Fission May Kill You (But Not for the Reasons You Thought)

If a person, A, branches into B and C, then it is widely held that B and C are not identical to one another. Many think that this is because B and C have contradictory properties at the same time. In this paper, I show why this explanation cannot be right. I argue that contradictory properties at times are not necessary for non‐identity between descendants, and that contradictory properties at times are not sufficient for non‐identity. I also argue that the standard explanation cannot be salvaged by a shift to personal time. Appeals to a lack of continuity, or to the absence of unity of consciousness likewise fail. Rather, B and C are non‐identical simply because A branched into B and C. Why branching should be problematic for personal identity remains a deep puzzle though I offer some tentative suggestions.     

The ‘Magical’ Effect of Integration on Event Memory

Only a handful of studies have extended our understanding of retrieval induced forgetting (RIF) during development and even fewer have tested for RIF effects outside word‐list paradigms. The purpose of these experiments was to: (i) examine how partial retrieval of a witnessed event would impact subsequent retrieval of that event in school‐aged children; and (ii) examine the robustness of semantic integration as a boundary condition on RIF. Two experiments were conducted using the three traditional phases of the RIF paradigm: study phase, practice phase, and test phase. We found clear evidence of RIF in event memory. There was also evidence of the robust impact that integration instructions have on minimizing RIF. Integration appears to not only have a dampening effect on RIF, but integration instructions may also influence how children process all aspects of an experience, regardless of whether a person is passively or actively part of the experience.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Two Taped-Words Interventions on Sight-Word Reading in Students with Mental Retardation

Multiple-baseline and alternating treatments design elements were combined to evaluate the effects of two taped-words (TW) interventions (rapid-paced and slow-paced) on sight-word reading accuracy levels in elementary students with mental retardation. During rapid TW, one word was presented every second via tape recorder and students were instructed to read aloud along with the tape. During slow TW, words were presented every 5s. Both TW interventions increased word reading accuracy but differences in learning rates between the two TW interventions were inconsistent across participants. Although no firm conclusions can be drawn regarding which pace is more effective, results show that regardless of pace, this efficient, self-managed intervention can be used to increase sight-word reading in students with mental retardation.     

Effects of food deprivation on the performance of a two-turn task in a temporal circular maze

Ten hooded rats were trained to perform a two-turn task in a temporal circular maze. The effects of levels of food deprivation (2, 26, 50, 74, 98, 122 hr.) on performance were evaluated. It was found that the correct responses were not affected, but both running time and competing behaviour decreased significantly with increase in hours of food deprivation. In a second experiment 8 rats were trained in a similar way and after attaining a stable performance, were run for a further 4 sessions at 24 hr. deprivation, and then at 72 hr. deprivation. The results precluded the possibility that the results obtained in Experiment I were due to practice effects, and support the findings on the effects of deprivation.     

Depression and the generation of complex hypotheses in the judgment of contingency

This experiment tests the hypothesis that relative to nondepressed college students, depressed college students will underestimate the potential amount of control they can exert over an environmental outcome when they must generate a complex hypothesis in order to exert control, but not when the complex hypothesis is generated for them. Following the method of Alloy and Abramson (1979b), depressed and nondepressed students' judgments of response-outcome contingency were assessed in either a ‘self-generated’ or an ‘experimenter-generated’ condition. In the ‘self-generated’ condition, subjects generated and tested potential hypotheses for controlling the outcome themselves. In the ‘experimenter-generated’ condition, the experimenter generated a small set of potential hypotheses to be tested by the subject. Relative to nondepressed students, depressed students were less likely to perform the correct controlling response, received fewer rewards, and judged that they exerted less control over the outcome in the ‘self-generated’ condition. These results fail to support the ‘associative’ deficit of the learned helplessness theory of depression, but are consistent with the ‘motivational’ deficit of helplessness theory.     

Supervising professionals involved in the psychological care of people infected with HIV/AIDS

The provision of psychological care for people with HIV/AIDS in the last decade has led to a demand for professional supervision of counsellors and other professionals who work with this patient group. While there are many similarities in the supervisory process with professionals working with patients with other medical and psychological problems, there are also unique and specific issues which stem from working with people with HIV/AIDS. Some of these are discussed in this paper. The supervisory process described relates to a systemic conceptual framework. Tasks in clinical supervision and dijiculties in supervision are highlighted. Suggestions are offered for setting up and developing supervision sessions in clinical practice.     

A comparison of adult males' and females' interactions with girls and boys

The verbal interactions of adult males and females with trained girl and boy confederates were compared in an unstructured and an immediately following structured situation. Women did not respond differently based on the child's gender in either situation, while men spoke more and used longer mean length of utterances with the boys than with the girls in the unstructured situation. In the structured situation males did not respond differently to girls and boys, speaking more to both than did females. Correlations between the number of words spoken in female-child pairs were higher, suggesting a greater reciprocity of interaction, than for male-child pairs in both situations. The results are seen as reflecting the outcome of differential sex-role socialization for men and women, especially with respect to children, with females socialized to relate with others and men to need to dominate others.     

A within-subjects analysis of the relationship between memory span and processing rate in short-term memory

A within-subjects analysis of the relationship between memory span and processing rate for four stimulus classes in short-term memory indicated that while the two factors are correlated when averaged data is considered, as shown by Cavanagh (Psychological Review, 1972, 79, 525–530), the strength of the relationship for individual subjects varies from zero to unity. The intersubject correlations for each stimulus class were not consistent with the view that a unified model may be advanced to account for performance in recall and recognition tasks in shortterm memory.