Alcohol self-administration by rats in the presence of a tangible object

The authors used the sucrose-substitution procedure to train operant self-administration of a 10% alcohol solution in 8 Long-Evans rats. After they established stable responding, they began a 10-session baseline. A 10-session experimental phase followed the baseline phase. During the experimental phase, the authors placed a large glass marble in the center of the experimental chambers before self-administration sessions. The presence of the marble decreased the rats' responding and alcohol intake significantly. The authors discussed the results in terms of distraction and the effects of concurrently available reinforcers on alcohol self-administration.     

Symptoms of depression and related factors among Spanish university students

A 554-member stratified random sample of students at a Spanish university (65.9% women; aged 18-34 years) was screened for symptoms of depression using a new Castilian Spanish translation of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) that had been validated by back-translation. Mean CES-D score was 14.2 (SD = 10.3, range 0-54), with a significant difference between the scores of women (M = 15.5; SD = 10.9) and men (M = 11.8; SD = 8.4; t552 = 4.06, p < .0005). Some 33%, of the sample screened positive with the usual CES-D screening threshold of 16, and 16% with the threshold of 24 recommended by Clarke and coworkers. The symptoms most commonly experienced all or most of the time were hopelessness, given the maximum rating by 18.8% of students, difficulty in concentration (17.7%), fatigue (13.9%), inadequacy (13.0%), and disturbance of sleep (12.4%).     

The effect of word length on lexical decision in dyslexic and normal reading children

In the present study, the effect of word length on lexical decision in dyslexic and normal reading children was investigated. Dyslexics of 10-years old, chronological age controls, and reading age controls read words and pseudowords consisting of 3 to 6 letters in a lexical decision task. Length effects were much stronger in dyslexics and reading age controls than in chronological age controls. These results support the contention that dyslexics continue to rely on a predominantly sub-lexical reading procedure, whereas for normal readers the contribution of a lexical reading procedure increases. The relevance of the findings for current computational models of reading is discussed.     

Student prejudice against gay male and lesbian lecturers

The authors examined whether gay men and lesbians are evaluated more negatively than individuals of unspecified sexual orientation when attributional ambiguity surrounds evaluations and whether they are evaluated similarly to unspecified others when no attributional ambiguity is present. One male and one female lecturer delivered either a strong or a weak lecture to students who either (a) believed that the lecturer was a gay man or a lesbian or (b) did not receive sexual orientation information. Contrary to predictions, the quality of the lecture did not influence the ratings of known gay male and lesbian lecturers, although lecture quality strongly influenced ratings of lecturers whose sexual orientation was unspecified. After strong lectures, participants rated known gay male and lesbian lecturers more negatively than they did lecturers whose sexual orientation was unspecified. After weak lectures, participants rated known gay male and lesbian lecturers more positively than they did the others. The authors discussed the possibility that students might moderate their ratings to avoid discriminating against gay and lesbian lecturers.     

Psychometric properties of the eating disorders inventory-2 among women seeking treatment for binge eating disorder

Psychometric properties of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2) when used for women with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) are assessed. The EDI-2 was administered to 144 outpatients seeking treatment for BED and 152 outpatients seeking treatment for Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Most EDI-2 scales had acceptable internal consistence for both the BED and BN samples. EDI-2 scales demonstrated adequate stability within a subsample of those with BED who were retested. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a hypothesized second-order two-factor structure for the original EDI scales for the BED group but not for those with BN. When the provisional EDI-2 scales were included, a two-factor structure was not supported for any group. Some scales differentiated the BED from the BN sample, and the second-order factors correlated with measures of similar constructs. The original EDI scales can be used reliably for those with BED.     

Culture-fair cognitive ability assessment: information processing and psychophysiological approaches

Valid assessment with diverse populations requires tools that are not influenced by cultural elements. This study investigated the relationships between culture, information processing efficiency, and general cognitive capacities in samples of Caucasian and Mexican American college students. Consistent with the neural efficiency hypothesis, pupillary responses (indexing mental effort) and detection accuracy scores on a visual backward-masking task were both significantly related to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) Full Scale scores. These measures of information processing efficiency were similar in the two groups. However, they were related only to Caucasian American, but not to a comparable sample of Mexican American, students' WAIS-R scores. Therefore, the differential validity in prediction suggests that the WAIS-R test may contain cultural influences that reduce the validity of the WAIS-R as a measure of cognitive ability for Mexican American students. Information processing and psychophysiological approaches may be helpful in developing culture-fair cognitive ability measures.     

Anger and social appraisal: a "spicy" sex difference?

The central objective of this study was to investigate the role of social appraisal in sex differences in anger expression. Anger expression was inferred from the amount of hot sauce given to the person who induced anger. Participants were randomly assigned to a social condition, in which they expected to meet this person, or to a nonsocial condition, in which they had no such expectation. Men and women differed in their anger expressions, despite the fact that they did not differ in anger experience. Women expressed anger to a lesser extent than men, but only in the social condition. Social appraisal partly mediated the relation between sex and anger expression. The role of social appraisal in emotion and appraisal theory is discussed.     

Flank transparency: transparent filters seen in dynamic two-color displays

Flank transparency is the perception of a colored transparent filter evoked by apparent-motion displays containing as few as two colors. Displays of flank transparency contain a random array of line segments placed on a uniform background. Small flanks are added to the line segments if the segments fall in the interior of a moving virtual shape, such as a virtual disk. This leads to the perception of a colored transparent disk with well-defined boundaries moving over the array of lines. Current qualitative and quantitative models of luminance and color conditions for perceptual transparency do not account for flank transparency as they require displays containing at least three different colors.     

Assessing the social validity of telehealth-based applied behavior analysis services for autism spectrum disorder

During the COVID-19 pandemic, applied behavior analysis services for many autistic individuals were transitioned to telehealth. The current study assessed caregiver-reported quality of life (QoL) and social validity for families of autistic children receiving only telehealth services (n = 96) or a combination of telehealth and in-person services (n = 173). Barriers to the telehealth experience were analyzed via an ANOVA, and the impact of funding source was analyzed using an independent samples t-test. Caregivers reported benefit across QoL and social validity items, with scores ranging from 3.31 to 4.44 (1 = least benefit, 5 = most benefit). While many caregivers reported no barriers regarding technology (44.61%), childcare (69.52%), and employment (64.68%), the presence of those barriers significantly impacted QoL and social validity scores. Funding source was not found to have a significant impact. Overall, caregivers found value in their child's telehealth services. Clinicians have an obligation to mitigate barriers to ensure the success of the intervention.     

Braille literacy as a human right: A challenge to the “inefficiency” argument against braille instruction

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) affirms a right to education for disabled persons and aims to ensure braille instruction for blind individuals. However, there is evidence that braille instruction is often circumvented or abandoned early in CRPD nations because it is perceived as an inefficient learning medium for blind students. This perception persists despite insufficient empirical evidence and a lack of understanding of the efficiency of reading versus listening for learning in sighted individuals. We therefore investigated the efficiency of learning written versus spoken words in blind and sighted samples. Participants (23 blind, 20 sighted) studied the written definitions of 70 rare English words in successive rounds, presented in conjunction with written or spoken wordforms. Blind participants learned with equal efficiency across modalities, whereas sighted participants learned spoken words more efficiently. The findings indicate the inefficiency argument against teaching braille is groundless, both because braille word learning is not less efficient than auditory word learning for blind individuals, and because reading is valued in the education of sighted individuals despite its apparent inefficiency in that population.