Encoding and retrieval processes in learning-disabled, head-injured, and nondisabled young adults

Using a multi-trial, free-recall paradigm (Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test; Lezak, 1983), the acquisition and retention by learning disabled (LD) young adults with a Halstead Impairment Index less than or equal to 0.3 (low LD) or greater than or equal to 0.4 (high LD) was compared with that of nondisabled and head-injured (HI) young adults. Significant group differences, particularly during the last three acquisition trials, confirmed the effectiveness of this method in revealing subtle learning and retention deficits. Analyses of Trial 1 recall showed group differences in the prerecency but not the recency portion of the serial position curve, thus implicating long-term but not short-term memory differences between the groups. Analyses of pair frequency (Sternberg & Tulving, 1977) data showed that the three clinical groups had difficulty organizing the to-be-learned material for effective retrieval. Following an interpolated task, retention was poorer for the clinical groups than for the nondisabled and varied inversely with the degree of neuropsychological impairment. Finally, during retention, the nondisabled and low LD groups retained and used the list organization established during acquisition whereas the high LD and HI groups did not.     

ACQUISITION,GENERALIZATION, AND MAINTENANCE OF QUESTION-ANSWERING SKILLS IN AUTISTIC CHILDREN

We conducted an investigation to evaluate the effects of a training strategy for teaching autistic students generalized responses to three forms of wh— questions (what, how, and why). Students were taught, using modeling and reinforcement procedures, to answer questions with magazine pictures as the referents. Each question form was divided into two or more subcomponents reflective of common social usage and was taught within the context of a modified multiple probe design across subcomponents. Following acquisition of each subcomponent, generalization to natural context and storybook questions was assessed; additional probes were conducted to assess responding over time and whether acquisition of responses to questions promoted question-asking skills. Results showed that the picture training procedure was effective in teaching a generalized response to questions for which the relevant cue was visible, whereas specific generalization programming was required for situations in which the relevant cue was not visible. All acquired responses were durable over time.     

Co-occurrent use of cigarettes, alcohol, and coffee in healthy, community-living men and women

Previous studies have examined intra-individual aggregation in the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and coffee by examining the co-occurrent use of any pair of these three substances. A recent literature review failed to find a single investigation that studied use of all three in the same sample. In the present study, co-occurrent use of all three of these substances was examined in crossvalidated subsamples of 226 male and 245 female healthy, community-living, middle-class Americans. A log-linear analysis was used to compare the proportion of smokers, ex-smokers, and nonsmokers categorized as users of more or less amounts of coffee and alcohol. Although most of the intercorrelations were not strong, the results indicate that for both sexes, smokers and ex-smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to drink greater amounts of alcohol and coffee. Furthermore, for smokers, ex-smokers, and nonsmokers, a majority of individuals who reported drinking more alcohol also reported drinking more coffee. Interestingly, the coffee and alcohol consumption levels of ex-smokers resembled those of smokers more than those of nonsmokers. Also, ex-smokers reported drinking more wine and decaffeinated coffee than either smokers or nonsmokers. Finally, the number of cigarettes smoked per day (daily quantity) was positively related to total alcohol and coffee consumption in men, but not in women. Further studies are recommended to examine the role of individual differences in the development, maintenance, and modification of these three appetitive habits and their co-occurrence.     

Evidence that probing the vaginal cervix is analgesic in rats, using an operant paradigm.

Probing against the vaginal cervix (CP) suppresses responses to noxious stimulation in rats. The first experiment rules out the possibility that this effect is due to CP-induced immobilization. All rats first learned to press a panel, thus terminating noxious skin shock. Then they either received CP (experimentals) or did not (controls) when they pressed the panel during skin shock that was inescapable. The controls soon showed extinction of the panel-press response, whereas the experimentals continued pressing the panel and obtaining CP, for significantly more trials. The rats thus performed an operant response for CP at a time before CP could have blocked their movement. The second experiment argues against the possiblity that CP exerts its effect by "distracting" the rats from the skin shock. The rats received inescapable skin shock which continued for 7 sec after each panel-press response. During this shock one group received CP, and another received perineal probing ("distraction" control). The panel-press latency was significantly shorter in the CP group than in the perineal group. Latency in a control group, in which shock was terminated as soon as the rats pressed the panel, did not differ significantly from the CP group. Latency in another control group, in which the shock persisted for 7 sec after the rats pressed the panel with no probing being applied, was not significantly different from that of the perineal-probing group but was significantly longer than latency in the CP group. Thus the present studies suggest that CP is indeed analgesic and that this effect of CP is mediated by neither movement inhibition nor distraction.     

On Turkey Identification

As human relations skills are more widely taught and used, they are inevitably misused as well, often by some particularly fowl aggressors. This article is intended as a brief self-defense course identifying those who undergo this strange, but usually temporary, metamorphosis into “turkeys.” It provides a rough categorization of subspecies with their identifying characteristics and a proposal for return to personhood.     

The deliverance of the administrative state: deep state conspiracism,charismatic demonology,and the post-truth politics of American Christian nationalism

ABSTRACT

This article uses discourse analysis to explore the intersection of spiritual warfare demonology and Christian nationalism among Trump-supporting neo-charismatic evangelicals. Analysing public materials produced during and after the 2016 US presidential campaign, it demonstrates how demonologies operate discursively to categorise, comprehend, and contest understandings of American identity and destiny. Situating spiritual warfare demonology in relation to narratives of ‘post-truth politics’ as the destabilisation of neoliberal consensus reality, the article explores how charismatic evangelicals position Trump’s election as a divine assault on a demoniac status quo, epitomised in the conspiratorial figure of the ‘Deep State.’ Examining demonologies of the ‘state’ and ‘border’ as joint arenas of epistemic and societal contestation, the article shows how spiritual warfare discourses seek to (re)define sociocultural notions of truth and falsity and thereby (de)legitimise specific gendered, sexualised, and racialised forms of being and belonging.     

The Zygote Argument Is Still Invalid: So What?

Philosophia - In “The Zygote Argument is Invalid: Now What?”, Kristin Mickelson argues that Alfred Mele’s original Zygote Argument is invalid: its two premises tell us merely that...     

Role of Gender and Emotionality Stigma in Perceived Parental Emotion Dysregulation and Adult Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

Sex Roles - Boys and girls learn early from their parents about what is appropriate and what is not in terms of emotional expression. We argue that these parental cues can lead to the formation of...