The return of science to education in clinical psychology: a reply to Snyder and Elliott

Clinical psychology currently exists in a state of isolation from the other scientific domains. This disconnect is explained, in part, by the continued adherence to mind-body dualism by many clinical psychologists and the rift between researchers and practitioners within the discipline. However, natural science researchers are reasserting the connection between physical and biological properties and psychological phenomena. As a result, knowledge and skill pertaining to the scientific method will become increasingly important in the education of future clinical psychologists. Modifications to both undergraduate and graduate training are suggested.     

The Comparability of Cross-Laboratory Resting Heart Rate: A Reply to Elliott

Elliott's comments on the comparability of heart rate measures in cross-laboratory comparisons are discussed. The present paper attempts to show that the comparison of heart rate data across various laboratories in an attempt to infer motivational states may not be justified.     

Twins' IQs: A reply to Schwartz and Schwartz

It is argued that the criticisms by Schwartz and Schwartz of Jensen's analysis of IQ data on monozygotic twins reared apart fall down on two central points, methodological and theoretical: (a) Valid inferences concerning the broad heritability of intelligence can be drawn from analyses of the combined data from several independent studies of MZ twins reared apart, even though the groups differ significantly in mean IQ; (b) Mean population differences within a given racial category can involve genetic as well as environmental factors.     

Genetic similarity theory: A reply to Mealey and new evidence

Mealey's criticisms of genetic similarity theory (GST) (Rushton,et al., 1984) are rebutted as either based on a misreading of its claims or a failure to grasp the nature of such theorizing. We argue that, if a gene can ensure its own survival by acting so as to bring about the reproduction of any organism in which copies of itself are to be found, then GST is a worthwhile alternative to kin selection theory. The most effective way for this to be accomplished is for organisms to be able to detect copies of its genes in others, and proffer preferential treatment to those most similar. We report novel data congruent with this hypothesis: (a) spouses assort more on the basis of the more genetically influenced of a set of homogeneous traits (i.e., there is a positive correlation between assortative mating coefficients and heritability estimates), and (b) following the death of a child, parental grief intensity is correlated with the child's similarity to the parent.     

Defining causal variants in rare epilepsies: an essential team effort between biomedical scientists,geneticists and epileptologists

In the last few years, with the advent of next generation sequencing (NGS), our knowledge of genes associated with monogenic epilepsies has significantly improved. NGS is also a powerful diagnostic tool for patients with epilepsy, through gene panels, exomes and genomes. This has improved diagnostic yield, reducing the time between the first seizure and a definitive molecular diagnosis. However, these developments have also increased the complexity of data interpretation, due to the large number of variants identified in a given patient and due to the phenotypic variability associated with many of the epilepsy-related genes.In this paper, we present examples of variant classification in “real life” clinic situations. We emphasize the importance of accurate phenotyping of the epilepsies including recognising variable/milder phenotypes and expansion of previously described phenotypes. There are some important issues specific to rare epilepsies – mosaicism and reduced penetrance - which affect genetic counselling. These challenges may be overcome through multidisciplinary meetings including epileptologists, pediatric neurologists, and clinical and molecular geneticists, in which every specialist learns from the others in a process which leads to for rapid and accurate diagnosis. This is an important milestone to achieve as targeted therapiesbased on the functional effects of pathogenic variants become available.     

Re-stressing prosody: A reply to Cutler,Howard, and Patterson

Cutler, Howard, and Patterson (this volume) claim that prosodic properties play no role in visual lexical access. In this paper, we argue that prosodic theory has its feet more firmly on the psycholinguistic ground than they think.