“One-thousand<Emphasis Type="Italic">one</Emphasis> … one-thousand<Emphasis Type="Italic">two</Emphasis> …”: Chronometric counting violates the scalar property in interval timing

Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Weber’s law applied to interval timing is called thescalar property. A hallmark of timing in the secondsto-minutes range, the scalar property is characterized by proportionality between the standard deviation of a response distribution and the duration being timed. In this temporal reproduction study, we assessed whether the scalar property was upheld when participants chronometrically counted three visually presented durations (8, 16, and 24 sec) as compared with explicitly timing durations without counting. Accuracy for timing and accuracy for counting were similar. However, whereas timing variability showed the scalar property, counting variability did not. Counting variability across intervals was accurately modeled by summing a random variable representing an individual count. A second experiment replicated the first and demonstrated that task differences were not due to presentation order or practice effects. The distinct psychophysical properties of counting and timing behaviors argue for greater attention to participant strategies in timing studies.     

The association of irritability and impulsivity with suicidal ideation among 15- to 20-year-old males

Information on the association of impulsivity and measures of aggression with suicidal ideation in adolescents and young adults is limited. Data were gathered from a community sample of 625 adolescent and young adult males. Analyses were based on multivariate generalized estimating equations. Impulsivity and irritability were associated strongly with suicidal ideation after accounting for alcohol dependence and other aggression-related constructs including psychopathy. Given that irritable, impulsive adolescent males appear to contemplate suicidal behavior, their heightened suicide risk may be anticipated and mitigated.     

Psychopathology of incarcerated sex offenders

The psychopathology and particularly the personality disorders of sex offenders were compared to general inmates of the Colorado Department of Corrections. Using the MCMI-III (Millon, 1994, 1997), sex offenders in general were found to have more varied types of personalities than general population inmates. Specifically, they were more schizoid, avoidant, depressive, dependent, self-defeating, and schizotypal. General population inmates had the more classically criminal personality characteristics of antisocial, narcissistic, and sadistic. Multivariate analysis showed the Dependent, Narcissistic, Antisocial, and Schizotypal scales to be the most differentiating. Sex offenders were also found to have more affective psychopathology such as anxiety, dysthymia, PTSD, and major depression. A similar trend was found when comparing child molesters to rapists. The child molesters were more neurotic, affective, and socially impaired than the rapists. Multivariate analysis showed the Dependent scale to be the most important in differentiating these two types of sex offenders.     

Measuring Memory Span

This study, conducted on a sample of 403 adult subjects, set out to explore the relationships between measures of digit span (forward and reversed), motor and spatial span, and their dependence on a broad range of measures of cognitive function. The results revealed that measures of digit span are closely related, as are measures of motor and spatial span, but these pairs of memory span measures are relatively independent of each other. Furthermore, reverse digit span, motor span, and spatial span appear to rely on what might be regarded as intellectual or executive cognitive functions. As such, the results provide little support for accounts of serial recall, which suggest that order and/or item information are more adequately modelled in a modality-independent form.     

THE UTILITY OF CURRICULUM-BASED MEASUREMENT FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF METHYLPHENIDATE ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Two case studies were conducted to investigate the utility of curriculum-based measurement of math and reading for evaluating the effects of methylphenidate on the academic performance of 2 students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Following baseline measurement, double-blind placebo-controlled procedures were employed to evaluate each student's response to three levels (5 mg, 10 mg, and 15 mg) of the medication. Results of the first study suggest that the curriculum-based measures were sensitive indicators of the student's response to medication. This finding was replicated in the second study. In the second study, when the student's follow-up dose of medication was based on trial-phase data, follow-up performance was improved compared to baseline performance. These case studies suggest that further research is warranted on the utility of curriculum-based measurements for monitoring and evaluating stimulant medication interventions with children with this disorder.     

Who Benefits From Computerized Career Counseling?

The Adaptive Counseling and Therapy (ACT: Howard, Nance, & Myers, 1986) model was used to predict who would benefit from computerized career counseling. Specifically, clients who had more stable goals and aspirations and more defensive independence were expected to derive more benefit from computerized career counseling, an intervention that provides low levels of direction and support. A total of 54 clients who came to the Career Planning and Placement Center seeking career assistance were referred to the System for Interactive Guidance and Information PLUS (SIGI-PLUS). As hypothesized, clients with more stable goals had the greatest gains in vocational identity. Additionally, clients who showed more defensive independence were more satisfied with the SIGI-PLUS treatment. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Mechanisms underlying corruption of working memory in Parkinson's disease

Working memory (WM) impairments are reported to occur in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the mechanisms are unclear. Here, we investigate several putative factors that might drive poor performance, by examining the precision of recall, the order in which items are recalled and whether memories are corrupted by random guessing (attentional lapses). We used two separate tasks that examined the quality of WM recall under different loads and retention periods, as well as a traditional digit span test. Firstly, on a simple measure of WM recall, where patients were asked to reproduce the orientation of a centrally presented arrow, overall recall was not significantly impaired. However, there was some evidence for increased guessing (attentional lapses). On a new analogue version of the Corsi-span task, where participants had to reproduce on a touchscreen the exact spatial pattern of presented stimuli in the order and locations in which they appeared, there was a reduction in the precision of spatial WM at higher loads. This deficit was due to misremembering item order. At the highest load, there was reduced recall precision, whereas increased guessing was only observed at intermediate set sizes. Finally, PD patients had impaired backward, but not forward, digit spans. Overall, these results reveal the task- and load-dependent nature of WM deficits in PD. On simple low-load tasks, attentional lapses predominate, whereas at higher loads, in the spatial domain, the corruption of mnemonic information—both order item and precision—emerge as the main driver of impairment.     

The effect of shopping channel (online vs. offline) on message framing of naturalness

Naturalness is a significant driver of food-related choices. However, there is scarce knowledge of how textual cues could be utilised to enhance the effectiveness of naturalness claims. Drawn from construal level theory, we attempted to examine how different methods of framing naturalness affect consumers in online vs. offline shopping contexts. Study 1 employed a 2 (abstract vs. concrete) × 2 (online vs. offline) experiment with 127 respondents and demonstrated that concrete framing heightens positive attitudes via increased perceived concreteness of the message, especially in offline shopping situations. Study 2 employed a 4 (abstract vs. control vs. concrete without mentioning natural vs. concrete mentioning natural) × 2 (online vs. offline) experiment with 173 respondents and replicated findings from Study 1. Furthermore, Study 2 ruled out alternative explanations of message authenticity, transparency and credibility and indicated that the effect of message framings is truly driven by the congruency between consumers' construal level and message framings. Interestingly, no significant effect of abstractly framed naturalness claims was observed in online shopping situations, contradicting existing studies. This suggests that other psychological mechanisms may interplay and hinder the effectiveness of abstract framing in our study. Taken together, the current research demonstrate that consumers' mental representation varies across shopping platforms and how it affects their evaluation of different methods of message framing.     

Assembling Agency: Expression,Action, and Ethics in Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus

In response to several problems identified in the primary and secondary literature, this article advances an “expressive” conception of action and agency that (i) is consistent with the metaphysics of Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, (ii) can underpin the ethical dimensions of this text, and (iii) meets some of the general requirements of a philosophy of action. This conception will be distinguished from standard theories in the philosophy of action, to the extent that these latter conceptualize and explain action with reference to intentions taken as psychological causes that are specifiable in advance and independently of the resultant activity. But it will also be distinguished from commentaries that, after rightly identifying the standard conception of intentional action as incompatible with Deleuze and Guattari’s metaphysics, fail to substitute a viable conception of action and agency in its stead. In short, drawing on a notion of expression, this article will advance a conception of intentions that does not treat them as prior and independently specifiable causes of action, but rather as “immanent” causes whose intelligible content is inseparable from—that is, dynamically assembled and specified within—the ecologically and socially situated, temporally extended and reality-transforming actions they animate.