An Examination of the Relationships Between Personality,Attitudes, and Cognitions Relevant to Alcohol-Impaired Driving Tendencies1

Previous research has explored the domain of legal and educational prevention in regard to the phenomena of accidents and injuries caused by drinking and driving. Most investigations of psychological factors attempt to distinguish characteristics of drunk drivers relative to the general driving population or controls matched on driving risk variables. In contrast, the present research concentrated on the examination of the process by which empirically derived personality and general attitudinal constructs operate within a cognitive framework to influence the decision to drive. Four conceptual models were proposed that suggested the presence of direct, indirect, and moderated effects of personality and general attitudinal constructs on cognitions relevant to drunk-driving tendencies. Support was observed for a model suggesting the presence of indirect, direct, and moderating effects for the general attitudinal construct driving aggression, and support for an indirect effects model for the personality variable emotional control. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of utilizing personality and general attitudinal constructs to improve short term cognitive-based interventions.     

The generalized control of excessive behaviors

Two theoretical approaches to generalization in behavioral interventions designed to reduce behavioral excesses are discussed; approaches based on stimulus generalization and those based on response generalization. The potential advantages and disadvantages of each model are outlined, and implications evolving from the application of each model for practitioners are discussed. The article concludes with an overview of guidelines for practitioners and researchers.     

Behavioural response home monitoring of good and insomniac sleepers

Can the fundamental differences in sleep structure known to differentiate good from insomniac sleepers (e.g., sleep length, sleep onset latency [SOL], number of sleep disruptions, etc.) be identified using a behavioural sleep/wake (S/W) monitor in the home? Sixteen women (8 good and 8 insomniac sleepers) enrolled in an introductory psychology course participated in a study of S/W patterns. They used a portable version of the Ogilvie and Wilkinson (1988) behavioural response (BR) system in their homes for 4 consecutive nights. Insomniacs had greater SOLs, less efficient sleep, and tended to have a greater number of arousals as compared with good sleepers. The data indicate that the behavioural system could be used as a diagnostic tool for in-home evaluations of disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep.     

Cancer Victim Identity for Individuals with Histories of Cancer and Childhood Sexual Abuse

Identifying as a ‘cancer victim’ has been linked to adverse psychosocial sequelae in individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer. Being a childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivor may predispose individuals towards a “victim” identity in general. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of identifying as a ‘cancer victim’ among CSA survivors who were diagnosed with cancer as adults, and to explore psychological factors associated with identification as a cancer victim. 105 adults reporting both a history of CSA and of having been diagnosed with cancer as an adult were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Variables assessed included CSA severity, abuse-related powerlessness, general mastery, and cancer victim identity. Fifty-one percent of the sample endorsed a cancer victim identity. Path analysis revealed that abuse-related powerlessness was related to decreased feelings of general mastery, which was in turn associated with cancer victim identification (x ² = .12, DF = 1, p < .73; RMSEA = .00; SRMR = .01: Bentler CFI = 1.0). From a clinical perspective, the results suggest that increasing general mastery in CSA survivors in the cancer setting may be an important mechanism for attenuating the risk for developing a cancer victim identity and, presumably, for downstream adverse psychosocial sequelae.     

You detect while I search: examining visual search efficiency in a joint search task

Numerous factors impact attentional allocation, with behaviour being strongly influenced by the interaction between individual intent and our visual environment. Traditionally, visual search efficiency has been studied under solo search conditions. Here, we propose a novel joint search paradigm where one individual controls the visual input available to another individual via a gaze contingent window (e.g., Participant 1 controls the window with their eye movements and Participant 2 – in an adjoining room – sees only stimuli that Participant 1 is fixating and responds to the target accordingly). Pairs of participants completed three blocks of a detection task that required them to: (1) search and detect the target individually, (2) search the display while their partner performed the detection task, or (3) detect while their partner searched. Search was most accurate when the person detecting was doing so for the second time while the person controlling the visual input was doing so for the first time, even when compared to participants with advanced solo or joint task experience (Experiments 2 and 3). Through surrendering control of one’s search strategy, we posit that there is a benefit of a reduced working memory load for the detector resulting in more accurate search. This paradigm creates a counterintuitive speed/accuracy trade-off which combines the heightened ability that comes from task experience (discrimination task) with the slower performance times associated with a novel task (the initial search) to create a potentially more efficient method of visual search.     

The Effects of Partner Learning During Spelling for Students with Severe Disabilities and Their Peers

A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to examine the effects of partner learning on the spelling performance, academic responding, and competing behavior of three students with severe disabilities and three of their classmates without disabilities. The students were enrolled in different general elementary classes. All students in these classes were assigned to partner learning triads by the general education teacher. One triad in each class included the student with severe disabilities and two classmates without disabilities. All students in the class received two, 20 min partner learning sessions each week. During partner learning, each member of the triad was asked to spell words, present words to be spelled, provide feedback to the speller, and check the spelling accuracy. These roles were rotated among the members of the triad after each trial. These roles were adapted as necessary to accommodate the academic and communication skills of the students with severe disabilities. The effects of partner learning on spelling accuracy were assessed through weekly spelling tests. The effects of partner learning on academic responding and competing behavior were assessed using the MS-CISSAR (Carta, Greenwood, Schulte, Arreaga-Mayer, Terry, 1988). Results of weekly spelling indicated that partner learning led to improved spelling accuracy for students with severe disabilities and did not negatively affect the spelling accuracy of their peers. Partner learning also led to improved rates of academic responding and reduced rates of competing behavior for 5 of 6 students. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for practice and future research.     

The development of visually guided reaching

This investigation measured the accuracy of reaching in infants wearing 30-diopter prisms. Infants varied in age from 4 to 10 months. Although accuracy was barely affected, the reach trajectories indicated that infants switched from a miss path to a hit path in midcourse. There was some evidence to support the view that visually directed reaching was operative in the youngest infants and that it improved with age.