Internal control and success orientation in a token economy for emotionally disturbed adolescents.

Forty-one emotionally disturbed adolescents were tested at each of three token economy levels on Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and Guevar's Success-Failure Inventory. Delay of reinforcement (immediate, daily, weekly) was the primary differentiation between levels. One-way analyses of variance indicated a change across levels in the direction of more perceived internal control of behavior (p less than .025) and a greater success orientation (p less than .005). Change scores were not correlated with length of time in the program. Results suggest that the token economy as an external source of control is not necessarily incompatible with increasing patient expectancies of present and future control of the environment.     

The Hong Kong version of the Oxford Cognitive Screen (HK-OCS): validation study for Cantonese-speaking chronic stroke survivors

This study reports the validation of the Hong Kong version of Oxford Cognitive Screen (HK-OCS). Seventy Cantonese-speaking healthy individuals participated to establish normative data and 46 chronic stroke survivors were assessed using the HK-OCS, Albert’s Test of Visual Neglect, short test of gestural production, and Hong Kong version of the following assessments: Western Aphasia Battery, MMSE, MoCA, Modified Barthel Index, and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale. The validity of the HK-OCS was appraised by the difference between the two participant groups. Neurologically unimpaired individuals performed significantly better than stroke survivors on the HK-OCS. Positive and significant correlations found between cognitive subtests in the HK-OCS and related assessments indicated good concurrent validity. Excellent intra-rater and inter-rater reliabilities, fair test–retest reliability, and acceptable internal consistency suggested that the HK-OCS had good reliability. Specific HK-OCS subtests including semantics, episodic memory, number writing, and orientation were the best predictors of functional outcomes.     

Recognition and personhood: A critique of Bernstein's account of the wrongfulness of torture

J. M. Bernstein argues that to capture the depths of the harm of torture, we need to do away with the idea that we possess intrinsic and inviolable worth. If personhood is inviolable, then torture can inflict only apparent harm on our standing as persons. Bernstein claims that torture is a paradigm of moral injury because it causes what he calls “devastation”: The victim experiences an actual degradation of his or her personhood. Bernstein argues that our value is given to us through mutual recognition and hence can be lost. In this paper, I argue that if our human value can be lost, then it first must be built up. If it must be built up, then the question of our status before the building begins must be answered. Bernstein faces a problem of human beings who fall outside relations of mutual recognition and hence are valueless. His best option for answering this problem is to point to the centrality of the body in his account of recognition, but doing so reveals a notion of intrinsic worth implicit in his account. I call for a revision of Bernstein's account that can hold on to devastation without eschewing intrinsic worth.     

Upper- and lower-limb amputees show reduced levels of eeriness for images of prosthetic hands

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - The “uncanny phenomenon” describes the feeling of unease associated with seeing an image that is close to appearing human. Prosthetic hands in...     

The factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory-II: an evaluation

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is a frequently used scale for measuring depressive severity. BDI-II data (404 clinical; 695 nonclinical adults) were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis to test whether the factor structure model with a somatic-affective and cognitive component of depression, formulated by Beck and colleagues, has a good fit. We also evaluated 10 alternative models. The fit of Beck's model was not good for all criteria. Three of the alternative models had a better fit in both samples, but none of these met all criteria for good fit. Of the alternatives with a better fit, we selected the only model with unidimensional subscales, which assesses a somatic, affective, and cognitive dimension. For this model, which we recommend, as well as for Beck' original model, a good fitting structure containing 15 and 16 items was developed with an item-deletion algorithm.     

The assessment of depression in children: The internal structure of the child depression inventory (CDI)

In the present report three separate studies of childhood depression were conducted. First, the internal structure of the Child Depression Inventory (CDI), with 216 children representing various ethnic groups with equal numbers of boys and girls, was evaluated through a factor analysis and by various internal-reliability measures (e.g. split-half reliabilities, Pearson correlations of each item to the total score). Four factors were established and internal reliability of the scale proved to be high. The relationship of the factor structure of the CDI to Kendell's Type A and B categorization of depression are discussed. In Study 2 the relationship of demographic variables to the CDI using the same group of children described for Study 1 was employed. Evaluating the characteristics of depression across age, sex and so on in children has not been frequently studied, and was deemed appropriate for the present investigation. Age proved to be a significant factor in depression scores although race and gender did not. With respect to age, older children tended to display more symptomatology. Comparisons of depressed children to nondepressed children also showed that age was a factor in the obtained scores, and range of severity in both groups. Depressed children differed from nondepressed children on all 27 items indicating that all the items on the CDI seem to be measuring a unitary concept. Study 3 compared CDI scores to a measure of social behavior, the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngster (MESSY). Seventy-six children (36 girls and 40 boys), ages 4–10 yrs $\text{(}\text{X}\text{?}\text{= 7)}$ were evaluated. Appropriate Social Skills was negatively correlated with childhood depression, and Inappropriate Impulsive/Assertiveness was positively correlated with depressive features described under the factor Guilt/Irritability. The implications of these data for further research on assessment, differential diagnosis and evaluation of treatment research are discussed.     

A comprehensive dining program for mentally retarded adults

Twenty-six types of behavior (e.g. uses fork in socially appropriate manner, chews food before swallowing) were treated in a course of independence training, using 80 institutionalized retarded adults (40 experimentals and 40 no-treatment controls). The 3-month long training phase incorporated a number of treatment components including in vivo modeling, peer social reinforcement, self-evaluation and monitoring; then a four-month follow-up. A group (i.e. experimentals and controls) by sex, by time, analysis of variance was computed with repeated measures on the last dimension (pre, post, follow-up measures = time). A significant difference was obtained between the experimentals and controls on post-test and follow-up     

INCREASING SPELLING ACHIEVEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF TREATMENT PROCEDURES UTILIZING AN ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN

Two studies which examine the effectiveness of spelling remediation procedures are reported. In both studies, an alternating treatment design was employed. In the first study, positive practice overcorrection plus positive reinforcement was compared to positive practice alone and a no-remediation control condition. In the second study, positive practice plus positive reinforcement was compared to a traditional corrective procedure plus positive reinforcement and a traditional procedure when used alone. Results of both studies indicated that the combined positive practice plus positive reinforcement procedure was more efficient and that it was preferred by the children. Following brief training under this combined procedure, all children demonstrated 100% spelling accuracy.