Delay of gratification in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders.

Delay of gratification is a prototypical measure of self-control that merits systematic investigation in psychopaths. White male prisoners were provided with repeated opportunities to select an immediate response with uncertain reward or a delayed response with a higher rate of reward under 1 of 3 incentive conditions. Psychopaths' performance depended on their level of trait anxiety and incentive condition: Whereas low-anxious psychopaths were relatively unwilling to delay when omission of expected rewards also incurred monetary punishments, they displayed relative superior performance when the task involved rewards only. Findings complement those for passive avoidance learning in psychopaths and suggest that inhibitory self-control in low-anxious psychopaths is somewhat impaired under conditions involving a combination of monetary rewards and punishments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance in psychopathic offenders: A replication and extension.

A passive avoidance task was administered to 97 Caucasian and 110 African American offenders to (a) replicate prior research demonstrating poor passive avoidance in psychopathic individuals (Ps) with low anxiety, (b) compare the effects of anxiety, neuroticism, and fear in identifying subgroups of Ps and controls who differ in passive avoidance, and (c) reevaluate the generalizability of this finding to African American offenders. Replicating past research with Caucasian offenders, low-anxious Ps committed significantly more passive avoidance efforts than low-anxious controls. Although this difference was also found in Ps and controls with low neuroticism scores, the comparison involving low-fear offenders failed to reach significance. As in past research, comparable comparisons involving African American offenders were not statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and drug abuse-dependence disorders in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders.

Co-occurrence of psychopathy (assessed with the Revised Psychopathy Checklist [R. D. Hare, 1985]) and lifetime Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) alcohol and drug disorders (assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule; National Institute of Mental Health) was examined in a sample of 360 male inmates. Consistent with previous research that used diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths were more likely than nonpsychopaths to have lifetime diagnoses of alcoholism, any drug disorder, and multiple drug disorder. The relation between substance abuse and the 2 factors of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist was also examined. Substance abuse was significantly related to general social deviance (Factor 2) but was unrelated to core personality features of psychopathy (Factor 1). Two possible models of psychopathy (unitary syndrome vs dual-diathesis model) are presented that may account for the association between psychopathy and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probability of punishment and suppression of behavior in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders.

To investigate the hypothesis that psychopathic offenders would show less suppression of behavior as a function of punishment at varying levels of probability, 3 groups of Ss were selected. 50 criminal offenders were divided into 2 groups of psychopathic (mean age 31.5 yrs) and nonpsychopathic (mean age 30.7 yrs) offenders based on clinical ratings. A 3rd group of 25 nonoffenders (mean age 28.9 yrs) was also used. A probability-learning card game was developed that consisted of 10 different levels of punishment probability, with the punishment based on the response-cost technique of removing reinforcers (i.e., chips redeemable for money). A measure of suppression was obtained from the reduction of Ss' response rates. Results show psychopathic offenders to produce the least suppression and the lowest winnings, with these findings attributed to the psychopaths being least responsive when the probability of punishment was most uncertain. Results are best explained in terms of cognitive factors, with the element of magical or superstitious logic proposed as a major pathognomic characteristic of psychopathy. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Approach and avoidance motivation in psychopathic criminal offenders during passive avoidance.

The authors evaluated competing theories that attribute psychopathic individuals' poor passive avoidance to a strong activating system, a weak inhibitory system, or poor modulation of behavioral activation when inhibitory cues appear. In Study 1, the continuous motor task involved a reward phase to elicit the activating system followed by a passive avoidance phase. Study 2 tested the generality of the theories by using an active avoidance phase to elicit the activating system. Heart rate and response speed results from Study 1 best supported the strong activating system and poor response modulation models in low-anxiety psychopathic offenders. Study 2 results did not clearly support any of the models. Further research is needed to determine if excessive activation by reward and poor response modulation are associated with passive avoidance deficits and other characteristics of low-anxiety psychopathic offenders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric integration in psychopathic offenders.

The goal of the present study was to determine whether a reduced capacity for interhemispheric integration can explain the attention deficits seen in psychopathic individuals under conditions that place substantial demands on left-hemisphere-specific resources. The present study examined the performance of 54 incarcerated psychopathic and nonpsychopathic male offenders on a same-different global-local paradigm that permits manipulation of both the magnitude of processing demands and the demand for interhemispheric coordination. Prior studies with similar paradigms have demonstrated that the cerebral hemispheres can function more efficiently as relatively independent processors on simple tasks, whereas communication between the hemispheres improves performance when processing demands are heavy. Analyses indicated that psychopathic offenders are not deficient in interhemispheric integration but provided additional evidence consistent with the left hemisphere activation hypothesis of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Rorschach comparison of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic conduct disordered adolescents

Forty-eight male subjects who met the DSM-IV (APA, 1994) criteria for conduct disorder (CD) were assessed for psychopathy level using a modified version of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R, Forth, Hart, & Hare, 1990). Rorschach variables associated with self-perception, affects, and object relations, early behavioral problems and history of violence were compared between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic CD adolescents. Psychopathic CD subjects were significantly more self-centered and violent than nonpsychopathic CD subjects. Decreased attachment and anxiety were found in both CD groups. Our study adds empirical support to the heterogeneity noted among CD adolescents (PCL-R), supports the utility of the Rorschach for detecting individual differences among CD subjects, and extends the empirical work of Gacono and Meloy (1994) to adolescent psychopathy.     

Recognition of facial affect in psychopathic offenders.

The authors examined the reliability of facial affect processing deficits found in psychopathic individuals (R. Blair et al., 2004) and whether they could be modified by attentional set. One hundred eleven offenders, classified using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. Hare, 2003) and Welsh Anxiety Scale (G. Welsh, 1956), performed a facial affect recognition task under 2 conditions. On the basis of research linking psychopathy, amygdala dysfunction, and deficits in facial affect recognition, the authors predicted that psychopathic offenders would display performance deficits when required to identify the emotional expression of particular faces. In addition, given evidence linking the affective processing deficits in psychopathy to focus of attention, the authors predicted that any deficits in facial affect processing would disappear when participants could anticipate which affective cues would be relevant on a given trial. Contrary to expectation, psychopathic offenders performed as well as controls in both conditions. The authors conclude that the conditions that reveal affective deficits in psychopathic individuals require further specification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal selective attention in psychopathic female offenders.

Research on psychopathy in women has generated equivocal laboratory findings. This study examined the performance of psychopathic women in 2 laboratory tasks designed to assess abnormal selective attention associated with response modulation deficits: a computerized picture-word (PW) task, and a picture-word Stroop (PW Stroop) task. Consistent with data from psychopathic men, women receiving high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare, 1991) displayed reduced Stroop interference on the PW and PW Stroop tasks. Results suggest that despite some differences in the expression of psychopathy across gender, psychopathic women are characterized by selective attention abnormalities predicted by the response modulation hypothesis and similar to those exhibited by psychopathic men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological implications of selective attentional functioning in psychopathic offenders.

Several core characteristics of the psychopathic personality disorder (i.e., impulsivity, failure to attend to interpersonal cues) suggest that psychopaths suffer from disordered attention. However, there is mixed evidence from the cognitive literature as to whether they exhibit superior or deficient selective attention, which has led to the formation of several distinct theories of attentional functioning in psychopathy. The present experiment investigated participants' abilities to purposely allocate attentional resources on the basis of auditory or visual linguistic information and directly tested both theories of deficient or superior selective attention in psychopathy. Specifically, 91 male inmates at a county jail were presented with either auditory or visual linguistic cues (with and without distractors) that correctly indicated the position of an upcoming visual target in 75% of the trials. The results indicated that psychopaths did not exhibit evidence of superior selective attention in any of the conditions but were generally less efficient in shifting attention on the basis of linguistic cues, especially in regard to auditory information. Implications for understanding psychopaths' cognitive functioning and possible neuropsychological deficits are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance learning in the earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris).

7 earthworms learned rapid approach to an earth goal at the end of a straight runway in 20 trials. Significant inhibition of approach occurred in 1 trial with aversive stimulation (saline goal). After 5 saline trials, readaptation to earth resulted in significant decreases in runway-approach time. A replication (69 Ss indicated that passive avoidance could be retained for 24 hr but not over 240 hr. Demonstration of 1-trial learning may be accounted for by the selection of salient stimuli that are particularly relevant in a cue-to-consequence relationship. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral evidence of prolonged interhemispheric transfer time among psychopathic offenders.

Several lines of evidence suggest the possibility of abnormal interhemispheric communication in psychopathy, but there have been few direct empirical studies. To address this gap in the literature, the authors examined one important aspect of interhemispheric communication, the efficiency with which information is transferred across the corpus callosum. Using A. T. Poffenberger's (1912) paradigm for estimating interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT) from simple motor responses to lateralized stimuli, the authors found a substantially prolonged IHTT among psychopathic criminals relative to nonpsychopathic criminals. This prolonged IHTT was somewhat more pronounced when participants were using their right hand to respond. This study provides initial behavioral evidence of slowed interhemispheric transfer in psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 116(4) of Journal of Abnormal Psychology (see record 2007-17062-019). The headings "Primary (n = 74)" and "Secondary (n = 49)" should be reversed in Table 1 on p. 401. In addition, the means for the Psychic Anxiety scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality should be 0.52 (rather than -0.52) and -0.34 (rather than 0.34).] Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R ≥ 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the generalizability of a fear deficit in psychopathic African American offenders.

Laboratory studies of psychopathy have yielded an impressive array of etiologically relevant findings. To date, however, attempts to demonstrate the generalizability of these findings to African American psychopathic offenders have been largely unsuccessful. The fear deficit has long been regarded as the hallmark of psychopathy, yet the generalizability of this association to African American offenders has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, we used an instructed fear paradigm and fear-potentiated startle to assess this deficit and the factors that moderate its expression in African American offenders. Furthermore, we conceptualized psychopathy using both a unitary and a two-factor model, and we assessed the constructs with both interview-based and self-report measures. Regardless of assessment strategy, results provided no evidence that psychopathy relates to fear deficits in African American offenders. Further research is needed to clarify whether the emotion deficits associated with psychopathy in European American offenders are applicable to African American offenders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance learning involves alpha2-noradrenergic receptors in a day old chick

Day-old chicks were trained on one-trial passive avoidance task, using methyl-anthranilate (MeA) as an aversive substance. Bilateral pharmacological manipulation of the intermediate hyperstriatum ventrale was performed by intracerebral application of an alpha2-noradrenergic agonist, clonidine (5 microM), or an antagonist, rauwolscine (300 microM). Only rauwolscine application (pre- or post-training) induced significant memory impairment. Quantitative receptor autoradiography was used to determine the kinetic properties of the binding sites for [3H]clonidine or [3H]rauwolscine in MeA-trained or water-trained (control) chicks, in forebrain areas known to be involved in avoidance learning. Scatchard analysis revealed that MeA-training resulted in a significant bilateral upregulation in the number of [3H]rauwolscine binding sites (Bmax) in the area of hyperstriatum ventrale. These findings suggest the importance of activation of alpha2-noradrenergic receptors in aversive learning in chicks.     

Hippocampal function in avoidance learning and punishment.

Discusses the effects of hippocampal lesions in avoidance and punishment situations. It is proposed that animals with such lesions cannot process information about places and therefore cannot employ place strategies in avoidance learning and punishment situations; they can only employ cue strategies that involve learning to approach or avoid a cue or to perform a response in the presence of a cue. Intact animals, on the other hand, can employ both place and cue strategies. The data are, to a large extent, consistent with this hypothesis. Implications for theories of learning in situations involving aversive reinforcers are discussed. (125 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensory responsiveness and avoidance learning in rats.

Conducted an analysis of sensory responsiveness and avoidance learning in 3 experiments using 5 rat strains: MNR/Har/Lu, MR/Har/Lu, RCA/Lu, RHA/Lu, and RLA/Lu. Ss totaled 470. There were significant differences among the strains in response to electric footshock. Also, the strain-specific shock intensity as the UCS elicited significantly higher rates of avoidance learning as compared with the rates of avoidance learning under an equal but average level of shock intensity as the UCS. In general, discrete auditory and visual sensory modes as the CS produced almost the same rate of avoidance learning. The proportion of variation in avoidance learning attributable to strains was significant under all 6 experimental conditions except the no-discrete CS and strain-specific UCS conditions. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance in syndromes of disinhibition: Psychopathy and extraversion.

According to the physiological animal model proposed by E. E. Gorenstein and J. P. Newman (see record 1980-24372-001), psychopaths and extraverts may be characterized by a common psychological diathesis related to behavioral inhibition. One aspect of this diathesis involves deficient passive avoidance learning, which has been central to explanations of unsocialized and antisocial behavior. In 3 experiments, a passive avoidance task was completed by 90 14–18 yr old males, 40 male university students, and 40 18–50 yr old men and women. Ss were also assessed on measures including the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and MMPI. Results support the prediction that psychopaths and extraverts would exhibit deficient passive avoidance relative to nonpsychopaths and introverts, respectively. The passive avoidance deficit was particularly evident in tasks that required Ss to inhibit a rewarded response to avoid punishment. The latter finding may be important for explaining the inconsistent results regarding passive avoidance learning in psychopaths. Discussion focuses on the importance of reward in mediating the passive avoidance deficit of disinhibited individuals and on the existence of an indirect relationship between psychopathy and extraversion—one that is consistent with the observed experimental parallels as well as with the more ambiguous evidence regarding a direct correlation between measures of the 2 syndromes. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditioned drinking as avoidance learning.

Conducted 4 experiments with a total of 104 male Sprague-Dawley albino rats. Blocking the robust conditioned drinking response following conditioning eliminated the isotonic procaine conditioned response (CR) but not the hypertonic procaine CR. Ss allowed to drink in the box during conditioning formed a larger CR than Ss merely injected with hypertonic or isotonic procaine who were prevented from drinking in the box: response blocking during extinction eliminated the latter CR. The CR to hypertonic procaine could also be eliminated if no experience of drinking water in the box occurred either during baseline or during conditioning. Blocking the drinking response, like blocking shock avoidance, markedly reduced its high resistance to extinction. Results suggest that rats overdrink to avoid anticipated illness, and fail to extinguish partially because they are never exposed to the fact that no illness will occur even if no drinking occurs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic responses of psychopathic sexual offenders: Treatment attrition, therapeutic change, and long-term recidivism.

The authors examined the therapeutic responses of psychopathic sex offenders (≥25 Psychopathy Checklist—Revised; PCL–R) in terms of treatment dropout and therapeutic change, as well as sexual and violent recidivism over a 10-year follow-up among 156 federally incarcerated sex offenders treated in a high-intensity inpatient sex offender program. Psychopathy and sex offender risk/treatment change were assessed using the PCL–R and the Violence Risk Scale—Sexual Offender version (VRS–SO), respectively. Although psychopathic participants were more likely than their nonpsychopathic counterparts (