Learning and motivation: Computer simulations of the Rescorla-Wagner,Solomon-Corbit,and Schull models

A suite of programs is described for simulating the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model of associative learning, the Solomon and Corbit (1974) opponent-process theory, and Schull’s (1979) extension of the latter. The programs are written for the Commodore 64 computer.     

Developing Work-Related Education on Alcohol and Drugs

The development of a pack of materials for use at the intersection of youth training and health and social education is described. The resulting pack - WREAD (Work Related Education on Alcohol and Drugs) - is designed to be used in several milieux, including the Youth Training Scheme and associated developments, the new college-based pre-vocational education courses and, in the longer term, schools and other social education settings. The paper describes the context, the development of a draft, a consultation exercise with people working in and around YTS who were asked to comment on the draft, conversations with young people, and the revision and publication of the materials.     

Childhood fantasy play relates to adult socio-emotional competence

Childhood fantasy play and creation of imaginary companions are thought to confer socio-emotional benefits in children, but little is known about how they relate to socio-emotional competence in adulthood. A total of 341 adults (81 males) aged 18 and above (M = 31.47, SD = 12.62) completed an online survey examining their fantasy play as a child, their childhood imaginary companion status, and their adult socio-emotional competence. Adults who reported higher levels of childhood fantasy play were found to be significantly more prosocial, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent than their counterparts after controlling for demographic factors. Recall of a childhood imaginary companion, however, was significantly related only to higher scores for perspective-taking and did not explain unique variance in any adult competence measure. Findings suggest that engagement in fantasy play during childhood may be a precursor to later socio-emotional competence, while benefits previously associated with imaginary companions specifically may not extend into adulthood.     

The impact of short-term counselling on general health questionnaire scores

An evaluation was conducted of short-term counselling in a higher education setting. The main objective was to measure client scores on a shortened version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) pre- and post- counselling. Forty-five matched pairs of GHQ-12 scores were compared. There was a highly significant reduction in scores post-counselling. The evidence suggests that the 'great pretender' evaluation can be challenged using standard quantitative measures such as the GHQ-12. It is concluded that counselling in higher education may be addressing long-standing distress in members of the student population.     

National Norms and Correlates of the PHQ-8 and GAD-7 in Parents of School-age Children

Anxiety and depressive disorders are global public health concerns, and research suggests that these disorders are common in parents and can adversely influence family functioning. However, little is known about normative levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in parents of school-age children. The present study reports on generalized anxiety and depressive symptoms in 1570 parents and guardians of a nationally representative sample of children ages five to twelve years using two widely used and validated questionnaires: the eight-item variant of the Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale (PHQ-8) and the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7). Moderate to severe levels of generalized anxiety symptoms were reported in 12.7% of the total sample and moderate to severe levels of depressive symptoms were reported in 14.1% of the sample; 17.7% of the sample reported moderate to severe levels of either generalized anxiety or depressive symptoms. This percentage was higher for females, younger parents and guardians, and parents and guardians reporting lower household incomes. These data, collected online in early 2018, may be useful for researchers and clinicians studying and treating anxiety and depression in parents. Further, these data provide a baseline for researchers currently studying the impact of changes related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (e.g., school closures) on the mental health of parents of school-age children.

     

Predicting traumatic stress using emotional intelligence

The study investigated whether emotional intelligence (EI) can predict how individuals respond to traumatic experiences. A random sample of 414 participants (181 male, 233 female) were administered a measure of EI along with the Impact of Event Scale--revised [IES-R; Weiss, D. S. & Marmar, C. R. (1997). The Impact of Events Scale--revised. In J.P. Wilson & T.M. Keane (Eds.), Assessing psychological trauma and PTSD (pp. 399-411). New York: Guilford Press], and the monitoring and blunting questionnaire [MBQ, Anxiety Stress Coping 7 (1994) 53]. The results showed that participants with higher NEIS scores report fewer psychological symptoms relating to their traumatic experiences, that monitors are more likely to have higher NEIS scores than blunters. Traumatic events had a greater impact on females than males, and males had higher EI than females. The implications of these findings for using EI as a predictor for individuals who may experience traumatic stress are discussed.     

The costs of changing the representation of action: response repetition and response-response compatibility in dual tasks

In 5 experiments, the authors investigated the costs associated with repeating the same or a similar response in a dual-task setting. Using a psychological refractory period paradigm, they obtained response-repetition costs when the cognitive representation of a specific response (i.e., the category-response mapping) changed (Experiment 1) but benefits when it did not change (Experiment 2). The analogous pattern of results was found for conceptually similar (i.e. compatible) responses. Response-response compatibility costs occurred when the cognitive representations of the compatible responses were different (Experiments 3A & 3B), but compatibility benefits occurred when they were the same (Experiment 4). The authors interpret the costs of repeating an identical or compatible response in terms of a general mechanism of action selection that involves coding the task-specific meaning of a response.     

The role of response selection for inhibition of task sets in task shifting

Response selection in task shifting was explored using a go/no-go methodology. The no-go signal occurred unpredictably with stimulus onset so that all trials required task preparation but only go trials required response selection. Experiment 1 showed that shift costs were absent after no-go trials, indicating that response processes are crucial for shift costs. In Experiment 2, backward inhibition was absent after no-go trials. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that response selection, rather than execution, causes backward inhibition. All 4 experiments showed effects of preparation time in go trials, suggesting that advance preparation must have also occurred in no-go trials. The authors concluded that inhibition of irrelevant task sets arises only at response selection and that residual shift costs reflect such persisting inhibition.