Remarks On Quantum Ontology

Despite the discrepancies between quantum objects and `classical' ones, mainly with regard to the fact that the latter may be thought of as `individuals', contrary to the former, we still regard the quanta as `things' in our ordinary discourse as well as in the logico-mathematical basis of quantum theories. This paper considers some possibilities for accomodating the logico-mathematical framework of the theories which deal with such a strange ontology where the inhabitants are things devoid of identity and both having and not having certain properties.``All right', said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.``Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin', thought Alice, ``but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!'Lewis Carroll     

Spilling thoughts: configuring attentional resources in infants’ goal-directed actions

The focus and organization of attention in perception-action coupling is systematically examined in two studies involving 9 and 10 -month-old infants engaged in learning goal-directed behaviors. Experiment 1 (discrimination study) observed the influence of an attentionally demanding motor task on learning and cognition, while Experiment 2 (means-ends study) observed the influence of an attentionally demanding goal on motor planning and reaching performance. Taken together the results of these two experiments revealed that when mental processing resources were directed to thinking about movement, discrimination performance became compromised; conversely, when processing resources were directed to thinking about the goal-state, the motor planning and execution became compromised. These results suggest a “spilling forward” of thoughts onto actions and goal-states and thus an attention-driven cognition/action trade-off for infants’ goal-directed actions. Findings highlight the ultimate importance of emerging motor skills on cognition and are contextualized within the on-going dialogues and developmental debates surrounding perceptual-motor skill development and problem-solving strategies during the first year.     

Anxiety and Threat Perception Abnormalities in Normal Children

The current study examined the relationship between childhood anxiety and threat perception abnormalities. Children (N = 105) were exposed to stories reflecting three types of anxiety: social anxiety, separation anxiety, and generalized anxiety. From children's reactions to the stories, a number of threat perception indices were derived. Children's level of anxiety was assessed by means of questionnaires and a structured diagnostic interview. Results indicated that high levels of anxiety, as measured by questionnaires and interview, were accompanied by a high frequency of threat perception, high ratings of threat, a high frequency of threatening interpretations, high levels of negative feelings and cognitions, and an early detection of threat. Furthermore, results seemed to suggest that threat perception abnormalities were mediated by children's general level of anxiety rather than by levels of specific anxiety symptoms.     

Intuitionistic Propositional Logic without 'Contraction' but with 'Reductio'

Routley-Meyer type relational complete semantics are constructed for intuitionistic contractionless logic with reductio. Different negation completions of positive intuitionistic logic without contraction are treated in a systematical, unified and semantically complete setting.     

Parietal ERP Activity and Appetite

Recent research on brain activity suggests that visual attention increases in response to emotional images. This increase is reflected in signs of greater activity, in response to different emotional visual stimuli, in parietal and parietooccipital areas in several studies employing neuroimaging techniques and event-related potentials (ERPs). In the latter case, greater parietal and parietooccipital negativities have been observed. The objective of the present study was to examine the role of a person's level of motivation towards the emotional stimulus with respect to this ERP pattern. Two groups of stimuli were presented to 60 participants: neutral or N (photographs of taps) and appetitive or A (photographs of cakes). The level of hunger was measured via a questionnaire. Recordings were taken at PO3, PO4, P7, and P8. The largest differences, as a function of appetite, were produced between 575 and 625 ms. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to study the relationship between subjects' appetite and their ERP recordings in response to A and N stimuli. There was a significant negative association between appetite and 575–625 mean amplitude in response to stimulus A at PO3 and PO4.     

An evaluation of multi‐criteria methods in integrated assessment of climate policy

Those who conduct integrated assessments (IAs) are aware of the need to explicitly consider multiple criteria and uncertainties when evaluating policies for preventing global warming. MCDM methods are potentially useful for understanding tradeoffs and evaluating risks associated with climate policy alternatives. A difficulty facing potential MCDM users is the wide range of different techniques that have been proposed, each with distinct advantages. Methods differ in terms of validity, ease of use, and appropriateness to the problem. Alternative methods also can yield strikingly different rankings of alternatives. A workshop was held in which climate change experts and policy makers evaluated the usefulness of MCDM for IA. Participants applied several methods in the context of a hypothetical greenhouse gas policy decision. Methods compared include value and utility functions, goal programming, ELECTRE, fuzzy sets, stochastic dominance, min max regret, and several weight selection methods. Ranges, rather than point estimates, were provided for some questions to incorporate imprecision regarding weights. Additionally, several visualization methods for both deterministic and uncertain cases were used and evaluated. Analysis of method results and participant feedback through questionnaires and discussion provide the basis for conclusions regarding the use of MCDM methods for climate change policy and IA analyses. Hypotheses are examined concerning predictive and convergent validity of methods, existence of splitting bias among experts, perceived ability of methods to aid decision‐making, and whether expressing imprecision can change ranking results. Because participants gained from viewing a problem from several perspectives and results from different methods often significantly differed, it appears worthwhile to apply several MCDM methods to increase user confidence and insight. The participants themselves recommended such multimethod approaches for policymaking. Yet they preferred the freedom of unaided decision‐making most of all, challenging the MCDM community to create transparent methods that permit maximum user control. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Repression and coping with the threat of rape

A study is reported which examined the impact of repressive coping style on processing and recalling information about rape. It was predicted that repressors selectively avoid threatening information about a rape incident and that selective avoidance is reflected in poorer recall for details of the rape account as well as anticipation of fewer coping problems in the event of sexual victimization. A total of N=143 women were presented with an authentic rape scenario taken from police files. The sample was divided into repressors, sensitizers, non‐anxious and defensive high‐anxious individuals on the basis of an anxiety and a social desirability measure. Differential memory by the four groups for the rape scenario was measured in a free‐recall task. In addition, respondents were asked to anticipate potential coping problems they thought they would experience in the event of sexual victimization, and they were asked to indicate their behavioural precautions against a sexual assault. As predicted, repressors showed poorer recall for the described rape than both sensitizers and non‐anxious subjects. Results were less conclusive concerning the proposed interaction of anxiety and defensive avoidance on anticipated coping problems. No effect was found of cognitive coping style on behavioural precautions against rape. The findings are discussed with respect to the construct validity of repression as a cognitive strategy for coping with threat in the domain of sexual violence. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alexithymia and its measurement: confirmatory factor analyses of the 20‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire

Alexithymia refers to the difficulties an individual has in experiencing and expressing feelings. The 20‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐20) and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) with two parallel versions of 20 items have been constructed to measure it. The present study compared the psychometric properties of these two self‐report questionnaires in English (N=290) and French (N=322) language versions. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the fit between the hypothesized factors and the data. Results revealed a better fit to the data for the second version of the BVAQ (BVAQ‐20B) for both language versions as compared to the TAS‐20, the whole BVAQ, or the first version of the BVAQ (BVAQ‐20A). Additionally, the factor comparison of both language versions indicated that only the factorial structure of the BVAQ‐20B was replicable across languages. Concurrent validity of the questionnaires is discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patient-Informed Treatment Development of Behavioral Smoking Cessation for People With Schizophrenia

The objective of this study was to use qualitative methodology to tailor and refine an existing smoking cessation intervention for the population of people who use cigarettes and are diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or psychotic disorder. Successive cohort design methodology was used to iteratively modify the treatment in response to qualitative participant, therapist, and consultant feedback on the intervention. Qualitative methodology for participant feedback included analysis of semistructured interviews with participants, visualization of app utilization data, and stakeholder feedback from study therapists and consultants. Using the successive cohort design, a tailored multicomponent mobile health smoking cessation intervention was developed. The intervention included mobile contingency management (i.e., financial compensation for confirmed abstinence from smoking), pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation, cognitive-behavioral counseling sessions, and the Stay Quit app for relapse prevention. Two cohorts (N = 13) were completed in the study; after each cohort, the treatment protocol was revised. The intervention is described, as well as the qualitative findings from each cohort and subsequent changes made to the intervention based upon patient and provider feedback. Metrics of patient engagement included treatment adherence (40% in Cohort 1 and 63% in Cohort 2). Both participants and therapists reported that the intervention was helpful. Over one third of participants self-reported abstinence at posttreatment. Since qualitative methodology is often underutilized in mental health treatment development, this study demonstrates the utility of the successive cohort design for treatment development of behavior change interventions for at-risk, vulnerable populations.