On the visual acuity of the pigeon

Several lines of evidence suggest that the pigeon is near-sighted for stimuli located in front of its beak and far-sighted for stimuli located to the sides of its head.     

The Factor Structure of Effortful Control and Measurement Invariance Across Ethnicity and Sex in a High-Risk Sample

Measurement invariance of a one-factor model of effortful control (EC) was tested for 853 low-income preschoolers (M age = 4.48 years). Using a teacher-report questionnaire and seven behavioral measures, configural invariance (same factor structure across groups), metric invariance (same pattern of factor loadings across groups), and partial scalar invariance (mostly the same intercepts across groups) were established across ethnicity (European Americans, African Americans and Hispanics) and across sex. These results suggest that the latent construct of EC behaved in a similar way across ethnic groups and sex, and that comparisons of mean levels of EC are valid across sex and probably valid across ethnicity, especially when larger numbers of tasks are used. The findings also support the use of diverse behavioral measures as indicators of a single latent EC construct.     

The Assessment of Emotion Regulation: Improving Construct Validity in Research on Psychopathology in Youth—An Introduction to the Special Section

This paper discusses issues in the assessment of emotion regulation in psychopathology research in youth and introduces a special section of the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment on the topic. The historical and practical importance of the concept of emotion regulation is noted and conceptual challenges in assessing emotion regulation are discussed. Empirical goals for improving construct validity in research on psychopathology and emotion regulation are discussed. We comment on how the papers in the special section advance understanding in these areas and suggest a multiple perspective and a multiple level of analysis approach for clarifying future research.     

An overview of the literature on female-perpetrated adult male sexual victimization

The rape of women has been an issue of concern in research literature for the past 40 years. Conversely, rape against men has only relatively recently received investigation. The current paper reviews the existing research literature regarding male rape and sexual assault, with particular emphasis on female perpetrated male sexual victimization. The review covers issues regarding biased legal definitions, rape myths, feminist theory, and stereotypical or negative beliefs; all of which create a problematic social environment for male victims of female perpetrated assault to report crimes. The review also discusses the prevalence of female perpetrated attacks against men, with evidence from self-reports by female sex offenders to highlight the existence of male sexual victimization and the aggressive manner in which the sexual activity is committed. The review concludes that male sexual victimization by women should be taken as seriously as that of women by men.     

Usability of a Smartphone Application to Support the Prevention and Early Intervention of Anxiety in Youth

Mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders are common in youth with anxiety problems being among the most prevalent, typically failing to spontaneously remit, and placing some youth at risk for additional difficulties. Mobile health (mHealth) might be a novel avenue to strengthen prevention efforts for child anxiety, since program effects are generally small. However, although a significant number of mHealth tools have been developed, few have been evaluated in terms of usability (or even clinical effectiveness). Usability testing is the first level of evaluation in responsible mHealth efforts as it is one of the main barriers to usage and adoption. As such, the objective of this research was to evaluate the usability of a smartphone application (app) corresponding to an indicated prevention and early intervention targeting youth anxiety. To accomplish this, 132 children (M_age = 9.65, 63% girls) and 45 service providers (M_age = 29.13, 87% female) rated our app along five established dimensions of usability (ease of use, ease of learning, quality of support information, satisfaction, and stigma). Findings showed that the app was highly and positively rated by youth and providers, with some variations (lower ratings when errors occurred). Path analyses also showed that system understanding was significantly related to greater system satisfaction, but that such relation occurred through the quality of support information offered by the app. Together, this has research and clinical implications as it highlights avenues for advancing youth care via mHealth usability evaluation, including prior to establishing effectiveness.     

To do or not to do? Prospective memory versus response inhibition in autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

In the present research, event-based prospective memory and response inhibition (RI) abilities were investigated in children with ASD (Study 1), with ADHD (Study 2), and their matched neurotypical controls. Children engaged in a categorisation (ongoing) task and, concurrently, in either an event-based prospective memory (PM) or a Go/No-Go secondary task. Results showed that, as compared to their matched controls, ASD children's performance was more impaired in the PM task than in the Go/No-Go task, while the performance pattern of ADHD children was reversed. In the ongoing task, ASD children were as accurate as, but significantly slower than, controls, independently of conditions. ADHD children did not differ from controls in the presence of a concurrent PM task, while they were less accurate than controls in the presence of the go/no-go task. Overall, the two patterns of findings suggest important differences in the way ASD and ADHD children remember and realise intentions requiring opposite behaviours (acting vs stopping).     

The watershed years of 1958-1962 in the Harvard Pigeon Lab

During the years 1958-1962, the final years of support by the National Science Foundation for B. F. Skinner's Pigeon Lab in Memorial Hall at Harvard University, 20 or so pigeon experiments (plus some with other organisms) ran concurrently 7 days a week. The research style emphasized experimental analyses, exploratory procedures, and the parametric exploration of variables. This reminiscence describes some features of the laboratory, the context within which it operated, and the activities of some of those who participated in it.     

B. F. Skinner's Science and Human Behavior: its antecedents and its consequences

Skinner's Science and Human Behavior marked a transition from a treatment of behavior that took physics as its reference science to one that emphasized behavior as a fundamental part of the subject matter of biology. The book includes what may be Skinner's earliest statement about the similarity of operant selection to Darwinian natural selection in phylogeny. Other major topics discussed in the book included multiple causation, private events, the self, and social contingencies. Among the important antecedents were Skinner's own Behavior of Organisms and Keller & Schoenfeld's Pincinples of Psychology. Current developments in education, behavioral economics, and some behavior therapies can be attributed at least in part to Skinner's seminal work. The effective behavioral analysis of governmental and religious systems will probably depend on elaborations of our understanding of verbal behavior.