Ontology,Set Theory,and the Paraphrase Challenge

Journal of Philosophical Logic - In many ontological debates there is a familiar challenge. Consider a debate over X s. The “small” or anti-X side tries to show that they can paraphrase...     

Temporal encoding strategies result in boosts to final free recall performance comparable to spatial ones

The method of loci is a highly effective mnemonic that recruits existing salient memory for spatial locations and uses the information as a scaffold for remembering a list of items (Yates, 1966). One possible account for the effectiveness of the spatial method of loci comes from the perspective that it utilizes evolutionarily preserved mechanisms for spatial navigation within the hippocampus (Maguire et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), 4398–4403, 2000; O’Keefe & Nadel, 1978; Rodriguez et al. in Brain Research Bulletin, 57(3), 499–503, 2002). Recently, though, neurons representing temporal information have also been described within the hippocampus (Eichenbaum in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(11), 732–744, 2014; Itskov, Curto, Pastalkova, & Buzsáki in The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(8), 2828–2834, 2011; MacDonald, Lepage, Eden, & Eichenbaum in Neuron, 71(4), 737–749, 2011; Mankin et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(47), 19462–19467, 2012; Meck, Church, & Matell in Behavioral Neuroscience, 127(5), 642, 2013), challenging the primacy of spatial-based functions to hippocampal processing. Given the presence of both spatial and temporal coding mechanisms within the hippocampus, we predicted that primarily temporal encoding strategies might also enhance memory. In two different experiments, we asked participants to learn lists of unrelated nouns using the (spatial) method of loci (i.e., the layout of their home as the organizing feature) or using two novel temporal methods (i.e., autobiographical memories or using the steps to making a sandwich). Participants’ final free recall performance showed comparable boosts to the method of loci for both temporal encoding strategies, with all three scaffolding approaches demonstrating performance well above uninstructed free recall. Our findings suggest that primarily temporal representations can be used effectively to boost memory performance, comparable to spatial methods, with some caveats related to the relative ease with which participants appear to master the spatial versus temporal methods.     

“I Fired My Last Doctor for Not Taking Me Seriously”: Collaborating With a Difficult Medical Patient in a Multidisciplinary Primary Care Facility

We present the case of a multidisciplinary primary care assessment of a 32-year-old woman with multiple medical and psychological complaints. Following the collaborative care model, this assessment was conducted by a team consisting of a clinical health psychologist, Dr. J. L. Skillings, and a family physician, Dr. W. J. Murdoch. We describe the primary care environment in which this referral was made including the methods that were utilized to insure a successful professional collaboration. We report the results and recommendations from a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment; we place emphasis on the psychological diagnosis and pain symptoms. We also describe the feedback session in which the assessment results were provided to the patient and her spouse by both physician and psychologist. Multiperspective commentary about the assessment is offered by the patient and her husband as well as the physician and psychologist assessors.     

Psychotherapy Appointment No-Shows: Clinicians’ Approaches

Missed psychotherapy appointments and eleventh hour cancellations contribute to financial burdens, reduced scheduling efficiency, and lowered effectiveness of the therapeutic services delivered. This paper attempts to explore more specific clinical process factors related to patient no-shows. Psychotherapists and their patients in the outpatient psychiatry department of a public safety-net hospital were surveyed to examine how frequently patients missed scheduled psychotherapy appointments and for what reasons. Clinicians with the lowest rates of patient no-shows (n = 12) were asked to discuss their approaches to psychotherapy attendance and provided clinical examples. Clinicians’ responses were thematically grouped into five aspects of negotiating missed appointments and no-shows. Clinicians identified the importance of improving patient motivation, developing a positive therapeutic alliance, setting an established treatment frame, communicating about no-shows throughout the course of treatment, and maintaining their own scheduling accountability as important factors in their approaches to managing patient non-attendance.     

Vocal learning of a communicative signal in captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes

We hypothesized that chimpanzees could learn to produce attention-getting (AG) sounds via positive reinforcement. We conducted a vocal assessment in 76 captive chimpanzees for their use of AG sounds to acquire the attention of an otherwise inattentive human. Fourteen individuals that did not produce AG sounds during the vocal assessment were evaluated for their ability to acquire the use of an AG sound through operant conditioning and to employ these sounds in an attention-getting context. Nine of the 14 chimpanzees were successfully shaped using positive reinforcement to produce an AG sound. In a post-training vocal assessment, eight of the nine individuals that were successfully trained to produce AG sounds generalized the use of these newly acquired signals to communicatively relevant situations. Chimpanzees possess the ability to acquire the use of a communicative signal via operant conditioning and can generalize the use of this newly acquired signal to appropriate communicative contexts.     

Advancement of Criminal Profiling Methods in Faceted Multidimensional Analysis

The current study seeks to advance the faceted multidimensional scaling (termed FMDS) procedure used in much of the investigative psychology research. To this end, recent research on street robbery by Goodwill and colleagues will be utilised to illustrate the effectiveness of a facet scale method for offender profiling. Four FMDS themes of street robbery (Con, Blitz, Confrontation and Snatch) were revealed by the crossing of two underlying axial facets: the offenders' level of violence and interaction with the victim. The facet scale method, utilising offenders' axial facet scores, was compared to previous count, proportional and centroid classification methods in the prediction of offender criminal histories. Utilising logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses, the axial facet scale method was found to significantly outperform the qualitatively based dominant theme classification methods that typically employ angular and radial facets for FMDS interpretation. Implications for the use of axial facet scales within FMDS analysis for offender profiling research are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Political groups in contact: The role of attributions for outgroup attitudes in reducing antipathy

In two cross‐sectional surveys and one experiment, we tested the hypothesis that attributions for outgroup ideologies would mediate the relationship between quality of contact and reduced prejudice. In Study 1, a British sample (N = 85) rated their perceptions of, and attributions for, their political outgroup's (i.e., conservative or liberal) belief system. Supporting our hypothesis, the relationship between contact and outgroup attitudes was mediated by rationality attributions—attributions that outgroup members obtained their views via rational thought processes. Study 2 was a replication of Study 1 with an American sample (N = 229) and expanded construct measurement. The results of Study 2 replicated those of Study 1, showing support for rationality attributions as a mediator of the contact–prejudice link. In Study 3 (N = 132), we experimentally manipulated the priming of past positive or negative outgroup contact with individual outgroup members and measured the proposed mediational constructs with respect to that outgroup encounter. Results further supported the role of rationality attributions as mediators of the contact–prejudice link. The implications of these findings for perceptions and relations between antagonistic ideological groups are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.