Preliminary investigation of the Kitchen Picture Test (KPT): A new screening test of practical judgment for older adults

Judgment is widely recognized as an important executive function, and deficits in judgment can lead to health risks, safety concerns, and hospitalizations. Surprisingly, relatively few tests of judgment have been developed specifically for older adults—a population particularly vulnerable to executive and functional declines. The Kitchen Picture Test (KPT) is a new screening measure of practical judgment. In two independent studies (Study 1, N = 99 nursing home patients; Study 2, N = 163 nursing home and assisted living patients), psychometric analyses confirmed strong evidence for reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated from sensitivity and 1-specificity values for diagnoses of dementia versus no dementia. A KPT cut score can be used for identifying persons to be referred to appropriate health-care professionals who have specific expertise in the evaluation and treatment of cognitive impairment.     

Does Symptom Linkage Density Predict Outcomes in Cognitive Therapy for Recurrent Depression?

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Acute-phase cognitive therapy (CT) is an efficacious treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), but how CT helps patients is incompletely...     

Are Deaf Dating Scripts Really Different from Those of Their Hearing Peers?

An initial study found that Deaf participants have a different definition of a date than the Traditional Sex Script (TSS). In the TSS, the man is viewed as the initiator who pushes for sex and the woman is expected to limit sex if they do not want to have intercourse; neither of these ideas were included in Deaf participants’ responses when asked what happens on a typical date. These findings may relate to early experiences in childhood. At an early age, hearing children are exposed to the TSS through popular culture. Deaf children are not exposed to these cues at the same level because of their lack of communication access. Here we compare Deaf college students to hearing college students to further investigate these issues using a more quantitative design.     

A nice surprise? Predictive processing and the active pursuit of novelty

Recent work in cognitive and computational neuroscience depicts human brains as devices that minimize prediction error signals: signals that encode the difference between actual and expected sensory stimulations. This raises a series of puzzles whose common theme concerns a potential misfit between this bedrock informationtheoretic vision and familiar facts about the attractions of the unexpected. We humans often seem to actively seek out surprising events, deliberately harvesting novel and exciting streams of sensory stimulation. Conversely, we often experience some wellexpected sensations as unpleasant and to-be-avoided. In this paper, I explore several core and variant forms of this puzzle, using them to display multiple interacting elements that together deliver a satisfying solution. That solution requires us to go beyond the discussion of simple information-theoretic imperatives (such as 'minimize long-term prediction error') and to recognize the essential role of species-specific prestructuring, epistemic foraging, and cultural practices in shaping the restless, curious, novelty-seeking human mind.     

It is written all over your face: Socially rejected people display microexpressions that are detectable after training in the Micro Expression Training Tool (METT)

Social rejection is a powerful negative emotional experience, yet rejected people often appear stoic and unmoved. That is, their macroexpressions of emotion are not accurate reflections of their emotional states. Yet, there is reason to believe that rejected people exhibit involuntary microexpressions of negative emotion. We contrasted people's macroexpressions of emotion with their microexpressions subsequent to an acceptance or rejection experience. Observers coded microexpressions after being trained with the Micro Expression Training Tool. Rejected participants expressed more sad and angry microexpressions than did accepted participants. This research demonstrates that socially rejected people display negative microexpressions that are detectable by observers trained in the Micro Expression Training Tool.     

‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!’: Effects of Streaks on Confidence and Betting in a Binary Choice Task

Human choice under uncertainty is influenced by erroneous beliefs about randomness. In simple binary choice tasks, such as red/black predictions in roulette, long outcome runs (e.g. red, red, red) typically increase the tendency to predict the other outcome (i.e. black), an effect labeled the “gambler's fallacy.” In these settings, participants may also attend to streaks in their predictive performance. Winning and losing streaks are thought to affect decision confidence, although prior work indicates conflicting directions. Over three laboratory experiments involving red/black predictions in a sequential roulette task, we sought to identify the effects of outcome runs and winning/losing streaks upon color predictions, decision confidence and betting behavior. Experiments 1 (n = 40) and 3 (n = 40) obtained trial‐by‐trial confidence ratings, with a win/no win payoff and a no loss/loss payoff, respectively. Experiment 2 (n = 39) obtained a trial‐by‐trial bet amount on an equivalent scale. In each experiment, the gambler's fallacy was observed on choice behavior after color runs and, in experiment 2, on betting behavior after color runs. Feedback streaks exerted no reliable influence on confidence ratings, in either payoff condition. Betting behavior, on the other hand, increased as a function of losing streaks. The increase in betting on losing streaks is interpreted as a manifestation of loss chasing; these data help clarify the psychological mechanisms underlying loss chasing and caution against the use of betting measures (“post‐decision wagering”) as a straightforward index of decision confidence. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Choosing housemates and justifying age,gender, and ethnic discrimination

This study examines the explanations and justifications offered by those engaged in selecting housemates. The rationale for the research follows the recent housing demographic, whereby shared living has become increasingly popular among young adults in Western countries. This study sought to address the surprising lacuna in the extant research through the application of discursive psychology to understanding prejudice and discrimination within the context of contemporary social and political sanctions against openly discussing prejudice. Data were drawn from interviews with young New Zealanders aged from early twenties to early thirties who were experienced with house sharing. Detailed results are presented involving discrimination based on age, gender, and ethnicity. The study found that rigid narrow preferences were stated with respect to age, gender was less important, and ethnicity was talked about cautiously, especially if there was the possibility of significant cultural differences or language barriers.