The role of instructions in the transfer of ordinal functions through equivalence classes

In two experiments, adult subjects completed match-to-sample training and testing to establish four equivalence classes of four figures each. Then the subjects were taught one three-position sequence consisting of one stimulus from Class 1, one from Class 2, and one from Class 3. Inclusion of Class 4 stimuli in sequences was never reinforced, but two different stimuli from Class 4 appeared as distractors on each sequence trial. Tests assessed whether subjects would produce novel three-position sequences composed of members of Classes 1 through 3 that had not been used in sequence training. Three subjects in Experiment 1 received instructions about the match-to-sample and sequencing tasks, in addition to training contingencies. All 3 demonstrated equivalence class formation after match-to-sample training. After they were taught one sequence with one member of Classes 1 through 3, none of these subjects produced untrained sequences with other equivalence class members reliably. One additional sequence was trained directly; thereafter 1 subject showed some evidence of transfer of the trained ordinal functions across the remaining members of the equivalence classes, but the other 2 did not. Following a review of equivalence class training and testing and a review of the original sequence training, all 3 subjects produced most of the predicted, untrained sequences on tests. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with 2 adults but omitted all instructions except the minimal ones necessary to initiate responding. Unlike the subjects in Experiment 1, both of these subjects demonstrated virtually complete transfer of ordinal functions through the equivalence classes after direct training on just one sequence composed of one member of Classes 1 through 3.     

Attachment style, traumatic bonding, and developing relational capacities in a long-term trauma group for women.

Adults with histories of severe childhood abuse often experience considerable difficulties with interpersonal trust. At the same time, they may strongly desire to be less alone with the painful aftereffects of their traumatic pasts. Psychotherapy groups have often been recommended as important components of treatment for reducing survivors' feelings of isolation and shame. We propose that an understanding of attachment styles and of traumatic bonding helps to clarify the specific manifestations of interpersonal distrust as they may emerge in a survivors' group. In addition, we suggest guidelines for determining what kind of group may be appropriate for a given individual at a particular point in treatment.     

Tactile discrimination of competing sounds

Discriminably different sounds, concurrently presented from the left and right of the medial plane, were reduced in angular separation until subjects could no longer detect which sound was “left” and which was “right.” The procedure was repeated with hearing masked and judgments made on the basis of the tactile signals at two fingertip vibrators that received their inputs from two miniature microphones bilaterally located on the subject’s head. Auditory and tactile performance were compared under active (head movements permitted) and passive (head held still) conditions. Active and passive performance were not significantly different. Auditory and tactile performance became no better than chance at angular separations of 2.7° and 4.4°, respectively. Touch compared sufficiently well with audition to support arguments for the inclusion of sound localization information in devices which use the skin as a substitute for the ear. nt]mis|This research was conducted at the Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciences, San Francisco, California. This institute provided the apparatus for the experiment. B. L. Richardson was on Staff Development Leave from the Applied Psychology Department of the Caulfield Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.     

Two Challenges for the New Century: Transforming Relationships in Whole Bodies Politic

Two challenges are posed for social scientists, one substantive and the other disciplinary. First, scholars and practitioners should together find ways to transform fragmented and conflictual relationships into relationships capable of building peaceful societies where human dignity is respected. Second, to achieve this goal, they should work to develop non-disciplinary spaces where people from different disciplines can come together to create the requisite conceptual and methodological frameworks.     

What Patients and Their Relatives Think About Testing for BMPR2

Clinical genetic testing is available for mutations in BMPR2 associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The aim of this study is to assess attitudes of individuals affected by or at risk for PAH regarding genetic testing. Structured telephone interviews were conducted with 119 individuals affected by or at risk for PAH recruited from pulmonary hypertension clinic at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt familial PAH registry, attendees at 2006 PHA meeting, and a local PAH support group. Sixty-four percent reported knowing little or nothing about BMPR2 testing. Predictors of greater self-assessed knowledge included having an affected family member and learning about BMPR2 testing through the internet. Most respondents reported that while they spent some time thinking about being tested for BMPR2, they had little trouble deciding. The most frequently cited reason for testing was to provide information for their children. About 20% said they had been tested, even though <5% have actually received clinical testing. Although patients with PAH and their at-risk relatives typically feel relatively uninformed about testing for mutations in BMPR2 and at times are confused about their testing status, they nonetheless report that it is easy to decide about testing.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting and mental imagery

In the present article, we present four experiments in which we examined whether mental imagery can initiate retrieval-induced forgetting. Participants were presented with word pairs (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or narratives (Experiment 4) and then engaged in selective mental imagery about half of the details from half of the categories. The results indicated that mental imagery can produce the same pattern of impairment as retrieval practice (Experiment 1) and postevent questioning (Experiment 4). Additionally, mental imagery-invoked, retrievalinduced forgetting was found for category cued recall (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) and cued recall (Experiment 2); it was found to dissipate across a 24-h delay, but only when there was no pre-delay test (Experiment 3). Such retrieval-induced forgetting was also found for imagining from the first-person and third-person perspectives (Experiment 4). From these findings, we suggest that the underlying retrieval processes behind mental imagery can initiate retrieval-induced forgetting. The findings are discussed in terms of inhibitory processes.     

A Defence of Weighted Lotteries in Life Saving Cases

The three most common responses to Taurek’s ‘numbers problem’ are saving the greater number, equal chance lotteries and weighted lotteries. Weighted lotteries have perhaps received the least support, having been criticized by Scanlon What We Owe to Each Other (1998) and Hirose ‘Fairness in Life and Death Cases’ (2007). This article considers these objections in turn, and argues that they do not succeed in refuting the fairness of a weighted lottery, which remains a potential solution to cases of conflict. Moreover, it shows how these responses actually lead to a new argument for weighted lotteries, appealing to fairness and Pareto-optimality.

A typology of behavior problems in preschool children

The purpose of this study was to produce a typology of behavior problems in preschool children. Distinct subtypes were identified through the use of cluster analytic techniques on data from the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)-Parent Rating Scales. Analyses were based on archival data collected on a sample of 268 children, aged 2 to 5 years, who were referred to determine their suitability for a day treatment program. Five distinct and reliable subtypes of preschool children's behavior problems emerged. Ratings of adaptive and social skills based on the BASC Adaptive Scales and measures from the Parenting Stress Index served as external variables to assess the distinctiveness of the derived subtypes. The findings provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the subtypes identified in this study that are consistent with the findings of previous subtyping investigations focusing on school-aged children.     

Teaching identity matching of braille characters to beginning braille readers

We taught three children with visual impairments to make tactile discriminations of the braille alphabet within a matching‐to‐sample format. That is, we presented participants with a braille character as a sample stimulus, and they selected the matching stimulus from a three‐comparison array. In order to minimize participant errors, we initially arranged braille characters into training sets in which there was a maximum difference in the number of dots comprising the target and nontarget comparison stimuli. As participants mastered these discriminations, we increased the similarity between target and nontarget comparisons (i.e., an approximation of stimulus fading). All three participants’ accuracy systematically increased following the introduction of this identity‐matching procedure.