Normative Sample of the PEAK Relational Training System: Generalization Module with Comparison to Individuals with Autism

With the rising number of individuals diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities comes an increased need for effective assessment and treatment options. Previous research has indicated that applied behavior analytic techniques are among the most empirically supported and utilized treatments for this population; however, curriculum and assessment tools rooted in utilizing these techniques have very little empirical support for their reliability and validity. The current studies sought to assess the performance of both a normative sample and a sample with autism on one such assessment tool: The PEAK Generalization Module. Altogether, 183 typically developing children participated in study 1 and 84 children with a diagnosis of autism participated in study 2. The results indicated that the normative sample demonstrated a strong positive correlation between the PEAK Generalization Assessment and age, whereas the sample with autism demonstrated no significant relationship between the two. Further analysis indicates that the PEAK Generalization Assessment may be an appropriate tool for assessing individuals with autism across a wide range of ages, and provides a preliminary benchmark against which to measure both current functioning and progress in individuals with developmental disabilities.     

Normal Personality Correlates of Chronic Pain Subgroups

A heterogeneous sample of chronic pain patients was first classified into one of three previously identified subgroups (i.e., dysfunctional, interpersonally distressed, adaptive) using the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (R. D. Kerns, D. C. Turk, & T. E. Rudy, 1985). Multiple differences at the domain and facet levels of the Revised NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr. & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were found among the three subgroups of patients. In particular, the interpersonally distressed patients showed a greater degree of Neuroticism and were more introverted. Further analyses revealed that this group had tendencies toward feeling more vulnerable, being less trustful, and experiencing less positive emotions than the other groups. The dysfunctional group of patients was notable in terms of their low activity level and lower Openness (to new experience). Adaptive copers reported being emotionally stable, having a moderate degree of Extraversion, and being open to a wider variety of experiences. These differences may act as mediating influences in differing patient responsiveness to pain management programs.     

Mismanagement of Panic Disorder in Emergency Departments: Contributors, Costs, and Implications for Integrated Models of Care

Panic disorder (PD) is associated with the rapid onset of fear-related symptomatology, often somatic in nature. As a result, individuals with the disorder often fear that they are experiencing a life-threatening emergency and present in hospital emergency departments (EDs). As the operating heuristics of EDs are geared toward identifying organic causes and allow only brief physician–patient contact, the diagnosis of PD is more often than not overlooked. Those with the disorder go on to incur enormous costs as they seek out an explanation for their symptoms. Efforts to alleviate this problem, including increased physician education and the development of screening instruments, have been largely unsuccessful. The continued misidentification and mismanagement of this disorder argues for greater incorporation of mental health professionals into the ED, allowing collaborative efforts that recognize the relationship between physiological and psychological aspects of panic.     

Search for multiple targets of different colours: Misguided eye movements reveal a reduction of colour selectivity

Searching for two targets simultaneously is often less efficient than conducting two separate searches. Eye movements were tracked to understand this dual‐target cost. Findings are discussed in the context of security screening. In both single‐target and dual‐target search, displays contained one target at most. Stimuli were abstract shapes modelled after guns and other threat items. With these targets and distractors, colour information helped more in guiding search than shape information. When the two targets had different colours, distractors with colours different from either target were fixated more often in dual‐target search than in single‐target searches. Thus a dual‐target cost arose from a reduction in colour selectivity, reflecting limitations in the ability to represent two target features simultaneously and use them to guide search. Because of these limitations, performance in security searches may improve if each image is searched by two screeners, each specializing in a different category of threat item. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting Election Outcomes from Positive and Negative Trait Assessments of Candidate Images

Conventional wisdom, and a growing body of behavioral research, suggests that the nonverbal image of a candidate influences voter decision making. We presented subjects with images of political candidates and asked them to make four trait judgments based solely on viewing the photographs. Subjects were asked which of the two faces exhibited more competence, attractiveness, deceitfulness, and threat, which are arguably four of the most salient attributes that can be conveyed by faces. When we compared our subjects' choices to the actual election outcomes, we found that the candidates chosen as more likely to physically threaten the subjects actually lost 65% of the real elections. As expected, our findings support the conclusions of Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, and Hall (2005 ) by showing a positive correlation between the competence judgments and the real election outcomes. Surprisingly, attractiveness was correlated with losing elections, with the effect being driven by faces of candidates who looked politically incompetent yet personally attractive. Our findings have implications for future research on negative political communication, as they suggest that both threatening first impressions and fleeting impressions of attractiveness can harm a candidate's electoral chances.     

Predictors of romantic relationship formation: Attachment style, prior relationships, and dating goals

This prospective study ( N = 90) investigated the early formation of romantic relationships within an attachment-theoretical framework. Specifically, it tested whether general attachment to romantic partners was predictive of single individuals' progressing from not dating to dating and from not dating or casual dating to a committed and exclusive relationship when simultaneously considering desire for starting a committed relationship, prior dating involvement, and self-perceived physical attractiveness. Attachment avoidance, but not anxiety, was predictive of not entering into committed dating relationships even with rival predictors included. The transition from not dating to casual or committed dating was mainly predicted by prior dating success with some support for a potential additional role of the desire to form a committed relationship.     

Kanizsa-type subjective contours do not guide attentional deployment in visual search but line termination contours do

We used visual search to explore whether attention could be guided by Kanizsa-type subjective contours and by subjective contours induced by line ends. Unlike in previous experiments, we compared search performance with subjective contours against performance with real, luminance contours, and we had observers search for orientations or shapes produced by subjective contours, rather than searching for the presence of the contours themselves. Visual search for one orientation or shape among distractors of another orientation or shape was efficient when the items were defined by luminance contours. Search was much less efficient among items defined by Kanizsa-type subjective contours. Search remained efficient when the items were defined by subjective contours induced by line ends. The difference between Kanizsa-type subjective contour and subjective contours induced by line ends is consistent with physiological evidence suggesting that the brain mechanisms underlying the perception of these two kinds of subjective contours may be different.     

Costs in searching for two targets: dividing search across target types could improve airport security screening

The cost of searching for two visual targets simultaneously was compared against two separate single‐target searches using exposure time and accuracy measures within a staircase procedure. Dual‐target search for all stimuli (colour, shape and orientation) exhibited a loss of accuracy for one target. For orientation and shape, this dual‐target cost in accuracy was extreme, with chance‐level performance on one target. For colour, dual‐target search exhibited an additional cost in search time, with search requiring a longer exposure than the summed time required for two single‐target searches. An additional search‐time cost was also found for orientation targets when irrelevant colour variation was added to the display. In conclusion, dual‐target search for dissimilar targets is accompanied by an accuracy cost. Furthermore, colour variation, whether task‐relevant or not, leads to an additional cost in processing speed. The results suggest that a divided‐effort strategy would improve performance in search tasks such as X‐ray baggage screening. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fear Extinction to an Out-Group Face: The Role of Target Gender

ABSTRACT— Conditioning studies on humans and other primates show that fear responses acquired toward danger-relevant stimuli, such as snakes, resist extinction, whereas responses toward danger-irrelevant stimuli, such as birds, are more readily extinguished. Similar evolved biases may extend to human groups, as recent research demonstrates that a conditioned fear response to faces of persons of a social out-group resists extinction, whereas fear toward a social in-group is more readily extinguished. Here, we provide an important extension to previous work by demonstrating that this fear-extinction bias occurs solely when the exemplars are male. These results underscore the importance of considering how gender of the target stimulus affects psychological and physiological responses to out-group threat.