Choice with delayed and probabilistic reinforcers: effects of variability, time between trials, and conditioned reinforcers.

In a discrete-trials procedure with pigeons, a response on a green key led to a 4-s delay (during which green houselights were lit) and then a reinforcer might or might not be delivered. A response on a red key led to a delay of adjustable duration (during which red houselights were lit) and then a certain reinforcer. The delay was adjusted so as to estimate an indifference point--a duration for which the two alternatives were equally preferred. Once the green key was chosen, a subject had to continue to respond on the green key until a reinforcer was delivered. Each response on the green key, plus the 4-s delay that followed every response, was called one "link" of the green-key schedule. Subjects showed much greater preference for the green key when the number of links before reinforcement was variable (averaging four) than when it was fixed (always exactly four). These findings are consistent with the view that probabilistic reinforcers are analogous to reinforcers delivered after variable delays. When successive links were separated by 4-s or 8-s "interlink intervals" with white houselights, preference for the probabilistic alternative decreased somewhat for 2 subjects but was unaffected for the other 2 subjects. When the interlink intervals had the same green houselights that were present during the 4-s delays, preference for the green key decreased substantially for all subjects. These results provided mixed support for the view that preference for a probabilistic reinforcer is inversely related to the duration of conditioned reinforcers that precede the delivery of food.     

Psychoeducational Interventions for Stress Management and Well-Being

The importance of educating students about stress and stress management is emphasized, because students will confront stressors throughout their life span. In this article the author summarizes major stress theories and shows how stress theory and stress management strategies can be integrated into existing school curricula.     

Distress,wellbeing, and growth amidst COVID-19: Considering the dynamic interplay between positive and negative anticipatory emotions

Although negative anticipatory emotions are typically seen as risk factors for poorer psychological outcomes over COVID-19, emotion theorists suggest that this risk may be attenuated if balanced by the experience of positive emotion. Thus, the current study examined whether interactions between positive and negative anticipatory emotions were concurrently associated with psychological distress and greater personal wellbeing/posttraumatic growth (PTG) at three distinct periods (i.e., pre-lockdown, during lockdown, post-lockdown), and whether associations varied by these three COVID-19 time periods. The study utilizes two large longitudinal Australian samples, surveyed in 2020 prior to, during, and after a strict 4-month lockdown that occurred in Australia. Overall, positive emotions attenuated the adverse psychological outcomes arising from higher levels of negative emotion (i.e., higher psychological distress and lower personal wellbeing). Observed effects varied according to COVID-19 threat exposure. Specifically, the interaction was significantly associated with psychological distress prior to the lockdown for Sample 2, and during the lockdown for both samples. The interaction was significantly associated with wellbeing (Sample 2) prior to, and during, the lockdown but only marginally associated post-lockdown. The interaction, however, was not significantly associated with PTG (Sample 1). The results suggest that it is valuable for future research to consider greater emotional complexity (i.e., mixed emotions) over COVID-19, and other stressors more generally, to encompass a more nuanced understanding of resilience.     

Interpersonal conflict in group therapy: An object relations perspective

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how object relations theory can be used to understand and regulate interpersonal conflict in group psychotherapy. Such concepts as projective identification, intersubjectivity and the analytic third are used to describe how conflict emerges in group psychotherapy and how it can be worked through. Case material is also provided to illustrate concepts and techniques in promoting a group's transition from a paranoid/schizoid to a depressive position. Positive aspects of the concept of projective identification are discussed including its use as a form of communication, a method of reducing anxiety and reintegrating previously dangerous and threatening aspects of the self.The paper was funded by Evan F. Lilly Memorial Trust Grant PV 13,067.     

Selective deficit of conceptual structures in aphasia: Class versus thematic relations

Conceptual structures in aphasia were investigated by means of a nonverbal test. The understanding of class and thematic relationships was demonstrated to be selectively impaired according to varieties of aphasic deficit. Broca's aphasics showed difficulty evaluating a thematic relationship and did not differ from normal controls as far as class relationships were concerned. The opposite happened for Wernicke's aphasics whose defect seems to be selectively restricted to class relationships.     

Confidentiality: a survey in a research hospital

Despite the many justifications for protecting patient confidentiality, we recognize that confidentiality cannot be absolute. Our world of automated information and easy access and storage poses many threats to confidentiality. This paper has described a survey conducted at the NIH Clinical Center to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of clinical physicians and nurses about confidentiality of patient information. The survey findings demonstrate the need for reminders and increased awareness about confidentiality in our setting. Most of the survey respondents had a good knowledge of what was expected of them, and they believed that confidentiality was important and maintaining it was their responsibility. Of interest was that in several simulated clinical situations, there was a discrepancy between what respondents indicated they should do and what they thought they would do. The biggest discrepancies appeared in situations that involved overhearing a patient conversation on the elevator, approaching an unfamiliar person who is reading a medical record in the nurses' station, and answering a patient's inquiry about the status of another patient. The findings support the speculation that this difference may be attributed to discomfort or decreased awareness, and not necessarily to lack of knowledge. Results indicate that policies and administrative expectations should be frequently communicated and enforced, and that educational programs that address issues of confidentiality should be provided. The results of this survey have been influential in guiding educational strategies and administrative activities at the clinical center. The clinical center initiated a confidentiality awareness campaign, displaying a new poster every three months in strategic locations and distributing other tangible reminders (such as pens, magnets, and buttons) containing the same confidentiality message.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Psychosis,symbol, affectivity 1: etiopathogenesis and treatment through analytical psychology

This is the first of two papers concerning our study into an integrated approach to psychotic disorders, conducted at the University of Palermo’s Psychiatry Unit Polyclinic over approximately 15 years. Here we will explore and reflect upon the acute psychotic condition mainly from a theoretical and conceptual perspective, while in the second paper we will explore the clinical perspective. From the point of view of psychopathology, and in the light of C.G. Jung’s conceptualization of analytical psychology, as well as calling on contributions from other authors from the systemic-relational and post-psychoanalytic field, we will clarify the ideas developed over these last few years by our team. From a more speculative perspective we will advance new interpretive hypotheses in an attempt to thoroughly understand the nature of the psychotic condition, both on a psychodynamic relational and a neuroscientific level. The paper describes how we revised our understanding of psychosis from a brain disease to a process aimed at the rearrangement of psychic functioning, as anticipated by John Weir Perry nearly 40 years ago.     

The phantom illumination illusion

A novel brightness illusion in planar patterns is reported. The illusion occurs, for example, when surfaces with a luminance ramp shaded from black to white are positioned on a black homogeneous background, so that each white end of the surfaces faces a single point of the plane of the pattern. The illusion consists of the enhancement of the brightness of the background in a relatively wide area around the white ends of the surfaces. A parametric study was conducted in which participants were asked to rate the difference in brightness between the parts of the background inside and outside a virtual circle formed by disks with different luminance ramps. The results show that mean ratings of brightness depended on the luminance of the background, the luminance range of ramps, and the kind of ramp. Discussion of these results with reference to other brightness illusions (assimilation, neon color spreading, anomalous surfaces, visual phantoms, grating induction, and the glare effect) shows that t hephantom illumination illusion derives from processes producing the perception of ambient illumination.     

Must phenomenology remain Cartesian?

Husserl saw the Cartesian critique of scepticism as one of the eternal merits of Descartes?? philosophy. In doing so, he accepted the legitimacy of the very idea of a universal doubt, and sought to present as an alternative to it a renewed, specifically phenomenological concept of self-evidence, making it possible to obtain an unshakable foundation for the edifice of knowledge. This acceptance of the skeptical problem underlies his entire conceptual framework, both before and after the transcendental turn, and especially the immanence/transcendence distinction, i.e., the very basis of intentionality. In taking as its starting point an analysis of perception, the article puts forth a certain number of phenomenological arguments in order to put into question the validity of the skeptical problem and, therefore, of the Husserlian conceptual framework; it defends, in the first place, a disjunctive conception of perception and, in the second place, a holism of experience.