USE OF LATENCY TO PROBLEM BEHAVIOR TO EVALUATE DEMANDS FOR INCLUSION IN FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES

Few direct‐assessment procedures are designed to identify potential negative reinforcers (e.g., including demands in the escape condition of functional analyses). Two participants were systematically exposed to a series of demands nominated by caregivers as potential negative reinforcers. Sessions ended following the first instance of problem behavior, and a hierarchy of demand aversiveness was created based on the latency to the first problem behavior. Subsequent functional analyses confirmed the predictive value of the hierarchy, with shorter latency demands consistently producing more differentiated functional analysis outcomes.     

New Directions in the Conceptualization and Assessment of Personality—A Dynamic Systems Approach

In this paper, we demonstrate how an integrative approach to personality—one that combines within-person and between-person differences—can be achieved by drawing on the principles of dynamic systems theory. The dynamic systems perspective has the potential to reconcile both the stable and dynamic aspect of personality, it allows including different levels of analysis (i.e. traits and states), and it can account for regulatory mechanisms, as well as dynamic interactions between the elements of the system, and changes over time. While all of these features are obviously appealing, implementing a dynamic systems approach to personality is challenging. It requires new conceptual models, specific longitudinal research designs, and complex data analytical methods. In response to these issues, the first part of our paper discusses the Personality Dynamics model, a model that integrates the dynamic systems principles in a relatively straightforward way. Second, we review associated methodological and statistical tools that allow empirically testing the PersDyn model. Finally, the model and associated methodological and statistical tools are illustrated using an experience sampling methodology data set measuring Big Five personality states in 59 participants (N = 1916 repeated measurements). © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Who drops-out? Do measures of risk to self and to others predict unplanned endings in primary care counselling?

Aims: Unplanned endings, where clients unilaterally end therapy, are of concern for psychological therapy services generally as they raise questions about the appropriateness of the treatment and it's delivery for some clients. Limited available data indicates that those who drop-out often have more severe symptoms at entry, and have poorer clinical outcomes. This raises further questions about risk to self and others for those clients who leave therapy prematurely and how these clients might be identified and kept engaged. Method: This paper uses a large dataset of CORE data collected routinely in a primary care counselling service between 2000 and 2003. Logistic regression was utilised to consider different measures of risk and other client characteristics recorded at assessment to predict drop-out from the service. Results: These indicate that younger age, greater psychological distress at assessment, an addiction problem and greater risk to others, are associated with an unplanned ending. However, no reliable logistic regression model could be produced. This may be partly due to data quality issues or important characteristics not being available in the data. Implications for practice: The paper concludes that counsellors should actively seek to minimise unplanned endings, as amongst them may be represented the more distressed and risky clients referred to primary care counselling.     

Capuchin monkeys learn to use information equally well from individual exploration and social demonstration

Animal Cognition - The limited evidence of complex culture in non-human primates contrasts strikingly with human behaviour. This may be because non-human primates fail to use information acquired...     

Moderating influences of hypnotic susceptibility on signal-detection task performance

This study investigated the differential influence of hypnotic susceptibility level on signal detection task (SDT) performance in waking and hypnotic conditions. As assessed by the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS: A) and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS: C), 20 high (9–12), 20 medium (4–8), and 20 low (0–3) hypnotizables participated. In counterbalanced conditions of waking and hypnosis, Ss (Subjects) were given 36 signal detection trials, consisting of 12 strong signals, 12 weak signals, and 12 “no” signals. No differences were observed in the waking condition between low, medium, and high hypnotizables on strong and weak signal trials. In hypnosis, high hypnotizables exhibited significantly superior performance on the strong signal trials in comparison with low hypotizables, and performed significantly better on the weak signal trials than did the low and medium hypnotizables. Low and medium hypnotizables performed similarly in waking and hypnotic conditions, while high hypnotizables showed significant enhancements in performance for strong and weak signal trials during hypnosis. This research was supported, in part, by a grant from Fort Hays State University.     

Development and validation of adolescent-perceived microsystem scales: Social support,daily hassles,and involvement

Developed and validated instruments for urban and culturally diverse adolescents to assess their self-reported transactions with family, peer, school, and neighborhood microsystems for the constructs of social support, daily hassles, and involvement. The sample of 998 youth were from schools in three Eastern cities with high percentages of economically disadvantaged youth. Data were collected before and after the transition to junior high school or to senior high school. Blacks constituted 26%, whites 26%, and Latinos 37% of the sample. Factor analyses confirmed and enhanced the hypothesized four-factor microsystem factor structure for support, hassles, and involvement; internal consistency and stability coefficients were consistent with these structures. In general, the microsystem factors were common across gender, ethnicity, and age. However, when group differences did occur on these demographic variables, they tended to validate the salience of microsystem specificity. In contrast to the total scores, the microsystem-specific factors yielded more meaningful and differential information with regard to demographic differences and the mediating processes across a school transition.     

Memory scanning for words in visual images

This study attempts to replicate an experiment reported by Seamon (1972). In the present investigation, as in the study by Seamon, the scanning of short-term memory was compared when its contents were rehearsed words vs. a mental image. Memory sets were composed of either one, two, or three words. In the relational imagery group, subjects were required to form a single interactive mental scene of the entities which the memory set words represent. Nonimagery subjects were given instructions to covertly rehearse the memory set. In both groups, the usual memory set size (m) effect was obtained, i.e., reaction time (RT) increased linearly with m. Moreover, the set size effect was the same for both groups. This latter finding stands in marked contrast to the result obtained by Seamon; he found no effect of set size when subjects were given interactive imagery instructions. Because of the failure to replicate Seamon, an additional group of subjects were given imagery instructions. For this latter group, some of the procedural discrepancies between the relational imagery group of the present study and the corresponding group in Seamon’s study were resolved. Also, in this additional group, the set size effect was examined as a function of the subjects’ ratings of the quality of the images which they had formed. The same set size effect was found for this additional group, and the effect was independent of image quality.     

A theoretical comparison of list scanning models

Eight specific list scanning models are developed and relationships between predictions of contrasting models (serial versus parallel search, self-terminating versus exhaustive processing) are investigated. All models assume that items contained in a list are uniquely defined by specific features, and that the only process by which two items may be tested for equality is to compare corresponding features. All models predict RT to be linearly related with list length when no subject errors occur. With errors, some models predict theoretical nonlinearity but sample calculations indicate that deviation from linearity is slight in many cases. The importance of coding strategy is also discussed.