Racial discrimination-induced anger and alcohol use among black adolescents

This study explored whether a relationship exists between anger among Black adolescents that has been provoked by racial discrimination, and alcohol consumption. Participants consisted of 134 Black adolescents from 14 to 18 years of age, residing in northeast Texas. All participants were administered a questionnaire measuring whether and the extent to which they might be dependent upon alcohol, a background information questionnaire which included questions about their drinking pattern, and a measure designed to assess the extent to which they feel angry either because they had been discriminated against or observed other Blacks being discriminated against or observed other Blacks being discriminated against in various situations. Only gender was found to be predictive of scores on the dependency scale. However gender, age, and racial discrimination anger scores were found to be predictive of the amount of alcohol consumed by the participants. Some implications for theory, research, and intervention are suggested.     

Information limits on identification of natural surfaces by apparent colour

By adaptational and other mechanisms, the visual system can compensate for moderate changes in the colour of the illumination on a scene. Although the colours of most surfaces are perceived to be constant ('colour constancy'), some are not. The effect of these residual colour changes on the ability of observers to identify surfaces by their apparent colour was determined theoretically from high-resolution hyperspectral images of natural scenes under different daylights with correlated colour temperatures 4,300 K, 6,500 K, and 25,000 K. Perceived differences between colours were estimated with an approximately uniform colour-distance measure. The information preserved under illuminant changes increased with the number of surfaces in the sample, but was limited to a relatively low asymptotic value, indicating the importance of physical factors in constraining identification by apparent colour.     

Men’s Decision-Making About Predictive <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Testing: The Role of Family

Men who have a family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer may be offered a predictive genetic test to determine whether or not they carry the family specific BRCA1/2 mutation. Male carriers may be at increased risk of breast and prostate cancers. Relatively little is known about at-risk men’s decision-making about BRCA1/2 testing. This qualitative study explores the influences on male patients’ genetic test decisions. Twenty-nine in-depth interviews were undertaken with both carrier and noncarrier men and immediate family members (17 male patients, 8 female partners, and 4 adult children). These explored family members’ experiences of cancer and genetic testing, decision-making about testing, family support, communication of test results within the family, risk perception and risk management. Implicit influences on men’s testing decisions such as familial obligations are examined. The extent to which other family members—partners and adult children—were involved in testing decisions is also described. It is demonstrated that mothers of potential mutation carriers not only perceive themselves as having a right to be involved in making this decision, but also were perceived by their male partners as having a legitimate role to play in decision-making. There was evidence that (adult) children were excluded from the decision-making, and some expressed resentment about this. The implications of these findings for the practice of genetic counseling are discussed.     

Neighborhood Violence and Psychosocial Adjustment in Low-Income Urban African American Children: Physical Symptoms as a Marker of Child Adjustment

We examined the association between neighborhood violence and three domains of psychosocial adjustment in low-income, urban African American children: internalizing, externalizing, and physical symptoms. Based on anecdotal and empirical evidence, it was hypothesized that, relative to internalizing and externalizing problems, a stronger association would emerge between physical symptoms and neighborhood violence. Mother-reported neighborhood violence was associated with child-reported physical symptoms, but not internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Child-reported neighborhood violence was associated with child-reported internalizing, externalizing, and physical symptoms; however, neighborhood violence accounted for a greater percentage of variance in physical symptoms than the other two symptom domains. Our findings were not moderated by the age or gender of the child. We discuss the importance of physical symptoms as a marker of child adjustment in low-income, urban, African American children, as well directions for future research.     

Emerging neurotechnologies for lie-detection: promises and perils

Detection of deception and confirmation of truth telling with conventional polygraphy raised a host of technical and ethical issues. Recently, newer methods of recording electromagnetic signals from the brain show promise in permitting the detection of deception or truth telling. Some are even being promoted as more accurate than conventional polygraphy. While the new technologies raise issues of personal privacy, acceptable forensic application, and other social issues, the focus of this paper is the technical limitations of the developing technology. Those limitations include the measurement validity of the new technologies, which remains largely unknown. Another set of questions pertains to the psychological paradigms used to model or constrain the target behavior. Finally, there is little standardization in the field, and the vulnerability of the techniques to countermeasures is unknown. Premature application of these technologies outside of research settings should be resisted, and the social conversation about the appropriate parameters of its civil, forensic, and security use should begin.     

A BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION FOR IMPROVING VERBAL BEHAVIORS OF HEROIN ADDICTS IN A TREATMENT CLINIC

Positively reinforcing appropriate behaviors improved verbal behaviors of opioid-dependent patients in a buprenorphine treatment clinic. During B phases of an ABAB design, clients received stickers for engaging in appropriate verbal or nonverbal behaviors. Each sticker provided a chance of winning $25. No reinforcement was provided during the A phases. Appropriate verbal behaviors increased during reinforcement periods, and inappropriate verbal behaviors decreased.     

Reinforcer efficacy in a delayed matching-to-sample task.

Five domestic hens were exposed to a delayed matching-to-sample task. Conditions 1, 5, and 8 were variable-delay conditions in which five delays (0.25, 1, 2, 4, and 8 s) from the red or green sample to the presentation of the red and green comparison stimuli were presented a number of times during each session. In the fixed-delay condition (Condition 3), each delay was presented for 15 sessions under a Latin square design across birds. When improvements in accuracy across the variable-delay conditions are taken into account, the data were similar under both the variable and fixed delays. In Conditions 2, 4, 6, and 7 sample-reinforcer intervals were held at 8, 8, 4, and 2 s, respectively, while sample-choice intervals were varied within these during each session. With increasing sample-reinforcer interval, both initial discriminability (i.e., with sample-choice delay = 0) and rate of decrement in discriminability decreased. Although the former would be predicted if accuracy depends of the average sample-reinforcer interval, the latter would not. These data show that increasing the sample-choice interval had less effect on matching accuracy than increasing the sample-reinforcer interval did.     

Concurrent schedules: Quantifying the aversiveness of noise

Four hens worked under independent multiple concurrent variable-interval schedules with an overlaid aversive stimulus (sound of hens in a poultry shed at 100dBA) activated by the first peck on a key. The sound remained on until a response was made on the other key. The key that activated the sound in each component was varied over a series of conditions. When the sound was activated by the left (or right) key in one component, it was activated by the right (or left) key in the other component. Bias was examined under a range of different variable-interval schedules, and the applicability of the generalized matching law was examined. It was found that the hens' behavior was biased away from the sound independently of the schedule in effect and that this bias could be quantified using a modified version of the generalized matching law. Behavior during the changeover delays was not affected by the presence of the noise or by changes in reinforcement rate, even though the total response measures were. Insensitivity shown during the delay suggests that behavior after the changeover delay may be more appropriate as a measure of preference (or aversiveness) of stimuli than are overall behavior measures.     

Delayed matching-to-sample performance of hens: Effects of sample duration and response requirements during the sample

Six domestic hens were trained under a delayed matching-to-sample procedure with red and green keylights as sample and comparison stimuli and a 1.5-s delay interval. The hens were trained to stop pecking the sample stimuli when a tone sounded. Duration of the sample stimuli (2 to 10 s) and the number of pecks required on the key on which these stimuli were presented (0 to 10) were altered across conditions. Both the response requirement on the sample key and the duration of sample presentations affected accuracy. These findings are in agreement with those of earlier studies using other species and somewhat different procedures.     

Differences in children's peer sociometric and attribution ratings due to context and type of aggressive behavior

Sociometric and attribution (internality and responsibility) ratings of boys performing different kinds of aggression (hostile and instrumental hitting and pushing) and of neutral behavior occurring in two contexts (provoked and unprovoked) were investigated in an analogue fashion. Thirty fifth- and sixth-grade boys viewed and rated 12 brief videotaped scenes of two unfamiliar male peers interacting, presented in one of six random orders. Provoked aggression resulted in less dislike, less worthiness of punishment, and greater attribution to external causes than unprovoked aggression. Instrumental and hostile aggression produced lower liking ratings and were viewed as more deserving of punishment than neutral behavior but did not differ from each other. Results support distinctions between provoked and unprovoked aggression but not between hostile and instrumental aggression, at least in terms of their functional impact on peer judgements.