The Radio Shack color computer in the experimental psychology laboratory: An evaluation

The Radio Shack color computer is examined from the viewpoint of capabilities needed to program, time, control, and acquire data from typical cognitive psychology experiments. Its capabilities are compared with those of the alternative inexpensive microcomputers discussed in an earlier article (Reed, 1980). The paper also includes a 6809 assembly language routine that permits the measurement of reaction times in video horizontal scan (HS = 4/63 msec) units without hardware modifications and an RSCC BASIC program for unbiased conversion of HS units to milliseconds.     

Active biological mechanisms: transforming energy into motion in molecular motors

Synthese - Unless one embraces activities as foundational, understanding activities in mechanisms requires an account of the means by which entities in biological mechanisms engage in their...     

Death Attitudes,Palliative Care Self-efficacy,and Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying Among Hospice Nurses

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Previous research has linked death attitudes, palliative care self-efficacy, and attitudes toward care of the dying among nursing students and...     

A brief review of technology-based antecedent training procedures

This brief review summarizes recent research on technology-based antecedent staff training procedures, highlights key methodological components, and concludes with potential directions for future research.     

Experimental evaluation of matching via a commercially available basketball video game

Many recent nonlaboratory-based quantitative analyses of behavior have relied on archival competitive sporting data. However, the ratio-based reinforcement schedules in most athletic competitions and the correlational nature of archival data analyses raise concern over the contributions of such findings to the behavior analytic literature. The current experiment evaluated whether matching in a human operant paradigm would approximate matching observed in nonlaboratory-based sports data. To this end, we used in-game attributes to parametrically manipulate 2- and 3-point shooting in a commercially available basketball video game. The behavior of 6 of 9 participants conformed to the generalized matching equation. These results suggest matching in sporting contexts may be a product of restricted nonindependent concurrent random-ratio schedules. Implications of this experiment, including those in applied behavior analysis and potential influence on gamification, are discussed.     

Inward- and Outward-Directed Violence in the Lives of Urban Minority Adults Followed from Middle School into Their Thirties

This study explores connections between inward-directed violence and outward-directed violence using data from the Reach for Health sample, which was originally recruited in the 1990s from three middle schools in economically distressed, predominantly African American neighborhoods of New York City. Now in their thirties, participants (N = 595) completed surveys assessing current suicidal thoughts and behaviors as well as other violence involvements, including intimate partner violence victimization and perpetration. About 10% of males and females reported any suicidal ideation or attempt in the past 12 months. In logistic regression analyses adjusting for sociodemographics, prior reports of feeling blue in middle school (OR: 1.12, CI: 1.02–4.39) and young adult suicidality (OR: 2.54, CI: 1.30–4.95) are significantly related to later suicidality. So are concurrent aggressive behaviors, including reports of physical fighting outside the home (OR: 2.70, CI: 1.29–5.67) and IPV perpetration (OR: 2.09, CI: 1.11–3.94). Neither IPV victimization nor witnessing neighborhood violence is correlated. Findings shed light on the persistence of suicidality in the lives of those who come of age, and often remain, in communities with high levels of poverty, and confirm linkages of suicidality with externally directed aggression. Life-stage interventions are needed to counter the interwoven causes and consequences of multiple forms of violence.