Navigation in the Morris swim task as a baseline for drug discrimination: a demonstration with morphine

A morphine versus saline discrimination was demonstrated using the Morris swim task as the behavioral baseline. The apparatus was a large circular pool filled with water made opaque by floating polypropylene pellets. Rats were placed in the tank in randomly selected locations (12 trials per session) and could escape by swimming to a platform submerged 2 cm below the surface. Morphine (5.6 mg/kg) or saline was injected prior to training sessions. The position of the platform in a given session depended on the drug condition, thus forming the basis for discriminative responding. Three of the 4 rats acquired the discrimination, as evidenced by direct swims to the condition-appropriate platform. Generalization probe sessions were conducted following acquisition. Probe sessions were preceded by injections of morphine (0, 1.0, 3.0, 5.6, or 10.0 mg/kg) and involved placing the rat in the pool for 1 min without a platform. Swim patterns revealed a gradient, with probe swimming more concentrated in the area of the morphine platform position after higher morphine doses. In addition, dose-dependent increases in the likelihood of swimming first to the morphine-associated platform location were obtained. These results illustrate the generality of drug discrimination across different behavioral procedures, and of particular interest with respect to spatial learning, demonstrate interoceptive stimulus control of navigation.     

A Case Study of the Implementation of Outcomes-Based Funding Within a Local United Way System: Some Implications for Practicing Community Psychology

This case study provides an overview of significant organizational change within the United Way system in Franklin County/Columbus, Ohio. Franklin County is a major urban center with a population approaching 1 million. The implementation of outcomes-based funding proved to be a critical factor that served to promote change within the local United Way system. Adoption of outcomes-based funding principles resulted in significant shifts in United Way funding and major policy changes. A chronology of events and stakeholder reactions over a multiyear period are reviewed. The implications of this effort to initiate major, system-level change for the practice of community psychology are discussed.     

Transformational Leadership and Sports Performance: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation1

We developed and tested a model in which transformational leadership affects sports performance indirectly, through the mediating effects of intrinsic motivation. During the season, 168 university athletes provided data on their perceptions of their coach's transformational leadership and their own intrinsic motivation. At the end of the season, their coaches assessed the performance of the athletes. Using LISREL VIII, three models were estimated following the sequence of mediator tests outlined by Kelloway (1996, 1998). The proposed model received considerable support. The results isolate intrinsic motivation as a mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and sports performance, suggesting that transformational leadership may enhance intrinsic interest in the task.     

Psychological trauma and PTSD symptoms as predictors of substance dependence treatment outcomes

Psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may complicate and reduce the effectiveness of treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). This study assessed trauma history and symptoms of simple and complex PTSD at baseline in a randomized trial of contingency management (CM) compared to standard treatment (ST) with 142 cocaine- or heroin-dependent outpatients. History of exposure to each of eight types of psychological trauma was unrelated to treatment outcome, except for witnessed assaults and emotional abuse. Complex PTSD symptoms were inversely associated with short-term treatment outcomes, and PTSD symptoms were positively related to long-term outcome, independent of the effects of demographics, psychological distress, baseline substance use status, and treatment modality. Complex PTSD symptoms warrant further study as a potential negative prognostic factor in SUD interventions.     

Status generalization in context: The moderating role of groups

Status generalization has been described as a process directly linking social status at the societal level to influence in interpersonal interactions, providing one mechanism through which status inequalities in society are maintained. It is argued in this paper that groups can moderate status generalization when a status characteristic is non-prototypical of the group. Two experiments are reported that measured the relative influence of an older and younger target within different group contexts: an undergraduate student group and a broader university group. In both experiments, the older target was more influential than the younger target in the context of the university group, but the younger target was more influential in the context of the undergraduate student group. Findings are discussed in relation to status generalization and referent informational influence as separate influence processes.     

Spiritual discernment in psychiatric patients

The author uses resources from the Christian tradition of discernment of spirits to provide clinicians with guidelines for distinguishing the authentic and pathological aspects of religion in psychiatric patients.     

Example-based learning: New theoretical perspectives and use-inspired advances to a contemporary instructional approach

Decades of research has shown that example-based learning is an effective instructional strategy for learning new skills. The field of learning from examples is seeing a shift in focus towards more innovative and use-inspired research, in part because the use of examples for informal and formal learning purposes has mushroomed. This special issue comprises a set of eight papers in which students learned a procedural skill from worked examples or modeling examples. Each study characterizes a recent development towards more innovative example-based learning research. These developments are: (a) the integration of social-cognitive and cognitive example research, (b) the integration of example-based learning and analogical reasoning research, (c) the extension of traditional Cognitive Load Theory effects, (d) a greater focus on learning from (productive) errors, and (e) more research on individual differences. This special issue concludes with insightful commentary articles written by Prof. Dr. Katharina Scheiter and Prof. Dr. Richard Mayer.     

Providing worked examples for learning multiple principles

Worked examples support learning. However, if they introduce easy-to-confuse concepts or principles, specific ways of providing worked examples may influence their effectiveness. Multiple worked examples can be introduced blocked (i.e., several for the same principle) or interleaved (i.e., switching between principles), and can be sequentially or simultaneously presented. Crossing these two factors provides four ways of presenting worked examples: blocked/sequential, interleaved/sequential, blocked/simultaneous, and interleaved/simultaneous. In an experiment with university students (N = 174), we investigated how these two factors influence the acquisition of procedural and conceptual knowledge about different, but closely related (thus, easy-to-confuse) stochastic principles. Additionally, we assessed the ability of students to discriminate between principles with verification tasks. Simultaneous presentation benefitted procedural knowledge whereas, interleaved presentation benefitted conceptual knowledge. No significant differences were found for verification tasks. The results suggest that it is worthwhile to adapt the presentation of the worked examples to the learning goals.     

Effects of Comparing Contrasting Cases on Learning From Subsequent Explanations

In an experiment, prior to processing instructional explanations N = 75 students received either (a) contrasting cases plus comparison prompts, (b) contrasting cases plus provided comparisons (i.e., model answers to the comparison prompts), or (c) no preparation intervention. We found that the learners with preparation intervention learned more and with a higher degree of efficiency, perceived less extraneous load, and experienced a higher feeling of smooth automatic running while they processed the explanations than the learners without a preparation intervention. These findings suggest that comparing contrasting cases serves a focusing function. Furthermore, we found that the learners in the provided comparisons condition acquired more conceptual knowledge from the explanations than the learners in the prompted comparisons condition. This result indicates that providing high amounts of instructional guidance while learners compare contrasting cases can have an added value in comparison to providing comparison prompts concerning the resulting preparation for future learning.