Language plays a pivotal role in governing human behavior through rules, influencing both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Research has shown that rule-governed behavior often becomes rigid, leading to insensitivity to changing contingencies and contributing to psychological distress. While traditional models of rule-governance provide valuable insights, they fail to explain how verbal stimuli specify contingencies. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) addresses this limitation by explaining rule-governance through contextual cues and derived stimulus relations. Within this framework, augmentals are said to modify the value of events and are categorized as either formative or motivative. While formative augmentals establish given consequences as reinforcers or punishers through trained stimulus relations, motivative augmentals temporarily alter the extent to which previously established consequences function as reinforcers or punishers. Limited research has explored the effects of motivative augmentals within the RFT framework. The study investigated the effects of motivative augmentals on behavior during response deficit condition, employing the disequilibrium model to assess changes in instrumental (advertisement watching) and contingent (video watching) activities. Results showed that the presentation of candidate augmentative verbal stimuli—during a response deficit contingency—lead to reductions in both instrumental and contingent activities compared to that of deficit alone conditions for 7/8 particiapnts. The findings of the study could suggest that motivative augmentals temporarily alter the perceived value of events, and therefore, the regulation of behavior during deficit.

This study investigated the impact of rules operating as contingency-specifying stimuli (CSS). The primary focus was on whether rules could specify a contingency that alters the functions of advertisements and videos. Integrating Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Response Disequilibrium Theory (RDT), it was examined whether rules with comparative contextual cues mimicked the effects of response deficit contingencies. Ten Salem State University undergraduate students participated in a counterbalanced study with three baselines that preceded or followed two experimental conditions: Deficit and Rules. During each baseline phase of the study, advertisements and videos were freely available for viewing. Similarly, advertisements and videos were freely available for viewing during the Rules condition. Rules were framed comparatively across the dimensions of "more" and "better" to increase the duration of time spent viewing advertisements (e.g., "Click more Ads to see better Vids"). In the Deficit condition, a response deficit contingency was arranged to increase the viewing duration of advertisements. The results indicated that Rules had an effect that increased participants" advertisement viewing duration, which resembled the effect of the response deficit contingency. This research advances our understanding of verbally-regulated behavior changes, as the effect of rules approximated the effect of disequilibrium contingencies.

This qualitative study examines how private language schools reproduce or resist native-speakerism through public-facing discourses of three language schools where I also worked: British Town (Turkey), Canadian College (Colombia), and Approach International Student Center (Boston). Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, I analyzed websites and job advertisements through an integrated framework: Selvi's job-ad coding of discriminatory language, Fairclough's three-dimensional CDA, and Kress & van Leeuwen's visual grammar. Data consisted of public facing school discourses and screenshots of institutional pages and recruitment posts; analysis combined deductive codes (e.g., nativeness requirements, citizenship/passport filters, credential talk) with inductive themes in text-image pairings. The findings indicate that Turkey and Colombia explicitly and implicitly convey preference for native or foreign speakers by implementing British, US, and Canadian symbols; images of international (white) teachers; and different tiers of language course packages that indicate access to native or bicultural educators is superior and more valuable. By contrast, the Boston site centers qualifications, mentoring, and mission fit; job language avoids "native" requirements, and the staff page displays significant diversity. The patterns across cases hint at how market branding, rules, and school goals all work together. This research introduces a single, integrated coding model for websites and ads. Limitations include three cases and public texts only; future work should connect discourse to HR records and pay scales across sites and over time.

The story of "Cure for the Dead" takes place in the wake of a global catastrophe in which people began to experience organ failure at an accelerated rate. The disaster was averted by the discovery of "Regenerates"- individuals who can regrow their organs and provide surgical organ transplants for those who need them. In the gritty and unyielding City of Arteria, Regens are seen as a resource that must be sacrificed for the greater good, making them both invaluable and disposable. An important element of the surgical transplant process is a mysterious drug called Somnium, which allows the body to accept the new organ. However, there is more to Somnium than meets the eye, as it can also be used recreationally to induce a dreamlike state of euphoria, with devastating results if overused. The story follows three characters- Sophia Luckstrim, Cillian Berne, and Brona who embody the different ways in which this world has been affected by the organ crisis. It takes place in a setting influenced by 19th century and steampunk aesthetics.

This event was part of Against Erasure: An Exhibit for Indigenous Peoples History Month. It was coordinated by the Salem State University History Department, Historical Association, Inclusive Excellence's Center for Equity, Education and Belonging, the Center for Justice and Liberation, and the Frederick E. Berry Library.

Eva Focalman, research associate at Brandeis University and child of a Holocaust survivor, presents "Personal Response to the Holocaust."

Rebecca Sanders, who lived in Paris during WWII, was born 1902 in Ukraine, and was raised Jewish, provides Holocaust survivor testimony. Mrs. Sanders relates how she worked with the French underground during the war to save Jewish children,.

Henry Stark, of 20 Ruby Road, Marblehead, Massachusetts, and born 1908 in Offenbach am Main, Germany, provides Holocaust survivor testimony. Stark speaks about his early life, experience as the Nazis came to power, emigrating from Germany before World War II, and journey establishing a new life in America.

Mrs. Hansi Oppenheimer, born 1907 and raised Jewish in Germany, provides Holocaust survivor testimony.

Martin Jaskowitz, of 12 Bennett Circle, Lynn, provides Holocaust survivor testimony. Apparently partially non-English.