Predicting abuse in adolescent dating relationships over 1 year: the role of child maltreatment and trauma

Three mediators of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and dating violence perpetration during midadolescence (i.e., trauma-related symptoms, attitudes justifying dating violence, and empathy and self-efficacy in dating relationships) were tested over 1 year with a sample of students from 10 high schools (N = 1,317). Trauma-related symptoms had a significant cross-time effect on predicting incidents of dating violence for both boys and girls. Attitudes and empathy and self-efficacy did not predict dating violence over time, although they were correlated with such behavior at both time points. Child maltreatment is a distal risk factor for adolescent dating violence, and trauma-related symptoms act as a significant mediator of this relationship. The importance of longitudinal methodology that separates correlates from predictors is discussed.     

An evaluation of response cost in the treatment of inappropriate vocalizations maintained by automatic reinforcement

In the current study, we examined the utility of a procedure consisting of noncontingent reinforcement with and without response cost in the treatment of inappropriate vocalizations maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results are discussed in terms of examining the variables that contribute to the effectiveness of response cost as treatment for problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.     

Personality assessment without borders: adaptation of the MMPI-2 across cultures

In contemporary psychology, personality assessment knows few national or cultural boundaries. Psychological tests developed in one country are often translated and adapted into cultures that might appear to be greatly different from the country of origin. In this article, I address the factors that are important to international test adaptation and examine problems that can adversely affect cross-cultural test research programs. I address qualities important for verifying the accuracy and adequacy of cross-cultural assessment. I review the extensive adaptation of the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1940) and MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989), the most frequently used personality measure. I highlight several contemporary research trends in international personality assessment.     

Reasoning from inconsistency to consistency

This article presents a theory of how individuals reason from inconsistency to consistency. The theory is based on 3 main principles. First, individuals try to construct a single mental model of a possibility that satisfies a current set of propositions, and if the task is impossible, they infer that the set is inconsistent. Second, when an inconsistency arises from an incontrovertible fact, they retract any singularly dubious proposition or any proposition that is inconsistent with the fact; otherwise, they retract whichever proposition mismatches the fact. A mismatch can arise from a proposition that has only mental models that conflict with the fact or fail to represent it. Third, individuals use their causal knowledge-in the form of models of possibilities-to create explanations of what led to the inconsistency. A computer program implements the theory, and experimental results support each of its principles.     

The native mind: biological categorization and reasoning in development and across cultures

This article describes cross-cultural and developmental research on folk biology: that is, the study of how people conceptualize living kinds. The combination of a conceptual module for biology and cross-cultural comparison brings a new perspective to theories of categorization and reasoning. From the standpoint of cognitive psychology, the authors find that results gathered from standard populations in industrialized societies often fail to generalize to humanity at large. For example, similarity-driven typicality and diversity effects either are not found or pattern differently when one moves beyond undergraduates. From the perspective of folk biology, standard populations may yield misleading results because they represent examples of especially impoverished experience with nature. Certain phenomena are robust across populations, consistent with notions of a core module.     

An integrated theory of the mind

Adaptive control of thought-rational (ACT-R; J. R. Anderson & C. Lebiere, 1998) has evolved into a theory that consists of multiple modules but also explains how these modules are integrated to produce coherent cognition. The perceptual-motor modules, the goal module, and the declarative memory module are presented as examples of specialized systems in ACT-R. These modules are associated with distinct cortical regions. These modules place chunks in buffers where they can be detected by a production system that responds to patterns of information in the buffers. At any point in time, a single production rule is selected to respond to the current pattern. Subsymbolic processes serve to guide the selection of rules to fire as well as the internal operations of some modules. Much of learning involves tuning of these subsymbolic processes. A number of simple and complex empirical examples are described to illustrate how these modules function singly and in concert.     

Quality of life assessment in Turkish patients with schizophrenia and their relatives

Quality of life of first-degree relatives living in the same household with patients having schizophrenia has not been sufficiently explored. 30 patients with schizophrenia (16 women, 14 men), diagnosed using DSM-IV criteria, 31 of their relatives (15 women, 16 men), and 34 control subjects (21 women, 13 men) were included in the study. The mean age of the patients, their relatives, and the control subects were 39.8 +/- 10.9, 58.1 +/- 12.5 and 37.3 +/- 17.0, respectively. The World Health Oranization Quality of Life-Brief Form was administered to all subjects. Quality of life was worse for the patient group than for their relatives and control subjects, but relatives of the patients and control subjects were not significantly different on Quality of life. Quality of life was negatively correlated with the severity of psychopathology and extrapyramidal side effects induced by antipsychotic drugs in the patients.     

Holography does not account for goodness: a critique of van der Helm and Leeuwenberg (1996)

P. A. van der Helm and E. L. J. Leeuwenberg (1996) outlined a holographic account of figural goodness of a perceptual stimulus. The theory is mathematically precise and can be applied to a broad spectrum of empirical data. The authors argue, however, that the account is inadequate on both theoretical and empirical grounds. The theoretical difficulties concern the internal consistency of the account and its reliance on unspecified auxiliary assumptions. The account also makes counterintuitive empirical predictions, which do not fit past data or the results of a series of new experimental studies.     

Bimanual coordination dynamics in poststroke hemiparetics

Poststroke hemiparetic individuals (n = 9) and a control group (n = 9) completed a frequency-scaled circle-drawing task in unimanual and bimanual conditions. Measures of intralimb spatial and temporal task accuracy and interlimb coordination parameters were analyzed. Significant reductions in task performance were seen in both limbs of the patients and controls with the introduction of bimanual movement. Spatial performance parameters suggested that the 2 groups focused on different hands during bimanual conditions. In the controls, interlimb coordination variables indicated predictable hand dominance effects, whereas in the patient group, dominance was influenced by the side of impairment and prior handedness of the individual. Therefore, in this particular bimanual task, performance improvements in the hemiplegic side could not be elicited. Intrinsic coupling asymmetries between the hands can be altered by unilateral motor deficits.     

Prepared movements are elicited early by startle

A startle stimulus has been shown to elicit a ballistic response in a reaction time (RT) task at very short latencies without involvement of the cerebral cortex (J. Valls-Sole, J. C. Rothwell, F. Gooulard, G. Cossu, & E. Munoz, 1999). The present authors examined the nature of the startle response. A simple RT task was used in which 8 participants performed arm extension movements to 3 target distances (20 degrees, 40 degrees, and 60 degrees ) in a blocked design. An unpredictable startling acoustic stimulus (124 dB) replaced the imperative stimulus in certain trials. The authors verified the presence of a startle response independent from the prepared response by observing electromyographic (EMG) activity in sternocleidomastoid and orbicularis oculi muscles. Findings indicated that when the participant was startled, the intended voluntary response was produced at significantly shorter response latencies. Furthermore, the kinematic variables of the observed response during startle trials for all 3 target distances were mostly unchanged. The EMG characteristics of the responses were not modified, indicating that the response produced was indeed the prepared and intended response.