Research validity scales for the NEO-PI-R: development and initial validation

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a set of research validity scales for use with the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992b). In study 1 we used the existing NEO-PI-R item pool to select items for three validity scales: positive presentation management, negative presentation management, and inconsistency. Several iterative item and scale analyses were conducted, using multiple criteria for item selection. These analyses resulted in 10-item scales. In Study 2, the internal consistency, interscale relationships, and normative characteristics were examined in a separate sample of working adults. In Study 3, the validity of the scales was examined by contrasting five sets of NEO-PI-R protocols: from a separate sample of working adults, from a sample of 100 NEO-PI-R protocols with randomly produced responses, and from three samples of undergraduates completing the NEO-PI-R under different instructional sets. Analyses revealed that both the research validity scales and the NEO-PI-R domain scales were sensitive to group differences. issues relating to the appropriate use of the scales are discussed.     

Topological-Frame Products of Modal Logics

The simplest bimodal combination of unimodal logics \(\text {L} _1\) and \(\text {L} _2\) is their fusion, \(\text {L} _1 \otimes \text {L} _2\), axiomatized by the theorems of \(\text {L} _1\) for \(\square _1\) and of \(\text {L} _2\) for \(\square _2\), and the rules of modus ponens, necessitation for \(\square _1\) and for \(\square _2\), and substitution. Shehtman introduced the frame product \(\text {L} _1 \times \text {L} _2\), as the logic of the products of certain Kripke frames: these logics are two-dimensional as well as bimodal. Van Benthem, Bezhanishvili, ten Cate and Sarenac transposed Shehtman’s idea to the topological semantics and introduced the topological product \(\text {L} _1 \times _t \text {L} _2\), as the logic of the products of certain topological spaces. For almost all well-studies logics, we have \(\text {L} _1 \otimes \text {L} _2 \subsetneq \text {L} _1 \times \text {L} _2\), for example, \(\text {S4} \otimes \text {S4} \subsetneq \text {S4} \times \text {S4} \). Van Benthem et al. show, by contrast, that \(\text {S4} \times _t \text {S4} = \text {S4} \otimes \text {S4} \). It is straightforward to define the product of a topological space and a frame: the result is a topologized frame, i.e., a set together with a topology and a binary relation. In this paper, we introduce topological-frame products \(\text {L} _1 \times _ tf \text {L} _2\) of modal logics, providing a complete axiomatization of \(\text {S4} \times _ tf \text {L} \), whenever \(\text {L} \) is a Kripke complete Horn axiomatizable extension of the modal logic D: these extensions include \(\text {T} , \text {S4} \) and \(\text {S5} \), but not \(\text {K} \) or \(\text {K4} \). We leave open the problem of axiomatizing \(\text {S4} \times _ tf \text {K} \), \(\text {S4} \times _ tf \text {K4} \), and other related logics. When \(\text {L} = \text {S4} \), our result confirms a conjecture of van Benthem et al. concerning the logic of products of Alexandrov spaces with arbitrary topological spaces.     

The Misdirected Letter and the Quasi-Questionnaire: Unobtrusive Measures of Prejudice in Northern Ireland

This paper reports on the use of devices derived from the Lost Letter Technique as measures of religious prejudice in sensitive areas within Northern Ireland. Studies were carried out in six urban areas using the Misdirected Letter Technique (Howitt, Craven, Iveson, Kremer, McCabe, & Rolph, 1977), and a further development dubbed the Quasi-Questionnaire Technique. It was found that return rates of letters/questionnaires from traditionally violent Catholic areas were influenced by the assumed religion of the intended recipient/sender, but return rates from other areas were unaffected by these religious considerations. The work is taken as adding further support to the contention that the incidence of forms of religious prejudice in Northern Ireland is highly variable and dependent on the interplay of a range of factors. Further, it is argued that only by using unobtrusive measures such as employed here can these complexities be understood more completely.     

Spousal perpetuation of chronic pain behavior

The literature reviewed here demonstrates that spousal response to pain display can reinforce and thereby perpetuate the patient's pain behavior. Relationships characterized as sick-role homeostatis reflect a nexus of behavioral contingencies which are highly resistant to treatment. Though such relationships could developde novo subsequent to accident or injury, modeling and familial effects in chronic pain suggest a rich personal and family history of chronic pain learning experiences. Spousal reinforcement of pain behavior is greater in satisfied relationships and tends to involve contingent attention and caring rather than assistance or taking over tasks and chores. As the vast majority of pain patients and spouses report being satisfied with their marriages, spousal involvement in chronic pain treatment is critical.     

Relevant predication: Grammatical characterisations

This paper reformulates and decides a certain conjecture in Dunn's Relevant Predication 1: The Formal Theory (Journal of Philosophical Logic 16, 347–381, 1987). This conjecture of Dunn's relates his object-language characterisation of a property's being relevant in a variable x to certain grammatical characterisations of relevance, analogous to some given by Helman, in Relevant Implication and Relevant Functions (to appear in Entailment: The Logic of Relevance and Necessity, vol. 2, by Alan Ross Anderson, Nuel Belnap, and J. Michael Dunn et al.) In the course of the investigation this paper also investigates Kit Fine's semantics for quantified relevance logics, which appears in his appropriately titled Semantics for Quantified Relevance LogicsMany thanks go to Nuel Belnap who suggested this research topic, and whose comments and inspiration were most appreciated.     

Affective isolation as a coping strategy for persons with low and high amounts of life stress

Previous research has investigated two diverse operational definitions of stress, experimentally induced, short-term stress and long-term, life stress. The purpose of this study was to intersect these two research methodologies and determine the effect of a laboratory-induced stress (failure feedback) on persons with differing levels of life stress. Women with high or low amounts of life stress were given failure feedback, no failure feedback, or a cognitive coping strategy (affective isolation) in addition to failure feedback. Failure feedback increased self-reported anger and anxiety immediately following feedback and also after a follow-up test and decreased expectations about performance for the second test. Affective isolation significantly reduced anger and anxiety but failed to affect expectations. Women with high amounts of life stress reported significantly less anxiety than women with low amounts of life stress in response to failure feedback. These results were interpreted within C. D. Spielberger's (in C. D. Spielberger & R. Diaz-Guerrero (Eds.), Cross-cultural anxiety, New York: Wiley, 1976) cognitive model. It was proposed that differing levels of previous life stress cause people to make varying judgments about the degree of threat in a short-term stressful situation. Persons with high amounts of life stress may not be aroused in response to short-term stress because they perceive the short-term stress as only a “drop in the bucket” compared to the other events which they have experienced.     

Some Supervaluation-based Consequence Relations

In this paper, we define some consequence relations based on supervaluation semantics for partial models, and we investigate their properties. For our main consequence relation, we show that natural versions of the following fail: upwards and downwards Lowenheim–Skolem, axiomatizability, and compactness. We also consider an alternate version for supervaluation semantics, and show both axiomatizability and compactness for the resulting consequence relation.     

Modelling relative motion to facilitate intra-limb coordination

The importance of relative motion information when modelling a novel motor skill was examined. Participants were assigned to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 viewed demonstrations of a skilled cricket bowler presented in either 'video' or 'point light' format. Group 3 observed a single point of light pertaining to the 'wrist' of the skilled bowler only. Participants in Group 4 did not receive a demonstration and acted as controls. During 60 acquisition trials, participants in the demonstration groups viewed a model five times before each 10-trial block. Retention was examined the following day. Intra-limb coordination was assessed for the right elbow relative to the wrist in comparison to the model. The demonstration groups showed greater concordance with the model than the control group. However, the 'wrist' group performed less like the model than the 'point light' and 'video' groups, who did not differ from each other. These effects were maintained in retention. Relative motion information aided the acquisition of intra-limb coordination, while making this information more salient (through point lights) provided no additional benefit. The motion of the model's bowling arm was replicated more closely than the non-bowling arm, suggesting that information from the end-effector is prioritized during observation for later reproduction.