Spontaneous configuring to a tone-light compound using appetitive training

Rats were trained to bar-press for water in the presence of a simultaneous compound tone-light stimulus using a discrete-trial procedure. Different groups were given between 300 and 3900 trials. When subsequently tested in extinction, all rats showed consistent levels of responding to the compound stimulus but responding to the tone and light components declined as a function of number of training trials. This is a demonstration of spontaneous configuring. Two other experiments showed that with similar procedures generalization from a component of the training stimulus to other values on the same continuum decreases with increased training with the compound stimulus. It was concluded that configuring and generalization from a single stimulus involve the same processes.     

Anorexia and conditioned taste aversions in the rat

The present study examined whether or not certain anorexic agents produced flavor aversions. Rats showed comparable anorexia when injected with lithium chloride, ammonium sulfate, arginine·HCl, and d-glucose. Only lithium chloride produced a flavor aversion to either a novel liquid or food. Only arginine was found to interfere with the formation or recall of an association. The effects of the other chemicals were discussed in terms of the relationship between anorexia and induced sickness.     

Associations Between Religious Behavior and Attitude to Christianity Among Australian Catholic Adolescents: Scale Validation

Abstract

In a sample of 1,166 Catholic high school students (age = 13–18 years), the author used confirmatory factor analysis to validate a 30-item instrument that assesses 6 dimensions of attitude to Christianity (viz., attitude to prayer, attitude to God, attitude to Jesus, attitude to the Bible, attitude to Christian practice, attitude to social justice). Goodness-of-fit indices for the proposed measurement model revealed that the model fitted the data very well, thus confirming the instrument's structure. A correlation analysis revealed associations between religious behavior and attitude to Christianity.     

President's Award for Significant Contributions to Psychology

The contributions upon which this award was based were made primarily in two domains, one local and the other international. The former had two aspects, one comprised research and teaching, and the other, through being Treasurer and then President of the Australian Psychological Society, was directed at building a strong and viable Society, financially, collegiately, and professionally. The second domain of involvement resulted in holding the posts of Secretary General and then President of the International Association of Applied Psychology in which, among other things, an underlying interest was in strengthening and deepening the participation of Australian psychologists in the activities of the Association. Due progressively to the efforts of many this has led to a range of major outcomes including an increasing membership of Australian psychologists in both the Association and its Board of Directors, their increasing participation in the Association's congresses, and in the Society being granted the right for the first time to host an International Congress of Applied Psychology (the 2010 ICAP in Melbourne). Collectively the benefits for Australian psychology have been many. These include raising the profile of Australian psychology internationally, giving Australia a voice in the governance of international psychology, and working towards Australian psychology contributing to mainstream psychological theory and practice. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the discipline of psychology is that it is both scientifically and professionally oriented, and while the balance between the two may vary from one organisation to another their interdependence is a necessity. Because all national societies and international associations of psychology are children of the discipline the affinity is natural, yet while this may be so the connection needs to be actively maintained to prevent it withering, to the detriment of both. Thus, in keeping with tradition, while this article will outline the major contributions upon which the award was made, its primary focus is the nature and imperative of the relationship between science and professional practice, and this will be a recurring theme in each of the following principal sections dealing with research and teaching, the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), the 2010 International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP), and mainstream psychology.     

Lifeboat politics in the Pacific: Affect and the ripples and shimmers of a migrant saturated future

Affect is explored in relation to the governance of irregular migrants and asylum seekers that turn such vulnerable individuals into a feared category. How are emotions as practices developed, fostered and enacted? The examples developed in the article focus on ‘illegal maritime arrivals’ (asylum seekers arriving by boat) and the emotionally charged response to them in Australia. The article argues that the state, far from embodying a detached and neutral arbiter utilising various steering mechanisms of care and due process, instead governs through fear and anxiety generated in relation to outsiders. The state draws on, and indeed creates, dispositions and feelings, generating a distinct politics of affect. The motif of the lifeboat is an example of a diversion from the anxieties and fears in everyday life; a metaphor for scarcity and a battle for survival. The asylum seeker as ‘illegal maritime arrival’ (boat person) is the exemplar of such a lifeboat politics in the Australian case.     

Not all semantics: Similarities and differences in reminiscing function and content between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

This study explored why and how Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remember the past. Indigenous Australians traditionally share a strong oral tradition in which customs, personal and cultural histories, and other narratives are passed across groups and between generations by word of mouth. Drawing on this tradition, in which inherent value is placed on sharing knowledge and maintaining connectedness with others, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would be more likely than non-Indigenous Australians to report reminiscing to fulfil social functions (but not self or directive functions). Furthermore, we hypothesised that Indigenous Australians would recall personal past experiences more elaborately than would non-Indigenous Australians. In Study 1, 33 Indigenous Australians and 76 non-Indigenous Australians completed Webster's Reminiscence Functions Scale. As predicted, Indigenous participants reported higher scores on subscales related to social functions than did non-Indigenous Australians: particularly “Teach/Inform” and “Intimacy Maintenance”. They also scored higher on the “Identity” subscale. In Study 2, 15 Indigenous and 14 non-Indigenous Australians shared three memories from the distant and recent past. While Indigenous and non-Indigenous narratives did not differ in either emotion or elaboration, Indigenous Australians provided more memory context and detail by including a greater proportion of semantic memory content. Taken together, these findings suggest differences in both why and how Australians remember.