Resurgence and alternative‐reinforcer magnitude

Resurgence is defined as an increase in the frequency of a previously reinforced target response when an alternative source of reinforcement is suspended. Despite an extensive body of research examining factors that affect resurgence, the effects of alternative‐reinforcer magnitude have not been examined. Thus, the present experiments aimed to fill this gap in the literature. In Experiment 1, rats pressed levers for single‐pellet reinforcers during Phase 1. In Phase 2, target‐lever pressing was extinguished, and alternative‐lever pressing produced either five‐pellet, one‐pellet, or no alternative reinforcement. In Phase 3, alternative reinforcement was suspended to test for resurgence. Five‐pellet alternative reinforcement produced faster elimination and greater resurgence of target‐lever pressing than one‐pellet alternative reinforcement. In Experiment 2, effects of decreasing alternative‐reinforcer magnitude on resurgence were examined. Rats pressed levers and pulled chains for six‐pellet reinforcers during Phases 1 and 2, respectively. In Phase 3, alternative reinforcement was decreased to three pellets for one group, one pellet for a second group, and suspended altogether for a third group. Shifting from six‐pellet to one‐pellet alternative reinforcement produced as much resurgence as suspending alternative reinforcement altogether, while shifting from six pellets to three pellets did not produce resurgence. These results suggest that alternative‐reinforcer magnitude has effects on elimination and resurgence of target behavior that are similar to those of alternative‐reinforcer rate. Thus, both suppression of target behavior during alternative reinforcement and resurgence when conditions of alternative reinforcement are altered may be related to variables that affect the value of the alternative‐reinforcement source.     

WILLIAM HAZLITT,OBSESSIVE LOVE,AND LIBER AMORIS

William Hazlitt, a distinguished literary figure of the early nineteenth century and a forerunner of psychoanalytic insights, had a keen awareness of the impact of the imagination on assessing works of art. At forty‐two, he became hopelessly involved in an obsessive love affair with a nineteen‐year‐old woman and could not extricate himself from the relationship. The affair followed the death of his father, a powerful influence on his life. Factors in his obsessive love included finding an object of idealization subject to his imaginative creation and narcissistically reexperiencing himself about to begin a new life.     

Fear generalisation in individuals with high neuroticism: increasing predictability is not necessarily better

Fear generalisation, a process by which conditioned fear spreads to similar but innocuous stimuli, is key in understanding why some individuals feel unsafe in objectively non-threatening situations. Both trait neuroticism and lack of predictability about the likelihood of feared consequences are associated with negative affect in the face of ambiguity and may increase the degree to which fear generalises. Undergraduates (N?=?129) with varying degrees of neuroticism were randomised to either high- or low-instructional predictability conditions prior to fear acquisition. A fear generalisation test measured risk ratings and attentional bias on a modified dot-probe paradigm. Among individuals with higher neuroticism, providing instructional predictability did not reduce fear; these individuals reported higher risk and increased attentional bias toward ambiguous stimuli. Overall, for individuals with higher neuroticism, predictability information hurt rather than helped interpretation of ambiguous stimuli, challenging a common conceptualisation of predictability as a factor that reduces fear.     

基于双因子模型的测验总分和维度分的合成方法

双因子模型可以同时包含一个全局因子和多个局部因子,在描述多维测验结构时有其独特优势,近些年应用越来越广泛。文章基于双因子模型,提出了4种合成总分和维度分的方法,分别是:原始分法,加和法,全局题目加权加和法和局部题目加权加和法,并采用模拟的方法,在样本量、测验长度、维度间相关变化的条件下考察了这些方法与传统多维IRT方法的表现。最后,通过实证研究对结果进行了验证。结果显示:(1)全局加权加和法和局部加权加和法,尤其是局部加权加和法合成的总分和维度分与真值最接近、信度最高。(2)在维度间相关较高,测验长度较长的条件下,局部加权加和法的结果较好,部分条件下甚至优于多维IRT法。(3)仅有局部加权加和法合成的维度分能够反应维度间真实的相关关系。     

规则适应视角下辱虐管理的成因机制

基于规则适应及资源依赖理论的解释视角,本研究考察了下属工作绩效与政治技能对上级辱虐的影响。通过对采集自两家企业的243对领导-下属的配对问卷进行分析,本研究的多项式回归与响应面分析表明,当下属的工作绩效(遵循做事显规则)与政治技能(遵循做人潜规则)在较高水平上保持一致时,其遭受的上级辱虐最少。但这种较高水平的一致只能维持在特定范围内,当两者过高时,反而易遭致上级的辱虐行为。同时,在工作绩效与政治技能存在差异的情境下,相比于"高工作绩效,低政治技能"的下属,"低工作绩效,高政治技能"的下属遭受的上级辱虐要更少。文章分析并证明了遵循不同规则的下属会导致不同程度的上级辱虐。     

Can the Hopelessness Model of Depression and Response Style Theory Be Integrated?

The Hopelessness Model (Abramson, Alloy, & Metalsky, 1989 ) and response style theory (Nolen‐Hoeksema, Girgus, & Seligman, 1992 ) have been integrated in various ways, but these integrations have not been compared. German college students (N = 311, mean age = 23.27 years, SD = 6.57 years, 80% female) rated their depressive symptoms, negative inferences, and rumination 3 times. Findings supported an integrated model whereby individual inferences predict and interact with the rumination subtype brooding to affect depressive symptoms.     

On Enhancing the Cross‐Cultural Comparability of Likert‐Scale Personality and Value Measures: A Comparison of Common Procedures

This study aims to evaluate a number of procedures that have been proposed to enhance cross‐cultural comparability of personality and value data. A priori procedures (anchoring vignettes and direct measures of response styles (i.e. acquiescence, extremity, midpoint responding, and social desirability), a posteriori procedures focusing on data transformations prior to analysis (ipsatization and item parcelling), and two data modelling procedures (treating data as continuous vs as ordered categories) were compared using data collected from university students in 16 countries. We found that (i) anchoring vignettes showed lack of invariance, so they were not bias‐free; (ii) anchoring vignettes showed higher internal consistencies than raw scores where all other correction procedures, notably ipsatization, showed lower internal consistencies; (iii) in measurement invariance testing, no procedure yielded scalar invariance; anchoring vignettes and item parcelling slightly improved comparability, response style correction did not affect it, and ipsatization resulted in lower comparability; (iv) treating Likert‐scale data as categorical resulted in higher levels of comparability; (v) factor scores of scales extracted from different procedures showed similar correlational patterning; and (vi) response style correction was the only procedure that suggested improvement in external validity of country‐level conscientiousness. We conclude that, although no procedure resolves all comparability issues, anchoring vignettes, parcelling, and treating data as ordered categories seem promising to alleviate incomparability. We advise caution in uncritically applying any of these procedures. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Measuring Probabilistic Reasoning: The Construction of a New Scale Applying Item Response Theory

Probabilistic reasoning skills are important in various contexts. The aim of the present study was to develop a new instrument (the Probabilistic Reasoning Scale – PRS) to accurately measure low levels of probabilistic reasoning ability in order to identify people with difficulties in this domain. Item response theory was applied to construct the scale, and to investigate differential item functioning (i.e., whether the items were invariant) across genders, educational levels, and languages. Additionally, we tested the validity of the scale by investigating the relationships between the PRS and several other measures. The results revealed that the items had a low level of difficulty. Nonetheless, the discriminative measures showed that the items can discriminate between individuals with different trait levels, and the test information function showed that the scale accurately assesses low levels of probabilistic reasoning ability. Additionally, through investigating differential item functioning, the measurement equivalence of the scale at the item level was confirmed for gender, educational status, and language (i.e., Italian and English). Concerning validity, the results showed the expected correlations with numerical skills, math‐related attitudes, statistics achievement, IQ, reasoning skills, and risky choices both in the Italian and British samples. In conclusion, the PRS is an ideal instrument for identifying individuals who struggle with basic probabilistic reasoning, and who could be targeted by specific interventions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tactile Ranschburg effects: facilitation and inhibitory repetition effects analogous to verbal memory

The present paper examines the effect of within-sequence item repetitions in tactile order memory. Employing an immediate serial recall procedure, participants reconstructed a six-item sequence tapped upon their fingers by moving those fingers in the order of original stimulation. In Experiment 1a, within-sequence repetition of an item separated by two-intervening items resulted in a significant reduction in recall accuracy for that repeated item (i.e., the Ranschburg effect). In Experiment 1b, within-sequence repetition of an adjacent item resulted in significant recall facilitation for that repeated item. These effects mirror those reported for verbal stimuli (e.g., Henson, 1998a Henson, R. N. A. (1998a). Item repetition in short-term memory: Ranschburg repeated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(5), 1162–1181. doi:doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1162[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Item repetition in short-term memory: Ranschburg repeated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(5), 1162–1181. doi:doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1162). These data are the first to demonstrate the Ranschburg effect with non-verbal stimuli and suggest further cross-modal similarities in order memory.     

Survivor Insight: A Study of Family,Friend, and Community Response to Interpersonal Violence

The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of survivors of trauma concerning their family, friend, and community responses to their trauma. Using a community-based, participatory action framework, a measure was developed and distributed to 351 randomly drawn survivors of interpersonal violence. The majority of participants indicated that they were never or rarely helped or protected at the time they first experienced the trauma. Several significant correlations were found between participants’ perceptions of their own healing and the responses of people in their lives. Many respondents also indicated that people do not know how to help survivors heal and that the general public does not understand how trauma affects people. The results are discussed within the framework of developing supports for trauma survivors that include trauma-informed family, friends, and community. Questions for further research and implications for professional practice and trauma-informed communities are discussed.