Criminal thinking patterns are a set of processes that predispose someone to engage in criminal behavior. Various theories of criminal thinking posit that people showing criminal thinking patterns have a proclivity towards hostility, verbal and physical aggression, and antisocial behavior. Correspondingly, there needs to be more research with general populations, in contrast to justice populations, to create better assessments of criminal thinking patterns. The objective of this study was to create a measure of criminal thinking in the general population, test the survey for validity, and create normative scores. To do this, the Texas Christian University Criminal Thinking Scales 3.0 (TCU CTS 3.0) was modified to better assess the general population and demonstrate its validity. Results showed the TCU CTS 3.0 measured five areas: 1) Justification, 2) Grandiosity, 3) Power Orientation, 4) Response Disinhibition, and 5) Insensitivity to Others. Measures of criminal thinking had acceptable internal reliability scores (alphas ≥ 0.70) and were moderately correlated with measures of verbal and physical aggression, state-based anger, and hostility. The modified TCU CTS for the general population will provide an important comparison of criminal thinking levels in individuals who do not have histories of criminality or involvement with the justice system.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs social communication and causes restricted and repetitive behaviors, interests, and activities. Autistic children also have a variety of co-occurring difficulties, including elevated levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors and sleep problems. Research with neurotypical children highlights the importance of considering physiological and family-level predictors of child sleep quality (El-Sheikh & Kelly, 2017). The current study had three objectives: to examine the extent to which children’s baseline respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA), RSA reactivity (RSA-R) in response to a family stressor, and their interaction were related to children’s self-reported daytime sleepiness (a potential marker of sleep problems); to examine the extent to which a stressful family environment predicts daytime sleepiness, over and above children’s parasympathetic nervous system functioning; and to examine the extent to which a stressful family environment moderates associations between children’s parasympathetic nervous symptom functioning (i.e., baseline RSA, RSA-R, and their interaction) and daytime sleepiness. The RSA-Baseline was measured while children sat still, and measures of sleep quality and family risk were competed by children.

Animals must respond to stimuli in their environment that might pose a threat to their survival, such as the rustling of a bush or a loud noise. However, having a strong response to these stimuli, especially those that occur frequently, can be costly. Habituation occurs when a behavioral response to a stimulus decreases in magnitude after prolonged exposure or repeated presentations of that stimulus. Habituation is one mechanism that allows us to ignore stimuli that do not pose immediate danger, such as a jack hammer outside of our window. A recovery of the response following habituation occurs when a novel stimulus, or a dishabituating stimulus (e.g., a context change) is presented. Such a recovery would not occur if the reduced responding were the result of muscular fatigue. Previous research shows that wheel running in rats habituates within daily sessions (Aoyama & McSweeney, 2001). We investigated whether habituation could be attenuated in rats using context changes across sessions of wheel running. All rats had access to a running wheel for 30-minutes per day across 12 days. The control group encountered the wheel in the same context (olfactory, visual, and tactile) across days. The experimental group alternated between four possible contexts, which consisted of four locations, different visual contexts, and different scents. The dishabituating stimuli are the different contexts that are experienced by the experimental group. The results revealed that both groups had a decrease in wheel running within session, indicating that habituation occurred. The experimental group’s context changes did not slow the effects of habituation. The results will be discussed in terms of factors that influence habituation.

In nature, animals must learn to respond differently to different stimuli. Research using differential outcomes procedures have demonstrated that learning is facilitated when one response (e.g., pressing a right lever [RL]) is reinforced with one outcome (e.g., food) and another response (e.g., pressing the left lever [LL]) is reinforced with another outcome (e.g., sucrose). Previous research has found that highly valued reinforcers (e.g., chocolate-flavored pellets) can disrupt learning and might interfere with the emergence of the differential outcomes effect (DOE). The current research aims to extend the DOE to rats performing a visual discrimination and to compare the effects of a high valued reward (i.e., chocolate pellets) to a less valued reward (i.e., chow pellets) on learning. Rats will be trained to press a left lever during one visual stimulus (e.g., flashing light), and a right lever during another visual stimulus (e.g., solid light). The experimental group will receive a different outcome for each correct response (e.g., flashing light --> LL --> sucrose; solid light --> RL --> pellets). For half of the experimental group, correct responses will be reinforced with chow pellets and an 18% (v/v) sucrose solution, and the other half will receive chocolate pellets and a 30% (v/v) sucrose solution as reinforcement. In the control group, correct responses on both levers will result in both chow pellets and an 18% sucrose or in chocolate pellets and a 30% sucrose solution. We hypothesize that rats in the experimental groups will acquire the discrimination faster than those in the control groups, regardless of reinforcer type. If chocolate pellets disrupt learning, then animals in the chow conditions should acquire faster than chocolate pellet groups.

Retention in medical treatment is one important factor in medication adherence and overall recovery. Transportation, however, can be one barrier that impacts a person’s ability to access treatment consistently. The current study aims to understand how Tarrant County’s public transportation system affects treatment access. Patrons at Fort Worth Central bus station (N = 32) were surveyed on their experiences related to utilization of public transportation for medical appointments. Results show that most patrons did not miss appointments due to transportation access; however, those that relied on public transportation reported missing appointments with some regularity. Results also demonstrate that many patrons were unaware of alternate transportation options, such as ZipZone or faith-based transportation services. Findings highlight the need to raise public awareness of alternative transportation options, especially among those who rely on public transit systems to access necessary medical care. Future research can examine these questions in a population of clinic patrons, or aim to spread awareness of public transportation alternatives.