Refining the blank line-up procedure: How should we instruct eyewitnesses?

Presenting a blank line-up—containing only fillers—to witnesses prior to showing a real line-up might be useful for screening out those who pick from the blank line-up as unreliable witnesses. We show that the effectiveness of this procedure varies depending on instructions given to witnesses. Participants (N = 462) viewed a simulated crime and attempted to identify the perpetrator from a line-up approximately 1 week later. Rejecting a blank line-up was associated with greater identification accuracy and greater diagnosticity of suspect identifications, but only when witnesses were instructed prior to the blank line-up that they would view a series of line-ups; the procedure was ineffective for screening when witnesses were advised they would view two line-ups or received no instruction. These results highlight the importance of instructions used in the blank line-up procedure, and the need for better understanding of how to interpret choosing patterns in this paradigm.     

Functional neuroanatomy of gesture–speech integration in children varies with individual differences in gesture processing

Gesture is an integral part of children's communicative repertoire. However, little is known about the neurobiology of speech and gesture integration in the developing brain. We investigated how 8‐ to 10‐year‐old children processed gesture that was essential to understanding a set of narratives. We asked whether the functional neuroanatomy of gesture–speech integration varies as a function of (1) the content of speech, and/or (2) individual differences in how gesture is processed. When gestures provided missing information not present in the speech (i.e., disambiguating gesture; e.g., “pet” + flapping palms = bird), the presence of gesture led to increased activity in inferior frontal gyri, the right middle temporal gyrus, and the left superior temporal gyrus, compared to when gesture provided redundant information (i.e., reinforcing gesture; e.g., “bird” + flapping palms = bird). This pattern of activation was found only in children who were able to successfully integrate gesture and speech behaviorally, as indicated by their performance on post‐test story comprehension questions. Children who did not glean meaning from gesture did not show differential activation across the two conditions. Our results suggest that the brain activation pattern for gesture–speech integration in children overlaps with—but is broader than—the pattern in adults performing the same task. Overall, our results provide a possible neurobiological mechanism that could underlie children's increasing ability to integrate gesture and speech over childhood, and account for individual differences in that integration.     

Examining the Mediating Effects of Social Learning on the Low Self-Control—Cyberbullying Relationship in a Youth Sample

Over the last decade, researchers have conducted a significant amount of research to explore the causes and consequences of cyberbullying, where individuals use the Internet in order to send harmful and aggressive messages. Using a sample of middle and high school students in Kentucky, the current study utilized low self-control and social learning theories in an attempt to further understand why adolescents engage in cyberbullying. The binary logistic regression results suggested that components of social learning theory mediated the effect of low-self-control. The implications of this study for both criminological theory and cyberbullying research are discussed in detail.     

Paired associate learning in reading-disabled children: evidence for a rule-learning deficiency

Two experiments examined whether normal and disabled readers differed in the utilization of rules in a paired associate learning task. Experiment 1 required children to learn symbol-word associates. Children were assigned to one of three conditions: nonrule, consistent rule, or inconsistent rule. When present, the rule was based on semantic opposites. Subjects benefited from having the rule, but disabled readers showed less improvement across four test blocks than both chronological age (CA) controls and reading age (RA) controls, particularly in the inconsistent condition. Experiment 2 required subjects to learn symbol-symbol associations in one of three conditions: nonrule, consistent rule, or inconsistent rule. When present, the rule specified the locations of a subsidiary figure in each symbol according to the pattern top-right, bottom-left. Disabled and normal readers did not differ in the nonrule condition where reliance on visual memory would be an effective strategy. Normal readers were superior to disabled readers in both rule conditions. In addition, disabled readers in the inconsistent rule condition were less able than normal readers to apply the rule in a generalization task where memory demands were reduced. Results supported the hypothesis that disabled readers have greater difficulty than normal readers inducing and/or using rules, particularly when they are inconsistent. It is suggested that difficulties in acquiring or using complex and inconsistent rules may be one important source of problems learning spelling-sound correspondence rules, which in English are complex and inconsistent.     

Hyperventilation and anxiety in panic disorder, social phobia, GAD and normal controls

Patients with DSM-III Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, GAD, Social Phobia and normal controls underwent a series of experimental procedures and measures to determine whether panic attack patients show a greater tendency towards hyperventilation that is independent from their anxiety levels. Contrary to expectations, the Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder patients did not show significantly lower levels of expired pCO2 at rest than the other anxious or non-anxious groups. However, the panic attack patients did show significantly higher levels of anxiety and hyperventilatory symptoms during a hyperventilation test and during breathing 5% CO2 in air. A strong relationship was found between hyperventilatory symptoms and anxiety in all groups of patients and in the controls. On the basis of these results it was concluded that Agoraphobia and Panic Disorder patients do not show a unique tendency toward hyperventilation, but rather that their hyperventilatory symptoms and perhaps intermittent overbreathing episodes are a function of the high levels of anxiety they experience.     

A Time-Series Diary Study of Mood and Social Interaction

Based on concomitant time-series analyses, the results of this study support distinct social interaction correlates for the mood dimensions of negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA). Participants (N = 25) completed structured diaries three times daily for 4 weeks assessing their PA, NA, and participation in five types of social interaction. A significant number of participants' data series evidenced significant positive correlations between PA and fun/active and necessary/informational types of social interaction, and between NA and arguing/confronting and receiving help/support, during synchronous diary periods. Providing help/support was not related to NA or PA. No hypothesized time-lagged relations between mood and social interaction variables were present suggesting that, if these associations exist, they may be at intervals shorter than the one third day recording frequency used in this study. Results are discussed in the context of research on mood, social interaction, and time-series analysis.     

Proactive behavioral effects of theta-blocking septal stimulation in the rat

The induction of hippocampal theta rhythm using low-frequency septal stimulation has been shown to proactively (1) facilitate the acquisition and (2) increase resistance to extinction of a food-rewarded fixed-ratio (FR) bar-press response (Holt & Gray, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35B, 97-118, 1983). Both (1) and (2) are also seen after septal lesions. This suggests that Holt and Gray's (1983) results may have been due either to stimulation-produced theta waves (the "theta" hypothesis), or a small septal lesion produced by the stimulating current (the "lesion" hypothesis). Both hypotheses were tested in the present experiment using high-frequency septal stimulation. In one of two treatment conditions male Sprague-Dawley rats, chronically implanted with a bilateral septal stimulating electrode and a unilateral bipolar hippocampal recording electrode, received (1) trains of continuous pulses at 77 Hz which blocked the hippocampal theta rhythm, or (2) trains of pulses at 100 Hz interrupted by a 30-msec interval at a frequency of 7.7 Hz. Control animals were implanted but not stimulated. Acquisition of a discrete-trial bar-press response on a fixed ratio 5 reinforcement schedule immediately followed the treatment phase. After 15 days' acquisition all animals were extinguished over the subsequent 12 days. Results indicated that both types of septal stimulation reduced resistance to extinction of barpressing; theta-blocking stimulation produced the greater effect. Theta-blocking stimulation retarded the acquisition of bar-pressing in the early stages of training. These overall results are exactly opposite to those produced by low-frequency (7.7 Hz) theta-driving septal stimulation (Holt & Gray, 1983) and contrary to the predictions of the lesion hypothesis. Furthermore, these findings support the idea that long-term changes in behavior may depend on stimulation-produced changes in the hippocampal theta rhythm.     

Function of intertrial interval in matching-to-sample

Twelve pigeons were trained on matching-to-sample using either a 0-, 5-, 15-, 25-, or 60-sec intertrial interval. Eight of these 12 pigeons were given one of the following intertrial interval changes: 0 to 60, 0 to 5, 5 to 0, 60 to 0, 15 to 25, 5 to 15, 60 to 5, 5 to 1, 1 to 5, 1 to 25, and 25 to 1 sec. Most intertrial interval changes were repeated at least once. The 0-sec intertrial interval subjects failed to match beyond chance levels, while other intertrial interval values resulted in matching acquisition. Changes from 0 sec to other intertrial interval values increased and changes to 0 sec decreased matching performance. Changes to intertrial interval values other than 0 sec resulted in little change in matching accuracy once stable performance had been attained.     

An introduction to the PLATO CAI system

The PLATO interactive computer system is discussed as a fully developed large-scale CAI system. Both the hardware and software aspects of the system are discussed. The discussion of hardware includes the necessary equipment to operate a PLATO system and the flow of control during an interactive session on that system. The discussion of the software on the PLATO system focuses on the TUTOR lesson-authoring language. The aspects of the TUTOR language that facilitate display of material, student input and judging of input, and either student-initiated or author-initiated branching in the program are discussed.