Simulation of Preference Information in an Interactive Reference Point‐Based Method for the Bi‐Objective Inventory Routing Problem

In the research area of multiple criteria decision making, very few publications exist that explicitly design the simulation of a decision maker (DM) in an interactive approach. For this reason, we outline some methods widely used in the literature to identify common assumptions of simulating the DM's responses and the required input preference information. Our paper aims at covering the identified gap by introducing experimental concepts. Such concepts are used for theoretical analyses of a combined search‐and‐decision‐making procedure. Simulating the DM is a fruitful idea because the algorithm can be tested without integrating a human decision maker. Finally, we conduct experiments based on the proposed settings for a multiobjective inventory routing problem, which is a relevant and challenging logistic problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Relationship Between Automatic Thoughts and Irrational Beliefs Predicting Anxiety and Depression

Cognitive behavioral approaches differ in their views on core cognitions and their hypothesized role in the etiology of depression and anxiety. The present study provides empirical evidence regarding the relationship between irrational beliefs and components of automatic thoughts and their role in the etiology of depression and anxiety. The present study utilized newer and improved questionnaires to assess components of irrational belief. Based on prior research by Safren et al. (Cogn Ther Res 24(3):327–344, 2000), a three-factor structure of the combined automatic thought questionnaires were utilized to measure components of automatic thoughts as they relate to depression and anxiety. Factor analytical methods were utilized to confirm the factor structure of the irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts components. Advanced path modeling was utilized to model the relationship between irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts in predicting anxiety and depression. The study used a sample of N = 542 undergraduate psychology students during stressful exam times. Results indicated that the irrational belief Demandingness represents a primary factor, followed by the secondary irrational beliefs as proposed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Theory. Selfdowning beliefs were fully mediated by depressive automatic thoughts in the case of depressive affect. Low frustration tolerance contributed unique variance to anxious and depressive affect that was not fully mediated by automatic thoughts. Results from the present study add empirical evidence that irrational beliefs indeed represent core and intermediary beliefs that lead to specific automatic thoughts, which is congruent with cognitive behavioral theory as proposed by Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy.     

Influence of delayed muscle reflexes on spinal stability: Model-based predictions allow alternative interpretations of experimental data

Model-based calculations indicate that reflex delay and reflex gain are both important for spinal stability. Experimental results demonstrate that chronic low back pain is associated with delayed muscle reflex responses of trunk muscles. The aim of the present study was to analyze the influence of such time-delayed reflexes on the stability using a simple biomechanical model. Additionally, we compared the model-based predictions with experimental data from chronic low back pain patients and healthy controls using surface-electromyography. Linear stability methods were applied to the musculoskeletal model, which was extended with a time-delayed reflex model. Lateral external perturbations were simulated around equilibrium to investigate the effects of reflex delay and gain on the stability of the human lumbar spine. The model simulations predicted that increased reflex delays require a reduction of the reflex gain to avoid spinal instability. The experimental data support this dependence for the investigated abdominal muscles in chronic low back pain patients and healthy control subjects. Reflex time-delay and gain dependence showed that a delayed reflex latency could have relevant influence on spinal stability, if subjects do not adapt their reflex amplitudes. Based on the model and the experimental results, the relationship between muscle reflex response latency and the maximum of the reflex amplitude should be considered for evaluation of (patho) physiological data. We recommend that training procedures should focus on speeding up the delayed reflex response as well as on increasing the amplitude of these reflexes.     

Psychological intervention with couples coping with breast cancer: A systematic review

Objective: Information about psychological intervention with couples coping with breast cancer is not well-disseminated. This can be explained, at least in part, by the absence of knowledge about the efficacy of this kind of intervention. The aim of the present systematic review is to identify and describe psychological interventions for couples coping with breast cancer and evaluate their efficacy.

Design: Studies identified by a searching multiple literature databases related to health and psychology between 1975 and 2013. Rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria were utilised.

Results: Of 129 abstracts, 13 were extracted for further analysis and a final ten studies were deemed eligible for inclusion. Data were extracted from each study regarding study sample characteristics, design, results and methodological limitations. The results obtained were mixed in regard to efficacy, although the overwhelming majority of studies (eight studies) found benefits for both women and their partners in some dimensions, such as quality of life, psychological distress, relationship functioning and physical symptoms associated with cancer.

Conclusion: Psychological interventions for couples coping with breast cancer appear to be effective for both women and their partners. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy of couple-based interventions and, to identify for whom and how they are more effective.     

Identification and adaptation of hue: Parallels in the operation of mechanisms that underlie categorical perception in vision and in audition

Summary Four experiments were conducted to examine processes in identification and selective adaptation of hues in color perception that exactly parallel processes in identification and adaptation of auditory detectors that provide information for phonemic perception. The first experiment demonstrated an effect of adaptation on identification of blue and green when a hue category center was used as the adaptor; this experiment also assessed recovery from adaptation. Adaptation to one hue was found to shift identification to favor the alternative hue, implicating a single detector underlying hue categorization. The second experiment demonstrated similar effects of adaptation between green and yellow. The third experiment compared the magnitudes of shift following adaptation with a category center, a near-boundary hue, and variously graded adaptation series. Adaptation was found to be related to the category representativeness of the adaptor(s). Results of the third experiment also provided support for the view that adaptation, rather than response bias, is responsible for shifts in the position of identification functions following extended stimulus exposure. The fourth experiment explored the neural loci of adaptation by an interocular transfer test. Hue adaptation was found to occur at both central and peripheral loci. In the four main experiments, reaction times to identify hues in unadapted and adapted states were also analyzed and compared. Subsidiary experiments assessed the effects of stimulus luminance on the magnitude of adaptation. General principles of categorical perception and its underlying bases, including the sweep, magnitude, and symmetry of adaptation, are discussed. The principal findings of these studies provide new data on hue perception which strikingly parallel findings in speech perception.     

On abstraction and the doctrine of terms in eighteenth-century philosophy of language

The aim of this paper is to understand why empiricist philosophers of language did not try to refute the Leibniz-Beauzée argument, which questioned the genetical priority of proper names. It is shown that, within the semantic theory which underlies the empiricist doctrine, one may assume that all general terms derive from particular names, while conceding that every proper name can be etymologically traced back to the ancestor of a common noun.     

Is there an advantage for recognizing multi-modal emotional stimuli?

Emotions can be recognized whether conveyed by facial expressions, linguistic cues (semantics), or prosody (voice tone). However, few studies have empirically documented the extent to which multi-modal emotion perception differs from uni-modal emotion perception. Here, we tested whether emotion recognition is more accurate for multi-modal stimuli by presenting stimuli with different combinations of facial, semantic, and prosodic cues. Participants judged the emotion conveyed by short utterances in six channel conditions. Results indicated that emotion recognition is significantly better in response to multi-modal versus uni-modal stimuli. When stimuli contained only one emotional channel, recognition tended to be higher in the visual modality (i.e., facial expressions, semantic information conveyed by text) than in the auditory modality (prosody), although this pattern was not uniform across emotion categories. The advantage for multi-modal recognition may reflect the automatic integration of congruent emotional information across channels which enhances the accessibility of emotion-related knowledge in memory.     

Word use of outpatients with a personality disorder and concurrent or previous major depressive disorder

In a recent study, Rude, Gortner, and Pennebaker (2004) found word use to be related to depression and vulnerability to depression in the essays of college students. We sought to replicate and extend these findings in a clinical sample. Written essays of 304 psychiatric outpatients with a personality disorder and a mixed psychiatric profile on DSM-IV axis-I and 108 healthy controls were examined with word count software. Data on the tendency to be discrepant about the current self compared to a more ideal self were also gathered. We found that psychiatric outpatients in general used more words referring to the self and negative emotion words and fewer positive emotion words, compared to healthy controls. However, word-use proved unrelated to depression specifically. Actual-ideal self discrepancies were related to patient status and to current depression. Contrary to our hypothesis, these discrepancies did not correlate with the use of words referring to the self. We conclude that the negative content and self-focus of written essays and high levels of discrepancy reflect a negative thinking style that is common to a range of psychiatric disorders rather than being specific to depression.     

Endorsement of Group Change and Organization Change Affirmative Action Programs for Male and Female Beneficiaries

To test the position that some people’s willingness to endorse affirmative action is influenced by the match between beneficiary group and the attributional underpinnings of the programs, endorsement of four programs that could be used to benefit either women or men were assessed among 95 undergraduate students in Ontario, Canada. Students preferred the use of a remedial program that suggested that beneficiaries are under-qualified and need to develop job relevant skills for female versus male beneficiaries. This was driven by perceptions of the effectiveness of the program. For male beneficiaries, participants were more supportive of a mentorship development program that implied the necessity of structural change than they were of the remedial program. These effects were independent of participant gender.