NONCONTINGENT DELIVERY OF ARBITRARY REINFORCERS AS TREATMENT FOR SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR

Results of recent research have shown that noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) can be effective in reducing the frequency of behavior problems. In typical NCR applications, the reinforcer that is responsible for behavioral maintenance (as demonstrated through a functional analysis) no longer follows occurrences of the target behavior but instead is delivered according to a time-based schedule. Thus, it is unclear if NCR would be effective if the target behavior continued to be reinforced or if arbitrary reinforcers (i.e., those irrelevant to behavioral maintenance) were substituted for the maintaining reinforcers in the NCR procedure. In this study, 2 individuals whose self-injurious behavior (SIB) was maintained by positive reinforcement were exposed to conditions in which arbitrary and maintaining reinforcers were withheld and were delivered either contingently or noncontingently. Results indicated that noncontingent delivery of arbitrary reinforcers was effective in reducing SIB even though occurrences of SIB produced access to the maintaining reinforcer. These results suggest that (a) arbitrary reinforcers may sometimes be substituted for maintaining reinforcers, (b) an important component of NCR procedures is alteration of a behavior's establishing operation, and (c) NCR with arbitrary reinforcers might therefore be effective when maintaining reinforcers cannot be identified or withheld during the course of treatment.     

“Remembering” emotional words is based on response bias,not recollection

Recent studies have demonstrated that emotional stimuli result in a higher proportion of recognized items that are “remembered” (e.g., Kensinger & Corkin, 2003; Ochsner, 2000), leading to greater estimates of recollection by the dual-process model (Yonelinas, 1994). This result suggests that recognition judgments to emotional stimuli depend on a recollection process. We challenge this conclusion with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve data from two experiments. In both experiments, subjects studied neutral and emotional words. During the recognition test, subjects made old-new confidence ratings as well as remember-know judgments. Four models of remember-know judgments were fit to individual subjects’ data: two versions of a one-dimensional signaldetection-based model (Donaldson, 1996; Wixted & Stretch, 2004), the dual-process model (Yonelinas, 1994), and the two-dimensional signal-detection-based model known as STREAK (Rotello, Macmillan, & Reeder, 2004). Consistent with the literature, we found that emotion increases subjective reports of “remembering.” However, our ROC analyses and modeling work reveal that the effect is due to response bias differences rather than sensitivity change or use of a high-threshold recollection process.     

When Is Honesty the Best Policy? The Effect of Stated Company Intent on Consumer Skepticism

Prior research suggests that consumers evaluate firms more negatively if they attribute the firm's business practices to firm‐serving motivations rather than to motivations that serve the public good. We propose an alternative hypothesis: Firm‐serving attributions lower evaluation of the firm only when they are inconsistent with the firm's expressed motive. As such, the negative effect of consumer skepticism regarding a firm's motives can be inhibited by public acknowledgment of the strategic benefits to the firm. The power of this inhibition procedure was demonstrated in an experiment in which we manipulated the salience of firm‐serving benefits and the firm's publicly stated motive. Consumer evaluation of the sponsoring firm was lowest in conditions when firm‐serving benefits were salient and the firm outwardly stated purely public‐serving motives. This experiment also revealed that the potential negative effects of skepticism were the most pronounced when individuals engaged in causal attribution prior to company evaluation. Finally, in this study we measured the different effects on attribution and evaluation of 2 distinct forms of skepticism: situational skepticism, which is a momentary state of distrust of an actor's motivations, and dispositional skepticism, which is an individual's ongoing tendency to be suspicious of other people's motives.     

Neural Computation and the Computational Theory of Cognition

We begin by distinguishing computationalism from a number of other theses that are sometimes conflated with it. We also distinguish between several important kinds of computation: computation in a generic sense, digital computation, and analog computation. Then, we defend a weak version of computationalism—neural processes are computations in the generic sense. After that, we reject on empirical grounds the common assimilation of neural computation to either analog or digital computation, concluding that neural computation is sui generis. Analog computation requires continuous signals; digital computation requires strings of digits. But current neuroscientific evidence indicates that typical neural signals, such as spike trains, are graded like continuous signals but are constituted by discrete functional elements (spikes); thus, typical neural signals are neither continuous signals nor strings of digits. It follows that neural computation is sui generis. Finally, we highlight three important consequences of a proper understanding of neural computation for the theory of cognition. First, understanding neural computation requires a specially designed mathematical theory (or theories) rather than the mathematical theories of analog or digital computation. Second, several popular views about neural computation turn out to be incorrect. Third, computational theories of cognition that rely on non‐neural notions of computation ought to be replaced or reinterpreted in terms of neural computation.     

The Establishment of Core Competencies for Canadian Genetic Counsellors: Validation of Practice Based Competencies

Numerous groups of health professionals have undertaken the task of defining core competencies for their profession. The goal of establishing core competencies is to have a defined standard for such professional needs as practice guidelines, training curricula, certification, continuing competency and re-entry to practice. In 2006, the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors (CAGC) recognized the need for uniform practice standards for the profession in Canada, given the rapid progress of genetic knowledge and technologies, the expanding practice of genetic counsellors and the increasing demand for services. We report here the process by which the CAGC Practice Based Competencies were developed and then validated via two survey cycles, the first within the CAGC membership, and the second with feedback from external stakeholders. These competencies were formally approved in 2012 and describe the integrated skills, attitudes and judgment that genetic counsellors in Canada require in order to perform the services and duties that fall within the practice of the profession responsibly, safely, effectively and ethically.     

Gender differences in mathematics anxiety: An artifact of response bias?

Abstract

Females are more likely than males to report anxiety about mathematics. Hunsley and Flessati (1988) examined two explanations for this difference: the sex-role socialization hypothesis, which states that gender differences occur as a result of differences in socialization, and the math experiences hypothesis, which states that math anxiety is due to previous experiences with mathematics, regardless of gender. They found support only for the math experiences hypothesis, and suggested that the gender difference in math anxiety may be an artifact of response bias.

The present study replicated the Hunsley and Flessati study and included an evaluation of response bias. One hundred and fifty Introductory Psychology students completed a series of questionnaires examining mathematics anxiety, attitudes and mathematical background. The findings of Hunsley and Flessati were replicated, however no evidence was found for a gender-linked response bias. An alternative explanation for the gender difference in math anxiety is proposed based on the finding that females are more self-critical.     

Understanding Linkages Among Mixture Models

The methodological literature on mixture modeling has rapidly expanded in the past 15 years, and mixture models are increasingly applied in practice. Nonetheless, this literature has historically been diffuse, with different notations, motivations, and parameterizations making mixture models appear disconnected. This pedagogical review facilitates an integrative understanding of mixture models. First, 5 prototypic mixture models are presented in a unified format with incremental complexity while highlighting their mutual reliance on familiar probability laws, common assumptions, and shared aspects of interpretation. Second, 2 recent extensions—hybrid mixtures and parallel-process mixtures—are discussed. Both relax a key assumption of classic mixture models but do so in different ways. Similarities in construction and interpretation among hybrid mixtures and among parallel-process mixtures are emphasized. Third, the combination of both extensions is motivated and illustrated by means of an example on oppositional defiant and depressive symptoms. By clarifying how existing mixture models relate and can be combined, this article bridges past and current developments and provides a foundation for understanding new developments.     

Psychology out of the laboratory: the challenge of violent extremism

The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into conflict. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to better understand how sacred causes and moral imperatives diffuse through a population and motivate some (usually small) segment of it to commit violent actions. The challenge to psychology is to adopt an interdisciplinary focus drawing on a range of research methods and to become bolder in its choices of study populations if it is to be relevant to real-world problems.