Trait Agreeableness and Social Status Moderate Behavioral Responsiveness to Communal Behavior

The present study examined the influence of trait Agreeableness and its interaction with social role status on interpersonal correspondence as reflected in the within‐person relation between a person's communal (agreeable‐quarrelsome) behavior and perceptions of the interaction partner's communal behavior. We used a sample of working adults (original data set: 113 participants and 12,303 interpersonal events; constrained data set in the work setting: 109 participants and 3,193 interpersonal events) and an event‐contingent recording procedure to assess behavior in naturalistic interpersonal events. The results of multilevel modeling indicated that interpersonal correspondence was lower for high trait Agreeableness persons than for low trait Agreeableness persons, apparently due to less responsiveness to more disagreeable behavior by the other person in an interaction. High Agreeableness persons manifest greater interpersonal correspondence when in a high‐status role than when in a low‐status role, apparently by increasing responsiveness to disagreeable behavior from others. The results imply that high social role status may influence the effortful control process of high trait Agreeableness persons over their behavioral reactions to others' disagreeable behavior during interpersonal interactions.     

Offense Characteristics of Incompetent to Stand Trial Defendants Charged With Violent Offenses

The current study compared offender and offense characteristics of pretrial defendants found incompetent to stand trial (IST) against those described as general offenders by victims in the 2008 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey and evaluated factors that differentiated IST defendants who allegedly used weapons from those who did not during the course of a violent offense. IST defendants were older and used “weapons” more frequently than those reported in the BJS survey; however, other characteristics, including use of firearms, did not differ. No demographic, clinical, or legal factors differentiated pretrial defendants who used weapons from those who did not. Overall, pretrial defendants were frequently diagnosed with a comorbid substance use disorder, and were homeless, unemployed, and had an extensive history of psychiatric hospitalizations and prior arrests at the time of their alleged offenses. Such results indicate that models for comprehensive discharge planning may have utility in addressing the unique needs of this subgroup of mentally disordered offenders. The findings also raise questions about the federal and state prohibition of gun rights to all IST defendants. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Concept learning set‐size functions for Clark's nutcrackers

Same/Different abstract‐concept learning by Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) was tested with novel stimuli following learning of training set expansion (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1024 picture items). The resulting set‐size function was compared to those from rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), and pigeons (Columba livia). Nutcrackers showed partial concept learning following initial eight‐item set learning, unlike the other species (Magnotti, Katz, Wright, & Kelly, 2015). The mean function for the nutcrackers' novel‐stimulus transfer increased linearly as a function of the logarithm of training set size, which intersected its baseline function at the 128‐item set size. Thus, nutcrackers on average achieved full concept learning (i.e., transfer statistically equivalent to baseline performance) somewhere between set sizes of 64 to 128 items, similar to full concept learning by monkeys. Pigeons required a somewhat larger training set (256 items) for full concept learning, but results from other experiments (initial training and transfer with 32‐ and 64‐item set sizes) suggested carryover effects with smaller set sizes may have artificially prolonged the pigeon's full concept learning. We find it remarkable that these diverse species with very different neural architectures can fully learn this same/different abstract concept, and (at least under some conditions) do so with roughly similar sets sizes (64‐128 items) and numbers of training exemplars, despite initial concept learning advantages (nutcrackers), learning disadvantages (pigeons), or increasing baselines (monkeys).     

An Evaluation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy with Mindfulness (CBTm) Classes and Telepsychology Utility in Rural Community Settings

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Background: Cognitive behaviour therapy with mindfulness (CBTm) classes are a group-based, psychoeducational, clinical service. Early...     

Discrimination of geometric angles by adult humans

Men and women learned to discriminate between two different size angles presented to them as objects within a real-world task. During Experiment 1, participants in group 50 were trained to choose a 50° angle and participants in group 75 were trained to choose a 75° angle. During testing, both groups were provided with a choice between their training angle and one of a set of test angles that was either smaller or larger than the training angle. Results showed a generalized pattern of responding, with group 50 showing increased responding to test angles smaller than 50° and group 75 showing increased responding to test angles larger than 75°. Further analysis of the response patterns revealed that participants in group 50 showed evidence of absolute learning, whereas participants in group 75 showed evidence of relational learning. During Experiment 2, a third group of participants (group 25) trained to choose a smaller angle (25°) was included in addition to group 50 and group 75. Participants were trained with three angles present and tested with just two, one being their training angle and the other being one of a set of novel test angles. Similar to the participants from Experiment 1, group 75 showed evidence of relational learning. Group 50, for which no relational rule could be applied during training, showed an absolute learning pattern with no response shift to test angles smaller or larger than their training angle. Group 25 showed evidence of absolute responding that was more pronounced than that found for the smallest training angle during Experiment 1. These findings suggest differential learning of geometric angles based on amplitude with smaller angles perceived as more distinct and thus more resistant to broader generalization than larger angles. Implications of these results are that certain geometric properties may be subject to different learning processes based on the specific magnitude of that property.     

Let the pigeon drive the bus: pigeons can plan future routes in a room

The task of determining an optimal route to several locations is called the traveling salesperson problem (TSP). The TSP has been used recently to examine spatial cognition in humans and non-human animals. It remains unclear whether or not the decision process of animals other than non-human primates utilizes rigid rule-based heuristics, or whether non-human animals are able to flexibly ‘plan’ future routes/behavior based on their knowledge of multiple locations. We presented pigeons in a One-way and Round-Trip group with TSPs that included two or three destinations (feeders) in a laboratory environment. The pigeons departed a start location, traveled to each feeder once before returning to a final destination. Pigeons weighed the proximity of the next location heavily, but appeared to plan ahead multiple steps when the travel costs for inefficient behavior appeared to increase. The results provide clear and strong evidence that animals other than primates are capable of planning sophisticated travel routes.     

Relationships between perceived stress and health behaviors in a sample of working adults.

The study examined associations between perceived stress and fat intake, exercise, alcohol consumption, and smoking behaviors. Data were from surveys of 12,110 individuals in 26 worksites participating in the SUCCESS project (D. J. Hennrikus, R. W. Jeffery, & H. A. Lando, 1995), a study of smoking cessation interventions. Linear regression analyses examined cross-sectional associations between stress level and health behaviors. Analyses were stratified by gender and controlled for demographics. High stress for both men and women was associated with a higher fat diet, less frequent exercise, cigarette smoking, recent increases in smoking, less self-efficacy to quit smoking, and less self-efficacy to not smoke when stressed. Stress was not associated with alcohol intake. Findings suggest that the association between stress and disease may be moderated in part by unhealthy behaviors.