Offline Improvement during Motor Sequence Learning Is Not Restricted to Developing Motor Chunks

Robust offline performance gains, beyond those that would be anticipated by being exposed to additional physical practice, have been reported during procedural learning and have been attributed to enhancement consolidation, a process by which memory is transformed in such a way that it is not only more resistant to forgetting but may also involve a reorganization of information that supports superior task execution. The authors assessed the impact of increasing within-session practice extent on the emergence of offline performance gains. Practice-dependent improvements occurred across 12 and 24 30-s practice trials of a 5-element motor sequencing task. Offline improvements were observed following both 12 and 24 trials. The improvement following 12 trials was associated with the formation of motor chunks important for establishing movement sequence structure. In contrast, the offline improvement after 24 trials was not related to further changes in movement structure beyond those that had emerged during practice. These data suggest that additional memory operations, beyond those needed to amalgamate subsequences of the SRT task, are susceptible to enhancement consolidation.     

A Method for the Evaluation of Affective Associations to Figure Drawings

Usual scoring systems for figure drawing techniques are based on structural and content aspects of the drawing, and ignore the affectively toned associations that occur when an observer first sees a drawing. A system for measuring two components of judgment, (a) emission of affective associations (b) evaluation of affective associations, has been developed. This method was applied with some success in studying individuals who had represented in their drawings an image that corresponded to their actual physical appearance. The research so far suggests that the evaluation component of judgment may contribute more to discrimination than the emission component.     

MAPI Code Types in an Inpatient Crisis-Unit Sample

Limited data is available concerning the use of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI; Millon, Green, & Meagher, 1982) and high-point code combinations of its personality style scales. Our study reports on the frequency of high-point codes in an inpatient crisis-unit sample. Data analyses comparing personality style codes using MAPI expressed concerns scale elevations and Rorschach data are reported. Results comparing the personality style codes and expressed concerns scales were consistent with the findings of Millon et al. (1982). Analyses comparing Rorschach and MAPI data revealed only the presence or absence of vista responses as having any appreciable relationship to MAPI codes or personality scales.     

child pornography and the internet: perpetuating a cycle of abuse

Thirteen men convicted of downloading child pornography were interviewed with a view to understanding how these men talked about the photographs and the function such talk played in their accounts. The interviews were informed by earlier work with defended subjects and were analyzed within a discursive framework. Quotations are used from the interviews to illustrate the analysis. Six principal discourses emerged within these accounts in relation to child pornography: sexual arousal; as collectibles; facilitating social relationships; as a way of avoiding real life; as therapy; and in relation to the Internet. These are discussed in the context of previous research. The analysis illustrates the important role that the Internet plays in increasing sexual arousal to child pornography and highlights individual differences in whether this serves as a substitute or as a blueprint for contact offenses. It also draws our attention to the important role that community plays in the Internet and how collecting facilitates the objectification of children and increases the likelihood that in the quest for new images children continue to be sexually abused. Discourses focussing on both therapy and addiction serve to distance the respondent from personal agency and allow for continued engagement with child pornography.     

No evidence of racial discrimination in criminal justice processing: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

One of the most consistent findings in the criminological literature is that African American males are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated at rates that far exceed those of any other racial or ethnic group. This racial disparity is frequently interpreted as evidence that the criminal justice system is racist and biased against African American males. Much of the existing literature purportedly supporting this interpretation, however, fails to estimate properly specified statistical models that control for a range of individual-level factors. The current study was designed to address this shortcoming by analyzing a sample of African American and White males drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Analysis of these data revealed that African American males are significantly more likely to be arrested and incarcerated when compared to White males. This racial disparity, however, was completely accounted for after including covariates for self-reported lifetime violence and IQ. Implications of this study are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.     

The relationship between Revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST), handedness and indecision

Indecisiveness is an inability to make a decision, manifest across a number of behaviours. We explore the influence that both direction and strength of hand preference may have on this construct, examining it in relation to the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST). Frost and Shows’ (1993) Indecisiveness Scale was administered to 328 undergraduates (221 females), alongside the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) and Carver and White’s (1994) BIS/BAS scales. Simple correlations showed left-handers had a positive relationship between strength of handedness and BIS. In right-handers, strength and aversive indecision were positively correlated. Regression analysis demonstrated no significant relationship between hand strength and indecision, but that indecision was related to all three measures of rRST. Consistent with previous work, BIS was positively related to all indecision but particularly aversive, while BAS was negatively related to indecision but most strongly the avoidant category. We found that FFFS is more closely related to aversive than avoidant indecision. The relationship between rRST and indecision may be influenced by handedness; for right-handers the same pattern was found, but in left-handers BAS was not a significant predictor of indecision, BIS only predicted aversive indecision and FFFS predicted all three categories.     

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Dismissing Students From MFT Training Programs

Dismissing a student from an MFT training program can be challenging from an ethical and professional perspective. A thorough review of the literature regarding dismissal procedures in MFT training programs was conducted in order to increase discussion around circumstances under which dismissal is warranted and necessary for the protection of the public, the student, and the profession with specific attention to the dismissal process. The authors present the current state of the literature, include a case scenario for facilitating a conversation about this topic, and provide guiding principles for faculty and supervisors who might engage in a dismissal process.     

Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation,not misperception of smile authenticity

ABSTRACT

We investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (N?=?141) found perception of smile authenticity was unaffected, but that approach ratings, which are known to be reduced in social anxiety for happy faces, are more strongly reduced for genuine than polite smiles. Moreover, we found an independent contribution of social anxiety to approach ratings, over and above general negative affect (state/trait anxiety, depression), only for genuine smiles, and not for polite ones. We argue this pattern of results can be explained by genuine smilers signalling greater potential for interaction – and thus greater potential for the scrutiny that is feared in social anxiety – than polite smiles. Experiment 2 established that, relative to polite smilers, genuine smilers are indeed perceived as friendlier and likely to want to talk for longer if approached. Critically, the degree to which individual face items were perceived as wanting to interact correlated strongly with the amount that social anxiety reduced willingness to approach in Experiment 1. We conclude it is the potential for social evaluation and scrutiny signalled by happy expressions, rather than their positive valence, that is important in social anxiety.     

A Behavioral Analysis of Morality and Value

Morality has long been conceived as divinely instituted, so otherworldly, rules meant not to describe or explain behavior but to guide it towards an absolute good. The philosophical formulation of this theory by Plato was later grafted onto Christian thought by Augustine and Aquinas. The equally ancient theory of the Greek sophist Protagoras (that the good is relative to personal preferences and morality to man-made social customs) was forgotten until revived in the 18th and 19th centuries by such empiricists as David Hume and J. S. Mill. Then it was dismissed again in the 20th century by G. E. Moore and W. D. Ross as naturalistic fallacy, that is, conflation of what is with what ought to be. However, those who took this dismissive attitude themselves made the reverse mistake of conflating what ideally ought to be with what actually is. In other words, they mistook ideals for actualities. As B. F. Skinner (1971) said in Beyond Freedom and Dignity, sorting things out requires behaviorist parsing of the good (the personally reinforcing) and duty (the socially reinforced).