Predicting Intentions of Romantic Partner Abuse with the Theory of Planned Behavior

From the theory of planned behavior, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were identified as predictors of intentions for verbal, physical, and sexual abuse toward romantic partners. Relationships among the three predictors across the three types of abuse were examined with responses from undergraduates involved in romantic relationships. The theory of planned behavior accounted for substantial variance associated with intentions to abuse romantic partners. Moreover, the components of the theory of planned behavior were differentially predictive of the three forms of abuse, which also varied by sex. A recommendation is that interventions should target different components of the theory of planned behavior depending on the type of abuse they are attempting to prevent.     

Exploring Heteronormativity in the Public Discourse of Jamaican Legislators

In Jamaica the public discourse on homosexuality is voluminous, however little or no empirical research or suitably detached policy-oriented discussion is in evidence. This multidisciplinary qualitative paper uses the content analysis of publicly available information to explore the posture of key public-policy actors on homosexuals and homosexuality. The observable implications of the findings for society and the rights of homosexuals are articulated. The paper concludes that this discourse evinces a settled heteronormative value system, reflecting a consensus on either side of the political divide and applauded by popular culture and popular opinion. At a time when most of the western world is embracing sexual diversity, these conclusions carry profound implications for legal reform, employment relations, social justice and public policy in Jamaica.     

Cognitive and metacognitive activity in mathematical problem solving: prefrontal and parietal patterns

Students were taught an algorithm for solving a new class of mathematical problems. Occasionally in the sequence of problems, they encountered exception problems that required that they extend the algorithm. Regular and exception problems were associated with different patterns of brain activation. Some regions showed a Cognitive pattern of being active only until the problem was solved and no difference between regular or exception problems. Other regions showed a Metacognitive pattern of greater activity for exception problems and activity that extended into the post-solution period, particularly when an error was made. The Cognitive regions included some of parietal and prefrontal regions associated with the triple-code theory of (Dehaene, S., Piazza, M., Pinel, P., & Cohen, L. (2003). Three parietal circuits for number processing. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20, 487–506) and associated with algebra equation solving in the ACT-R theory (Anderson, J. R. (2005). Human symbol manipulation within an 911 integrated cognitive architecture. Cognitive science, 29, 313–342. Metacognitive regions included the superior prefrontal gyrus, the angular gyrus of the triple-code theory, and frontopolar regions.     

Emotion recognition in schizophrenia: further investigation of generalized versus specific deficit models

In this study, the authors examined the nature of emotion perception in schizophrenia. Two samples of people with schizophrenia, one receiving acute care for a recent exacerbation of symptoms and the other receiving extended care, were compared with a nonclinical control group on emotion perception and general perception measures. The nonclinical control group obtained the highest scores on all of the study measures, and the acutely ill group obtained the lowest scores. Furthermore, the acutely ill sample had a specific deficit in emotion perception that remained present after controlling for performance on the general perception tasks. Conversely, the deficits in emotion discrimination in the extended-care sample reflected generalized poor performance. Differences in performance on the emotion identification task between the 2 clinical groups were reduced when controlling for active symptoms.     

Effect of an audience on learning a novel motor skill

The purpose of this study was to assess effects of an audience on learning a novel motor skill. Subjects (N=64) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and administered 15 30-sec. trials with 30 sec. intertrial periods on a pursuit rotor task on two different days. Comparison of Time-on Target performance between conditions indicated that the No Audience condition had significantly higher performance than the Audience condition in Session 1. Comparison of Absolute Retention and Final Retention scores among the four experimental conditions in Session 2 after 48 hr. yielded no significant differences attributable to the presence of an audience, thus supporting the hypothesis that an audience would have no effect on learning.     

Exploration in outbred mice covaries with general learning abilities irrespective of stress reactivity, emotionality, and physical attributes

Across multiple learning tasks (that place different sensory, motor, and information processing demands on the animals), we have found that the performance of mice is commonly regulated by a single factor ("general learning") that accounts for 30-40% of the variance across individuals and tasks. Furthermore, individuals' general learning abilities were highly correlated with their propensity to engage in exploration in an open field, a behavior that is potentially stress-inducing. This relationship between exploration in the open field and general learning abilities suggests the possibility that variations in stress sensitivity/responsivity or related emotional responses might directly influence individuals' general learning abilities. Here, the relationship of sensory/motor skills and stress sensitivity/emotionality to animals' general learning abilities were assessed. Outbred (CD-1) mice were tested in a battery of six learning tasks as well as 21 tests of exploratory behavior, sensory/motor function and fitness, emotionality, and stress reactivity. The performances of individual mice were correlated across six learning tasks, and the performance measures of all learning tasks loaded heavily on a single factor (principal component analysis), accounting for 32% of the variability between animals and tasks. Open field exploration and seven additional exploratory behaviors (including those exhibited in an elevated plus maze) also loaded heavily on this same factor, although general activity, sensory/motor responses, physical characteristics, and direct measures of fear did not. In a separate experiment, serum corticosterone levels of mice were elevated in response to a mild environmental stressor (confinement on an elevated platform). Stress-induced corticosterone levels were correlated with behavioral fear responses, but were unsystematically related to individuals' propensity for exploration. In total, these results suggest that although general learning abilities are strongly related to individuals' propensity for exploration, this relationship is not attributable to variations in sensory/motor function or the individuals' physiological or behavioral sensitivity to conditions that promote stress or fear.     

Parallel versus serial processing and individual differences in high-speed search in human memory

Many mental tasks that involve operations on a number of items take place within a few hundred milliseconds. In such tasks, whether the items are processed simultaneously (in parallel) or sequentially (serially) has long been of interest to psychologists. Although certain types of parallel and serial models have been ruled out, it has proven extremely difficult to entirely separate reasonable serial and limited-capacity parallel models on the basis of typical data. Recent advances in theory-driven methodology now permit strong tests of serial versus parallel processing in such tasks, in ways that bypass the capacity issue and that are distribution and parameter free. We employ new methodologies to assess serial versus parallel processing and find strong evidence for pure serial or pure parallel processing, with some striking apparent differences across individuals and interstimulus conditions.     

Transitions in caregivers' use of paid home help: associations with stress appraisals and well-being

This study examines the associations between transitions in paid home care and stress appraisals and psychological well-being of family caregivers of dementia relatives. The sample consisted of 264 caregivers who completed up to 3 interviews during 1 year. Longitudinal analyses (i.e., generalized estimating equations) showed that the onset of paid home care was associated with increases in feelings of worry and strain and a worsening in positive affect. Ending paid home care was strongly associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms, whereas sustained use of paid home care was related to reduced overload. Several possible mechanisms for the complex relationship of paid home care and family caregivers' stress appraisals and well-being are discussed.     

From Knowledge-based Programs to Graded Belief-based Programs,Part I: On-line Reasoning<Superscript>*</Superscript>

Knowledge-based programs (KBPs) are a powerful notion for expressing action policies in which branching conditions refer to implicit knowledge and call for a deliberation task at execution time. However, branching conditions in KBPs cannot refer to possibly erroneous beliefs or to graded belief, such as “if my belief that φ holds is high then do some action α else perform some sensing action β”. The purpose of this paper is to build a framework where such programs can be expressed. In this paper we focus on the execution of such a program (a companion paper investigates issues relevant to the off-line evaluation and construction of such programs). We define a simple graded version of doxastic logic KD45 as the basis for the definition of belief-based programs. Then we study the way the agent’s belief state is maintained when executing such programs, which calls for revising belief states by observations (possibly unreliable or imprecise) and progressing belief states by physical actions (which may have normal as well as exceptional effects). ^* A premliminary and shorter version of this paper in the Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-04), pp. 368–372 (Laverny and Lang 2004).     

Contrast effects in judgments of health hazards

Researchers commonly use 2 models to explain contrast effects (CEs): the standard-of-comparison model and the set-reset model. The 2 models focus on the role of categorization to predict when a CE (instead of an assimilation effect) will happen, while minimizing the role of knowledge accessibility and relevance in determining whether any effect will occur. A 3rd model, the selective-accessibility model (F. Strack & T. Mussweiler, 1997), focuses on knowledge accessibility and relevance, but it is a model of assimilation effects in the anchoring bias. In the present study of CEs, the authors tested 3 predictions implied by the selective-accessibility model. The authors found a CE only when anchor- and target-rating dimensions matched and only in the 1st of multiple targets rated. The CE required a minimum amount of attention to the anchor. These results support the account that selective knowledge accessibility and relevance play an important role in CEs.