Stimulus equivalence instruction of fraction-decimal relations

Stimulus control technology was applied to the instruction of fraction ratio (e.g., (1/5)) and decimal (e.g., 0.20) relations, with 7 students who demonstrated difficulty in fraction and decimal tasks. The students were trained to match pictorial representations of fractions (B comparison stimuli) to printed counterpart fraction ratios (A sample stimuli), and to match printed decimals (C comparison stimuli) to pictorial representations of counterpart quantities (B sample stimuli). Posttest performance by all participants indicated the emergence of equivalence relations between fractions represented as ratios, decimals, and pictures. Limited generalization of fraction-decimal relations was observed.     

Reversal of baseline relations and stimulus equivalence: I. Adults

Following the emergence of two four-member equivalence classes (A1B1C1D1 and A2B2C2D2), 5 students were exposed to a series of phases including a baseline conditional discrimination reversal (i.e., choosing D2 was reinforced and D1 punished given Sample A1; choosing D1 was reinforced and D2 punished given Sample A2), the delayed introduction of CD/DC transitivity/equivalence probes, DE conditional discrimination training, a second baseline conditional discrimination reversal (i.e., choosing C2 was reinforced given B1, etc.), and a return to original baseline reinforcement contingencies. Results showed that baseline and symmetry probe performances were extremely sensitive to baseline modifications. In contrast, patterns on transitivity/equivalence probes remained predominantly consistent with the originally established equivalence classes, although there were exceptions on some E probe relations for 2 subjects. The dissociation between baseline and symmetry versus transitivity/equivalence patterns may have important implications because it is not easily accounted for by current models of equivalence phenomena.     

Storytellers and Scenario Spinners: Some Reflections on Religion and Science in Light of a Pragmatic, Evolutionary Theory of Knowledge

Asserting that both scientists and religious thinkers are involved in telling stories about the past and spinning scenarios about the future, I first compare and contrast the purposes of scientific and religious storytelling. Then, in light of some recent work on brain and language evolution, I offer a possible story about how humans might have become storytellers. Finally, I discuss how religious stories might be evaluated pragmatically and even scientifically by developing Lakatosian-type research programs.     

The Empirical Case for Moral Beauty

Although formative of modern value theory, the moral beauty view—which states that moral virtue is beautiful and moral vice is ugly—is now mostly neglected by (analytic) philosophers. The two contemporary defences of the view mostly capitalize on its intuitive attractiveness, but to little avail: such considerations hardly convince sceptics of what is nowadays a rather unpopular view. Historically, the view was supported by thought experiments; and although these greatly increase its plausibility, they also raise empirical questions, which they leave unanswered. Here, I offer a novel defence of the moral beauty view, capitalizing on empirical evidence and arguing via an inference to the best explanation.     

The Inherent Empirical Underdetermination of Mental Causation

It has become a popular view among non-reductive physicalists that it is possible to devise empirical tests generating evidence for the causal efficacy of the mental, whereby the exclusion worries that have haunted the position of non-reductive physicalism for decades can be dissolved once and for all. This paper aims to show that these evidentialist hopes are vain. I argue that, if the mental is taken to supervene non-reductively on the physical, there cannot exist empirical evidence for its causal efficacy. While causal structures without non-reductive supervenience relations can be conclusively identified in ideal discovery circumstances, it is impossible, in principle, to generate evidence that would favour models with mental causation over models without. Ascribing causal efficacy to the mental, for the non-reductive physicalist, is a modelling choice that must be made on the basis of metaphysical background theories or pragmatic maxims guiding the selection among empirically indistinguishable models.     

Synergies and Motor Equivalence in Voluntary Sway Tasks: The Effects of Visual and Mechanical Constraints

The authors used two analyses developed within the framework of the uncontrolled manifold hypothesis to quantify multimuscle synergies during voluntary body sway: analysis of intertrial variance and analysis of motor equivalence with respect to the center of pressure (COP) trajectory. Participants performed voluntary sway tasks in the anteroposterior direction at 0.33 and 0.66 Hz. Muscle groups were identified in the space of muscle activations and used as elemental variables in the synergy analyses. Changing mechanical and vision feedback–based constraints led to significant changes in indices of sway performance such as COP deviations in the uninstructed, mediolateral direction and indices of spontaneous postural sway. In contrast, there were no significant effects on synergy indices. These findings show that the neural control of performance and of its stability may involve different control variables and neurophysiological structures. There were strong correlations between the indices of motor equivalence and those computed using the intercycle variance analysis. This result is potentially important for studies of patients with movement disorders who may be unable to perform multiple trials (cycles) at any given task, making analysis of motor equivalence of single trials a viable alternative to explore changes in stability of actions.     

Equivalence‐based instruction of academic skills: Application to adolescents with autism

This study evaluated the efficacy of three equivalence‐based instruction procedures on the acquisition of novel academic skills by 3 adolescents diagnosed with autism in a school setting. The skills targeted for instruction were related to topics in history, science, and mathematics, and were taught using different training structures from the PEAK‐E curriculum. All participants demonstrated mastery of the trained relations and the tested derived relations following all variants of equivalence‐based instruction.     

Formation of new stimulus equivalence classes by exclusion

This study presents three experiments that aimed to show the formation of stimulus equivalence relations among stimuli that had been previously related only by exclusion. In Experiment 1, participants were trained on baseline conditional discriminations to establish two 3‐member equivalence classes. Then, they were exposed to exclusion trials, without feedback, in which undefined stimuli had to be matched by rejecting the defined baseline stimuli. Finally, participants responded to test trials evaluating the emergence of symmetry and transitivity among the undefined stimuli from the exclusion trials. For half of the participants, the stimuli related by exclusion were introduced as S‐ stimuli in the baseline trials, whereas for the other half they were not. Further, half of the participants were assessed for emergent relations with stimuli from all the classes, whereas the other half was assessed for emergent relations with only the stimuli related by exclusion. In Experiment 2, the S‐ comparisons in the emergent relations test trials with stimuli only related by exclusion were stimuli from a null class. In Experiment 3, the number of exclusion trials was doubled. Across experiments, most participants showed emergence of equivalence relations among the stimuli related by exclusion. Some conditions of stimulus control associated with exclusion learning and the emergence of equivalence relations are discussed.     

Equivalence‐based instruction to establish a textual activity schedule in an adult with Down syndrome

Transfer of control from picture to text‐based activity schedules has been shown to occur following conditional discrimination training in children with autism. This study extended this research by evaluating if conditional discrimination training could promote transfer of control in an adult with Down syndrome. The participant was taught to select photographs and pictures of kitchen tools when provided with dictated names. Then, he completed a text‐based activity schedule, matched printed words to photographs, and orally named printed words without direct training.     

The effects of clinical supervision on supervisees and patients in cognitive behavioral therapy: a systematic review

Clinical supervision is a central part of psychotherapist training but the empirical support for specific supervision theories or features is unclear. The aims of this study were to systematically review the empirical research literature regarding the effects of clinical supervision on therapists’ competences and clinical outcomes within Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). A comprehensive database search resulted in 4103 identified publications. Of these, 133 were scrutinized and in the end 5 studies were included in the review for data synthesis. The five studies were heterogeneous in scope and quality and only one provided firm empirical support for the positive effects of clinical supervision on therapists’ competence. The remaining four studies suffered from methodological weaknesses, but provided some preliminary support that clinical supervision may be beneficiary for novice therapists. No study could show benefits from supervision for patients. The research literature suggests that clinical supervision may have some potential effects on novice therapists’ competence compared to no supervision but the effects on clinical outcomes are still unclear. While bug-in-the-eye live supervision may be more effective than standard delayed supervision, the effects of specific supervision models or features are also unclear. There is a continued need for high-quality empirical studies on the effects of clinical supervision in psychotherapy.