Cooperative responding in rats maintained by fixed‐ and variable‐ratio schedules

The present study investigated the effects of fixed‐ratio (FR) and variable‐ratio (VR) reinforcement schedules on patterns of cooperative responding in pairs of rats. Experiment 1 arranged FR 1, FR 10, and VR 10 schedules to establish cooperative responding (water delivery depended on the joint responding of two rats). Cooperative response rates and proportions were higher under intermittent schedules than under continuous reinforcement. The FR 10 schedule generated a break‐and‐run pattern, whereas the VR 10 schedule generated a relatively high and constant rate pattern. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of parametric manipulations of FR and VR schedules on cooperative responding. Rates and proportions of cooperative responding generally increased between ratio sizes of 1 and 5 but showed no consistent trend as the ratio increased from 5 to 10. Experiment 3 contrasted cooperative responding between an FR6 schedule and a yoked control schedule. Coordinated behavior occurred at a higher rate under the former schedule. The present study showed that external consequences and the schedules under which the delivery of these consequences are based, select patterns of coordinated behavior.     

Cognitive behavioral weight-loss program for individuals with psychotic mental diseases

Overweight derived from the intake of new antipsychotic medication in order to treat schizophrenia is a growing problem. The main purpose of this study is to launch a cognitive behavioural program in outpatients. It is focused on the weight control of patients with chronic mental diseases, especially those diagnosed as psychotic, and who are under treatment in a Psychosocial Rehabilitation Centre. In this study, the results of an experimental group and a control group were compared. The experimental group was made up of 7 individuals, 3 males and 4 females, and the control group comprised 4 males and 4 females. The program had a duration of twelve sessions administered over a period of three months. Three months after concluding the program, both groups were followed up. The data obtained indicate the efficiency of the cognitive-behavioural treatment in the patients. The achievements of this project were, on the one hand, to significantly reduce the patients' weight and, on the other, to modify their nutritional and physical exercise habits.     

Selective working memory disables inhibition of visual features

Recent research suggests that information held in working memory can facilitate subsequent attentional processing. Here, we explore the negative corollary of this conception: Under which circumstances does information in working memory disrupt subsequent processing? Seventy participants performed visual discriminations in a dual-task paradigm. They were asked to judge colors or shapes in an online attention task under three different working-memory conditions: Same, Switch, or Unknown. In the Same condition, participants selectively maintained one visual feature in working memory, from the same dimension as in the online attention task. In the Switch condition, participants selectively maintained one visual feature in working memory, but had to focus on another visual dimension in the online attention task. In the Unknown condition, participants could not predict which visual feature would be relevant for the working-memory task. We found that irrelevant features in the online attention task were particularly difficult to ignore in the Switch condition, that is, when the irrelevant features belong to a visual dimension that is simultaneously prioritized in selective working memory. The findings are consistent with accounts in terms of neural overlap between working-memory and attention circuits, and suggest that mechanisms of selection, rather than resource limitations, critically determine the extent of visual interference.     

Personality and the Pursuit of Happiness

Although people pursue life outcomes because they believe that these outcomes will make them happy, research shows that external life circumstances have a surprisingly small effect on happiness and subjective well-being. In contrast, personality traits and other stable factors appear to play a more important role in happiness. Happiness is heritable, stable over time, and moderately to strongly associated with personality characteristics. Empirical support for these conclusions is reviewed, and more recent evidence that challenges strong interpretations of personality effects is discussed. Although the effects of personality are robust, long-term levels of happiness can and do change.     

Psychological Impact of Negotiating Two Cultures: Latino Coping and Self‐Esteem

Among 96 Latino adults, active coping accounted for variance in global self‐esteem beyond that of biculturalism and sociodemographic indicators. The findings highlight the importance of accounting for the way Latino adults approach negotiating multiple cultural contexts. Extending acculturation research to integrate competence‐based formulations provides comprehensive information regarding cultural adaptation. Entre una muestra de 96 adultos Latinos, el afrontamiento activo dio cuenta de la varianza en autoestima global más allá de los indicadores de biculturalismo y sociodemográficos. Los hallazgos destacan la importancia de buscar una explicación a la forma en que los adultos Latinos enfocan la negociación de múltiples contextos culturales. Extender el ámbito de la investigación sobre aculturación para integrar las formulaciones basadas en competencia proporciona una información exhaustiva sobre la adaptación cultural.     

Neural functional organization of hallucinations in schizophrenia: Multisensory dissolution of pathological emergence in consciousness

Although complex hallucinations are extremely vivid, painful symptoms in schizophrenia, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of multisensory integration in such a phenomenon. We investigated the neural basis of these altered states of consciousness in a patient with schizophrenia, by combining state of the art neuroscientific exploratory methods like functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, cortical thickness analysis, electrical source reconstruction and trans-cranial magnetic stimulation. The results shed light on the functional architecture of the hallucinatory processes, in which unimodal information from different modalities is strongly functionally connected to higher-order integrative areas.     

Omission and commission in judgment and decision making: Understanding and linking action‐inaction effects using the concept of normality

Research on action and inaction in judgment and decision making now spans over 35 years, with ever‐growing interest. Accumulating evidence suggests that action and inaction are perceived and evaluated differently, affecting a wide array of psychological factors from emotions to morality. These asymmetries have been shown to have real impact on choice behavior in both personal and interpersonal contexts, with implications for individuals and society. We review impactful action‐inaction related phenomena, with a summary and comparison of key findings and insights, reinterpreting these effects and mapping links between effects using norm theory's (Kahneman & Miller, 1986) concept of normality. Together, these aim to contribute towards an integrated understanding of the human psyche regarding action and inaction.     

Rational Mentoring

Psychologists and other mental health professionals often serve as mentors to graduate students, interns and junior professionals. Mentor relationships are often long-term and emotionally complex and ideally involve provision of both career and psychosocial functions which prepare proteges for careers in the profession. Although experienced and accomplished, mentors often fall prey to a range of irrational thinking which may compromise their effectiveness in the mentor role. In this article we briefly define mentoring, describe the practices of effective mentors, highlight the irrational beliefs that most often prove troubling to mentors and outline several strategies for effectively coping with these beliefs. We hypothesize that routine and overt disputation of mentor-related irrational beliefs will enhance both the effect and enjoyment of mentoring.