The Psychological Record最新文献

Previous research has shown that extended exposure to delayed reinforcement results in less impulsive choice in a subsequent delay-discounting task. Some work also suggests the opposite effect: extended exposure to immediate reinforcement may result in more impulsive choice behavior in a subsequent delay-discounting task. Understanding the impact that learning histories have on impulsive choice is important and clinically relevant because of the relationship between a strong preference for smaller-sooner over larger-later reinforcement (i.e., impulsive choice) and a myriad of other problematic health behaviors, such as substance misuse. In the present experiment, we exposed 24 rats to an immediate reinforcement intervention and 24 rats to a maturation/handle control group, followed immediately by a delay-discounting task. The procedure was designed as a systematic replication that accounted for several limitations from recent similar work. Results indicated that exposure to immediate reinforcement modestly increased impulsive choice in the delay-discounting task, but the effect was not overwhelming. These findings are consistent with previous work and have implications for understanding how experience-based interventions may affect clinically relevant impulsive choice.

Stemmer’s theory of language acquisition is an empiricist account of listener behavior learning based on ostensive processes similar to Pavlovian conditioning procedures. Even though it is not a strictly radical behaviorist theory, its formulation at the level of relations between stimuli and overt performance makes it suitable as a candidate to interpret recent experimental findings that use stimulus pairing procedures to investigate the learning of listener behavior. Stemmer describes stages that range from learning the meanings of words and complex sentences to processes that may be involved in learning new word meanings through their relations with other known words within verbal stimuli. Empirical evidences and limitations of the theory are described, and the case is made that this theory could be the source of a productive research program towards expanding behavior analytic accounts of listener behavior.

This article suggests a framework for integrating a conceptual and an empirical approach to understanding human speech. Verbal activities may be understood as a result of conjoint phylogenetic and ontogenetic selection processes. The present article situates an experimental procedure investigating verbal activities as a function of ontogenetic events in the larger context of Darwinian selection. In this experimental procedure, the experimenter uttered “hmm” and “yes” contingently and contiguously on a participant’s mentioning of predefined words. To test if the experimenter’s verbal activity modified the participant’s rate of those words, 63 Norwegian participants reported individually on video recordings. Resembling the results of previous studies, cumulative relative frequency distributions of target word rates showed that three of four target words occurred at a higher rate when the experimenter uttered “hmm” and “yes” during a participant’s report than when she was silent. Methodological challenges of investigating the selection of verbal activities by their contingencies with Phylogenetically Important Events are discussed.

Intimacy is an interpersonal repertoire related to physical and behavioral health indicators. Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) is a behavioral intervention that has demonstrated utility in improving intimacy repertoires, particularly in experimental single-case designs. The FAP Intimacy Scale (FAPIS) was developed with the aim of using a theoretically sound measure to evaluate FAP effects on a large scale. This study sought to culturally adapt and validate the FAPIS for Spanish-speaking populations. A total sample of 509 Spanish-speaking participants completed the survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine FAPIS psychometric properties. A network analysis was also performed to assess the relation among scale factors. As expected, the FAPIS Spanish version demonstrated a good fit, meeting the same three-factor structure as the original version. Network loading along three factors was also found, and item 3 was identified as the most central item in the scale. Low and negative correlations among FAPIS, experiential avoidance, emotional sensitivity, and social impact were found. Findings showed that FAPIS is a valid and reliable measure for assessing intimacy in Spanish-speaking populations.

As internet use has become nearly ubiquitous, problems related to internet use have become more pervasive. Identifying factors that promote internet use is an important first step in developing effective interventions. The preliminary Internet Consequences Questionnaire (ICQ-P) is a new functional behavioral assessment that measures the degree to which people's internet use is maintained by six different behavioral functions. In this pilot study, 61 psychology students completed the ICQ-P and a brief measure of problematic internet use, the Young Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ). Students with YDQ scores < 3 endorsed items related to attention and escape from demand more than other items. Students with YDQ scores ≥ 3 endorsed sensory reinforcement, demand, social avoidance, and private events more than students with lower YDQ scores. They also endorsed escape from demand and private events more than any other behavioral functions. The variability in responses to the ICQ-P and the systematic differences in responses of students with high and low YDQ scores provide evidence that the ICQ-P can be used to investigate possible functional relations. Thus, the ICQ-P may be useful in informing targeted interventions that address the specific reinforcement dynamics identified in individual cases of people seeking to change their internet use.

The impact of stroke on the lives of individuals and the health-care system is considerable. Damage from stroke can be limited if the treatment is administered at the appropriate time, so early recognition is essential. Some common interventions (e.g., FAST) designed to help potential stroke victims discriminate stroke symptoms often result in false negatives. Strokes can present with a wide variety of symptoms, making it difficult to discriminate stroke symptoms from non-stroke symptoms. Because the probability that a given set of symptoms are stroke symptoms is typically unknown to the victim, the problem is a decision under conditions of uncertainty. Signal detection methodology allows us to consider the ability of an individual or group to discriminate between stroke symptoms and non-stroke symptoms, as well as measure the motivation or bias toward a particular decision. We examined the effects of levels of feedback on performance of a random sample of participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk. We found that feedback designed to generate liberal bias toward stroke detection yielded fewer misses than FAST while maintaining a false alarm rate below 50%. Given that strokes are difficult to discriminate, this suggests that interventions should be focused on incentivizing help-seeking behaviors in conditions of uncertainty for those most at risk.

An exclusion training procedure involves presenting a sample stimulus with an unrelated comparison stimulus that is presented alongside other comparison stimuli that previously have acquired a negative relation to the sample stimulus. Due to the already established negative comparisons, the participant selects the unrelated stimulus, establishing a relation between the two stimuli. Of the large body of research on exclusion, there has been no research conducted that has combined respondent conditioning with an exclusion training procedure. This study used a respondent-type matching-to-sample (ReTMTS) exclusion training procedure with probe trials to train 3, three-member equivalence classes. A–B relations were trained using the ReTMTS procedure, and A–C relations were trained via exclusion using the ReTMTS procedure. Of the 10 participants who reached the test phase, only 2 failed to reach the criterion required to demonstrate equivalence responding. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research on exclusion training.

This article provides an overview of cultural environmental factors that influence interactions between organized cultural groups and the recipients of their aggregate outcome. The discussion highlights the elaborated account of metacontingency with the primary focus on ways this perspective offers points of entry to alter contextual factors and change cultural practices. The concepts of metacontingency, macrobehavior, macrocontingency, and cultural milieu are emphasized in the behavior scientific analysis of cultural practices. In this process, interactions of verbally sophisticated cultural groups, the aggregate outcome, and their influence on the cultural environment will be examined. Moreover, the mediating role of verbal repertoires of individuals will be discussed.

Acceptance and commitment therapy/training (ACT) is a transdiagnostic intervention that holds promise in improving well-being across a variety of contexts and modalities of application. The current scoping review aims to examine the literature on the use of ACT interventions in higher education. Such interventions target aspects of student well-being (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, life satisfaction, flexibility), academic outcomes, and knowledge of ACT processes. This scoping review includes 34 peer-reviewed empirical research articles, located across multiple databases, that applied ACT interventions with students enrolled in higher education. We found that online and in-person interventions were both widely used and were found to be effective at increasing both academic and well-being outcomes. Though these outcomes are promising, nearly half of the articles reviewed provided insufficient detail to allow for replication and reported scant demographic details. Strengths, limitations, and directions for future research involving ACT interventions in higher education are discussed, in the interest of further aligning research with the ACBS Task Force recommendations, and most important, supporting students.

The robust vocabularies acquired by neurotypical children are impossible to account for by direct instruction alone, and as such incidental acquisition must play a role. A variety of explanations for the source of this exponential language growth have been put forth by theorists across related disciplines. We provide our general reflections on interactions that exist among the possible sources of incidental language acquisition that have been put forth by both behavior-analytic and cognitive perspectives. We first consider the behavior-analytic perspectives of bidirectional naming (BiN), stimulus equivalence (SE), and relational frame theory (RFT). Next, we consider the cognitive perspective of fast mapping. We also provide comparisons between the behavior-analytic principle of exclusionary performance, and the cognitive principles of mutual exclusivity and the principle of contrast as additional sources for incidental acquisition of novel object–word labels and meanings. We reflect on points of contact and departure between these cross-disciplinary theories of human language and cognition.