In search of meaning: values in modern clinical behavior analysis

Skinner described behavior analysis as the field of values and purpose. However, he defined these concepts in terms of a history of reinforcement and failed to specify whether and how human and nonhuman values might differ. Human values have been seen as theoretically central within a number of nonbehavioral traditions in psychology, including humanism and positive psychology. However, these approaches have failed to provide explanations of the behavior-environment relations involved in valuing that might allow prediction and influence with respect to this phenomenon. Modern clinical behavior analysis in the form of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), however, succeeds in providing a functional definition of human values that meets this latter criterion. ACT is rooted in behavior analysis and relational frame theory (RFT) and defines values in terms of verbally established motivation. ACT empirical research into values has begun to blossom in recent years, and ACT-RFT researchers are currently investigating the concept at the most basic empirical level as well as in the applied clinical arena, heralding new interest in and insight into values within clinical behavioral psychology.     

Über den Einfluß des Schlafens auf das Wiedererkennen

Ohne ZusammenfassungFür diese Versuche, die in der Zeit von August 1926 bis Juni 1927 stattfanden, stellten sich 14 Vpn. (Damen, Herren und Schüler im Alter von 14–16 Jahren) freundlicherweise zur Verfügung. Ebenso 12 Schüler zu den Vorversuchen. Ihnen allen sei an dieser Stelle für ihre Mühe und Geduld herzlich gedankt. Dank schulde ich auch meiner Frau für ihre Hilfe bei der Unterbringung der Vpn. während der Nachtversuche. Vor allem aber danke ich den Herren Prof. Köhler und Lewin, Berlin, für die Anregung und Förderung der Untersuchung auf das herzlichste.     

“He Couldn't Have Done It,He Was With Me!”: The Impact of Alibi Witness Age and Relationship

Undergraduate participants who conducted a simulated police investigation were presented with either a child (6 years old) or adult (25 years old) alibi witness, who was either the son or neighbor of the participant's suspect. Replicating previous research, participants were more likely to believe the adult neighbor alibi witness than the adult son. In fact, an alibi provided by the adult son actually proved detrimental to that suspect, as participants thought the suspect was more likely to be guilty after viewing an alibi provided by the adult son. However, child‐provided alibis reduced perceptions of suspect guilt, regardless of that child's relationship to the suspect. The child alibi witnesses were also viewed by the participants as more credible than the adult witnesses. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unconscious creativity: When can unconscious thought outperform conscious thought?

Recent research suggests that unconscious thought is superior to conscious thought in many cognitive domains. In this article, we show that the duration of unconscious thought has an inverted-U shaped relationship with creativity performance. Unconscious thought is, thus, unlikely to provide creative advantage over conscious thought when deliberation duration is either short or long. However, when deliberation duration is of a moderate length, the creative output of unconscious thought surpasses that of conscious thought. Furthermore, the superiority of unconscious thought pertains only to the novelty dimension of creativity, but not the appropriateness dimension. These findings not only shed light on the powers and limits of unconscious thought but also illuminate the importance of calibration in utilizing unconscious thought to boost creativity.     

Some but not all dispreferred turn markers help to interpret scalar terms in polite contexts

In polite contexts, people find it difficult to perceive whether they can derive scalar inferences from what others say (e.g., does “some people hated your idea” mean that not everyone hated it?). Because this uncertainty can lead to costly misunderstandings, it is important to identify the cues people can rely on to solve their interpretative problem. In this article, we consider two such cues: Making a long Pause before the statement, and prefacing the statement with Well. Data from eight experiments show that Pauses are more effective than Wells as cues to scalar inferences in polite contexts—because they appear to give a specific signal to switch expectations in the direction of bad news, whereas Well appears to give a generic signal to make extra processing effort. We consider the applied value of these findings for human–human and human–machine interaction, as well as their implications for the study of reasoning and discourse.     

Order and Strength Matter for Evaluation of Alibi and Eyewitness Evidence

We explored the effects of presentation order and evidence strength on participants acting as investigators in a criminal context. Participants evaluated evidence and suspect guilt in a study in which alibi witness and eyewitness evidence of varying strength, presented in different orders, were compared. In contrast to research on the confirmation bias, which suggests that evidence presented early distorts subsequent evaluations of evidence, the present findings suggest that under certain circumstances, evidence received most recently can have a greater impact on decision‐making. Recency effects were observed most frequently when recent evidence was particularly strong and often when it contradicted previously encountered strong evidence. The impact of recency extended beyond the impact of evidence and to evaluations of the credibility of individual pieces of evidence. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.