Body checking behaviors in men

Males have been facing increasing pressure from the media to attain a lean, muscular physique, and are at risk for body dissatisfaction, disturbed eating and exercise behaviors, and abuse of appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (APEDs). The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between body checking and mood, symptoms of muscle dysmorphia, importance of shape and weight, and APED use in undergraduate males. Body checking in males was correlated with weight and shape concern, symptoms of muscle dysmorphia, depression, negative affect, and APED use. Body checking predicted APED use and uniquely accounted for the largest amount of variance in Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) scores (16%). Findings support the view that body checking is an important construct in male body image, muscle dysmorphia, and body change strategies and suggest a need for further research.     

A Bayesian Nonparametric Approach to Test Equating

A Bayesian nonparametric model is introduced for score equating. It is applicable to all major equating designs, and has advantages over previous equating models. Unlike the previous models, the Bayesian model accounts for positive dependence between distributions of scores from two tests. The Bayesian model and the previous equating models are compared through the analysis of data sets famous in the equating literature. Also, the classical percentile-rank, linear, and mean equating models are each proven to be a special case of a Bayesian model under a highly-informative choice of prior distribution.     

Conscious thought and the sustained attention to response task

We investigated the properties of the sustained attention to response task (SART). In the SART, participants respond to frequent (high probability of occurrence) neutral signals and are required to withhold response to rare (low probability of occurrence) critical signals. We examined whether SART performance shows characteristics of speed–accuracy tradeoffs and in addition, we examined whether SART performance is influenced by prior exposure to emotional picture stimuli. Thirty-six participants in this study performed SARTs after being exposed to neutral and negative picture stimuli. Performance in the SART changed rapidly over time and there was a high correlation between participants errors of commission rate and their reaction time to the neutral targets (r = −.61). Regardless of exposure self-reported thoughts significantly correlated with both errors of commission and reaction times. Overall, the results support the view that the SART is a better measure of impulsive responding than sustained attention.     

Transfer of lexical information in adults with reading disorders.

This study was designed to test whether adults with reading disorders differ from adults with normal reading abilities in their interhemispheric transfer rates during a lexical decision task. Correlations of performance were completed between lexical decision vocal reaction times (msec.), interhemispheric reaction rates (RVF vocal reaction times-LVF vocal reaction times) and measures of decoding skills, including sight word decoding and phonological decoding for 20 adults with reading disorders and 20 with normal reading abilities. Following a series of Pearson product-moment correlations, the correlation between interhemispheric transfer time and sightword recognition was significant and negative for the adults with reading disorders. This value indicates a significant association between the direction of the interhemispheric transfer time times and sight-word recognition for reading-disordered adults. When correlations were negative (LVF) reaction times < RVF reaction times), stronger sight-word recognition scores were found. The correlation between interhemispheric transfer time and sight-word recognition was not significant for the normal reading adults. For both groups, the correlations between interhemispheric transfer time and phonological decoding were not significant so an association between phonological decoding and interhemispheric transfer time was not evident, The current findings suggest a strong relationship between reading proficiency and reaction times in completing the lexical decision task for the reading-disordered adults.     

Williams, Truth-Aimedness and the Voluntariness of Judgement

I contend that while at least one of the arguments advanced by Bernard Williams in his paper 'Deciding To Believe' does establish that beliefs, or more precisely, judgements cannot be decided upon 'at will', the notion of truth-aimedness presupposed by that argument also, ironically, provides the key to understanding why judgements are necessarily voluntary.     

Out of the laboratory and into the community. 26 years of applied behavior analysis at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project.

Application of Skinner's principles to socially significant human behavior had been well articulated by 1968 (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). Applications of these principles by Baer, Wolf, Risley, Hall, Hart, Christophersen, and their colleagues were in evidence as early as 1964 in the homes, schools, and clinics of inner-city Kansas City, Kansas, at the Juniper Gardens Housing Project. The work continues relatively uninterrupted, having contributed extensively to the literature of applied behavior analysis and the lives of community residents. This article describes the project and illustrates how applied behavioral research was initiated and extended, how the work addressed general concerns in psychology, and how it continues to address contemporary concerns within the community.     

Facial identity and facial speech processing: Familiar faces and voices in the McGurk effect

An experiment was conducted to investigate the claims made by Bruce and Young (1986) for the independence of facial identity and facial speech processing. A well-reported phenomenon in audiovisual speech perception—theMcGurk effect (McGurk & MacDonald, 1976), in which synchronous but conflicting auditory and visual phonetic information is presented to subjects—was utilized as a dynamic facial speech processing task. An element of facial identity processing was introduced into this task by manipulating the faces used for the creation of the McGurk-effect stimuli such that (1) they were familiar to some subjects and unfamiliar to others, and (2) the faces and voices used were either congruent (from the same person) or incongruent (from different people). A comparison was made between the different subject groups in their susceptibility to the McGurk illusion, and the results show that when the faces and voices are incongruent, subjects who are familiar with the faces are less susceptible to McGurk effects than those who are unfamiliar with the faces. The results suggest that facial identity and facial speech processing are not entirely independent, and these findings are discussed in relation to Bruce and Young’s (1986) functional model of face recognition.     

Neuromotor Functioning and Behavior Problems in Children at Risk for Psychopathology

Previous studies have found that early neuromotor deficits may be a precursor of later psychopathology. The present study examined the relationship between neuromotor dysfunction and behavioral deviance in children characterized by a variety of risk factors (parental schizophrenia, parental psychiatric disorder other than schizophrenia, and parental maltreatment). The sample consisted of 108 children (average age 9.75 years) who were assessed twice, approximately 1 year apart. It was found that maltreated children had poorer neuromotor functioning and more behavior problems than children who were not maltreated, regardless of parental psychiatric status. The results also indicated that the relationship between neuromotor functioning and problem behaviors varied as a function of parental psychiatric status. These findings suggest that, although the effects of maltreatment are generalized and pervasive, there are distinctive relationships between neuromotor functioning and behavioral deviance depending on the nature of the risk factors a child has been exposed to.