Shared Moral and Spiritual Development Among Human Persons and Artificially Intelligent Agents

Technical advances in artificial intelligence make somewhat likely the possibility of robotic or software agents exhibiting or extending human-level intelligence within a few decades. Theological investigation can help meet significant research goals in artificial intelligence by orienting the development of agent communication and moral reasoning toward a shared moral and spiritual development of human persons and intelligent agents. In particular, Josiah Royce’s Loyalty-to-Loyalty initiates a moral stance within which humans and intelligent agents can develop constructive ethical frameworks and his semiotic philosophy of community can guide the development and functioning of an agent’s interpretive processes and can model shared spiritual formation.     

Sleep deprivation selectively impairs memory consolidation for contextual fear conditioning

Many behavioral and electrophysiological studies in animals and humans have suggested that sleep and circadian rhythms influence memory consolidation. In rodents, hippocampus-dependent memory may be particularly sensitive to sleep deprivation after training, as spatial memory in the Morris water maze is impaired by rapid eye movement sleep deprivation following training. Spatial learning in the Morris water maze, however, requires multiple training trials and performance, as measured by time to reach the hidden platform is influenced by not only spatial learning but also procedural learning. To determine if sleep is important for the consolidation of a single-trial, hippocampus-dependent task, we sleep deprived animals for 0–5 and 5–10 h after training for contextual and cued fear conditioning. We found that sleep deprivation from 0–5 h after training for this task impaired memory consolidation for contextual fear conditioning whereas sleep deprivation from 5–10 h after training had no effect. Sleep deprivation at either time point had no effect on cued fear conditioning, a hippocampus-independent task. Previous studies have determined that memory consolidation for fear conditioning is impaired when protein kinase A and protein synthesis inhibitors are administered at the same time as when sleep deprivation is effective, suggesting that sleep deprivation may act by modifying these molecular mechanisms of memory storage.     

Masking by object substitution: dissociation of masking and cuing effects

In a newly discovered form of visual masking, a target stimulus is masked by 4 flanking dots if their offset is delayed relative to the target (V. Di Lollo, J. T. Enns, & R. A. Rensink, 2000). In Di Lollo et al. (2000), the dot pattern also cued the relevant target and therefore required deliberate attention. In the present Experiments 2-6, a central arrow cued 1 of 2 letters for an E/F discrimination, with dots flanking both letters. Masking was reduced compared with the mask-cue procedure but was still robust. Delayed-offset dots flanking the nontarget also impaired performance, indicating competition for attention. Masking was unaffected by brightness of the dots relative to the target. Masking was attenuated not only by precuing attention to the target location but also by preview of an uninformative dot mask. Theories of masking by object substitution must therefore accommodate the prior context into which the target stimulus is introduced.     

Are creativity and schizotypy products of a right hemisphere bias?

Prior research has shown associations between higher creativity (e.g., semantic association, verbal fluency), higher schizotypy (e.g., magical ideation), and relatively stronger right hemisphere laterality measures--when each of the three pairings has been studied individually. Our prior study related creativity and schizotypy to signal detection theory response criterion aspects of laterality. The present study attempted to integrate findings regarding these three constructs and to replicate the signal detection theory laterality results by providing measures of all three constructs in a within subjects design. Participants were 60 undergraduates who completed a test battery including two measures of creativity, three measures of schizotypy, a lateralized lexical decision task, and a dichotic listening task. Results are consistent with individual differences in creativity and schizotypy being partly related to a response criterion favoring right hemisphere, possibly nonconscious, processing. Dichotic listening results revealed a strong association of better right hemisphere (left ear) localization ability and creativity.     

Patient Perceptions of Telephone vs. In-Person <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/BRCA2</Emphasis> Genetic Counseling

Telephone genetic counseling (TC) for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer risk has been associated with positive outcomes in high risk women. However, little is known about how patients perceive TC. As part of a randomized trial of TC versus usual care (UC; in-person genetic counseling), we compared high risk women’s perceptions of: (1) overall satisfaction with genetic counseling; (2) convenience; (3) attentiveness during the session; (4) counselor effectiveness in providing support; and (5) counselor ability to recognize emotional responses during the session. Among the 554 participants (TC, N?=?272; UC, N?=?282), delivery mode was not associated with self-reported satisfaction. However, TC participants found counseling significantly more convenient than UC participants (OR?=?4.78, 95 % CI?=?3.32, 6.89) while also perceiving lower levels of support (OR?=?0.56, 95 % CI?=?0.40–0.80) and emotional recognition (OR?=?0.53, 95 % CI?=?0.37–0.76). In exploratory analyses, we found that non-Hispanic white participants reported higher counselor support in UC than in TC (69.4 % vs. 52.8 %; OR?=?3.06, 95 % CI?=?1.39–6.74), while minority women perceived less support in UC vs. TC (58.3 % vs. 38.7 %; OR?=?0.80, 95 % CI?=?0.39–1.65). We discuss potential research and practice implications of these findings which may further improve the effectiveness and utilization of TC.     

Age-related differences on a new test of temporal order memory for everyday events

We developed a new test to examine incidental temporal order memory for a self-generated sequence of tasks one might complete in everyday life. Young and older adults were given 10 cards, each listing a task one might accomplish in a typical day. Participants were asked to self-generate a “to do” list by placing the 10 cards in a sequence representing the order in which they would accomplish the tasks, but were not informed of a subsequent memory test. We assessed immediate free recall, delayed free recall, and delayed cued recall for the order of the tasks in the sequence. Older adults were significantly impaired relative to young adults on immediate free recall, delayed free recall, and delayed cued recall. Correlation analyses with standardized neuropsychological tests provide preliminary evidence for construct validity for our test, which is portable and can be rapidly administered in clinical or laboratory settings.     

Computation and application of generalized linear mixed model derivatives using lme4

Psychometrika - Maximum likelihood estimation of generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) is difficult due to marginalization of the random effects. Derivative computations of a fitted GLMM’s...     

Initiation of evidence-based psychotherapies in Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requires that all VA hospitals and clinics provide access to evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs). Despite these widespread dissemination efforts, only a minority of Veterans receive EBP services. Reasons for these low rates of EBP utilization are largely unknown. This study examined the characteristics of Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who did (Initiation group) and did not (No-Initiation group) initiate a VA-approved EBP after participating in an information session. Veterans chose their preferred treatment from a menu of EBPs. Results demonstrated that Veterans in the No-Initiation group had longer periods of time between their referral and first EBP visit. Among Veterans in the Initiation group, the majority (68%) initiated a trauma-focused EBP as their first or second treatment, suggesting that providing a range of treatment options did not negatively impact their willingness to engage in PTSD treatment. Results are discussed in terms of VA initiatives to improve access to and initiation of mental health care for Veterans.