Biomedical subjects

Simon Dymond

Publications and source records attributed to Simon Dymond.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Evaluating the Efficacy of Electronic Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (e-SBIRT) for Gambling: An Online Pilot Randomised Trial.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the efficacy of electronic screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (e-SBIRT) at improving gambling outcomes and increasing help-seeking. METHODS: We conducted a two-arm, randomised online pilot trial (n = 83) comparing an e-SBIRT intervention with an active control over 12 weeks. The brief intervention was informed by motivational interviewing and incorporated personalised normative feedback, information provision, and relapse-prevention components. Eligible participants were aged 18 or older, resided in the UK and had scores indicating at least moderate severity gambling. RESULTS: Participants (54 [65.1%] male; mean [SD] age = 40.58 [12.75] years, mean [SD] PGSI = 7.16 [5.58]) in the e-SBIRT and control conditions showed improvements in gambling harms (p = 0.033) and perceived ability to control gambling (p = 0.029). No significant effects of condition assignment or condition x time interactions were observed. However, exploratory analyses of individual model coefficients suggested greater improvement in perceived ability to control gambling among participants receiving e-SBIRT at 12 weeks (p = 0.043). Exploratory analyses also suggested higher rates of help-seeking at 12-week follow-up among participants receiving e-SBIRT. CONCLUSION: Overall, e-SBIRT did not demonstrate clear advantages over assessment and information provision alone. Further research should prioritise refining intervention components and evaluating SBIRT approaches in settings that better reflect its opportunistic delivery model.

Humans↗

PubMed2006

The transformation of consequential functions in accordance with the relational frames of more-than and less-than.

Across three experiments, the transformation of consequential functions in accordance with a seven-member relational network (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) was investigated. In this network, the relational rankings ranged from A, ranked the least, to G, ranked the most. In the first phase, contextual cues for more-than and less-than were established by training participants across multiple exemplars to select comparisons containing larger quantities in the presence of the former cue, and fewer quantities in the presence of the latter cue. Participants then were trained in six conditional discriminations (i.e., A D, F>E, and G>F) with the contextual cues as samples and nonsense words as comparisons, and all possible derived relations were tested (e.g., B<F). In a subsequent phase, the D stimulus was paired with the delivery of points. Next, a test for a transformation of consequential functions was presented in either simultaneous discrimination tasks (Experiments 1 and 2) or a free-operant schedule task (Experiment 3), each of which employed members of the relational network as consequences. In all experiments, participants consistently emitted the response that produced the derived consequential stimulus that was ranked higher in the relational network, thus demonstrating a transformation of consequential functions. In Experiment 2, the baseline conditional discriminations were altered in a reversal design, and Experiment 3 examined generalization of the derived performance to a schedule-based task, with and without detailed instructions. Overall, the study demonstrated a transformation and generalization of consequential functions in accordance with the relational frames of More-than and Less-than, and bears relevance to the literature on transitive inference.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Derived stimulus relations, semantic priming, and event-related potentials: testing a behavioral theory of semantic networks.

Derived equivalence relations, it has been argued, provide a behavioral model of semantic or symbolic meaning in natural language, and thus equivalence relations should possess properties that are typically associated with semantic relations. The present study sought to test this basic postulate using semantic priming. Across three experiments, participants were trained and tested in two 4-member equivalence relations using word-like nonsense words. Participants also were exposed to a single- or two-word lexical decision task, and both direct (Experiment 1) and mediated (Experiments 2 and 3) priming effects for reaction times and event-related potentials were observed within but not across equivalence relations. The findings support the argument that derived equivalence relations provides a useful preliminary model of semantic relations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Relating derived relations as a model of analogical reasoning: reaction times and event-related potentials.

The current study aimed to test a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) model of analogical reasoning based on the relating of derived same and derived difference relations. Experiment 1 recorded reaction time measures of similar-similar (e.g., "apple is to orange as dog is to cat") versus different-different (e.g., "he is to his brother as chalk is to cheese") derived relational responding, in both speed-contingent and speed-noncontingent conditions. Experiment 2 examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with these two response patterns. Both experiments showed similar-similar responding to be significantly faster than different-different responding. Experiment 2 revealed significant differences between the waveforms of the two response patterns in the left-hemispheric prefrontal regions; different-different waveforms were significantly more negative than similar-similar waveforms. The behavioral and neurophysiological data support the RFT prediction that, all things being equal, similar-similar responding is relationally "simpler" than, and functionally distinct from, different-different analogical responding. The ERP data were fully consistent with findings in the neurocognitive literature on analogy. These findings strengthen the validity of the RFT model of analogical reasoning and supplement the behavior-analytic approach to analogy based on the relating of derived relations.

Adolescent↗