Ethnic and Gender Variations in the Sources of Information Used to Evaluate Performance in the Exercise Setting1

The purpose of this study was to identify ethnic and gender differences in the types of information Anglo and Hispanic exercisers use in self-evaluation. University students in exercise classes rated the importance of norm-referenced and self-referenced sources used in self-evaluation of performance. Results showed that males rated norm-referenced sources as more important to self-evaluation, while females rated self-referenced sources as most important. A gender by ethnicity interaction showed that Anglos, especially Anglo males, preferred norm-referenced sources, while Hispanics preferred self-referenced sources. Provided with this information, instructors could more effectively motivate exercise participants.     

Can an experience of conscious identification affect a counsellor's ability to sense and communicate unconditional positive regard? Theoretical and practice-based concerns

Within this paper we examine the nature and characteristics of the concept of unconditional positive regard (UPR) and discuss how an experience of conscious identification (CI) within a person-centred counsellor may affect its levels and manifestations. Initially, theoretical aspects of UPR are examined, with reference to potential threats or benefits to UPR when a counsellor experiences CI. Following on from this, we discuss how this may affect practice, drawing upon data generated from a 4-year research study, which defined and examined the process of CI.     

Dynamical concurrent schedules

Previous work on the matching law has predominantly focused on the molar effects of the contingency by examining only one reinforcer ratio for extended periods. Responses are distributed as a function of reinforcer ratios under these static conditions. But the outcome under a dynamic condition in which reinforcer ratios change continuously has not been determined. The present study implemented concurrent variable-interval schedules that changed continuously across a fixed 5-min trial. The schedules were reciprocally interlocked. The variable interval for one key changed continuously from a variable-interval 15-s to a variable-interval 480-s, while the schedule for the other key changed from a variable-interval 480-s to a variable-interval 15-s. This dynamical concurrent schedule shifted behavior in the direction of matching response ratios to reinforcer ratios. Sensitivities derived from the generalized matching law were approximately 0.62, the mean absolute bias was approximately 0.11, and r2s were approximately 0.86. It was concluded that choice behavior can come to adapt to reinforcer ratios that change continuously over a relatively short time and that this change does not require extensive experience with a fixed reinforcer ratio. The results were seen as supportive of the view that all behavior constitutes choice.     

The Perceptual Basis of Vast Space

“Vast” is a word often applied to environmental terrain that is perceived to have large spatial extent. This judgment is made even at viewing distances where traditional metric depth cues are not useful. This paper explores the perceptual basis of vast experience, including reliability and visual precursors. Experiment 1 demonstrated strong agreement in ratings of the spatial extent of two-dimensional (2D) scene images by participants in two countries under very different viewing conditions. Image categories labeled “vast” often exemplified scene attributes of ruggedness and openness (Oliva & Torralba, 2001). Experiment 2 quantitatively assessed whether these properties predict vastness. High vastness ratings were associated with highly open, or moderately open but rugged, scenes. Experiment 3 provided evidence, consistent with theory, that metric distance perception does not directly mediate the observed vastness ratings. The question remains as to how people perceive vast space when information about environmental scale is unavailable from metric depth cues or associated scene properties. We consider possible answers, including contribution from strong cues to relative depth.     

A Return to “The Clinic” for Community Psychology: Lessons from a Clinical Ethnography in Urban American Indian Behavioral Health

Community psychology (CP) abandoned the clinic and disengaged from movements for community mental health (CMH) to escape clinical convention and pursue growing aspirations as an independent field of context‐oriented, community‐engaged, and values‐driven research and action. In doing so, however, CP positioned itself on the sidelines of influential contemporary movements that promote potentially harmful, reductionist biomedical narratives in mental health. We advocate for a return to the clinic—the seat of institutional power in mental health—using critical clinic‐based inquiry to open sites for clinical‐community dialogue that can instigate transformative change locally and nationally. To inform such works within the collaborative and emancipatory traditions of CP, we detail a recently completed clinical ethnography and offer “lessons learned” regarding challenges likely to re‐emerge in similar efforts. Conducted with an urban American Indian community behavioral health clinic, this ethnography examined how culture and culture concepts (e.g., cultural competence) shaped clinical practice with socio‐political implications for American Indian peoples and the pursuit of transformative change in CMH. Lessons learned identify exceptional clinicians versed in ecological thinking and contextualist discourses of human suffering as ideal partners for this work; encourage intense contextualization and constraining critique to areas of mutual interest; and support relational approaches to clinic collaborations.     

The Bursts and Lulls of Multimodal Interaction: Temporal Distributions of Behavior Reveal Differences Between Verbal and Non‐Verbal Communication

Recent studies of naturalistic face‐to‐face communication have demonstrated coordination patterns such as the temporal matching of verbal and non‐verbal behavior, which provides evidence for the proposal that verbal and non‐verbal communicative control derives from one system. In this study, we argue that the observed relationship between verbal and non‐verbal behaviors depends on the level of analysis. In a reanalysis of a corpus of naturalistic multimodal communication (Louwerse, Dale, Bard, & Jeuniaux, 2012 ), we focus on measuring the temporal patterns of specific communicative behaviors in terms of their burstiness. We examined burstiness estimates across different roles of the speaker and different communicative modalities. We observed more burstiness for verbal versus non‐verbal channels, and for more versus less informative language subchannels. Using this new method for analyzing temporal patterns in communicative behaviors, we show that there is a complex relationship between verbal and non‐verbal channels. We propose a “temporal heterogeneity” hypothesis to explain how the language system adapts to the demands of dialog.     

Investigating neural representations: the tale of place cells

While neuroscientists often characterize brain activity as representational, many philosophers have construed these accounts as just theorists’ glosses on the mechanism. Moreover, philosophical discussions commonly focus on finished accounts of explanation, not research in progress. I adopt a different perspective, considering how characterizations of neural activity as representational contributes to the development of mechanistic accounts, guiding the investigations neuroscientists pursue as they work from an initial proposal to a more detailed understanding of a mechanism. I develop one illustrative example involving research on the information-processing mechanisms mammals employ in navigating their environments. This research was galvanized by the discovery in the 1970s of place cells in the hippocampus. This discovery prompted research in what the activity of these cells represents and how place representations figure in navigation. It also led to the discovery of a host of other types of neurons—grid cells, head-direction cells, boundary cells—that carry other types of spatial information and interact with place cells in the mechanism underlying spatial navigation. As I will try to make clear, the research is explicitly devoted to identifying representations and determining how they are constructed and used in an information processing mechanism. Construals of neural activity as representations are not mere glosses but are characterizations to which neuroscientists are committed in the development of their explanatory accounts.