The Impact of Rumination on State Paranoid Ideation in a Nonclinical Sample

Cognitive-behavioral models of paranoia have emphasized the potential role of perseverative thinking styles, such as rumination or worry, in the development, maintenance and exacerbation of paranoid beliefs. This study aimed to experimentally test the hypothesis that rumination may play a role in the maintenance or exacerbation of state paranoid ideation. Following a paranoia induction, 37 nonclinical participants were randomly assigned to either a rumination task or a distraction control condition. In accord with main hypothesis, rumination was associated with maintained levels of paranoia, whereas distraction was associated with a decrease in levels of paranoia. These findings suggest that perseverative thinking may play a role in the maintenance of paranoid ideas, which may have implications for our understanding of the maintenance of paranoia and persecutory delusions in the clinical population. Furthermore, the study used a novel experimental paradigm for inducing paranoia, which may prove valuable for future research aiming to elicit paranoid thoughts and feelings in vivo.     

Numerical approximation abilities correlate with and predict informal but not formal mathematics abilities

Previous research has found a relationship between individual differences in children’s precision when nonverbally approximating quantities and their school mathematics performance. School mathematics performance emerges from both informal (e.g., counting) and formal (e.g., knowledge of mathematics facts) abilities. It remains unknown whether approximation precision relates to both of these types of mathematics abilities. In the current study, we assessed the precision of numerical approximation in 85 3- to 7-year-old children four times over a span of 2 years. In addition, at the final time point, we tested children’s informal and formal mathematics abilities using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA-3). We found that children’s numerical approximation precision correlated with and predicted their informal, but not formal, mathematics abilities when controlling for age and IQ. These results add to our growing understanding of the relationship between an unlearned nonsymbolic system of quantity representation and the system of mathematics reasoning that children come to master through instruction.     

The Acquisition and Function of Religious Beliefs: A Review and Synthesis of Proximate and Ultimate Perspectives

ABSTRACT

Two main scientific approaches have renewed in the last decade the scientific study of religion: the cognitive and the adaptationist. The former is focused on proximate causes, the latter is looking for ultimate causes of religious beliefs and behaviours. Both approaches are useful and promising. However, in both cases, various important aspects and contexts associated with the origin, acquisition, and transmission of religious beliefs have been neglected. The present paper offers an approach that conjoins both models after reviewing several critical issues, to highlight a distinction between cognitive conditions and structures, on one side; and developments or applications, on the other. As a result greater attention needs to be paid to religious functions and their cultural framework to better understand religion and to explain some current processes, like massive secularization in several areas.     

Encoding strategy affects false recall and recognition: Evidence from categorical study material

The present research investigated memory vulnerability to distortions. Different encoding strategies were used when categorized lists were studied. The authors assumed that an imagery strategy would be responsible for decreasing false memories more than a word-whispering strategy, which is consistent with the model of semantic access and previous research in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (the DRM paradigm; Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). A normative study of category lists and 4 experiments were conducted to verify the memory vulnerability to different encoding strategies (imagery, word-whispering, control). Half of subjects recalled and half recognized previously studied words. The results revealed a marked reduction in false recognition and recall after imagery encoding, relative to after word-whispering encoding.     

Combining Explicit Timing with an Interdependent Group Contingency Program to Decrease Transition Times

ABSTRACT

A sixth-grade teacher and consultant serving as a behavioral specialist developed, implemented, and evaluated the Timely Transitions Game (TTG), a procedure designed to reduce room-to-room transition times. The TTG combined several procedures that have been shown to alter student behavior including explicit timing procedures and an interdependent, group-oriented reward program with randomly selected criteria. Five transition times were measured and recorded each day. At the end of the school day, the teacher randomly selected a transition and a criterion (seconds taken to transition). If the class completed the randomly selected transition in less time than the randomly selected criterion, they earned a letter. When students earned enough letters (e.g., the five letters that spell M-U-S-I-C), they received access to the reward (e.g., listening to music during independent seat-work). Results indicated immediate and sustained decreases in transition times following the implementation of the intervention. Although methodological concerns prevent drawing cause-and-effect conclusions, the current study shows how educators can adapt and combine empirically validated strategies and procedures to remedy presenting problems.     

Setting Generalization during Self-Reinforcement with Educationally Handicapped Children

Eight educationally handicapped boys ranging in age form 10 to 11 years old and described as the worst behavior problems in their class participated in a series of single-subject studies carried out in their self-contained classrooms. Three served as target subjects, using self-reinforcement procedures to increase their sustained on-task behavior in a treatment setting; five served as generalization subjects. Data were collected in three settings within the self-contained classroom; an early morning treatment setting, a late morning generalization setting, and an afternoon generalization setting. The three target subjects averaged a 51% increase over their baseline median levels of sustained on-task behavior in the treatment setting. They averaged 84% and 96% generalization to the late morning and afternoon generalization settings, respectively. These results demonstrate that self-reinforcement can produce setting generalization of treatment effects in the absence of prior externally determined reinforcement. Evidence for subject and subject-setting generalization was also obtained.     

Cognitive-behavioral treatment and antidepressants combined with virtual reality exposure for patients with chronic agoraphobia

In this study we compared the efficacy of virtual reality exposure combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (VRET) to that of traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) alone in reducing phobic symptoms in a sample of patients with long-term agoraphobia. The study was a between-subject design with three experimental conditions (VRET group, N = 30; CBT group, N = 30; and medication only group, N = 20) and repeated measures (pre-treatment, post-treatment, and six-month follow-up). All patients were receiving antidepressant medication. Results showed that all therapies were statistically effective both at post-treatment and six-month follow-up. The VRET group showed clinical improvement in most variables measured at follow-up. The CBT group showed the highest dropout rates. These results are discussed pointing out that VRET probably serves as an intermediate procedure for an efficient exposure to phobic stimuli. Besides describing the advantages of VRET for the treatment of agoraphobia symptoms in cost-benefit terms, the study also considered issues related to higher treatment adherence and motivation.     

陈独秀伦理革命评析

陈独秀在“五四”新文化运动中倡导的伦理革命在其思想理论体系中占有独特地位 ,对其伦理革命的思想进行评析 ,能够为我们今天的道德建设提供许多有益的启示。     

五四新文化运动与孔子观念的根本转折

五四新文化运动中的孔子观念需作系统的梳理与分析。五四新文化运动的健将们主要是基于对尊孔派的反感和伦理、文化上的彻底觉悟而发起了对孔子与孔家店集中而猛烈的批评与攻击。他们所批判的主要是孔子的偶像 ,而并不反对孔子本人 ,破除孔子偶像的束缚而使人们的思想从权威和偏见中彻底解放出来 ,这是新文化运动最重要的历史功绩 ;他们虽不反对孔子本人 ,但对孔子与孔子之道采取的是一种社会语境决定论的或历史化的诠释与读解的态度 ,故带来了孔子观念的根本转折。