Six-member stimulus classes generated by conditional-discrimination procedures

In conditional-discrimination procedures with three sets of stimuli, A, B, and C, three stimuli per set (A1A2A3, B1B2B3, and C1C2C3), subjects (children and adults) learned to select Set-B and Set-C comparisons conditionally upon Set-A samples (A1B1, A1C1, A2B2, A2C2, A3B3, A3C3). If the conditional-discrimination procedures also generated equivalence relations, three 3-member stimulus classes would be demonstrable, A1B1C1, A2B2C2, and A3B3C3. In addition to these three sets, the present experiments used three other sets of stimuli--D, E, and F. The subjects learned to select Set-E and Set-F comparisons conditionally upon Set-D samples (D1E1, D1F1, D2E2, D2F2, D3E3, D3F3). This established a second group of three 3-member stimulus classes, D1E1F1, D2E2F2, and D3E3F3. In all, two groups of three 3-member classes were established by teaching subjects 12 conditional discriminations. The two groups of 3-member classes were then combined (successfully for 5 of 8 subjects) into a single group of three 6-member classes by teaching the subjects three more conditional relations (E1C1, E2C2, and E3C3). With three other children, enlarging the classes one member at a time also produced 6-member classes. As a consequence of class formation, 60 untrained conditional relations emerged from 15 that had been explicitly taught. Six of the subjects also proved capable of naming the stimuli consistently in accord with their class membership, but two subjects demonstrated class formation even in the absence of consistent naming.     

The underlying structures of sentences are the primary units of immediate speech processing

Two studies of the subjective location of clicks in spoken sentences indicate: (1) within-clause phrase structure boundaries do not significantly affect the segmentation of spoken sentences; (2) divisions between underlying structure sentences determine segmentation even in the absence of corresponding explicit clause divisions in the surface phrase structure. These results support a model of speech processing according to which listeners actively segment and organize spoken sequences into potential underlying syntactic structures.     

Social Support and Help-Seeking in Daily Hassles Versus Major Life Events Stress1

The present study evaluated the hypothesis that major life events differ from daily life hassles in the extent to which a person receives social support and seeks social support. Specifically, it was expected that the experience of major life events would be associated with the greatest social support. The subjects were 320 students (160 men, 160 women). Each subject read a scenario describing a male or female target person who had experienced either major life events or daily hassles. Subjects then rated the amount of emotional support and the amount of practical support that the target person would receive and would seek from significant others. The analyses confirmed that targets who had suffered severe events in the form of major life events were rated higher in both seeking and receiving social support from significant others. These differences were present for the ratings of emotional support and practical support. Overall, the findings suggest that the greater negative influence of daily hassles on psychological adjustment may be due, in part, to the reduced social support associated with the experience of daily life hassles. The implications of the findings are discussed with particular reference to help seeking in therapeutic contexts.     

An experimental synthesis of the associations and gestalt accounts of the perception of size. part iii

Two control experiments are described which are concerned with the effect, on judgements of size, of varying the angular separation of the compared objects in the horizontal plane. The first experiment investigates order effects. The second experiment compares judgements of real size at small and large angles of separation. The findings are discussed in relation to parts I and II of these papers.     

“Semantic Non-Doxastic Agnostic Religious Faith”

Philosophia - The purpose of this article is to articulate the possibility of semantic non-doxastic agnostic religious faith. Robin Le Poidevin, who introduced the idea of semantic religious...     

Natural Tensions in Aristotle’s Polis and Their Contemporary Manifestations

Topoi - In this paper, I perform an analysis of Aristotle’s organic analogy when discussing the different “organs” of the Greek polis. I argue that this analysis demonstrates that...     

Transforming Our Understanding of Theories, Paradigms, & Mental Disorders: The Legacy of Donald Capps in the Field of Pastoral Care and Counseling

The life and work of Donald Capps has transformed my thinking and practice as a teacher, minister, and counselor. Incorporating his research into my clinical practice has led me to greater compassion and grace toward those clients who present with personality disorders and characterological disturbances.     

Behavioral Health Consultation and Primary Care: Lessons Learned

This article provides an overview of 20 years of professional experiences with developing and implementing a model for integrating behavioral health services into primary care. The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model is designed to provide immediate access to behavioral care for a large number of primary care patients by positioning a behavioral health consultant in the exam room area to function as a core member of the primary care team. In an initial era of discovery, the authors were directly involved in developing and testing a variety of new approaches to providing behavioral health services in general medicine. In a second era focused on feasibility, the authors worked with Kaiser Permanente, the United States Air Force and Navy, the Veteran’s Administration, and the Bureau of Primary Care to system test this innovative model of integrated care. Now in an era devoted to dissemination, the authors review the various roles formal research, system level quality improvement initiatives and stakeholder analysis play in promoting integrated care. The authors also describe current efforts to (1) create a tool that helps systems develop integration targets and (2) use the PCBH model as a platform for teaching medical residents and behavioral health providers to work together in a redesigned primary care team model.