Sketch of J. R. Kantor’s Psychological Interbehavioral Field Theory

The Psychological Record - We provide a sketch of J. R. Kantor’s (1959, 1971) psychological interbehavioral field (IBF) theory by identifying 9 essential points and briefly discussing each....     

Cognitive Lie Detection: Response Time and Consistency of Answers as Cues to Deception

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to test a new cognitive lie detection method, time restricted integrity confirmation (Tri-Con), which uses response time and inconsistencies across answers as cues to deception. Design/methodology/approach   Data were obtained from two samples of students enrolled in psychology classes (n = 96 for Experiment 1, n = 99 for Experiment 2). The experimental task required students to lie or tell the truth to questions probing biodata under time restriction. The foci of questions (such as Academics or Employment History) were chosen because of their relevance to participants’ lives. Findings  Tri-Con was able to distinguish between truth tellers and liars after controlling for individual differences. In one experiment, liar-truth teller classification accuracies reached 89%. Mean response times and answer consistency can be used to distinguish those who lie from those who tell the truth. Implications  Research on cognitive-based lie detectors, such as Tri-Con, hold the potential for developing reliable and valid methods of screening out employees likely to engage in misconduct and providing deceptive answers to screening questions. A cognitive lie detector would constitute a paradigm shift away from the polygraph, and could be used in tandem with integrity tests. Originality/value   This study was a preliminary test of a cognitive lie detection method based on a model of cognitive events (the Activation-Decision-Construction model) when people answer questions deceptively. It constitutes a step in translating laboratory-based cognitive research into applied technologies for the real world detection of lying, including lying that occurs during pre-employment screening. Received and reviewed by former editor, George Neuman.     

Adaptation of central pitch-specific mechanisms

Three previous psychophysical studies have demonstrated that interaural time difference (ITD) coding mechanisms can undergo frequency-specific, selective adaptation. We sought to determine whether this phenomenon extends to the pitch domain, by employing the same psycho-physical paradigm as one used previously, but with harmonic tone complexes lacking energy at the fundamental frequency. Ten normal listeners participated in experiment 1. Psychometric functions for ITDs were obtained for harmonic tone complexes with fundamental frequencies of 110 Hz and 185 Hz, before and after selective adaptation with complexes of the same fundamental frequencies lateralised to opposite sides. In experiment 1, each subject was tested twice. On separate days, subjects were tested with 110 Hz and 185 Hz stimuli that were either partially resolvable complexes or unresolvable ones. Both partially resolved and unresolved stimuli supported adaptation, and at both fundamental frequencies. In experiment 2, which employed nine listeners, the adaptor tone complexes were presented in conjunction with a diotic noise background designed to mask difference tones generated by the adaptor stimuli. The use of the masker had little effect on the mean strength of the adaptation effected by the unresolved adaptor stimuli, and only slightly weakened the adaptation effect found with the partially resolved adaptor stimuli. Taken together, these data constitute the first demonstration of selective adaptation exerted on a central mechanism in the pitch domain.     

Adults With Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Assessment and Treatment Strategies

Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adults is characterized by inattentiveness and impulsivity. This article provides counselors with information about the etiology, assessment, and treatment of adult ADHD. The identification of the genetic and neurological features of ADHD has led to improvements in evaluation and treatment. Assessment of ADHD requires knowledge of the defining characteristics, subtypes, comorbid features, and functional aspects of ADHD. Effective treatments include both medical management and counseling to address psychosocial deficits.     

Psychosomatik der umweltbezogenen Gesundheitsstörungen

Environmental medicine focuses on acute and chronic effects of chemical and physical environmental influences on health as measured objectively and perceived subjectively. Since these influences are very complex, continuously changing and only partially accessible in scientific experiments, subjective causal attributions can be difficult to prove or disprove. Patients with symptoms attributed to environmental triggers perceive health threats from commonly used chemical agents or electromagnetic radiation, frequently without objective findings. Typical examples are “multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)”, a generalized self-reported hypersensitivity towards ubiquitous chemicals, or “amalgam sensitivity”, where symptoms are attributed to amalgam from dental fillings. Here, the reported symptoms are almost invariably unspecific and show a high overlap with other medically unexplained syndromes. Based on modern psychosomatic conceptualizations, many environment associated illnesses can be regarded as somatoform disorders and treated as such. Apart from a high psychiatric comorbidity, special attention should be paid to dysfunctional cognitions, emotions and behaviour, and the patient’s often limited quality of life.     

The effects of local and global processing orientation on eyewitness identification performance

Recent work has demonstrated that performance on a simultaneous target-present photographic line-up can be enhanced by prior global processing orientation, and hindered by prior local processing orientation induced by processing Navon letter stimuli. A series of studies explore the generality of this processing bias effect using either videotaped scenarios or live interactions. Five experiments demonstrate that these effects are seen across a range of test stimuli, test formats, and test instructions.These data inform the processes engaged in by witnesses when making line-up identifications and indicate that it may be possible to improve the accuracy of witnesses making such judgements.     

Do traumatic events influence the clinical expression of compulsive hoarding?

Traumatic experiences have been posited as one potential catalyst for the abrupt onset of obsessive-compulsive symptoms including compulsive hoarding. To determine whether traumatic life events (TLEs) might influence the expression of compulsive hoarding in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), interview responses to the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) were examined in 180 individuals with OCD. Compared to individuals with OCD who did not meet criteria for hoarding, participants classified as hoarders (24% of the sample) were significantly more likely to have reported at least one TLE in their lifetime. Patients who met criteria for hoarding and who had also experienced TLEs had significantly greater hoarding symptom severity than those hoarders not exposed to trauma. This association was found to be robust. That is, the relationship between TLEs and hoarding symptom severity was not better accounted for by age, age of OCD onset, depressive symptoms, general OCD symptomatology, or mood and anxiety comorbidity. Closer examination revealed that the clutter factor of compulsive hoarding (and not difficulty discarding or acquisitioning) was most strongly associated with having experienced a traumatic event.     

An investigation of traumatic life events and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), like most other psychiatric disorders, is suspected of being influenced by an interaction between life events and genes, both with regard to onset and course of illness. To date, no specific genes have been identified as playing a frequent role, and only a relatively few empirical studies have assessed the association between stressful life events (SLEs) and OCD. The present study builds on past research by examining the potential contributions from traumatic life events (TLEs) on the severity and symptom features in 265 individuals with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)-diagnosed OCD. Of these participants 54% endorsed having experienced at least one TLE in their life time. The presence of one or more TLEs was associated with increased OCD symptom severity. This relationship remained significant despite controlling for key variables including age, OCD age-of-onset, comorbidity, and depressive symptoms. In addition, obsessions/checking and symmetry/ordering were two of four symptom factors that were specifically associated with the occurrence of TLEs. These results are generally supportive of a pathoplastic relationship between TLEs and OCD symptomatology and thus suggest the need for greater systematic consideration of life stresses in research focused on the nature and treatment of OCD.     

Serial position effects in short-term visual memory: A SIMPLE explanation?

A version of Sternberg's (1966) short-term visual memory recognition paradigm with pictures of unfamiliar faces as stimuli was used in three experiments to assess the applicability of the distinctiveness-based SIMPLE model proposed by Brown, Neath, and Chater (2002). Initial simulations indicated that the amount of recency predicted increased as the parameter measuring the psychological distinctiveness of the stimulus material (c) increased and that the amount of primacy was dependent on the extent of proactive interference from previously presented stimuli. The data from Experiment 1, in which memory lists of four and five faces varying in visual similarity were used, confirmed the predicted extended recency effect. However, changes in visual similarity were not found to produce changes in c. In Experiments 2 and 3, the conditions that influence the magnitude of c were explored. These revealed that both the familiarity of the stimulus class before testing and changes in familiarity, due to perceptual learning, influenced distinctiveness, as indexed by the parameter c. Overall, the empirical data from all three experiments were well fit by SIMPLE.     

Psychopathy and aggression: Examining the role of psychopathy factors in predicting laboratory aggression under hostile and instrumental conditions

Psychopathy is a problematic configuration of traits and behaviors that is consistently correlated with aggressive, criminal behavior. Studies have suggested that psychopathy is composed of related but distinct factors that manifest divergent relations with a host of constructs including aggression. In the current study, we used a sample of 126 men to examine whether these psychopathy factors are differentially related to aggression manifested in two conditions (instrumental and hostile/reactive aggression) of a laboratory aggression paradigm. Traits related to an antagonistic interpersonal style and emotional detachment (i.e., Factor 1) were related to aggression in both conditions whereas traits related to negative emotionality, impulsivity, and an antagonistic style (i.e., Factor 2) were related to aggression only in the hostile/reactive condition. Potential explanations for these findings are put forth.