Women and Natural Hierarchy in Aristotle

In this paper, I examine the frame of reference in Aristotle's Politics within which he makes claims about women and their place in his conception of politics.     

The Inclusion House: Where Pastors Learn to Minister to Individuals with Disabilities

The Inclusion House is a unique dorm in Holland, Michigan, where nondisabled students, studying to be leaders in the faith community as future pastors, live side-by-side same-aged individuals with intellectual disabilities. After one year, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with the nondisabled roommates. Findings showed overall positive feelings involving watching roommates with a disability become more independent, learning to balance roles as a friend vs. helper, as well as knowledge gleaned about working with these type of individuals as well as their families for their future occupations. These findings are important for the education of future leaders of the church and the manner by which they can include people with disabilities and their families in faith communities.     

Functional brain organization of working memory in adolescents varies in relation to family income and academic achievement

Working memory (WM) capacity reflects executive functions associated with performance on a wide range of cognitive tasks and education outcomes, including mathematics achievement, and is associated with dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. Here we asked if family income is associated with variation in the functional brain organization of WM capacity among adolescents, and whether that variation is associated with performance on a statewide test of academic achievement in mathematics. Participants were classified into higher‐income and lower‐income groups based on family income, and performed a WM task with a parametric manipulation of WM load (N‐back task) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Behaviorally, the higher‐income group had greater WM capacity and higher mathematics achievement scores. Neurally, the higher‐income group showed greater activation as a function of WM load in bilateral prefrontal, parietal, and other regions, although the lower‐income group exhibited greater activation at the lowest load. Both groups exhibited positive correlations between parietal activations and mathematics achievement scores, but only the higher‐income group exhibited a positive correlation between prefrontal activations and mathematics scores. Most of these findings were maintained when higher‐ and lower‐income groups were matched on WM task performance or nonverbal IQ. Findings indicate that the functional neural architecture of WM varies with family income and is associated with education measures of mathematics achievement.     

ESTABLISHING DERIVED TEXTUAL CONTROL IN ACTIVITY SCHEDULES WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Activity schedules are often used to facilitate task engagement and transition for children with autism. This study evaluated whether conditional discrimination training would serve to transfer the control from activity‐schedule pictures to printed words (i.e., derived textual control). Two preschoolers with autism were taught to select pictures and printed words given their dictated names. Following training, participants could respond to printed words by completing the depicted task, match printed words to pictures, and read printed words without explicit training (i.e., emergent relations).     

Delayed versus immediate feedback in children’s and adults’ vocabulary learning

We investigated whether the superior memory performance sometimes seen with delayed rather than immediate feedback was attributable to the shorter retention interval (orlag to test) from the last presentation of the correct information in the delayed condition. Whetherlag to test was controlled or not, delayed feedback produced better final test performance than did immediate feedback, which in turn produced better performance than did no feedback at all, when we tested Grade 6 children learning school-relevant vocabulary. With college students learning GRE-level words, however, delayed feedback produced better performance than did immediate feedback (and both were better than no feedback) when lag to test was uncontrolled, but there was no difference between the delayed and immediate feedback conditions when the lag to test was controlled.     

Startle modulation in non-incarcerated men and women with psychopathic traits

Past research has demonstrated that individuals with psychopathic characteristics are under-responsive to aversive stimuli, however, much of this work has failed to include non-incarcerated samples, or to examine gender differences in this relationship. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of specific personality characteristics, as they relate to both psychopathic behavior and emotional responsiveness. The current study assessed emotional modulation of the startle response in a community sample of 108 men and women (99 with usable startle data) during perception of emotion-laden photographs. Consistent with previous work, men reporting high levels of psychopathy failed to show the typical increase in the startle response when exposed to aversive photographs, but only when responses were elicited relatively early in picture viewing (i.e., 2.0 s as compared to 4.5 s post-photograph onset). Additionally, both genders showed a significant effect of harm avoidance and anxiety on modulation of the startle response, such that individuals reporting low levels of each trait failed to show significant responses to aversive photographs. These results suggest that while deficits in emotional processing extend to non-incarcerated samples, the relationship may be influenced by additional factors including gender, personality, and attributes related to incarceration.     

The role of memory for past test in the underconfidence with practice effect

According to the Memory for Past Test (MPT) heuristic, judgments of learning (JOLs) may be based, in part, on memory for the correctness of answers on a previous test. The authors explored MPT as the source of the underconfidence with practice effect (UWP; A. Koriat, L. Sheffer, & H. Ma'ayan, 2002), whereby Trial 1 overconfidence switches to underconfidence by Trial 2. Immediate and delayed JOLs were contrasted because only immediate JOLs demonstrate UWP. Consistent with MPT for immediate JOLs, Trial 1 test performance better predicted Trial 2 JOLs than did Trial 2 test performance. Delayed JOLs showed the reverse. Furthermore, items forgotten on Trial 1 but remembered on Trial 2 contributed disproportionately to UWP, but only with immediate JOLs.     

Unassisted recovery from stuttering: self-perceptions of current speech behavior, attitudes, and feelings

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of recovery from stuttering based on the experiences of adults who recovered without treatment. Using a semi-structured, open-ended interview format, 15 speakers verified as persons who recovered without treatment were asked to describe their status as everyday speakers. Seven speakers reported that they no longer stuttered and eight reported that they still stuttered on occasion. Interview material was coded and analyzed by the investigators and checked by independent judges. Results suggested that complete recovery was possible for speakers who reported that they no longer stuttered; whereas, those who still stuttered occasionally appeared to no longer be handicapped by stuttering, but required some vigilance to maintain their relatively fluent speech.

Educational objectives: After completing this activity, the learner will be able to: (1) describe the relevance of self-report data for evaluating the nature of recovery from stuttering without treatment; (2) describe the differences in self-perception concerning the nature of recovery for those who no longer have any tendency to stutter compared to those who still have an occasional tendency to stutter; and (3) suggest the possible implications for understanding the nature of recovery from persistent stuttering based on investigations of late recovery without treatment.