Posttraumatic stress severity is associated with coping motives for alcohol use among in-patient and community recruited adolescents

Background and Objectives: A growing body of work suggests individuals with more severe post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are at higher risk for developing problematic alcohol use outcomes. Extending work from the adult literature, the present study was the first to examine the extent to which PTSS is related to drinking motives for alcohol use in both clinical and non-clinical samples of adolescents.

Design: Hierarchical regression analyses were used to predict coping motives for alcohol use from PTSS, above and beyond demographic variables, alcohol use frequency, and other alcohol use motives.

Methods: Trauma-exposed adolescents before entering treatment (Sample 1 n?=?41) and recruited from the local community (Sample 2 n?=?55) self-reported on PTSS and alcohol use motives.

Results: PTSS positively predicted coping motives for alcohol use after controlling for age, gender, and alcohol use frequency.

Conclusions: The current study highlights the need to consider both PTSS severity, as well as underlying cognitive mechanisms (e.g., motives), to better understand the etiology of problematic alcohol use among trauma-exposed youth. Future work focused on clarifying the trajectory of alcohol use motives and problems as a function of PTSS is needed.     

Token Economies: Using Basic Experimental Research to Guide Practical Applications

This paper highlights the applicability of patterns seen within basic experimental research in relation to contemporary application of token economies. Token economies are one of the most widely used interventions to promote behavior change, and this procedure has evolved to be effective across many settings, behaviors, and individuals. Due to this widespread use, casual implementation of the token economy might result in inconsistencies in responding and therefore an overall skepticism in the procedure itself. We present multiple barriers that encumber practical application of token economies, including insufficient conditioning and pairing of tokens, determining quality of backup reinforcers, unforeseen effects of motivating operations, teaching the token exchange, effects of higher-order reinforcement schedules, ratio strain, and use of response cost procedures. To assist practitioners in implementing more effective treatments, for each barrier we revisit the often overlooked basic research involving features of conditioned reinforcement and reinforcement schedules. It is important to translate the often complex implications of basic research so that practitioners can use this information to improve their own practice as well as their confidence in disseminating use of this evidence-based treatment. To further guide practitioners in using this knowledge in everyday settings, we also provide recommendations specific to each barrier as well as relevant applied research and practical examples.     

Objects that induce face pareidolia are prioritized by the visual system

The human visual system has evolved specialized neural mechanisms to rapidly detect faces. Its broad tuning for facial features is thought to underlie the illusory perception of faces in inanimate objects, a phenomenon called face pareidolia. Recent studies on face pareidolia suggest that the mechanisms underlying face processing, at least at the early stages of visual encoding, may treat objects that resemble faces as real faces; prioritizing their detection. In our study, we used breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) to examine whether the human visual system prioritizes the detection of objects that induce face pareidolia over stimuli matched for object content. Similar to previous b-CFS results using real face stimuli, we found that participants detected the objects with pareidolia faces faster than object-matched control stimuli. Given that face pareidolia has been more frequently reported amongst individuals prone to hallucinations, we also explored whether this rapid prioritization is intact in individuals with schizophrenia, and found evidence suggesting that it was. Our findings suggest that face pareidolia engages a broadly tuned mechanism that facilitates rapid face detection. This may involve the proposed fast subcortical pathway that operates outside of visual awareness.     

Understanding Co-Occurring ADHD and Anxiety Symptoms within a Developmental Framework: Risk and Protective Factors of Early Temperament and Peer Relations

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Symptoms of ADHD and anxiety often co-occur, yet we are limited in our understanding of which children with ADHD symptoms are more likely to...     

Assembling an army: considerations for just war theory

The aim of this paper is to draw attention to an issue which has been largely overlooked in contemporary just war theory – namely the impact that the conditions under which an army is assembled are liable to have on the judgments that are made with respect to traditional principles of jus ad bellum and jus in bello. I argue that the way in which an army is assembled can significantly alter judgments regarding the justice of a war. In doing so, I present and defend a principle of ‘just assembly’ and argue that satisfying this principle is an essential part of any deliberation regarding the justice of a particular conflict.     

Stereotype Threat Impairs Older Adult Driving

Stereotypes can harm human performance, especially when activated in individuals with diminished working memory capacity (WMC). Performance implications for the stereotype of poor driving in older adults were investigated. Using a sample of older adults, WMC (the ability to maintain task goals and ignore distractions) and driving performance [brake reaction time (RT), following distance, and crashes] were assessed, the latter using a high‐fidelity simulator. Elderly participants under stereotype threat with reduced WMC exhibited slower brake RTs and longer following distances compared with a control condition that was not threatened. This driving profile was characteristic of cognitive distraction. Stereotype threat has clear consequences for human performance in a common real‐world task—driving—that is critical to public safety. Furthermore, these findings suggest caution in how the media and public policy communicate information about older adult driving.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

McTaggart’s Paradox and Crisp’s Presentism

In his review of The Ontology of Time, Thomas Crisp (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2005a) argues that Oaklander's version of McTaggart's paradox does not make any trouble for his version of presentism. The aim of this paper is to refute that claim by demonstrating that Crisp's version of presentism does indeed succumb to a version of McTaggart's argument. I shall proceed as follows. In Part I I shall explain Crisp's view and then argue in Part II that his analysis of temporal becoming, temporal properties and temporal relations is inadequate. Finally, in Part III, I shall demonstrate that his presentist ontology of time is susceptible to the paradox he so assiduously sought to avoid.