The Functional Independence of Skinner's Verbal Operants: Conceptual and Applied Implications

Much has been said about B. F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior. This commentary specifically focuses on the functional independence of B. F. Skinner's verbal operants. While researchers have long been interested in this topic, the research literature on this topic has produced mixed results; it has shown that the verbal operants may be both functionally independent and functionally interdependent. This commentary considers the conceptual and applied implications of these mixed findings. The distinction between constructs and events is highlighted, with specific attention to how this distinction relates to the consideration of the verbal operants in behavior analysis. The value of further research on the functional independence of the verbal operants is considered, as well as the type of research studies that might be useful toward developing interventions for individuals with language delays. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is the Meaning of Life Also the Meaning of Death? A Terror Management Perspective Reply

The human quality of self-awareness makes individuals aware of their inventible death. How does this knowledge influence meaning in life and is influenced by it? Four studies examined the association between meaning in life and awareness of death, through a Terror Management Theory perspective. Study 1 assessed the effects of a mortality reminder on self-reports of meaning in life, while exploring the moderating role of self-esteem. The findings indicate a trend in which after a mortality salience induction, high self-esteem individuals tend to view their lives as more meaningful. Studies 2 and 3 examined the effect of thinking about the meaning of life on death-thought accessibility, and found it to be higher in both the mortality and meaning salience conditions, as compared to a control condition. Study 4 sought to discover whether reminders of one’s meaning in life would yield cultural worldview validation, and indeed revealed a more severe perception of social transgressions following both mortality and meaning salience. Findings highlight the understanding that meaning in life is a basic existential concept closely related to awareness of death’s inevitability.     

Toward an Interdisciplinary Science of Culture

The Psychological Record - Cultural events are of interest to scientists working in many scientific domains. Given this, an interdisciplinary science of culture may provide a more thorough...     

OBSERVATIONAL EFFECTS ON THE PREFERENCES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may play with limited objects or toys, making it difficult for teachers to identify reinforcers to use in teaching new skills. The goal of this study was to alter children's preferences from highly preferred toys to toys that were originally less preferred using an observational pairing procedure. Child participants observed a preferred adult playing with toys that were initially less preferred by the child. This intervention resulted in a shift in preference toward the item manipulated by the adult. Maintenance of the changed preference was idiosyncratic across participants. Results suggest a procedure for expanding the range of items that students with ASD will select.     

Anxiety attenuates awareness of emotional faces during rapid serial visual presentation

Anxiety limits normative perception and impacts the interaction between key neurophysiological systems, possibly by decreasing recruitment of goal-oriented processes and increasing recruitment of stimulus-driven processes. Previous studies examining the impact of anxiety on emotion processing commonly lack a sample with levels of anxiety comparable to a clinical population. Many also fail to control for co-occurring symptoms like depression. The current study used rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) with two emotional targets, comparing healthy controls to a group of individuals with symptom levels comparable to anxiety disorder patients. The results showed a modulatory effect of anxiety; the high anxiety (HA) group showed an enhanced impairment in detecting the second of two emotional targets relative to the low anxiety (LA) control group. Though there were no group-specific effects on the attentional blink or repetition blindness, there was a significant interaction of group with first and second target valence. Notably, HA individuals showed deficits (where LA individuals showed benefits) when the same emotion was presented twice. Further, when the first target was neutral, second target detection was especially impaired in HA individuals. Correlational analyses confirmed perceptual limitations were related to anxiety, but not depression, positive affect, or negative affect. The current results, along with past findings, suggest that clinical anxiety leads to deficits in overall cognitive control, increased difficulty inhibiting attention to distractors, and impairments in rapid, intuitive emotion processing.     

The Effects of Acute Alcohol Intoxication and Self-Focused Rumination on Triggered Displaced Aggression

An experiment simultaneously examined the effects of acute alcohol intoxication and self-focused rumination on triggered displaced aggression. An ethnically diverse sample of 97 young adult participants (41 men, 56 women) were recruited from a university community and surrounding area. Participants were provoked by an experimenter, randomly assigned to a 2 (alcohol, sober)?×?2 (rumination, distraction)?×?2 (trigger, no trigger) between-participants design, and then given an opportunity to aggress against an undeserving other who was either completely innocent or slightly annoying. Self-focused rumination increased displaced aggression only when participants were triggered by the slightly annoying participant. Alcohol independently augmented aggression.     

An Interbehavioral Investigation of Remembering Interactions

The Psychological Record - This study evaluated the influence of several factors on the development and evolution of remembering interactions from a thoroughly naturalistic, interbehavioral...     

Contextual Intervention for Caregiver Non-Adherence With Behavioral Intervention Plans

The extent to which parents and other caregivers implement behavioral interventions with integrity has an important impact on treatment effectiveness. This article considers popular interventions that train caregivers and improve treatment integrity in applied behavior analysis. After considering these interventions a contextual approach is described, whereby the function of caregiver non-adherence is considered. In particular, interventions aimed at manipulating setting factors are reviewed. The examples of respite and social support groups are provided as function-based interventions to improve caregiver adherence to behavioral recommendations. Implications for more contextual, coordinated, and comprehensive function-based behavioral services are provided.     

Sellars on thoughts and beliefs

In this paper, I examine Wilfrid Sellars’ famous Myth of Jones. I argue the myth provides an ontologically austere account of thoughts and beliefs that makes sense of the full range of our folk psychological abilities. Sellars’ account draws on both Gilbert Ryle and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ryle provides Sellars with the resources to make thoughts metaphysically respectable and Wittgenstein the resources to make beliefs rationally criticisable. By combining these insights into a single account, Sellars is able to see reasons as causes and, hence, to respect the full range of our folk psychological generalisations. This is achieved by modelling folk psychological practice on theoretical reasoning. But despite frequent misinterpretation, Sellars does not claim that thoughts and beliefs are theoretical concepts. Thus, folk psychological explanation is not theoretical, and hence, it is not replaceable by scientific theory. Hence, scientific concepts will not eliminate folk psychological concepts. Thus, Sellars avoids eliminativism.     

Sex differences in processing aggression words using the Emotional Stroop task

There is a robust relationship between the salience of stimulus materials presented in the Emotional Stroop task and inhibition of response in clinical populations. Researchers have now found information‐processing biases in both forensic and non‐forensic samples presented with threatening or aggressive stimuli [Cohen et'al., 1998; Eckhardt and Cohen, 1997; Smith and Waterman, 2003; Van Honk et'al., 2001]. We sought to explore sex differences in processing words relating to acts of direct and indirect aggression using a group of undergraduates (50 males and 50 females). Participants also completed self‐report questionnaires (AQ and EXPAGG) to allow some consideration of the relationship between objective and subjective measures. We predicted that males would demonstrate delayed responses when presented with words relating to acts of direct aggression. We also predicted that high levels of physical aggression would be the best predictor of bias for direct aggression words, high levels of verbal aggression would be the best predictor of bias for indirect aggression words, physical aggression would predict bias in males, and verbal aggression would predict bias in females. Males demonstrated a perceptual bias for words relating to acts of direct aggression, taking significantly longer to correctly colour name direct aggression words. Females were slower to correctly colour name indirect aggression words, but not significantly so. Verbal aggression, as expected, predicted bias performance for indirect aggression words but anger rather than physical aggression was the best predictor of bias for direct aggression words. Gender was a predictor for bias with both sets of words. Contrary to our predictions, it was observed that a high level of physical aggression was the best predictor of bias in both males and females. These data provide further evidence to confirm the saliency of aggression words to aggressive individuals in non‐forensic populations. Aggress. Behav. 00:00–00, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.