Effects of idiosyncratic stimulus variables on functional analysis outcomes.

As the methods for the functional analysis of problem behavior have continued to develop, there has been a greater focus on the specificity of controlling variables, both antecedents and consequences. Accelerating research interest in the role of antecedents reveals that a large array of stimulus variables can influence the rate of problem behavior. Indeed, the variety of these stimuli is so great that it is sometimes possible to overlook specific stimulus variables during initial assessment. The present study shows that a failure to identify these very specific (idiosyncratic) stimulus variables is serious because their presence can systematically alter the outcomes of functional analyses that are designed to assess the motivation of problem behavior. Guidelines are therefore discussed concerning when to suspect that idiosyncratic stimuli might be acting to influence assessment data, thereby promoting a search for additional stimulus variables whose identification can aid in improving the design of functional analysis conditions.     

Misunderstanding metaphor: What's the problem?

In order to investigate the potential difficulties posed by task demands and by surface features of metaphorical sentences, children aged 6, 7, and 9 years were presented with metaphorical grounds encoded in five alternative linguistic forms: predicative metaphors, topicless metaphors, similes, analogies, and riddles. The task demands posed by comprehension of predicative metaphors proved greater than those posed by topicless metaphors, suggesting that it is more difficult to specify the similarity between two given terms than it is to generate a missing term. When topicless metaphors were rewritten either in an explicit analogic form or in the form of a riddle, comprehension was increased; however, when predicative metaphors were rewritten as similies, the addition of the term “like” to make clear the similarity relationship between the two terms failed to elevate understanding.     

Autumn leaves and old photographs: The development of metaphor preferences

In order to determine the development of preferences for different types of metaphors, a metaphor preferences task was designed. Subjects at seven ages, from 6 through 20 years, received incomplete sentences followed by metaphorical and literal completions, and were asked to select their preferred completions. The pattern of preferences shifted with age. Metaphors based on grounds involving color or shape were preferred by the youngest subjects; metaphors based on movement or sound were preferred by subjects of intermediate age; and metaphors based on nonperceptual, conceptual grounds were preferred by the oldest subjects. At all ages the most frequently chosen metaphors were those based on a combination of two grounds (e.g., color and shape). Preference for literal completions declined with age, but there was an increase in literal selections in the 8th and 10th grades. This study demonstrates the systematic development of aesthetic preferences in the domain of figurative language.     

NATURE AS THE IMAGE OF GOD: REFLECTIONS ON THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED

Abstract. This is a brief survey of aspects of the modern scientific view of nature to see if implied therein are signs or traces of the sacred–as early religious apprehension surely supposed. Nature's power and order are discussed as is the strange dialectic of death and life, evident in modern biology as it also is in all early religion.     

Should I trust you? Autistic traits predict reduced appearance‐based trust decisions

Facial impressions of trustworthiness guide social decisions in the general population, as shown by financial lending in economic Trust Games. As an exception, autistic boys fail to use facial impressions to guide trust decisions, despite forming typical facial trustworthiness impressions (Autism, 19, 2015a, 1002). Here, we tested whether this dissociation between forming and using facial impressions of trustworthiness extends to neurotypical men with high levels of autistic traits. Forty‐six Caucasian men completed a multi‐turn Trust Game, a facial trustworthiness impressions task, the Autism‐Spectrum Quotient, and two Theory of Mind tasks. As hypothesized, participants’ levels of autistic traits had no observed effect on the impressions formed, but negatively predicted the use of those impressions in trust decisions. Thus, the dissociation between forming and using facial impressions of trustworthiness extends to the broader autism phenotype. More broadly, our results identify autistic traits as an important source of individual variation in the use of facial impressions to guide behaviour. Interestingly, failure to use these impressions could potentially represent rational behaviour, given their limited validity.     

Models of misbelief: Integrating motivational and deficit theories of delusions

The impact of our desires and preferences upon our ordinary, everyday beliefs is well-documented [Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn’t so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. New York: The Free Press.]. The influence of such motivational factors on delusions, which are instances of pathological misbelief, has tended however to be neglected by certain prevailing models of delusion formation and maintenance. This paper explores a distinction between two general classes of theoretical explanation for delusions; the motivational and the deficit. Motivational approaches view delusions as extreme instances of self-deception; as defensive attempts to relieve pain and distress. Deficit approaches, in contrast, view delusions as the consequence of defects in the normal functioning of belief mechanisms, underpinned by neuroanatomical or neurophysiological abnormalities. It is argued that although there are good reasons to be sceptical of motivational theories (particularly in their more floridly psychodynamic manifestations), recent experiments confirm that motives are important causal forces where delusions are concerned. It is therefore concluded that the most comprehensive account of delusions will involve a theoretical unification of both motivational and deficit approaches.     

Enhancing Empathy and Theory of Mind

Social cognitive skills such as empathy and theory of mind are crucial for everyday interactions, cooperation, and cultural learning, and deficits in these skills have been implicated in pathologies such as autism spectrum disorder, sociopathy, and nonverbal learning disorders. Little research has examined how these skills develop after early childhood and how they may be trained. We tested the hypothesis that experience in acting, an activity in which one must step into the shoes of others, leads to growth in both empathy and theory of mind. In two studies, we followed children (elementary school aged) and adolescents (high school freshmen) receiving 1 year of either acting or other arts training (visual arts, music) and assessed empathy and theory of mind before and after training. In both studies, those receiving acting (but not other arts) training showed significant gains in empathy scores; in Study 2, adolescents receiving acting training also showed significant gains on a naturalistic measure of theory of mind, the Empathic Accuracy Paradigm. These findings demonstrate plasticity in empathy and theory of mind long past the watershed age of 3 to 4 years and suggest that both capacities are enhanced by role-playing.     

Living in Alternative and Inner Worlds: Early Signs of Acting Talent

In an exploratory, qualitative study, 11 professional actors were interviewed about their childhoods to investigate the early predictors of acting talent. To control for verbal talent, scientists-turned-lawyers were selected as a comparison group. Participants were asked about their families, schooling, and training, as well as about their early propensities for play and imagination, their orientation towards fiction, and their emotionality and attunement to others' mental states. Actors' childhood memories differed from those of the lawyers in the following respects. The actors recalled greater engagement in alternative worlds (imaginary and fictional worlds) and in inner worlds (emotional and other mental states). Not surprisingly, then, they were also more likely to recall feeling different from others and unable to engage fully in school. Unlike the lawyers, the actors recalled practicing for their adult roles as early as age 4—by inventing and directing plays in their backyards. Unlike lawyers, actors chose their careers despite parental discouragement: although their parents valued the arts, they discouraged the choice of acting as a career. Taken together, the results suggest that an early interest in alternative and inner worlds and an identification of oneself as different from others are predictive of early and steady involvement in theater—a choice of career in which one can live daily in another world of imagined lives and in the other world of others' mental lives.