Predicting preference for items during periods of extended access based on early response allocation

Top‐ranked items were identified during 30‐min free‐operant preference assessments for 9 individuals. Data from each session were analyzed to identify the item (a) that was engaged with first in each session and (b) to which the most responding was allocated after 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, and 25 min had elapsed in each session. The results indicated that the first‐engaged item and the 5‐min high‐allocation item predicted the top‐ranked item in 55% and 62% of the sessions, respectively. The results also showed that engagement with the top‐ranked item from the first session decreased across subsequent sessions for 6 of the 9 participants. The implications of the results for brief versus extended stimulus preference assessments are discussed.     

Accompagnement médical et communautaire dans un essai de prévention biomédicale : vers une nouvelle forme d’éducation ?

The recent implementation of innovative biomedical preventive approaches to combat the continued high prevalence of HIV among certain populations, has refocused attention on the question of support in the management of treatment adherence. What distinguishes these approaches from classic research on similar themes is that the populations concerned are not HIV positive. The objective of this study was to assess participant and physician satisfaction with medical and community support provided in the ANRS-IPERGAY trial. As part of this trial, individual interviews were conducted with physicians and with HIV-negative participants involved in the trial. Collective interviews and focus groups were also conducted with the participants. A content thematic analysis was performed on the full two corpuses’ data, with the aim of investigating discourse themes regarding the support offered as part of the trial. The discourse analysis of the HIV-negative participants and physicians underlined their satisfaction with many aspects of the medical and community support provided during the trial. The results were interpreted with respect to new forms of patient education necessary for the implementation of the medicalized prevention.     

Racial/Ethnic Identity and Subjective Physical and Mental Health of Latino Americans: An Asset Within?

Social Identity Theory indicates that ethnic identity could benefit minority members in a society because of its promotion of a sense of belonging, or of its buffering of the damage of discrimination. Despite growing investigation about Latinos’ overall health, few studies have simultaneously examined the influence of multiple cultural strength factors, especially racial/ethnic identity, social support, and religious attendance, on these outcomes. Using the National Latino and Asian American Study, we examine the potential predictive value of these cultural strength factors on Latinos’ Self-Rated Mental and Physical Health (SRMH and SRPH). Two separate two-step regression models revealed significant positive effects of racial/ethnic identity on both mental and physical health of Latinos, above and beyond the effect of known demographic and acculturation factors, such as discrimination. Religious attendance had a positive effect on SRMH but not on SRPH. The deteriorating roles of discrimination, in mental health only, and that of Length in the US in both outcomes, however, was primarily not altered by entry of these cultural strength factors. The independent direct effect of racial/ethnic identity among Latinos nationwide may suggest that this cultural strength is an internalized protective asset. Longitudinal data is needed to explore its underlying mechanism and long-term impact.     

The mental nose and the Pinocchio effect: Thermography,planning, anxiety,and lies

We applied thermography to cognitive neuropsychology, particularly as a somatic marker of subjective experience during cognitive and emotional tasks. We found significant correlations between changes in facial temperature and mental set. Specifically, the temperature of the nose tended to decrease during emotional tasks and increase during cognitive tasks. However, for stress tests or high arousal reactions to emotional stimuli, the direction of the thermal change depended on the nature of the setting, real or simulated. Detection of deception is a mixed field where cognitive effort, physiological stress, and empathy have evolved, affecting the direction of the thermal variation—higher or lower temperature of the tip of the nose and forehead. We found that the temperature change of the nose and forehead may enable detecting when people lie about facts (the Pinocchio effect markers). In general, one important contribution is to recover mental thermometry as a potent tool for neurocognitive studies.     

The Normative Underpinnings of Democracy and the Balance between Morality and Legitimacy

ABSTRACT

Jürgen Habermas’s political philosophy incorporates the view that legitimacy is immanent to law, even though it makes morality a central component of democratic legitimacy. Taking this as a starting point, the article examines one criticism that applies to Habermas’s political theory, insofar as he puts morality at the centre of his reconstruction of the concept of legitimacy. Habermas claims that the moral point of view justifies only those norms that embody universalizable interests and rules out those that embody particular interests. Therefore, the objection is that particular citizens will have no reason to endorse these norms and act according to them because these norms do not incorporate their interests. The article goes on to show that Habermas can successfully answer this objection by means of the principle of discourse. The principle performs this function, inasmuch as it has a post-Kantian nature. On the one hand, it incorporates Kantian autonomy. And on the other, the Hegelian insight that autonomy has to be actualized through modern institutions and practices.     

Personifying the Radical

This study examines relationships among individual dispositions, news framing of civil liberties restrictions, security concerns, and political tolerance. We theorize that news frames condition the effects of individual dispositions on security and tolerance attitudes. To explore these relationships, an online‐survey experiment was conducted with 650 respondents. This experiment presented alternative versions of news stories about domestic security policies following September 11, and the policies' implications for a fringe activist group. One factor was whether the activists targeted by the government advocated for a cause supported or opposed by the respondent; another factor was whether the story framed government actions against the activists at the individual or group level. Findings show that individual framing—as opposed to group framing—made participants less tolerant of radicals they opposed and more tolerant of radicals they supported. Similar effects were observed for political ideology. Implications of personification as a framing device are discussed.