Interpreting visual preferences in the visual paired-comparison task

Performance on the visual paired-comparison (VPC) task has typically been interpreted with E. Sokolov's (1963) comparator model of the orienting response; novelty preferences are interpreted as evidence of retention, whereas null preferences are interpreted as evidence of forgetting. Here the authors capitalized on the verbal nature of human adults to clarify the interpretation of visual preferences in VPC performance. In 2 experiments, adults were tested on either the VPC task or a forced-choice recognition task after delays of 3 min to 12 months. In Experiment 1, adults tested on the VPC task exhibited novelty preferences after short delays, null preferences after intermediate delays, and familiarity preferences after long delays. In Experiment 2, adults tested on the forced-choice recognition task exhibited high levels of accuracy irrespective of delay, but the latency with which they recognized the stimuli increased systematically over the retention interval. These data are inconsistent with a simple Sokolovian interpretation of VPC performance and instead suggest that memory may be expressed as a novelty preference, null preference, or familiarity preference depending on the accessibility of the representation.     

Effects of internet-based voucher reinforcement and a transdermal nicotine patch on cigarette smoking

Nicotine replacement products are commonly used to promote smoking cessation, but alternative and complementary methods may increase cessation rates. The current experiment compared the short-term effects of a transdermal nicotine patch to voucher-based reinforcement of smoking abstinence on cigarette smoking. Fourteen heavy smokers (7 men and 7 women) completed the four 5-day phases of the study: baseline, patch treatment, voucher treatment, and return to baseline. The order of the two treatment phases was counterbalanced across participants. In the patch treatment condition, participants wore a 14-mg transdermal nicotine patch every day. In the voucher treatment condition, participants received vouchers contingent on abstinence from smoking, defined as producing carbon monoxide (CO) readings of < or =4 parts per million. Participants e-mailed two video clips per day showing them breathing into a CO monitor and the resulting CO reading to clinic staff. In the voucher treatment, 24% of samples were negative, and 5% of samples were negative in the patch treatment. Results suggest that contingent vouchers were more effective than transdermal nicotine patches in promoting abstinence.     

A model of the synchronic self

The phenomenology of the self includes the sense of control over one's body and mind, of being bounded in body and mind, of having perspective from within one's body and mind and of being extended in time. I argue that this phenomenology is to be accounted for by a set of five dissociable cognitive capacities that compose the self. The focus of this paper is on the four capacities that compose the synchronic self: the agentive(B) self, which underlies the sense of control over one's body; the boundary(B) self, which underlies the sense of being bounded within one's body; the agentive(M) self which underlies the sense of control over one's thoughts; and the boundary(M) self which underlies the sense of being bounded within one's mind. I model the agentive(B) and agentive(M) selves as parts of the motor control system and the boundary(B) self as the capacity to form and integrated map of the body. I point to the delusion of thought broadcast as a possible source of evidence for future research on the boundary(M) self.     

Predicting institutional adjustment with the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form and the Antisocial Features and Aggression scales of the PAI

I included scores on the Antisocial Features (ANT) and Aggression (AGG) scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) and ratings on the Lifestyle Criminality Screening Form (LCSF; Walters, White, & Denney, 1991) along with age and prior disciplinary record in a series of negative binomial regression analyses of total, nonaggressive, and aggressive incident reports (IRs) received in a 2-year follow-up of 120 male maximum security federal prisoners. Findings indicated that the AGG scale, but not the LCSF or ANT, predicted total and nonaggressive IR counts. The LCSF achieved significant receiver operating characteristic (ROC) results in predicting dichotomized aggressive IRs, the ANT achieved significant ROC results in predicting dichotomized total and nonaggressive IRs, and the AGG achieved significant ROC results in predicting all 3 dichotomized categories of IR. Supplemental analyses revealed that the AGG continued to predict total and nonaggressive IRs when the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995) Proactive scale was included in the negative binomial regression but not when the PICTS Reactive scale was included in the negative binomial regression.     

Factors in the assessment of suicidality in youth

Suicide remains a leading cause of death among youth, and suicide ideation and behavior are relatively common in both normal and clinical populations. Clinicians working with young people must assess for the presence of suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and other risk factors, in order to determine the level of risk. This paper provides the clinician with a summary of risk factors for youth suicide, as well as providing standardized terminology to enhance assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior.     

Rawls and Religious Community: Ethical Decision Making in the Public Square

While most people may initially agree that justice is fairness,as an evangelical Protestant I argue that, for many religiouscomprehensive doctrines, the Rawlsean model does not possessthe resources necessary to sustain tolerance in moral decisionmaking. The weakness of Rawls's model centers on the reasonablepriority of convictions that arise from private comprehensivedoctrines. To attain a free and pluralistic society, peopleneed resources sufficient to provide reasons to tolerate actionsthat are otherwise intolerable. In addition to arguing for thedeficiency of the Rawlsean political model, I sketch out a preliminarymodel of ambassadorship that offers religious communities, andin particular Protestant evangelicals, the necessary resourcesto engage the broader society tolerantly while maintaining theirreligious convictions. As a citizen of the church and a memberof another kingdom, Christians serve as ambassadors to thosewho are not of the heavenly kingdom. I take this model to bemore ambitious than that of a sojourner who lives in the landbut is isolated as much as possible from society, while moremodest than that of reconstructionists who seek to implementtheir own sacred law on all others.     

Influence and canonical supremacy: An analysis of how George Herbert Mead demoted Charles Horton Cooley in the sociological canon

This analysis assesses the factors underlying Charles Horton Cooley's place in the sociological canon as they relate to George Herbert Mead's puzzling diatribe—echoed in secondary accounts—against Cooley's social psychology and view of the self published scarcely a year after his death. The illocutionary act of publishing his critique stands as an effort to project the image of Mead's intellectual self and enhance his standing among sociologists within and outside the orbit of the University of Chicago. It expressed Mead's ambivalence toward his precursor Cooley, whose influence he never fully acknowledged. In addition, it typifies the contending fractal distinctions of the scientifically discursive versus literary styles of Mead and Cooley, who both founded the interpretive sociological tradition. The contrasting styles and attitudes toward writing of the two figures are discussed, and their implications for the problems of scale that have stymied the symbolic interactionist tradition are explored.