Mapping Creativity: Creativity Measurements Network Analysis

This article borrowed network analysis tools to discover how the construct formed by the set of all measures of creativity configures itself. To this end, using a variant of the meta-analytical method, a database was compiled simulating 42,381 responses to 974 variables centered on 64 creativity measures. Results, although preliminary, indicate the existence of a core dimension filled with variables that indicate novelty, which is surrounded by the paired dimensions of negative affect and social leadership, and high cognitive performance and positive affect. As for the measurement instruments, it was found that, although tests of divergent thinking, self-reported biographies, and composite scores are the most appropriate tools to gauge creativity itself, both attitude and personality inventories are best for diagnosing the different kinds of creators.     

Animal timing: a synthetic approach

Inspired by Spence’s seminal work on transposition, we propose a synthetic approach to understanding the temporal control of operant behavior. The approach takes as primitives the temporal generalization gradients obtained in prototypical concurrent and retrospective timing tasks and then combines them to synthetize more complex temporal performances. The approach is instantiated by the learning-to-time (LeT) model. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, we review the basic findings concerning the generalization gradients observed in fixed-interval schedules, the peak procedure, and the temporal generalization procedure and then describe how LeT explains them. In the second part, we use LeT to derive by gradient combination the typical performances observed in mixed fixed-interval schedules, the free-operant psychophysical procedure, the temporal bisection task, and the double temporal bisection task. We also show how the model plays the role of a useful null hypothesis to examine whether temporal control in the bisection task is relative or absolute. In the third part, we identify a set of issues that must be solved to advance our understanding of temporal control, including the shape of the generalization gradients outside the range of trained stimulus durations, the nature of temporal memories, the influence of context on temporal learning, whether temporal control can be inhibitory, and whether temporal control is also relational. These issues attest to the heuristic value of a Spencean approach to temporal control.     

Simple discrimination in stingless bees (Melipona quadrifasciata): Probing for select‐ and reject‐stimulus control

Simple and conditional discrimination training may produce various types of controlling relations. Responses may be controlled primarily by the positive stimulus (select–control relation) or by the negative stimulus (reject–control relation; the subject excludes the negative stimulus and chooses the positive). Bees learn to respond in simple and conditional discriminations. However, no study has searched for reject–control responding in Melipona bees. We trained Melipona quadrifasciata on a simple discrimination task (S+ vs. S‐; e.g., blue vs. yellow) and then probed for stimulus control with two types of probe trials, S+ versus a new stimulus (Select–control probes) and S‐ versus a new stimulus (Reject–control probes). For Group Different, a new‐stimulus color (e.g., white) was used in one type of probe and another color (e.g., black) was used in the other type. For Group Same, a single new‐stimulus color was used in both types of probes. On Select probes, the bees always preferred S+ to the new stimulus. On Reject probes, results were mixed. Depending on the colors used in training and probing, bees responded to both stimuli, and even preferred the S‐. The data suggest no control by the negative function of the S‐ and support the select‐stimulus control hypothesis of responding.     

Losing the Certainty of Self

In his theory of trauma, Ferenczi points to the disbelief of adults of a child's account of an event as an actual traumatizing factor. Ferenczi also states that of all the consequences of the trauma, which include identification with the aggressor, psychic coma, departure from the possibility of dreams, and a fall to the hell of nightmares, the most important and fundamental is the lack of certainty of self. The disbelief of the adults destroys the certainty of what is perceived and experienced; it has the power of annihilating the child's belief in his own perceptions, his trust in his own senses. The loss of certainty of self appears to be a common characteristic in patients with distinct psychic dynamics. We will analyze the loss of certainty of self in cases of patients of the NEPECC (Núcleo de Estudos em Psicanálise e Clínica da Contemporaneidade) [Center of Studies in Psychoanalysis and Contemporarity Clinic] at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.     

An Interview With Sunny Hansen: Pioneer and Innovator in Counseling and Career Development

During her 45‐year career, Sunny Hansen was a pioneer and innovator in counseling and career development. She has lived the holistic life about which she writes and teaches. In this interview, she discussed the major influences on her life, the evolution of her professional career from English and journalism teacher to counselor and counselor educator, and her teaching and scholarship. She also shared her insights on balancing life roles, holistic life planning, and the counselor as a change agent.     

Psychometric properties of the Social Skills Questionnaire: Portuguese adaptation of the student form (grades 7 to 12)

The present study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of the student form (Grades 7 to 12) of the Social Skills Questionnaire authored by Gresham and Elliott (1990), on a sample of Portuguese adolescents. Participants included 573 students, both female and male, aged 14 to 19. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach's alpha and was .87 for the total scale, ranging from.58 to .72 for the subscales. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the main adjustment indices presented unexpected values. A principal components analysis indicated that several items of the cooperation subscale correlated with other factors. Adequate adjustment indices were found when cooperation was removed from the model. Semantic dualities due to cultural factors and difficulties assuming the cooperation dimension as an independent dimension might explain the results observed. The reorganization of the SSQ offers a reliable and valid instrument for research within the Portuguese population.     

ESCOLEX: A grade-level lexical database from European Portuguese elementary to middle school textbooks

In this article, we introduce ESCOLEX, the first European Portuguese children’s lexical database with grade-level-adjusted word frequency statistics. Computed from a 3.2-million-word corpus, ESCOLEX provides 48,381 word forms extracted from 171 elementary and middle school textbooks for 6- to 11-year-old children attending the first six grades in the Portuguese educational system. Like other children’s grade-level databases (e.g., Carroll, Davies, & Richman, 1971; Corral, Ferrero, & Goikoetxea, Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1009–1017, 2009; Lété, Sprenger-Charolles, & Colé, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 156–166, 2004; Zeno, Ivens, Millard, Duvvuri, 1995), ESCOLEX provides four frequency indices for each grade: overall word frequency (F), index of dispersion across the selected textbooks (D), estimated frequency per million words (U), and standard frequency index (SFI). It also provides a new measure, contextual diversity (CD). In addition, the number of letters in the word and its part(s) of speech, number of syllables, syllable structure, and adult frequencies taken from P-PAL (a European Portuguese corpus-based lexical database; Soares, Comesaña, Iriarte, Almeida, Simões, Costa, …, Machado, 2010; Soares, Iriarte, Almeida, Simões, Costa, França, …, Comesaña, in press) are provided. ESCOLEX will be a useful tool both for researchers interested in language processing and development and for professionals in need of verbal materials adjusted to children’s developmental stages. ESCOLEX can be downloaded along with this article or from http://p-pal.di.uminho.pt/about/databases.     

The effects of stimulus complexity on the preattentive processing of self-generated and nonself voices: An ERP study

The ability to differentiate one’s own voice from the voice of somebody else plays a critical role in successful verbal self-monitoring processes and in communication. However, most of the existing studies have only focused on the sensory correlates of self-generated voice processing, whereas the effects of attentional demands and stimulus complexity on self-generated voice processing remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of stimulus complexity on the preattentive processing of self and nonself voice stimuli. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 17 healthy males who watched a silent movie while ignoring prerecorded self-generated (SGV) and nonself (NSV) voice stimuli, consisting of a vocalization (vocalization category condition: VCC) or of a disyllabic word (word category condition: WCC). All voice stimuli were presented as standard and deviant events in four distinct oddball sequences. The mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component peaked earlier for NSV than for SGV stimuli. Moreover, when compared with SGV stimuli, the P3a amplitude was increased for NSV stimuli in the VCC only, whereas in the WCC no significant differences were found between the two voice types. These findings suggest differences in the time course of automatic detection of a change in voice identity. In addition, they suggest that stimulus complexity modulates the magnitude of the orienting response to SGV and NSV stimuli, extending previous findings on self-voice processing.     

Automatically activated facets of ageism: Masked evaluative priming allows for a differentiation of age‐related prejudice

This study investigated the automatic activation of ageism by using a go/no‐go version of the masked evaluative priming task. Pictures of younger persons, of older persons in everyday contexts, and of older persons depicting age‐related conditions of decline were used as masked primes that preceded positive and negative target adjectives conveying either other‐relevant valence (e.g., just and mean) or possessor‐relevant valence (e.g., serene and lonely). The evaluative priming effect (denoting relative negativity of old‐everyday primes in comparison with younger primes) was significant, as hypothesized, only for possessor‐relevant targets. It was not moderated by explicit ageism. A second priming index (denoting relative negativity of old‐decline primes in comparison with old‐everyday primes) predicted, however, explicit ageism. Again, this result was, as expected, constrained to the index based on possessor‐relevant targets. This study provides further evidence that prejudice in terms of automatic evaluations of social stimuli can be more fine grained beyond a mere one‐dimensional positive–negative differentiation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.