Some investigators have suggested that when material becomes more complex, an individual is forced to use an intuitive process, while others suggest that increasing complexity forces analysis. This study was an attempt to resolve this question by manipulating rate of presentation and instructions. No effect was found due to these manipulations or due to complexity. The reason is not clear, but may be due to a combination of factors which inclined the experiment in the direction of the intuitive process.

Four types of schedule interactions have been defined: positive contrast, negative contrast, positive induction, and negative induction. Most work has centered on the necessary conditions for positive contrast. One position states that a reduction in reinforcement frequency is necessary; the other view states that a reduction in response rate is necessary. Neither view can account for the occurrence of induction. The present experiment tests the hypothesis that stimulus control effects the occurrence of either contrast or induction. Three pigeons were trained to respond for primary reinforcement (strong stimulus control condition), and three pigeons were trained to respond for conditioned reinforcement (weak stimulus control condition). A response rate decrease was caused by changing the schedule of reinforcement from MULT EXT, VI 1-min, EXT, VI 1-min to MULT VI 1-min, VI 1-min, VI 1-min, VI 1-min for primary reinforcement birds, and to MULT (Chain VI 1-min, VI 1-min), (CHAIN VI 1-min, VI 1-min for conditioned reinforcement birds. Negative contract was observed for all birds receiving primary reinforcement, but positive induction occurred for two of three birds receiving conditioned reinforcement. In the next phase a response rate decrease was caused by changing the schedule to MULT VI 1-min, VI 1-min, DRO 20-sec, VI 1-min for primary reinforcement birds , and to MULT (CHAIN VI 1-min), VI 1-min, CHAIN DRO 20-sec , VI 1-min) for conditioned reinforcement birds. Two of the primary reinforcement birds showed positive contrast, while the third showed negative induction. Two of the conditioned reinforcement birds showed negative induction, while the third showed no effect. Gradients of stimulus control showed no difference between the groups due to the prolonged training before testing for stimulus control. It was concluded that differential amounts of stimulus control can account for the differences in the schedule interactions in this experiment and those observed in previous research.

A treatment program was designed to enable subjects to lose weight through the use of self-confrontation as described in Saslow (1969), and the use of the General Relationship Improvement of the Human Development Institute (HDI), Berlin and Wyckoff (1964). Self-confrontation is a programmed rehearsal of a specific problem by one person alone, for a five-minute period. The rehearsal, or self-confrontation is to be as vivid as possible, intellectually, emotionally, visually and physically. The General Relationship Improvement Program is a 10-week text, worked in pairs, which is aimed at better intrapsychic and interpersonal communication and understanding. Four matched groups were used in the study. Group I, N=10, used nutritional information. Group II: N=8, used the HDI program. Group III: N=9, used the self-confrontation technique. Group IV: N=12, used a combination of the self-confrontation technique and the HDI program. The mean weight losses were as follows: Group I: 1.25 lb. Group II: 2.75 lb. Group III: 10.89 lb. Group IV: 5.91 lb. Approximately 6 hours of experimenter time were spent in actual contact with the subjects. Only 2 weights were recorded by her, the first and the final. The others weights were self-recorded. The study was designed to continue for 12 weeks.

Coping flexibility, the ability to match coping strategy choice to the demands of a situation, has been found to diminish the effects of daily stress. Despite the importance of high levels of coping flexibility, little research has explored factors that can predict one’s ability to demonstrate coping flexibility. One promising avenue for such research is the role of sleep. This research aims to explore the importance of sleep as a predictor of daily coping flexibility across two studies. Study one consists of one hundred and fifty college student participants who were recruited in the Spring 2021 semester at the College of William & Mary and asked to complete 14 days of diaries. For each entry, participants were asked about the most stressful event they experienced that day and were asked to complete a sleep quality indicator and the Coping Flexibility Questionnaire. Study two consists of eighty-seven participants who were recruited in the Fall 2021 semester at the College of William & Mary. Participants were asked to wear a Phillips Respironics Actiwatch band that uses an accelerometer to measure sleep for one week. Participants were asked to wear their band continuously and complete self-report daily diaries assessing their sleep and coping flexibility. In study one, we did not find a significant relationship between self-report sleep quality and coping flexibility. In study two, we again did not find a significant relationship between self-report sleep quality and coping flexibility. Additionally, in study two, we did not find significant relationships between actigraphy measures (i.e., onset latency or awake periods) and coping flexibility. In exploratory analyses examining whether sleep quality predicted delayed coping flexibility, we found that awake periods predicted coping flexibility a day later than initially hypothesized, such that as awake periods increased, coping flexibility decreased. Overall, our studies fail to demonstrate self-reported sleep quality, onset latency, or awake periods as a predictor of next-day strategy-situation fit coping flexibility, but does explore potential delayed effects.

Executive functioning is an umbrella term used to describe abilities that include self-monitoring, goal-setting, planning, organization, attention, and working memory. Broadband behavior rating scales are commonly used by school psychologists and the instruments often now include an executive functioning scale. It is unknown, however, how these scales, based on a few items, compare to more extensive rating scales that solely measure executive functioning. The current study examined the overall consistency between the executive functioning scale on one broadband instrument to another instrument that assesses multiple areas of executive functioning by having teachers complete both instruments at the same point in time. The comparisons revealed statistically significant correlations, but significantly different mean scores between the executive functioning CAB-T score and the overall BRIEF score. Furthermore, classification consistency (i.e., scores from the two scales are both in the average range or clinically significant range) only occurred approximately two-thirds of the time. Thus, concerns were raised about the use of the scale from the broadband instrument as a general measure of executive functioning.

Educational research has a long history of investigating factors that are linked to improved academic performance. Here I examined research on three factors that impact academic performance—working memory (WM), cognitive load, and motivation. Although each of these factors were known to impact academic performance, there were no studies that examined the combined effect of these three factors on performance. The current study attempted to examine the potential connections between these factors, and their collective impact on strategies for learning in the context of math performance. Experiment 1 tested the impact of WM, cognitive load, and motivation for a math task in an online population, and Experiment 2 tested these impacts for an in-lab sample. In both samples, manipulations of cognitive load and motivation were ineffective, but significant relationships were discovered for individual differences on these constructs. Motivation and cognitive load were related, and so were cognitive load and WM. In addition, all of these variables were related to performance. Further research on the connections among these variables is needed to understand their relative impacts on math performance.

The present study examined differences in attentional control, attentional control self-efficacy, and coping as self-regulatory mechanisms among students with varying grade point averages (GPA) who experience posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Subjects included 58 college students from one large comprehensive university in the Mid-South who met the criteria for diagnosis of PTSS based on the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Three groups were created based on college GPA and graduation requirements at the university (at-risk for graduation, on-track for graduation, and ontrack for graduating with honors). Participants completed a survey that included demographics and measures of PTSS, attentional control, attentional control self-efficacy, and coping. A one-way between groups ANOVA revealed statistically significant differences in attentional control self-efficacy and avoidant coping between the Honors and At-Risk groups. The current study provides additional information and support that success for students with PTSS may be explained by their confidence in their abilities to control their attention and using less avoidant coping strategies. However, as a group, students with PTSS need strategies for increasing their attentional control, self-efficacy beliefs, and adaptive coping.

Individuals experience risk ubiquitously, but measuring risk taking is difficult. The balloon analogue risk task (BART) was developed in order to assess risk taking through having subjects press a key that accrues reward but also risk losing all reward with each press. In humans, greater responding in this task is associated with other maladaptive risk taking behaviors. The present research modeled this relationship in pigeons due to their previously shown propensity towards risk taking behavior. Experiment 1 used an unsignaled balloon task in which losing could only occur after 5 pecks. Results showed below optimal performance with greater pecks associated with faster acquisition of risk taking in the suboptimal choice task and evidence of modulation by delay discounting measures. Experiment 2 signaled the number of pecks with colors and tested multiple hoppers as a reinforcement modality to increase performance. Results showed only signaling the number of pecks improved performance and was related to performance in the high risk BART task. Both the low and high risk variants were associated with slower suboptimal choice acquisition and again had evidence of modulation by delay discounting measures. Potential shared underlying mechanisms are discussed.

Suggestibility occurs when inaccurate information is incorporated into currently existing memories. The present study examined the effect of forewarning on suggestibility, including the influence of working memory capacity (WMC). The main hypotheses are that forewarnings will reduce suggestibility compared to the control group and that high-WMC will yield lower suggestibility compared to medium- and low-WMC. The final hypothesis is that WMC and forewarning will interact such that low-WMC individuals will benefit more than high-WMC individuals from the forewarning. A sample of 123 college students was recruited. Participants watched a clip of the TV-show 24. WMC was then assessed followed by the presentation of a misleading narrative. Prior to listening to the narrative, they read a set of instructions that sometimes contained the forewarning. After listening to the misleading narrative, participants took a test over their memories of the film. A 2 X 3 ANOVA was conducted and found a main effect for forewarning. No other effect was significant. The current results only support the first main hypothesis that forewarning reduces suggestibility. These results could be used to help prepare eyewitnesses to resist misinformation in the period between witnessing an event and reporting the event during a later trial.

This replication study sought to analyze the effects of behavioral observability and overall impressions on rater agreement, as recently examined by Roch, Paquin, & Littlejohn (2009) and Scott (2012). Results from the study performed by Roch et al. indicated that raters are more likely to agree when items are either more difficult to rate or less observable. In the replication study conducted by Scott, the results did not support the relationship which Roch et al. found between observability and rater agreement, but did support the relationship previously found between item difficulty and rater agreement. The four objectives of this replication study were to determine whether rater agreement is negatively related to item observability (Hypothesis 1) and positively related to difficulty (Hypothesis 2), as well as to determine whether item performance ratings are closer to overall impressions when items are less observable (Hypothesis 3) and more difficult to rate (Hypothesis 4). The sample was comprised of 152 undergraduate students tasked with providing performance ratings on an individual depicted in a video of a discussion group. Results indicated that agreement was negatively correlated with both observability (supporting Hypothesis 1) and difficulty (not supporting Hypothesis 2), and that ratings were closer to overall impressions when items were less observable (supporting Hypothesis 3), but not when items were more difficult to rate (not supporting Hypothesis 4).