Adaptive Individual Differences

Individuals differ in innumerable ways, some adaptive, some maladaptive, and some neutral. Personality theories, we argue, can profit from distinguishing among these importantly different types of individual variation. This article outlines a taxonomy of origins of individual differences— environmental sources of adaptive differences (e.g., early environmental calibration), heritable sources of adaptive differences (e.g., adaptive self-assessment of heritable qualities), nonadaptive sources of individual differences (e.g., incidental by-products of adaptive variation), and maladaptive sources of individual differences (e.g., epigenetic trauma). The second section outlines empirical procedures for confirming or falsifying the differing conceptions of individual differences, with a special focus on empirically distinguishing adaptive individual differences from those that are maladaptive or nonadaptive. The final section highlights the importance of individual differences for solving social adaptive problems.     

Hebrew thoughts on immortality and resurrection

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

The role of elicited responding in behavioral contrast

An attempt was made to separate operant and elicited pecks occurring in multiple schedules of food reinforcement by moving the component stimuli to a second key, upon which pecks had no effect. The operant key stimulus was constant, regardless of the reinforcement schedule in effect. Experiments included two- and three-component multiple schedules and a comparison of the single-key and the two-key procedures. In general, conditions that typically produce positive contrast in single-key procedures reduced responding to the constant-stimulus key (induction) and increased responding to the component-stimulus key (contrast) in the two-key procedure. The results were interpreted as supporting the contention that two response classes, operant and elicited, are present in standard multiple schedules. In addition, elicited responses were strongly implicated in contrast phenomena.     

Modification in movement accuracy in the triphasic pattern during a rapid forearm-flexion task

The present study was designed to investigate modifications in the triphasic EMG pattern during a forearm-flexion task at maximum speed which required three levels of movement accuracy. 36 subjects participated in 4 training sessions, performing a total of 200 repetitions of each movement. The fastest movement time was associated with the least accurate movement task. Likewise, the slowest movement time was found for the movement requiring the greatest accuracy. Differences in the duration and amplitude of agonist 1 activity, the start of agonist 2 activity, and the start and amplitude of antagonist activity were observed for the three movements. The results indicate that agonist 1 provides a propulsive force to initiate limb movement. The antagonist EMG activity was thought responsible for braking and correcting limb movement. Modifications in agonist 2 activity suggest this burst is related to movement velocity.     

Impact of symptoms and aging attribution on emotions and coping

Two experimental studies and a large field study were designed to examine how symptom severity, symptom duration, symptom ambiguity, and the association of symptoms with aging affected emotional responses and coping with illness threats. In Study 1, 280 respondents from the surrounding community reported the emotional and coping responses they would manifest to scenarios that varied the severity, duration, and ambiguity (i.e., labeled vs. unlabeled) of a common set of symptoms. Severity had more of an impact on coping strategies than did duration or illness label; severe symptoms elicited stronger emotional upset and a higher incidence of both self-care behaviors and seeking of medical care. Symptoms of longer duration also resulted in increased seeking of medical care. Responses of the 334 adults participating in Study 2 replicated and extended these findings: A closed-ended item asking participants whether the symptoms could be attributed to aging showed that attribution of symptoms to aging increased with age, was more frequent for mild symptoms, and was associated with reduced emotional response to symptoms and a tendency to delay seeking treatment. Participants in the field study (168 patients seeking medical care for a variety of symptoms) completed interviews tracing symptom processing and emotional and coping reactions. The results provided evidence for the external validity of the scenario studies, as the attribution of symptoms to aging was greater for older than younger patients and resulted in a significant tendency to delay seeking medical care. Results of these studies suggest that symptom experience and symptom interpretation must be considered in the study of coping responses to illness threats.     

Foundationalism,circular justification,and the levels gambit

In Foundationalism, Coherentism, and the Levels Gambit, David Shatz argued that foundationalists must countenance a circular mediate justification of perceptual beliefs which the foundationalist holds are already immediately justified. Because the circularity of coherentist accounts of the justification of beliefs is a major basis of foundationalist criticism of coherentism, Shatz's claim is a serious challenge to foundationalism. In this paper, using a moderate foundationalism with a reliabilist conception of justification, I give an account of immediately and mediately justified beliefs which shows that such a foundationalism need not accept such a circular justification (and in crucial cases cannot do so) and that Shatz's claim is therefore incorrect.     

Teaching cognitive processes: Software for laboratory instruction in memory and cognition

This paper describes a set of computer programs that allow students to participate as subjects in well-known experiments selected from the current literature on memory and cognition. The experiments address five major areas: levels of processing, encoding specificity, semantic memory, sentence-picture verification, and constructive processes in prose comprehension.