Altering the Shape of Punishment Distributions Affects Decision Making in a Modified Iowa Gambling Task

Neuroeconomics research has shown that preference for gambling is altered by the statistical moments (mean, variance, and skew) of reward and punishment distributions. Although it has been shown that altered means can affect feedback‐based decision making tasks, little is known if the variance and skew will have an effect on these tasks. To investigate, we systematically controlled the variance (high, medium, and low) and skew (negative, zero, and positive) of the punishment distributions in a modified version of the Iowa Gambling Task. The Iowa Gambling Task has been used extensively in both academic and clinical domains to understand decision making and diagnose decision making impairments. Our results show that decision making can be altered by an interaction of variance and skew. We found a significant decrease over trials in choices from the decks with high variance and asymmetrically skewed punishments and from the decks with low variance and zero skew punishments. These results indicate that punishment distribution shape alone can change human perception of what is optimal (i.e., mean expected outcome) and may help explain what guides our day‐to‐day decisions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moral behavior of ethics professors: Relationships among self-reported behavior,expressed normative attitude,and directly observed behavior

Do philosophy professors specializing in ethics behave, on average, any morally better than do other professors? If not, do they at least behave more consistently with their expressed values? These questions have never been systematically studied. We examine the self-reported moral attitudes and moral behavior of 198 ethics professors, 208 non-ethicist philosophers, and 167 professors in departments other than philosophy on eight moral issues: academic society membership, voting, staying in touch with one's mother, vegetarianism, organ and blood donation, responsiveness to student emails, charitable giving, and honesty in responding to survey questionnaires. On some issues, we also had direct behavioral measures that we could compare with the self-reports. Ethicists expressed somewhat more stringent normative attitudes on some issues, such as vegetarianism and charitable donation. However, on no issue did ethicists show unequivocally better behavior than the two comparison groups. Our findings on attitude-behavior consistency were mixed: ethicists showed the strongest relationship between behavior and expressed moral attitude regarding voting but the weakest regarding charitable donation. We discuss implications for several models of the relationship between philosophical reflection and real-world moral behavior.     

Need to train your rat? There is an App for that: A touchscreen behavioral evaluation system

The increasing demand for highly automated and flexible tasks capable of assessing visual learning and memory in nonhuman animals has led to the exciting development of a wide array of prefabricated touchscreen-equipped systems. However, the high cost of these prefabricated systems has led many researchers to develop or modify their own preexisting equipment. We developed a freely downloadable App, the Touchscreeen Behavioral Evaluation System (TBES) for use in conjunction with an iPad (Apple, Cupertino, California) as an alternative to prefabricated touchscreen systems. TBES allows for stimulus presentation and data collection on an iPad. The touchscreen technology offered by the iPad is attractive to researchers due to its affordability, reliability, and resistance to false inputs. We highlight these, as well as the feasibility and procedural flexibility of TBES, in an effort to promote our system as a competitive alternative to those currently available.     

Impact of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms on Adults’ Quality of Life

The symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been linked to dysfunction in numerous life domains for both children and adults. As such, it is likely that individuals with these and other related symptoms (e.g., sluggish cognitive tempo, SCT) may also experience impaired quality of life. The current study examines the association between ADHD and SCT symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in a community sample of adults. Quality of life data collected from 983 participants (M age = 45.6 years) were analyzed primarily through a series of hierarchical multiple regressions employing SCT and ADHD symptom clusters, demographic, and anxiety and depression scale variables as predictors. Results generally supported the hypothesis that ADHD and SCT symptoms would negatively associate with QOL. Amongst the indicators, inattention and SCT emerged as the strongest predictors of low QOL. These findings underscore the negative impact of ADHD symptoms in adulthood, the independent contribution of SCT, and the importance of considering QOL in prospective research and intervention.     

Review of the Evidence for Motivation Deficits in Youth with ADHD and Their Association with Functional Outcomes

Preeminent theories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggest that motivation deficits are core underlying features of the disorder. However, it is currently unclear whether empirical evidence supports the assertion that significant group (ADHD v. comparison) differences in motivation exist or that problems with motivation contribute to the functional impairments that youth with ADHD experience. Accordingly, this review focused on evaluating and summarizing the empirical literature on the presence of motivation deficits and their association with functional outcomes in samples of youth with ADHD. Twenty studies met the review inclusion criteria. Results support the assertion that youth with ADHD have lower academic-related motivation in comparison to their peers and that motivation plays an important role in academic outcomes, with the strongest evidence to date for reading achievement. However, the available evidence is limited, and few existing studies are aligned with the much larger theoretical and empirical motivation literature in typically developing youth. Given preliminary evidence that motivation plays a role in the academic impairments of youth with ADHD, the review concludes with a discussion of whether current ADHD interventions adequately target motivation and highlights important future directions.     

Science Self-Efficacy and Lifelong Learning: Emerging Adults in Science Museums

Recent research suggests that emerging adulthood—the stage between adolescence and maturity marked by a lengthy process of identity development—constitutes a window of opportunity for museums to influence adults' lifelong science learning trajectories. The current study sought to explore the impact of a single museum visit on emerging adults' science self-efficacy, beliefs about their own abilities to learn or do science. A repeated measures design assessed the science self-efficacy of 244 emerging adults before, immediately after, and three months after a science museum visit. Results from surveys and interviews indicate that self-efficacy increased after the visit, but only females maintained their elevated self-efficacy three months after the visit. Increases were associated with the visit and with self-reports citing mastery at exhibits, vicariously watching others at exhibits, and positive emotional experiences within the museum. The article discusses the study's limitations as well as implications for research and museum practice.     

Honor Crimes in the United States and Offenders’ Neutralization Techniques

Honor crimes are violent acts that are experienced among different religions and ethnicities. This type of offense can be justified, either before or after the crime, by the offender’s perceived need to protect honor-based values. This study used Sykes and Matza’s neutralization theory to explain the offender’s justification of honor crimes. We used data from the United States Extremist Crime Database, which has incident, victim, and perpetrator level indicators for the population of honor crimes in the United States (N = 16). Using open source search files for the cases, neutralizations and justifications provided by the offenders are presented.     

Do Disagreeable Political Discussion Networks Undermine Attitude Strength?

How attitudes change and affect behavior depends, in large part, on their strength. Strong attitudes are more resistant to persuasion and are more likely to produce attitude‐consistent behavior. But what influences attitude strength? In this article, we explore a widely discussed, but rarely investigated, factor: an individual's political discussion network. What prior work exists offers a somewhat mixed picture, finding sometimes that disagreeable networks weaken attitudes and other times that they strengthen attitudes. We use a novel national representative dataset to explore the relationship between disagreeable networks and attitude strength. We find, perhaps surprisingly, no evidence that disagreements in networks affect political attitude strength. We conclude by discussing likely reasons for our findings, which, in turn, provide a research agenda for the study of networks and attitude strength.     

Aims in parent work: a brief qualitative survey

Child psychotherapists’ views of the treatment aims of parent work in a community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) were explored. Parent work undertaken by the child psychotherapy team in one calendar year was analysed. The parent worker was asked to describe the primary aim of the work for each case. The resulting thematic analysis found that the main aims of parent work were: increasing empathy with the child; decreasing enmeshment; and containing anxiety. Linking with Alvarez’s notion of a hierarchy of interpretative approaches, the study’s findings suggest that there are parallel ‘levels’ of intervention in parent work, where therapists work in ways appropriate to the parent’s psychological functioning.