The Role of Meaningful Stimuli in Large Stimulus Classes

The Psychological Record - The present experiment examined the effect of having the D-stimuli as meaningful pictures when establishing 18 conditional discriminations and testing for the emergence...     

Women who kill their husbands: mariticides in contemporary Ghana

Homicide by wives against husbands is a largely unexplored subject in lethal violence research. The paucity of information on the phenomenon is particularly acute in the non-Western world where scholarly research is virtually nonexistent. The specific goal for this article, then, was to provide additional insights into the issue by investigating wife-to-husband killings that occurred in Ghana, a non-Western society, during 1990-2005. In line with the scant, extant literature, the results of the analysis demonstrate that victims were invariably slain at home. The motive for the crime was to punish a womanizing husband, a husband who had taken another wife, or one who was contemplating wedding another wife in this polygynous society. In other instances, the homicidal intent was to physically eliminate a husband to facilitate an amorous relationship between the assailant and her new lover. In several cases, husband-slayers killed a latent or predisposing victim (e.g. sleeping or ill) via burning, slashing with a machete or food poisoning. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Mothers’ Experiences of Parent-Reported and Video-Recorded Observational Assessments

Rigorous evaluation of early childhood interventions requires accurate and efficient measurement. Researchers commonly use parent-reported surveys or direct observations; both of which have inherent strengths and limitations. Existing attempts to understand the correspondence between these methods have been primarily quantitative in design. Little is known about parents’ unique, subjective experiences of parent-reported surveys and direct parent-child observations. In this paper, we describe the experiences of ten mothers of children aged 24 months, recruited from a randomised controlled trial of a nurse home visiting program for mothers at risk of experiencing social adversity. After completing both a survey and video-recorded parent-child observation, mothers participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews which were analysed thematically. Mothers voiced concerns about how researchers may view their parenting skills, and their child’s behaviour and development. Contrary to previous quantitative evidence, mothers reported parent and child behavioural change, which they attributed to the researcher’s presence. Mothers described how the structured requirements of the observation contributed to forced and unnatural interactions. The survey was viewed as a welcome opportunity to reflect on parenting skills, the parent-child relationship and the child’s development. Mothers identified practical strategies for minimising parent-child discomfort during video-recorded observations, such as the researcher averting their gaze or stepping out of the room. We highlight opportunities for enhanced data validity in research and clinical settings, strengthened participant engagement, and minimisation of participant discomfort. Given the exploratory nature of this study, we do not claim that results are necessarily generalisable to other parent or general populations. Further research is warranted to build the evidence regarding parent participation in early childhood research.     

Genetic and environmental influences on odor identification ability in the very old

Odor identification ability and cognition were measured in a population-based cohort of 1,222 very old twins and singletons, including 91 centenarians. Heritability for identifying odors was low, in contrast to that for cognition. Common genes were found to contribute to both olfaction and cognition. In a multiple regression model, sex, age, cognitive function, and smoking, but not APOEε4 status, were significant predictors of the olfactory test scores (all ps < 0.001). This study, along with data from other studies, suggests that indices of heritability for odor identification decline with age, likely reflecting adverse environmental influences on the smell system.     

Homicide-suicides in Fiji: offense patterns,situational factors,and sociocultural contexts

Although there is growing literature on lethal violence in developing nations, homicide-suicides have rarely been studied. Addressing this issue, this paper analyzes all homicide-suicides that occurred in Fiji between 1982 and 1992. The study's results are consistent with prior research in Western developed nations, demonstrating that homicide-suicides constitute a minuscule proportion of all homicides, occur primarily between intimate relations, are precipitated by intrafamilial discord, and occur in the domestic setting. Contrary to prior research, however, perpetrators of homicide-suicide were equally divided between men and women and no firearms were utilized.     

On the effectiveness of including meaningful pictures in the formation of equivalence classes

In three experiments, 165 adult participants were trained on 12 baseline conditional discriminations and tested for the formation of three 5-member equivalence classes (A➔B➔C➔D➔E). All experiments included two reference groups; the abstract (ABS) group was trained with all abstract stimuli and the picture (PIC) group with C-stimuli as meaningful pictorial stimuli but A, B, D, and E stimuli as abstract shapes. In Experiment 1, the color of the meaningful stimuli was manipulated. In the ABS, PIC, and black-and-white groups, 33.3%, 80%, and 93.3% formed equivalence classes, respectively. In Experiment 2, participants were exposed to a test block with and without trials that included C stimuli. For the groups with and without C trials in the test, 93.3% and 86.7% formed equivalence classes, respectively, compared to 20% in the ABS group. In Experiment 3, the number of meaningful pictures and their location in stimulus classes were manipulated. One group was trained with 3 pictures (C1/B2/D3, the 3-PIC) while the other groups had 2 pictures (C1/B2 and C1/D3, the 2-PIC). In the second test block for the ABS and PIC groups, 6.7% and 86% of the participants formed equivalence classes, respectively. For the 3-PIC and the 2-PIC groups, 66.7% and 50% of the participants formed equivalence classes, respectively. Results suggest that the effects of meaningful stimuli in equivalence classes (a) cannot be attributed to the use of colorful stimuli in previous studies, (b) occur during training and are not dependent on the presence of meaningful stimuli at test, and (c) are sensitive to stimulus location.     

Involuntary Return Migration and Reintegration. The Case of Ghanaian Migrant Workers from Libya

This paper presents findings from a study that investigated the experiences of the returning Ghanaian migrants from Libya during the Arab Spring of 2011. The study used qualitative methods to explore involuntary return and reintegration of migrants in a south–south migration framework. Information from semi-structured interviews of migrants from selected communities in Ghana in addition to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) were used. The objective of the study was to find out the major difficulties returnees faced in reintegrating into their societies of origin as a result of their hasty departure and to assert the factors that may influence reintegration. The study finds that the combination factors including of high levels of family dependence on returnees, weak governance and the absence of reintegration policies may foster re-emigration.