Brain Activity in the Play of Dominant Strategy and Mixed Strategy Games

We conjecture that the thought processes used to solve dominant strategy games and mixed strategy games are quite distinct. Two-person games with dominant strategies can be treated as simple decision problems that involve no assessment of one's partner. By contrast, two-person games with mixed strategies require that one think about one's partner. We measure differences in electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while a human subject is playing two-person games. We time-lock the EEG to a common event and use the average across many trials and subjects to find an Event Related Potential (ERP) associated with the common event. The ERP is the brain's response to events—in this case our different games. Our findings lend modest support for the idea that subjects respond to types of games differently.     

Neighborhood Identity Helps Residents Cope with Residential Diversification: Contact in Increasingly Mixed Neighborhoods of Northern Ireland

Research on residential diversification has mainly focused on its negative impacts upon community cohesion and positive effects on intergroup relations. However, these analyses ignore how neighborhood identity can shape the consequences of diversification among residents. Elsewhere, research using the Applied Social Identity Approach (ASIA) has demonstrated the potential for neighborhood identity to provide social and psychological resources to cope with challenges. The current article proposes a novel model whereby these “Social Cure” processes can enable residents to cope with the specific challenges of diversification. We present two studies in support of this model, each from the increasingly religiously desegregated society of postconflict Northern Ireland. Analysis of the 2012 “Northern Ireland Life and Times” survey shows that across Northern Ireland, neighborhood identity impacts positively upon both well‐being and intergroup attitudes via a reduction in intergroup anxiety. A second custom‐designed survey of residents in a newly mixed area of Belfast shows that neighborhood identification predicts increased well‐being, reduced intergroup anxiety, and reduced prejudice independently of group norms and experiences of contact. For political psychologists, our evidence suggests a reformulation of the fundamental question of “what effects do residential mixing have on neighborhoods?” to “how can neighborhood communities support residents to collectively cope with contact?”     

Re-identifying residential mixing: Emergent identity dynamics between incomers and existing residents in a mixed neighbourhood in Northern Ireland

Research on residential diversification has neglected its impact on neighbourhood identity and overlooked the very different identity-related experiences of new and existing residents. The present research examines how incoming and established group members relate to their changing neighbourhood in the increasingly desegregated city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Thematic analysis of interviews with 24 residents (12 Protestant long-term residents, 12 Catholic incomers) from an increasingly mixed neighbourhood identified asymmetrical concerns and experiences: Incomers reported undergoing an ‘identity transition’ between local communities, while long-term residents faced an ‘identity merger’ within their neighbourhood. Where their identity concerns diverged, emergent intergroup perceptions of the residents were negative and divisive; where they accorded, positive intergroup perceptions and a shared neighbourhood identity evolved. From this, we propose a Social Identity Model of Residential Diversification (SIMRD) to encourage future research into how different identity concerns shape emergent intergroup dynamics between long-term residents and incomers within diversifying neighbourhoods.     

Community psychology and injustice in the criminal justice system

In this short paper, we consider the partnership between psychology and the criminal justice system in Western societies and critically reflect on the notion of criminal justice as expressed in such a system. Focusing on how the criminal justice system operates in the UK, and in particular in Scotland, we consider the way the system criminalizes those who previously have been socially and economically disadvantaged. We ask whether community psychology has become negligent in the attention it brings to such a pernicious form of victim blaming and as such has shown insufficient critical engagement with systems that create social harm, and whether it is paying enough attention to the impact of a criminal justice system that is contributing to the creation of a more punitive, fractured and unjust society. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family,friend, and neighbour child care providers and maternal well‐being in low‐income systems: An ecological social perspective

Integrating theory from the family ecological systems and social support literatures with findings from child care research, in this study we develop and test a model relating family, friend, and neighbour (FFN) child care provider characteristics to perceived child care quality (provider reports of caregiving behaviours, mother‐provider caregiving relationship) and maternal well‐being (work‐family conflict, depressive symptoms). Results from phone interviews with 187 FFN providers receiving public subsidies indicated that even after controlling for familial status or household income, caregiver perceptions of higher quality care were associated with higher education levels, greater attachment to child care as a job; and lower provider depressive symptoms. After controlling for familial status, data analysed from a subset of 51 mother‐provider pairs, indicated that mothers using care from providers who reported higher quality parent‐caregiver social relationships reported lower work‐family conflict and depressive symptoms. This study suggests mothers who have providers with whom they have good caregiving interactions may experience positive social support and psychological crossover dynamics associated with mother well‐being.     

Towards Culturally Relevant Preventive Interventions: The Consideration of Racial Socialization in Parent Training with African American Families

We present a rationale for the inclusion of culture-based parenting practices (i.e., racial socialization) in the design and implementation of empirically based parenting programs with African American families. We begin with a discussion of the limitations of the current parent training literature related to cultural considerations. Second, we examine the cultural and racial contexts of parenting for African Americans, review the literature on racial socialization, and discuss empirical support for considering its inclusion in parent training programs. Third, we examine the extent to which racial socialization operates in low-income African American families by presenting the findings from a qualitative pilot. We conclude by discussing how findings from the qualitative pilot might inform intervention efforts.     

Phenomenal and access consciousness in olfaction

Contemporary literature on consciousness, with some exceptions, rarely considers the olfactory system. In this article the characteristics of olfactory consciousness, viewed from the standpoint of the phenomenal (P)/access (A) distinction, are examined relative to the major senses. The review details several qualitative differences in both olfactory P consciousness (shifts in the felt location, universal synesthesia-like and affect-rich experiences, and misperceptions) and A consciousness (recovery from habituation, capacity for conscious processing, access to semantic and episodic memory, learning, attention, and in the serial-unitary nature of olfactory percepts). The basis for these differences is argued to arise from the functions that the olfactory system performs and from the unique neural architecture needed to instantiate them. These data suggest, at a minimum, that P and A consciousness are uniquely configured in olfaction and an argument can be made that the P and A distinction may not hold for this sensory system.     

APPLICATION OF THE “GENERALIZATION MAP” TO A SELF-CONTROL INTERVENTION WITH SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

The assessment of generalization has become a priority of applied behavior analysis. This study provided a thorough assessment of the generality of a comprehensive self-control intervention. This intervention incorporated a number of self-management skills and was designed to increase the math performance of an underachieving student in a regular elementary school classroom. All possible classes of generalization as outlined by Drabman, Hammer, and Rosenbaum (1979) were assessed. An ABAB design with follow-up was used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention for the treated student's math performance in the school setting as well as the degree of generalization across the following untreated dimensions: behavior (disruptiveness); setting (home); subject (classmate); and time period (follow-up). The effective intervention produced: subject, behavior, subject-behavior, setting, subject-setting, behavior-setting, subject-behavior-setting, time, subject-time, setting-time, subject-setting-time, and subject-behavior-setting-time generalization. Generalization was not obtained for behavior-time, subject-behavior-time, and behavior-setting-time generalization. Features of this intervention which may have promoted generalization are discussed.