Auditory stimulus control in pigeons: Jenkins and Harrison (1960) revisited

Pigeons were trained to peck a key in the presence of a 1000-Hz tone on a variable-interval one-minute schedule of reinforcement. One group was trained with an illuminated key; the other was trained in a totally dark chamber. During a generalization test on tonal frequency, subjects trained and tested with the key illuminated produced rather shallow gradients around the training value; subjects trained and tested in the dark produced steeper generalization gradients. These data replicate Jenkins and Harrison's (1960) finding that tone acquires relatively little control over responding and demonstrate that this absence of control is a function of the presence of the keylight.     

Effects of monochromatic rearing on spectral discrimination learning and the peak shift in chicks

Chicks were hatched and raised in white or monochromatic sodium (589 nm) light. They were trained on a 590 (+) vs. 580 (-) nm successive discrimination. The combined results of two experiments indicated that rearing illumination did not affect discrimination acquisition. All subjects given generalization tests after discrimination training exhibited peak shifts that were equivalent for the two rearing conditions. The peak shifts exhibited by the monochromatically reared subjects represent maximum responding to stimuli they had not previously seen. This result further confirms the notion that behavioral control by the spectral dimension in birds is organized independently of differential early experience on that dimension.     

A survey of attitudes concerning contraception and the resolution of teenage pregnancy

This study reports the results of a survey of 498 respondents in a large midwestern community concerning their attitudes toward making contraceptive services available to teenagers and the manner in which a teenage pregnancy should be resolved. The results indicated that the large majority of respondents approved of the practice of making contraceptives available to teenagers but there were also significant differences in attitudes expressed which were dependent upon demographic characteristics of the respondent. There was also considerable variability in the attitudes expressed concerning the resolution of a teenage pregnancy. The preferred method of resolution depended again on the demographic characteristics of the respondent. Keeping the baby and placing the baby for adoption were the most frequent choices. These results are discussed with relation to the present strong political conservative movement in the nation.     

The Finite-Dimensional Freeman Thesis

I suggest a modification—and mathematization—of Freeman’s thesis on the relations among “perception”, “the finite brain”, and “the world”, based on my recent proposal that the theory of finite topological spaces is both an adequate and a natural mathematical foundation for human psychology.

What are the mechanisms? The black box of neoliberalism

In this response to Bal and Doci's (2018) commentary on neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology (Bal, P. M., & Dóci, E. (2018)). Neoliberal ideology in work and organizational psychology. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. Online first publication, https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2018.1449108), we argue that neoliberalism can only be a distal exogenous influence on psychological processes. It remains unclear which mechanisms might translate this ideology into work and organizational psychology science and practice. Researchers need to move beyond black box explanations and provide clarity about the nature of concepts, how they manifest, and the mechanisms that translate ideology into psychological phenomena.     

Stress Reactivity as a Pathway from Attentional Control Deficits in Everyday Life to Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls

The goal of this research was to expand theoretical models of adolescent depression to determine whether individual differences in cognitive processing—specifically attentional control deficits—help to explain increased risk for depression during adolescence. We also examined whether this pathway was stronger in girls than in boys. A longitudinal design was used to examine whether poor attentional control in everyday life (i.e., difficulties shifting between ideas, tasks, and activities) contributes to depression over time by fostering higher levels of stress reactivity. Youth (298 boys, 338 girls) completed questionnaires assessing stress reactivity (6th and 7th grades) and depressive symptoms (6th, 7th and, 8th grades); teachers completed the shifting subscale of the Behavior Rating Scale of Executive Function (Gioia et al. 2000a) to assess attentional control (6th and 7th grades). Structural equation modeling analyses provided support for the predicted pathway in girls but not boys, yielding a significant indirect effect from 6th grade shifting deficits to 8th grade depressive symptoms via 7th grade stress reactivity. These results suggest that attentional control deficits in early adolescence heighten girls’ sensitivity to stress and consequent depressive symptoms, providing a critical direction for efforts to decrease adolescent girls’ risk for depression.     

Talking about appearances: the roles of evaluation and experience in disagreement

Faultless disagreement and faultless retraction have been taken to motivate relativism for predicates of personal taste, like ‘tasty’. Less attention has been devoted to the question of what aspect of their meaning underlies this relativist behavior. This paper illustrates these same phenomena with a new category of expressions: appearance predicates, like ‘tastes vegan’ and ‘looks blue’. Appearance predicates and predicates of personal taste both fall into the broader category of experiential predicates. Approaching predicates of personal taste from this angle suggests that their relativist behavior is due to their experience-sensitivity, rather than their evaluative meaning. Furthermore, appearance predicates hold interest beyond what they can teach us about predicates of personal taste. Examination of a variety of uses of appearance predicates reveals that they give rise to relativist behavior for a variety of reasons—including some that apply also to other types of expressions, such as epistemic modals and comparative terms. This paper thus serves both to probe the source of relativist behavior in discourse about personal taste, as well as to map out this kind of behavior in the rich and under-explored discourse about appearances.

     

The Sexual Victimization Experiences of Men Attending College: A Mixed Methods Investigation

Sex Roles - Emerging research supports that men attending college are at elevated sexual assault risk. However, research is limited by assessment issues as well as a lack of examination of how men...     

Airflow as a discriminative stimulus

In one experiment, pigeons were taught to discriminate airflow by having availability of reinforcement signalled by its presence and extinction signalled by its absence. After they reached criterion, some were trained on a discrimination reversal. Others were trained on an intradimensional discrimination with a low airflow velocity associated with reinforcement and a higher airflow velocity associated with extinction. All discriminations were learned rapidly, indicating that airflow velocity can function as a discriminative stimulus. In the second and third experiments, naive pigeons were trained to discriminate the presence of a compound stimulus (one of three tonal intensities paired with one of three airflow velocities) from its absence. These pigeons were subsequently given a component stimulus test during extinction on four stimulus values; the two training values, the tone alone, and the airflow alone. High or moderate velocity airflow controlled more responding than any of the three tone intensities. However, low velocity airflow controlled more responding only when a low intensity tone was employed.