Further evaluation of treatments for vocal stereotypy: Response interruption and redirection and response cost

The purpose of this study was to expand on research on treatments for stereotypy by evaluating the effects of response interruption and redirection (RIRD) and response cost (RC) alone and as a treatment package on vocal stereotypy. Treatment phases included RIRD, RC, and response interruption and redirection plus response cost (RIRD + RC). The efficacy of these treatments was determined by measuring duration of stereotypy in session and during treatment intervals. Vocal stereotypy decreased in all three treatment conditions; however, when data analysis included stereotypy occurring during treatment intervals, stereotypy during the RC condition occurred at similar levels as baseline for one treatment evaluation phase for Karl and both treatment evaluations phases for Jon. We discuss implications of these findings, limitations of the current study, and areas for future research.     

Le consentement du patient aux actes de secours lors d’interventions extrahospitalières

The acquirement of a person's consent to the medical care that is proposed to a patient is an absolute basic principle in rescue health care. This is mandatory for first arrival rescuers ; especially since their actions are, in view of the French Emergency Medical Service call centers, considered as being a medical act. The basic principle of consent to first medical care hence imposes itself as a humanitarian act as well as preventing any potential litigation. Nevertheless there are numerous situations where the management of the consent of the person in need of non-medical assistance will present difficulties. It is the necessary to analyze how the rescue health care system can manage and limit the risks s linked to the different situations when treatment is refused by the person in need of such help ; and this so as to respect the individual's dignity whilst not abandoning the needed health care. A collaboration between rescue personnel and the call center coordinating medical doctor is then mandatory especially when no consent is obtained. This will enable the detection of hypotheses where the individual's lucidity is altered and implement proportionately required and helpful measures. It will also equally enable the transmission of efficient information to the patient, in relation to the matter of patient consent and to ensure that the patient is aware of the consequence of his or her decision and that this decision was fully expressed. It would hence be deemed useful that the referenced work frame and recommendations, pertaining to the emergency rescue of a person, established by the General Management of Public Safety and Crisis Management detail more in detail these difficult and delicate situations so as to ensure that rescue personnel can better anticipate them. To conclude were commend a formalization of procedures that could be implemented in situations where a patient that has full mental capacities refuses the proposed health care, and we give the advantages of such a procedure be discussed.     

自我信息的反应抑制优势：来自神经振荡的证据

为探明个体对自我信息的反应抑制神经机制,记录了被试在完成面孔识别的停止信号任务时的脑电信号。神经振荡结果显示,反应任务中,加工自我面孔引发了更大的同步化δ节律和去同步化β节律;停止任务中,自我面孔引发了更大的去同步化β节律,特别在大脑前额区和中线上。表明,自我信息的反应抑制优势发生在抑制控制阶段,在于增强的β节律的去同步化促进了运动准备,提高了后续的动作抑制的速度。     

Unconscious integration of pointing relation between two masked arrows

In the present study, by using a briefly masked prime display paradigm, we investigated whether the pointing relation (same or different) between two unconsciously perceived arrows in the prime could be processed. Since only motor response priming can reflect unconscious processing of two arrows’ pointing-direction relation (i.e., a relational integration), we could distinguish the motor response priming from the visual priming in this study which in other studies were not separated. We also manipulated the prime-to-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) by using a 70?ms and a 180?ms SOA. In this experiment, two masked arrow signs pointing in the same or different directions (> > or > <) were simultaneously presented in the prime, followed by two arrow symbols also pointing in the same or different directions in the target. The participants were asked to decide whether the two arrows in the target were pointing in the same or different directions. The results did not show any visual priming effect, but did show that the unconsciously perceived pointing relation in the prime elicited a positive motor response priming effect in RT under the 70?ms SOA condition, and a negative motor response priming effect in accuracy under the 180?ms SOA condition. The results were discussed in terms of self-motor-inhibition (or mask-triggered inhibition) and attention mechanisms. Overall, this study indicated that the pointing relation between the two subliminal arrows in the prime could influence the subsequent responses to the target and suggested that people can integrate unconsciously perceived information.     

Social support coping style predicts women’s cortisol in the laboratory and daily life: the moderating role of social attentional biases

Background and Objectives: Social stress and associated coping responses can profoundly influence women’s stress physiology and health. Implicit social attentional biases can also influence psychological and physiological stress responses. The purpose of this study was to explore whether a coping style characterized by greater use of social support predicts indices of cortisol activity in laboratory and daily life contexts among female university students. We hypothesized that the relation of this coping style to cortisol activity would be moderated by women’s attentional biases.

Methods: Seventy-four women (M_age?=?19.44, range: 17.8–27.8, 64% White) completed an interpersonal stress task and an attentional bias task in the lab, along with a self-report coping inventory. Participants provided five saliva samples during the lab protocol, followed by three saliva samples per day for three consecutive weekdays. Outcome measures included cortisol response to lab tasks (AUCg), diurnal cortisol slope, diurnal AUCg, and cortisol awakening response (CARi).

Results: A coping style characterized by greater use of social support predicted lower lab AUCg and lower, flatter average diurnal cortisol slope for women with attentional avoidance compared to women with attentional vigilance (ps?<?.05).

Conclusions: Responding to stress by using social support is linked to lower cortisol responses to social stress and diurnal cortisol activity for women with implicit avoidance of social threat cues.     

Using Curriculum-Based Measurements for Program Evaluation: Expanding Roles for School Psychologists

Educators increasingly need to evaluate schoolwide reform efforts; however, complex program evaluations often are not feasible in schools. Through a case example, we provide a heuristic for program evaluation that is easily replicated in schools. Criterion-referenced interpretations of schoolwide screening data were used to evaluate outcomes associated with participation in four-year-old kindergarten. Nonparametric analyses allowed for group comparisons across early literacy screening outcomes. Risk ratios demonstrated that four-year-old kindergarten participants were less likely to score “at-risk” on kindergarten and first grade screenings. The methods employed meaningfully addressed local program effectiveness questions. Further, they were easily determined and disseminated. Implications for extensions of the heuristic to other evaluation questions and data sources as well as limitations of the approach are discussed.     

心理与教育测验中反应时模型应用的优势与举例

基于计算机形式的测验使得收集作答反应时信息成为可能,这些信息的有效利用对心理与教育测验的理论研究和实际应用产生了重大影响。首先,归纳并总结了测验中使用反应时信息的五大优势。其次,分别介绍了4种不同取向下较典型的反应时模型与模型特征,并分别进行评价。再次,较系统地梳理了反应时模型在实践中的应用,使读者了解反应时信息在测验中所发挥的作用。最后,探讨了未来将反应时应用于心理与教育测量领域的几个研究方向。     

Non‐ignorable missingness item response theory models for choice effects in examinee‐selected items

Examinee‐selected item (ESI) design, in which examinees are required to respond to a fixed number of items in a given set, always yields incomplete data (i.e., when only the selected items are answered, data are missing for the others) that are likely non‐ignorable in likelihood inference. Standard item response theory (IRT) models become infeasible when ESI data are missing not at random (MNAR). To solve this problem, the authors propose a two‐dimensional IRT model that posits one unidimensional IRT model for observed data and another for nominal selection patterns. The two latent variables are assumed to follow a bivariate normal distribution. In this study, the mirt freeware package was adopted to estimate parameters. The authors conduct an experiment to demonstrate that ESI data are often non‐ignorable and to determine how to apply the new model to the data collected. Two follow‐up simulation studies are conducted to assess the parameter recovery of the new model and the consequences for parameter estimation of ignoring MNAR data. The results of the two simulation studies indicate good parameter recovery of the new model and poor parameter recovery when non‐ignorable missing data were mistakenly treated as ignorable.     

A method for detailed movement pattern analysis of tadpole startle response

Prolonged space flight, specifically microgravity, presents a problem for space exploration. Animal models with altered connections of the vestibular ear, and thus altered gravity sensation, would allow the examination of the effects of microgravity and how various countermeasures can establish normal function. We describe an experimental apparatus to monitor the effects of ear manipulations to generate asymmetric gravity input on the tadpole escape response. To perform the movement pattern analysis, an imaging apparatus was developed that uses a high‐speed camera to obtain time‐resolved, high‐resolution images of tadpole movements. Movements were recorded in a temperature‐controlled test chamber following mechanical stimulation with a solenoid actuator, to elicit a C‐start response. Temperature within the test cell was controlled with a recirculating water bath. Xenopus laevis embryos were obtained using a standard fertilization technique. Tadpole response to a controlled perturbation was recorded in unprecedented detail and the approach was validated by describing the distinct differences in response between normal and one‐eared tadpoles. The experimental apparatus and methods form an important element of a rigorous investigation into the response of the tadpole vestibular system to mechanical and biochemical manipulations, and can ultimately contribute to improved understanding of the effects of altered gravity perception on humans.     

Aversive functions of response effort: Fact or artifact?

Historically, effort has been viewed as aversive. Most supporting evidence comes from studies demonstrating increased force/effort requirements reduce operant responding. Changes in force/effort requirements, however, are often accompanied by changes in response definition when mechanical devices are used to define the response. As a consequence, responses measured at one point in a study may go unmeasured at other points. In an alternative approach, we used a continuous measurement strategy that provided a means to fix the threshold force defining the response class and simultaneously allowed independent manipulation of the force criteria required to produce reinforcement. Rats pressed a force transducer according to a fixed‐ratio 5 schedule of food delivery. The criterion force was systematically increased and decreased; the threshold for response detection was constant. When response rates included only criterion responses, overall rate decreased when force requirements increased. By contrast, when all responses, both those meeting force criteria and those that did not (above the threshold but below the criteria for reinforcement) were included in the rate calculation, increases in force increased response rate. Increases in force criteria also increased the maximum force (g) and time‐integral of force (g‐s) of operant behavior. Control conditions showed increases in responding could be explained by the emergence of subcriterion responses, irrespective of force. We conclude that prior results showing effort decreases response rates are due to an artifact arising from inadvertent changes in response definitions. Increases in effort may better be understood as changes in the response:reinforcer payoff owing to the emergence of a subcriterion response class.