Computer-Presented Video Prompting for Teaching Microwave Oven Use to Three Adults with Developmental Disabilities

We evaluated the use of a video prompting procedure for teaching three adults with developmental disabilities to make popcorn using a microwave oven. Training, using a 10-step task analysis, was conducted in the kitchen of the participant’s vocational training program. During baseline, participants were instructed to make popcorn, but were given no further instructions or prompts. Video prompting consisted of first watching a video clip of a step being performed and then giving participants the opportunity to imitate that step. This prompting procedure was introduced in a delayed multiple-probe across subjects design. Following acquisition, video prompting was removed and maintenance in the absence of video prompting was assessed at 2, 6, and 10 weeks. Two of the three participants acquired the task when video prompting was introduced and performed at 80–100% correct during follow-up sessions. These data suggest that video prompting may be an effective instructional strategy for teaching daily living skills to adults with developmental disabilities.     

Development and preliminary validation of the physiological hyperarousal scale for children

Considerable empirical support exists for the positive affect and negative affect components of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression proposed by L. A. Clark and D. Watson (1991); however, less attention has been paid to the physiological hyperarousal component of the model. The development of the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children (PH-C; J. Laurent, S. J. Catanzaro, & T. E. Joiner Jr., 1995) is described. The psychometric properties of items are examined using students in Grades 6-12 (N = 398). Initial scale validation includes a joint factor analysis with the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C; J. Laurent et al., 1999; J. Laurent, K. Potter, & S. J. Catanzaro, 1994). The relationship between the PH-C and existing measures that tap related constructs is examined. Together, the PH-C and PANAS-C provide a means to assess tripartite model constructs useful in differentiating anxiety and depression.     

Gender-typical responses to sexual and emotional infidelity as a function of mortality salience induced self-esteem striving

The authors propose that gender-differentiated patterns of jealousy in response to sexual and emotional infidelity are engendered by the differential impact of each event on self-esteem for men and women. Study 1 demonstrated that men derive relatively more self-esteem from their sex lives, whereas women's self-esteem is more contingent on romantic commitment. Based on terror management theory, it is predicted that if gender-differentiated responses to infidelity are motivated by gender-specific contingencies for self-esteem, they should be intensified following reminders of mortality. In Study 2, mortality salience (MS) increased distress in response to sexual infidelity for men and emotional infidelity for women. Study 3 demonstrated that following MS, men who place high value on sex in romantic relationships exhibited greater distress in response to sexual infidelity, but low-ex-value men's distress was attenuated. The authors discuss the implications for evolutionary and self-esteem-based accounts of jealousy as well as possible integration of these perspectives.     

Mechanisms and the current state of deep brain stimulation in neuropsychiatry

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is established as a therapy for movement disorders, and it is an investigational treatment in other neurologic conditions. DBS precisely targets neuroanatomical targets deep within the brain that are proposed to be centrally involved in the pathophysiology of some neuropsychiatric illnesses. DBS is nonablative, offering the advantages of reversibility and adjustability. This might permit therapeutic effectiveness to be enhanced or side effects to be minimized. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown effects of DBS locally, at the stimulation target, and at a distance, via actions on fibers of passage or across synapses. Although its mechanisms of action are not fully elucidated, several effects have been proposed to underlie the therapeutic effects of DBS in movement disorders, and potentially in other conditions as well. The mechanisms of action of DBS are the focus of active investigation in a number of clinical and preclinical laboratories. As in severe movement disorders, DBS may offer a degree of hope for patients with intractable neuropsychiatric illness. It is already clear that research intended to realize this potential will require a very considerable commitment of resources, energy, and time across disciplines including psychiatry, neurosurgery neurology, neuropsychology, bioengineering, and bioethics. These investigations should proceed cautiously.     

The role of axes of elongation and symmetry in rotated object naming

Many theorists have postulated that axes of elongation and/or symmetry play an important role in the recognition of objects. In this paper, evidence is presented that mitigates this claim from independent assessments of the effects of axes of elongation or symmetry on the time to name rotated line drawings of common objects. This conclusion was further supported in a stronger test in which both of these variables were orthogonally controlled, the aspect ratio of elongation was manipulated,and only objects that were completely geometrically symmetrical or asymmetrical were used. In all the experiments, objects were named for several blocks to determine the influence of these variables on effects of orientation with practice. Symmetry was found to diminish the effects of orientation after practice in naming the object set, and the effects of the most extreme orientation tested (120 degrees from upright) were diminished when both axes defined the same orientation, relative to when they defined different orientations. Contrary to many theories, these findings relegate the axes of symmetry and elongation to relatively minor roles during object identification.     

Discourse and Mind

In recent years, various attempts have been made to advance a project sometimes characterized as "discursive psychology". Grounded in what its proponents term "social constructionism", the discursive approach to the elucidation of 'mental' phenomena is here contrasted to an ethnomethodological position informed by the later work of Wittgenstein. In particular, it is argued that discursive psychology still contains Cartesian residua, notwithstanding its professed objective of expurgating Cartesian thought from the behavioral sciences. One principal issue has been the confusion of "conceptual analysis" with the empirical study of speech practices. If these distinct enterprises are conflated, the critical achievements of conceptual analysis are obscured or even misconstrued. A different picture of how best to analyze human conduct and mentality emerges if the lessons of Wittgensteinian grammatical analysis are preserved and extended, one more compatible with several themes in ethnomethodology.     

The impact of an emotional self-management skills course on psychosocial functioning and autonomic recovery to stress in middle school children

Unmanaged emotional reactions to stress not only lead to behavior problems in young people but also create physiological conditions that inhibit learning and potentially increase the risk of disease later in life. For these reasons, the integration of emotional self-management skills training programs has become an increased priority in some schools. In this study, middle school students enrolled in a course in emotional competence skills learned techniques designed to intercept stressful responses during emotionally challenging situations. Behavioral outcomes were assessed using the Achievement Inventory Measure and autonomic function was measured by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis during and after a stressful interview. Following the program, students exhibited significant improvements in areas including stress and anger management, risky behavior, work management and focus, and relationships with family, peers and teachers. These improvements were sustained over the following six months. Students using the skills taught in the course to recover from acute emotional stress were also able to positively modulate their physiological stress responses. As compared to a control group, trained students demonstrated significantly increased HRV and more rhythmic, sine wave-like heart rhythm patterns during recovery. This response pattern reflects increased parasympathetic activity, heart rhythm coherence, and entrainment of other biological oscillatory systems to the primary heart rhythm frequency. Increased physiological coherence is associated with improved cognitive performance, emotional balance, mental clarity and health outcomes. These physiological shifts could promote the sustained psychological and behavioral improvements associated with the use of emotional management skills. It is suggested that learning emotional competence skills in childhood establishes healthier physiological response patterns which can benefit learning and long-term health. Results provide support for the integration in school curricula of courses designed to teach effective self-management skills to children.     

Common Sense and Maximum Entropy

This paper concerns the question of how to draw inferences common sensically from uncertain knowledge. Since the early work of Shore and Johnson (1980), Paris and Vencovská (1990), and Csiszár (1989), it has been known that the Maximum Entropy Inference Process is the only inference process which obeys certain common sense principles of uncertain reasoning. In this paper we consider the present status of this result and argue that within the rather narrow context in which we work this complete and consistent mode of uncertain reasoning is actually characterised by the observance of just a single common sense principle (or slogan). This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Tales from the Crypt: On the Role of Death in Life

An existential psychodynamic theory is presented based on Ernest Becker's claim that self-esteem and cultural worldviews function to ameliorate the anxiety associated with the uniquely human awareness of vulnerability and mortality. Psychological equanimity is hypothesized to require (1) a shared set of beliefs about reality that imbues the universe with stability, meaning, and permanence; (2) standards by which individuals can judge themselves to be of value; and (3) promises of safety and the transcendence of death to those who meet the standards of value. An empirical research program in support of this theory is then described, and the personal and interpersonal implications of these ideas are briefly considered.