The effect of punishment and reinforcement procedures on a stutterer's factor II avoidance response

The purpose of this clinical experiment was to investigate the manipulability of a Factor II avoidance response (arm movement). The substantive hypothesis under test was that its suppression would be enhanced by repeated punishment sessions. During the first of nine therapy sessions response-contingent negative stimulation was not delivered. In the next five, after a base-rate period, “wrong” was made consequent upon the target response. In each of these sessions the suppression of arm movement was apparent. However, the magnitude of the suppression decreased from session to session. Evidently, the continued use of punishment did not enhance suppression. Because of this finding procedural changes were introduced in the next three therapy sessions. Verbal praise was added as a consequence of increasingly stringent omission criteria and three consecutive units of praise led to time-out from the reportedly fatiguing task of continuous speech. A marked reduction and then complete extinction resulted. Moreover, learning was evidenced since the frequency of arm movement lessened in the base-rate period of each session.     

Regression II. Development through regression

As shown in our previous paper (‘Regression I. Experimental approaches to regression’, JAP, 65, 2, 345-65), the common mechanism of regression can be described as reversible dedifferentiation, which is understood as a relative increase of the proportion of low-differentiated (older) systems in actualized experience. Experimental data show that regression following disease (chronic tension headache) is followed by adaptation and an increase in system differentiation in that experience domain which contains systems responsible for that adaptation. The results of mathematical modelling support the idea that reversible dedifferentiation can be one of the mechanisms for increasing the effectiveness of adaptation through learning. Reversible dedifferentiation, which is phenomenologically described as regression, is a general mechanism for restructuring the organism-environment interactions in situations where behaviours that were effective in the past become ineffective. Reversible dedifferentiation has evolved as a component of adaptation when new behaviours are formed and large-scale modifications in the existing behaviours are required in the face of changes in the external and/or internal environment. Thus, the authors believe that this article provides evidence for Jung’s view that regression is not only a ‘return’ to past forms of thinking, affects and behaviour, but that regressive processes provide a significant impetus for psychological growth and development.     

Raising the Virtuous Bar: The Underlying Issues of Genetic Moral Enhancement

From the perspective of virtue ethics, is it possible and permissible to enhance moral behavior through gene modification? In preparation to answer this question, we must ask five questions: (1) What may we assume regarding genetic inheritance and human nature? (2) Can specific genes predispose behavior related to the moral virtues? (3) What kind of genetic enhancement would be useful for moral enhancement? (4) Should there be a distinction between somatic and germline gene modification? (5) Is genetic modification best approach to moral enhancement? This article concedes that genetic engineering has the capacity to enhance the human disposition to moral behavior, but gene editing cannot create virtue because virtues are stable, habituated dispositions, acquired over time. That being said, gene editing for purposes of enhancing moral behavior is permissible.     

生殖系基因治疗的技术和伦理问题

生殖系基因治疗是通过对生殖系细胞的基因修饰,给该细胞发育而来的整个有机体及其后代带来永久性的遗传纠正。本文着重对生殖系治疗的现有技术条件,存在技术问题及各种观点作一归纳,主要试图反映生殖系基因治疗的科学背景及当代人的思考,希望有助于人们的思考。     

生殖系基因治疗技术的伦理论争及其核心问题

目前关于生殖系基因治疗技术的伦理争论仍然十分激烈。这些争论的核心环节在于"父母生育一个健康血缘后代的需要"如何获得道德合理性论证,而目前很多研究在某种程度上忽视了这一问题,因而既不能解释这些伦理争论产生的原因,也不能为解决这一问题提供有效的指导。     

微生物与人类进化

根据现代分子生物学知识和微生物知识,认为基因重组方式可能是人类进化的一种主要方式;并认为微生物能通过基因重组有效介导自身基因和各种生物基因流向人类;从原核生物到真核生物中广泛存在的转座作用可能是微生物介导的基因重组的一种重要方式;高等生物是由低等生物进化而来的,而微生物是进化上最早最低级的生命体。据此,认为微生物可能在人类进化和物种进化中起到了极其重要的作用,甚至可能是一种源泉的作用。其可能方式是     

A Nonverbal Learning Disability in a Case of Central Hypoventilation Syndrome without a PHOX2B Gene Mutation

This study examines the neuropsychological profile of a boy with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) without a paired-like homeobox gene (PHOX2B) mutation. CCHS is a rare disorder of autonomic nervous system development characterized by an impaired ventilatory response to hypercarbia and hypoxemia. Mild intellectual deficits are common but a specific cognitive profile is not established in CCHS. We describe a nonverbal learning disorder as a CCHS endophenotype and recommend that detailed neuropsychological testing be performed on all individuals with CCHS. Defining the psycho-educational needs in CCHS may avert compounding the emotional and medical stresses of this already debilitating disorder.     

Don't throw the bathwater in with the baby

The Presidential Address of the European Association of Developmental Psychology, Goossens (2012, this issue), this year concerned how genes and environments interplay to shape loneliness and other developmental psychological relevant outcomes. This is a very welcome. However, when developmental psychology is now ready to integrate recent genetic and neuroscience knowledge and methods, I think it would be very wise not to go uncritically through the mistakes that have been made in other disciplines and instead to learn from their hard lessons. I discuss some problems (genes vs. environments, identifying genes for a phenotype, environmental causes of developmental outcomes, and gene×environment interaction and epigenetics) and some suggestions for solutions that can be used to avoid throwing the bathwater in with the baby.