Efficacy of and preference for reinforcement and response cost in token economies

Researchers have shown that both differential reinforcement and response cost within token economies are similarly effective for changing the behavior of individuals in a group context (e.g., Donaldson, DeLeon, Fisher, & Kahng, 2014; Iwata & Bailey, 1974). In addition, these researchers have empirically evaluated preference for these procedures. However, few previous studies have evaluated the individual effects of these procedures both in group contexts and in the absence of peers. Therefore, we replicated and extended previous research by determining the individual effects and preferences of differential reinforcement and response cost under both group and individualized conditions. Results demonstrated that the procedures were equally effective for increasing on‐task behavior during group and individual instruction for most children, and preference varied across participants. In addition, results were consistent across participants who experienced the procedures in group and individualized settings.     

In DeFENCE of the In‐Group Historical Narrative in an Intractable Intergroup Conflict: An Individual‐Difference Perspective

Groups, particularly when immersed in an intractable intergroup conflict, place considerable value on protecting and defending their historical group narrative. However, some group members are more narrative‐protective than others. In Study 1, we introduce a new individual‐difference measure of motivation to achieve a Firmly Entrenched Narrative ClosurE (FENCE) and test it on several Israeli samples (N = 1132). In Study 2 (N = 120), we show that in‐group glorification, right‐wing political orientation, and right‐wing‐authoritarianism, but not attachment to the In‐group, nonspecific need for cognitive closure, or need for cognition, predict FENCE motivation and Behavioral Lack of Openness to Counternarratives (BLOC). In Studies 3 and 4, we show using international (N = 24) and Israeli (N = 78) samples that a belief in the zero‐sum nature of the conflict is related to FENCE and BLOC. In Study 5, we demonstrate that FENCE affects quality of recall of conflict information. The potential merit of FENCE in accounting for the variability among group members in protecting the group narrative is discussed.     

Infant patterns of reactivity to tactile stimulation during parent-child interaction

Touch is the primary modality infants use to engage with the world; atypical responses to tactile stimuli may indicate risk for disordered outcomes. The current study examined infants’ responses to tactile stimulation within parent-child interaction, adding to prior knowledge based on parent report. Nine-month-old infants (N = 497) were observed while parents painted and pressed infants’ hands and feet to paper to make designs. Positive and negative affect and gazing away, exploring, and resistance behaviors were coded. Latent Class Analysis of observed behaviors yielded four tactile response patterns partially consistent with current nosology for sensory processing patterns: Low Reactive, Sensory Overreactive, Sensory Seeking, and Mixed Over/Underreactive. To evaluate whether patterns made valid distinctions among infants, latent classes were examined in relation to parent-reported temperament. Infants in the Mixed Over/Underreactive class were rated higher in distress to limitations and activity level than other infants. Sensory processing patterns observed in parent-child interaction are consistent with those identified by parent-report and may be used in future research to elucidate relations with temperament and typical and atypical development.     

Creating mother and baby therapy groups in prison: emotional valuation

Mothers in prison are at high risk of depression and other mental health issues and yet access to therapeutic services is limited. This paper describes the development by the author of two prison therapy groups: one for pregnant women, the other for mothers and their babies. Called the ‘Born Inside’ project, both groups are currently held in Bronzefield Prison, Surrey. The theory and principles behind the project are discussed, as well as the processes and practicalities involved in providing the therapy and specialised support to the women and their vulnerable infants. In addition, principles of forensic psychotherapy in relation to this specific prison population are described, and the situational and emotional challenges faced are illustrated through narratives of group members.     

Greater number of group identifications is associated with healthier behaviour in adolescents

We investigated the relationship between group identification (with the family, school, and friendship groups) and adolescent health behaviour (smoking, binge drinking, and cannabis use). 1,111 students from 4 Scottish secondary (high) schools completed a questionnaire which included measures of group identification, group contact, health behaviours, and demographic variables. We found that identification with the family and school groups predicted reduced odds of substance use, whereas identification with the friend group predicted increased odds of substance use. Furthermore, the greater the number of social groups with which the participant strongly identified, the lower the odds that he/she participated in negative health behaviours. In contrast, merely having contact (rather than identifying strongly) with these groups increased the odds of participation in these behaviours. We suggest that group identification influences behaviour to the extent that it encourages adherence to group norms.     

The power of a smile: Stronger working memory effects for happy faces in adolescents compared to adults

Theories of adolescent behaviour attribute increases in risk-taking and sensation-seeking in this age group to a heightened sensitivity to emotional stimuli on the one hand and a relatively immature cognitive control system on the other hand. However, little research has outlined to what extent relevant and irrelevant emotional stimuli bias the imbalance between affective processing and cognitive control. Thirty-three adolescents (19 females, aged 12–14) and 37 adults (18 females, aged 18–29) completed two attentional conditions of an emotional face working memory (WM) 0-back/2-back task. Participants were asked to attend to the emotional facial expression in the “relevant” emotion condition, and to the gender of the face in the “irrelevant” condition. The results revealed a WM improvement for happy faces in the relevant condition in both age groups, and an impairment for irrelevant happy faces in adolescents, but not adults. Furthermore, the difference between both attentional conditions for happy faces was larger in adolescents than adults. Results are discussed within the framework of theories of adolescent behaviour.     

Written threat: Electrophysiological evidence for an attention bias to affective words in social anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with heightened sensitivity to threat cues, typically represented by emotional facial expressions. To examine if this bias can be transferred to a general hypersensitivity or whether it is specific to disorder relevant cues, we investigated electrophysiological correlates of emotional word processing (alpha activity and event-related potentials) in 20 healthy participants and 20 participants with SAD. The experimental task was a silent reading of neutral, positive, physically threatening and socially threatening words (the latter were abusive swear words) while responding to a randomly presented dot. Subsequently, all participants were asked to recall as many words as possible during an unexpected recall test. Participants with SAD showed blunted sensory processing followed by a rapid processing of emotional words during early stages (early posterior negativity – EPN). At later stages, all participants showed enhanced processing of negative (physically and socially threatening) compared to neutral and positive words (N400). Moreover, at later processing stages alpha activity was increased specifically for negative words in participants with SAD but not in healthy controls. Recall of emotional words for all subjects was best for socially threatening words, followed by negative and positive words irrespective of social anxiety. The present findings indicate that SAD is associated with abnormalities in emotional word processing characterised by early hypervigilance to emotional cues followed by cognitive avoidance at later processing stages. Most importantly, the specificity of these attentional biases seems to change as a function of time with a general emotional bias at early and a more specific bias at later processing stages.     

An Analysis of the Time Course of Lexical Processing During Reading

Reingold, Reichle, Glaholt, and Sheridan (2012) reported a gaze‐contingent eye‐movement experiment in which survival‐curve analyses were used to examine the effects of word frequency, the availability of parafoveal preview, and initial fixation location on the time course of lexical processing. The key results of these analyses suggest that lexical processing begins very rapidly (after approximately 120 ms) and is supported by substantial parafoveal processing (more than 100 ms). Because it is not immediately obvious that these results are congruent with the theoretical assumption that words are processed and identified in a strictly serial manner, we attempted to simulate the experiment using the E‐Z Reader model of eye‐movement control (Reichle, 2011). These simulations were largely consistent with the empirical results, suggesting that parafoveal processing does play an important functional role by allowing lexical processing to occur rapidly enough to mediate direct control over when the eyes move during reading.     

Gender Differences in Implicit Processing of Sexual Stimuli

The present studies investigated whether men and women differ in cognitive–motivational processing of sexual stimuli in order to better understand the commonly observed gender differences in sexual outcome variables. Because these processes often operate without conscious control, we focused specifically on automatic stimulus processing. Using a series of implicit tasks, we measured inhibition, attentional orientation, appraisal and approach‐avoidance motivation regarding sexually explicit stimuli in male and female students. Results showed that men were more strongly motivated to approach sexual stimuli than women and were better able to inhibit sexual information as to prevent activation of the sexual response. With regard to attentional orientation, men were more easily drawn by sexual cues than women, yet only when the cues were presented long enough to allow more elaborative processing. No gender differences were found in the implicit evaluation of sexual information, although men and women did differ at the level of self‐reported sexual evaluations. Our results indicate the importance of incorporating information‐processing mechanisms and emotion regulation strategies into the conceptualization of the sexual response and promote further research on the specificity, robustness, predictive validity and malleability of the cognitive–motivational processes underlying sexual arousal. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Effect of Emotion on Visual Attention to Information and Decision Making in the Context of Informed Consent Process for Clinical Trials

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of emotion on visual information processing and decision making in the context of informed consent. Researchers are ethically obligated to ensure informed consent in clinical trials; however, many volunteers have unrealistic expectations about the value of an experimental therapy. Moreover, suboptimal participation rates for clinical trials may be partially attributable to perceptions that ethical obligations to volunteers are not met. This study examines whether discrete negative emotions (fear, anger, and sadness) differentially influence information processing, visual attention, and decisions in the context of clinical trial informed consent. Community participants completed a standard emotion induction (or control) and then read an actual consent form from a clinical trial while eye movements were tracked. Fear and anger produced the most prominently different patterns of systematic processing and visual attention, such that fear induced longer fixations to information presented, whereas anger induced shorter fixations. Moreover, among women only, fear increased decisions to participate, compared with anger and neutral emotion. Examinations of associations between eye‐tracking variables and self‐reported outcomes indicated that for angry participants only, less systematic processing was associated with greater decisions to participate. Negative emotions of any kind decreased accurate perceptions of trial benefit. These patterns suggest a complex interplay among emotion, processing style, and decision making. Future research is necessary to further probe these effects among potential clinical trial volunteers. Published 2016. This article is a U.S Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.