Dog–human social relationship: representation of human face familiarity and emotions in the dog brain

Animal Cognition - This study investigated the behavioral and neural indices of detecting facial familiarity and facial emotions in human faces by dogs. Awake canine fMRI was used to evaluate...     

Differential cognitive substrates of verbal episodic memory performance in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease

Performance on neuropsychological measures of verbal memory requires cognitive abilities beyond memory. We examined the contribution of semantic knowledge in verbal episodic memory for semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) or Alzheimer’s disease (AD). 415 AD and 68 svPPA participants completed measures of episodic memory (visual and verbal) and semantic knowledge. A double dissociation existed visual recall predicted verbal recognition in AD, whereas semantic knowledge contributed to verbal recognition in svPPA.     

Longing for Ex‐Partners out of Fear of Being Single

This research investigated whether people who fear being single have a more difficult time letting go of ex‐partners following a romantic breakup. Data were collected in a cross‐sectional study (N = 209, 64% women, M_age = 30 years old) as well as a 1‐month daily experience study of individuals who just went through a romantic breakup (N = 117, 44% women, M_age = 27 years old). Findings from both studies revealed that those with stronger fear of being single (Spielmann et al., 2013) reported greater longing for their ex‐partners. Pre‐ to post‐breakup analyses revealed that fear of being single increased after a breakup, regardless of who initiated the breakup. Within‐day analyses revealed that longing for an ex‐partner and attempts to renew the relationship were greater on days with stronger fear of being single. Lagged‐day analyses provided support for the conclusion that fear of being single increased longing and renewal attempts over time, but longing and renewal attempts did not influence fear of being single. These findings suggest that fear of being single is a particularly useful construct for understanding the romantic detachment process.     

Fading of Affect Associated with Negative Child‐Related Memories Varies by Parental Child Abuse Potential

Positive memories tend to hold their affective intensity across time better than negative memories, a phenomenon referred to as the fading affect bias (FAB). An initial study explored this bias in the context of parents' affective responses to memories involving their children. Specifically, parents (N = 90 for Study 1) were asked to recall three positive events and three negative events involving their children. Next, parents rated how positively or negatively they felt when each event occurred and at recall. Results revealed that parents at high risk of physical child abuse showed a smaller FAB than low‐risk parents. The smaller FAB effect observed among high‐risk parents occurred largely because affect associated with negative child‐related events faded minimally over time. This risk moderation effect did not emerge in a second study in which parents (N = 90 for Study 2) recalled general events that were not limited to events involving children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How We Teach Introductory Bible Courses: A Comparative and Historical Sampling

This study identifies the dominant modes of biblical interpretation being taught in introductory Bible courses through a qualitative analysis of course syllabi from three institutional contexts: evangelical Christian colleges, private colleges, and public universities. Despite a proliferation of methods and scholarly approaches to the Bible, this study reveals that historical‐critical approaches continue to predominate in pedagogical contexts, especially private colleges and public universities. In Christian colleges, theological approaches appear more frequently, usually alongside historical criticism and rarely supplanting it. The study also shows that teachers have been deploying social scientific and ideological approaches with increasing frequency over the past decade. Additionally, the study tracked instruments of student assessment in these courses. Public universities showed a particularly high level of pedagogical conservatism in this regard, while Christian colleges exhibit the greatest diversity with respect to course assignments and evaluations. See also “ Response to ‘How We Teach Introductory Bible Courses’ ” by Caryn A. Reeder, Tat‐siong Benny Liew, Jane S. Webster, Alicia J. Batten, and Chris Frilingos, published in this issue of the journal. The complete data set is included in an extended Appendix at the end of the article, and is also available electronically on the “Supporting Information” tab of the article's webpage and at the Wabash Center ( http://www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu/pdfs/AppendixCornellandLeMon.pdf ).     

Evaluation and treatment of covert stereotypy

The treatment of behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement (e.g. stereotypy) can present a unique challenge if practitioners cannot control delivery of the maintaining reinforcer. Further, some individuals might engage in stereotypy only when care providers are absent. In the current evaluation, an adolescent boy's hand flapping was demonstrated to occur in the absence of social contingencies and care providers. To reduce the behavior, two treatment strategies were assessed. In the first approach, verbal reminders to refrain from hand flapping were delivered on time‐based schedules. In the second approach (differential reinforcement of other behavior, DRO), we provided access to a preferred item contingent on prespecified time lengths with no hand flapping when the participant was alone in a room. Results of the investigation indicated that the verbal reminders were unsuccessful, whereas the DRO program resulted in near‐zero levels of stereotypy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Values Congeal into Facts

The paper plays against the philosophical stereotype that facts are bits of reality, ‘furniture of the universe’, and that values in contrast are either mysterious bits of reality or responses to facts. It follows Strawson in regarding facts as interpretative constructs. Values also are interpretative constructs, characterized by a normal (but not universal) connection with motivations. So is there a deep difference? There is a sense of ‘facts’, marked by phrases such as ‘Stick to the facts’, in which the interpretative element embedded in a ‘fact’ is uncontentious and would be invisible to most people. The interpretative element in values, in contrast, usually is very noticeable. But values in which this element comes to be uncontentious and taken for granted congeal into facts.