The effect of behavioral skills training with general‐case training on staff chaining of child vocalizations within natural language paradigm

This study used behavioral skills training (BST) and general‐case training (GCT) in which the experimenter simulated child performance to teach three staff to conduct NLP and response chaining to increase three‐link vocal chains in three children with autism. Staff increased their correct NLP performance during post‐training in comparison to baseline. Two of three children emitted more vocal chains following training. This study demonstrated that BST and GCT were effective in training NLP and response chaining. When assessing social validity, both Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and teachers did not indicate an increase in staff members' teaching skills. Future research should develop effective technologies to chain vocal behavior and to teach staff and parents to implement response chaining. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Males outperform females in translating social relations into spatial positions

Research indicates that human males interact in groups, whereas females form one-on-one relationships. Whereas females excel in understanding intimate verbally-mediated social information, we hypothesized that males would be more sensitive to the spatial positions of friends within a group. In Study 1, we demonstrate that after a very brief exposure, compared to females, males more accurately recalled the spatial positions of individuals who were friendly with one another when their relative positions mirrored their friendship structures. In Study 2, we demonstrate that females were as accurate as males in reconstituting the positions of individuals who were not friends with one another. In Study 3, we demonstrate that the male advantage remains when indirect cues to positive group relations are used. These results support the idea that the group-based social structure of males renders them more sensitive than females to the use of relational information in reconstituting the short-term spatial locations of group members.     

Gender and priming differences in speed of processing of information relating to social structure

Previous research has shown that women and men’s different interactional contexts result in selective differences in retention of information (e.g., Gabriel & Gardner, 1999). This study tested the hypothesis that there should be broad gender-related differences in latencies of retrieval of information focused on groups or dyads, with women processing the latter more rapidly, and men processing the former more rapidly. Participants were given a diary reading task with explicit recall instructions. Results showed that although no difference was found in overall retention of items, women responded more rapidly to items referring to dyads, while men responded more rapidly to items referring to groups. In addition, a strong effect of the gender of the protagonist of the diary was found. Participants of both gender responded more rapidly to dyadic items when the protagonist was female but responded more rapidly to group items when the protagonist was male. These results indicate that gender differences in social structure result in differences in encoding and retrieval of broad classes of information that are not accountable for by selective retention.     

When additional multiple‐choice lures aid versus hinder later memory

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether increasing the number of lures on a multiple‐choice test helps, hinders or has no effect on later memory. All three patterns have been reported in the literature. In Experiment 1, the stimuli were unrelated word lists, and increasing the number of lures on an initial multiple‐choice test led to better performance on later free recall and cued recall tasks. In contrast, in Experiments 2 and 3, stimuli were facts from prose materials, and increasing the number of multiple‐choice lures led to robust costs in cued recall and smaller costs in free recall. The results indicate that performance on the initial multiple‐choice test is a critical factor. When initial multiple‐choice performance was near ceiling, testing with additional lures led to superior performance on subsequent tests. However, at lower levels of multiple‐choice performance, testing with additional lures produced costs on later tests. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

INTUITIONS AND SEMANTIC THEORY

Abstract: While engaged in the analysis of philosophically central concepts, analytic philosophers have traditionally relied extensively on their own intuitions about when such concepts can be correctly applied. Intuitions have, however, come under increasingly critical scrutiny of late, and if they turned out not to be a reliable tool for the proper analysis of our concepts, then a radical reworking of analytic philosophy's methodology would be in order. One influential line of criticism against the use of intuitions argues that they only tell us about our conceptions of things, and not the things themselves. This venerable line of criticism can seem considerably strengthened if one endorses “externalist” accounts of meaning. Nevertheless, the move from semantic externalism to the rejection of intuitions will be shown to be illegitimate if one has a constitutive rather than expressive understanding of the relation between our intuitions and our concepts.     

The effect of forced recall on illusory recollection in younger and older adults

The effect of an initial forced recall test on later recall and recognition tests was examined in younger and older adults. Subjects were presented with categorized word lists and given an initial test under standard cued recall instructions (with a warning against guessing) or forced recall instructions (that required guessing); subjects were later given a cued recall test for the original list items. In 2 experiments, initial forced recall resulted in higher levels of illusory memories on subsequent tests (relative to initial cued recall), especially for older adults. Older adults were more likely to say they remembered rather than knew that forced guesses had occurred in the original study episode. The effect persisted despite a strong warning against making errors in Experiment 2. When a source monitoring test was given, older adults had more difficulty than younger adults in identifying the source of items they had originally produced as guesses. If conditions encourage subjects to guess on a first memory test, they are likely to recollect these guesses as actual memories on later tests. This effect is exaggerated in older adults, probably because of their greater source monitoring difficulties. Both dual process and source monitoring theories provide insight into these findings.     

Auditory similarities associated with genetic and experimental acoustic deprivation.

Susceptibility to audiogenic seizures has been produced in otherwise non-susceptible mice by acoustic stress and by conductive hearing loss. Both procedures temporarily elevate the absolute threshold of the auditory evoked potential (AEP) and are maximally effective during a circumscribed period of early development. In the genetically SUSCEPTIBLE DBA/2J mouse, AEP thresholds indicated that its auditory system is functionally less mature during this early period than that of the nonsusceptible C57BL/6Jmouse. It was proposed that innate susceptibility found in the DBA/2J mouse results from auditory disuse supersensitivity during a critical developmental period, in support of Saunders' hypothesis for acoustically primed mice. The increased peak-to-peak AEP amplitudes, however, were not believed to be causally related to the audiogenic seizures.     

The combined effects of noncontingent reinforcement and punishment on the reduction of rumination

The current study extends the literature on the assessment and treatment of rumination through the evaluation of a combined reinforcement‐ and punishment‐based intervention. The study included a single participant with a history of rumination maintained by automatic reinforcement, as identified via a functional analysis. Both noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) with preferred edible items and punishment, in the form of a facial screen, were implemented separately to evaluate their independent effects on the occurrence of rumination. The final treatment package included both NCR and punishment procedures. Implementation of the combined treatment resulted in a 96.5% reduction in rumination relative to baseline. Procedural modifications and integrity errors also were evaluated.