner-city treatment-seeking substance users. As hypothesized, results provide evidence for heightened experiential avoidance and emotional nonacceptance among individuals with moderate-severe sexual, physical, and emotional abuse (compared to individuals reporting none-low abuse). However, although emotional nonacceptance was associated with increased risk for experiential avoidance, it mediated the relationship between childhood abuse and experiential avoidance only for emotional abuse. As such, results suggest that one mechanism through which emotional abuse in particular leads to experiential avoidance is emotional nonacceptance. Findings suggest the utility of interventions aimed at decreasing experiential avoidance and promoting emotional acceptance among abused individuals.