A Comparison of Error-Correction Procedures Within Audio–Visual Conditional Discrimination Training

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often emit errors during the establishment of conditional discriminations. These children may not respond to more traditional error-correction procedures, such as least-to-most prompting. In this study, we compared two other types of error-correction procedures, namely embedding an identity-matching task as a differential observing response (DOR; Fisher et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 40:489–499, 2007) compared with a second-order fixed ratio 3/fixed ratio 1 (FR3 FR1) schedule with response cost procedure (Fisher et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 47:738–748, 2014). Results garnered from a multiple baseline design with embedded adapted alternating treatment design components demonstrated that the identity-matching/DOR procedure lead to superior acquisition of conditional discriminations for two boys with ASD. These findings suggest that for audio-conditional discrimination training, the identity-matching/DOR method may be more effective over the second-order FR3 FR1 with response cost approach.     

Circadian typology and the Alternative Five‐Factor Model of personality

Two studies were carried out to explore the relationship between circadian typology and the Alternative Five‐Factor Model of personality. In the first study, 379 participants (232 females) were administered the reduced version of the Morningness‐Eveningness Questionnaire and the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire. Evening types reported higher impulsive sensation‐seeking scores than morning and intermediate types, whereas morning types scored higher than evening types on activity factor. In the second study, the association between morningness and activity personality factor was verified through the objective‐actigraphic monitoring of the rest‐activity cycle. Actigraphy allowed us to operationalise both circadian typology, through the computing of midpoint of sleep (early values, expressed in hours and minutes, correspond to an advanced phase of the sleep/wake cycle), and activity factor by the means of motor activity recording. Fifty‐one individuals (30 females) wore an actigraph on the nondominant wrist continuously for 1 week. A negative correlation was observed between midpoint of sleep and mean diurnal motor activity, demonstrating that an early phase of the sleep/wake cycle (i.e. morningness preference) was related to higher diurnal motor activity. Assessed both subjectively and objectively, the results of both studies highlight a significant relationship between morningness and activity personality factor.     

Social Capital and Fear of Crime in Adolescence: A Multilevel Study

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the relationships between social capital (at the individual, the neighborhood, and the regional levels) and adolescents' fear of crime, while controlling for the main individual (sociodemographics, television viewing, and bullying victimization), neighborhood (neighborhood size and aggregated victimization), and regional (crime rate and level of urbanization) variables. Data were analyzed using a three‐level model based on 22,639 15.7‐year‐old (SD = 0.67) students nested within 1081 neighborhoods and 19 Italian regions. The findings revealed that individual and contextual measures of social capital, modeled at the individual, neighborhood, and regional levels simultaneously, showed negative associations with adolescents' fear of crime. Males and participants with higher family affluence were less likely to feel fear of crime, whereas victimization, both at the individual and neighborhood levels, had a positive association with fear of crime. Strengths, limitations, and potential applications of the study are discussed.     

Information Channels and Biomarkers of Disease

Current research in molecular epidemiology uses biomarkers to model the different disease phases from environmental exposure, to early clinical changes, to development of disease. The hope is to get a better understanding of the causal impact of a number of pollutants and chemicals on several diseases, including cancer and allergies. In a recent paper Russo and Williamson (Med Stud, 2012) address the question of what evidential elements enter the conceptualisation and modelling stages of this type of biomarkers research. Recent research in causality has examined Ned Hall’s distinction between two concepts of causality: production and dependence (Hall in Causation and counterfactuals. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 225–276, 2004). In another recent paper, Illari (Philos Technol, p 20, 2011b) examined the relatively under-explored production approach to causality, arguing that at least one job of an account of causal production is to illuminate our inferential practices concerning causal linking. Illari argued that an informational account solves existing problems with traditional accounts. This paper follows up this previous work by investigating the nature of the causal links established in biomarkers research. We argue that traditional accounts of productive causality are unable to provide a sensible account of the nature of the causal link in biomarkers research, while an informational account is very promising.     

Interpreting Causality in the Health Sciences

We argue that the health sciences make causal claims on the basis of evidence both of physical mechanisms, and of probabilistic dependencies. Consequently, an analysis of causality solely in terms of physical mechanisms or solely in terms of probabilistic relationships, does not do justice to the causal claims of these sciences. Yet there seems to be a single relation of cause in these sciences—pluralism about causality will not do either. Instead, we maintain, the health sciences require a theory of causality that unifies its mechanistic and probabilistic aspects. We argue that the epistemic theory of causality provides the required unification.     

The picture superiority effect in recognition memory: A developmental study using the response signal procedure

Items studied as pictures are better remembered than items studied as words even when test items are presented as words. The present study examined the development of this picture superiority effect in recognition memory. Four groups ranging in age from 7 to 20 years participated. They studied words and pictures, with test stimuli always presented as words, and time to respond to test stimuli was manipulated. The picture superiority effect showed a clear developmental trend. In the condition in which participants had ample response time, a significant picture superiority effect appeared in all but the youngest group. With short response time, a significant picture superiority effect appeared only among 11- and 20-year-old groups, while a significant reverse of the picture superiority effect was detected in the youngest group. These results were interpreted as suggesting that different memory processes (familiarity and recollection) contribute differently to the picture superiority effect at different stages of development.