Is the "fear of death" the most powerful impulse of the spirit?

First off, there is no "spirit" in psychological theory. "Spirit" is a philosophical term denoting a non-corporeal substance emanated from a God.

Also, fear is not an impulse. Fear causes an impulse. Fear is an emotion, and an emotion can serve as a motivator.

Therefore I understand your question to ask:

Is 'fear of death' the most powerful motivator?

Since literary tropes and devices often avail themselves of psychoanalytic theories, I believe it is adequate to attempt a preliminary answer with Freud.

Freud believed that there is no native fear of death. He wrote (1908, p. 167) that the fear of death of a people increases as libido is suppressed and accumulates in the unconscious.

For Freud the libido (the drive towards life) is the strongest drive. Only in his later theories it is balanced in a healthy individual with the death drive (the drive towards dissolution, annihilation and the cessation of all activity). Therefore fear of death would have to exceed libido, to be the strongest motivator.

Psychological theory is rarely psychological in nature, but rather derives its models from contemporary high tech. In the first half of the twentieth century quantum physics gave psychology its probabilistic foundation, during the second half of the 20th century psychology was dominated by the brain-as-computer metaphor, today quantum physics and neuroimaging drive psychological theories. Since Freudian theory derives its basic model from the pneumatics of the steam engine, it is probably save to hypothesize that in Freuds theory fear of death would be as large as the suppressed libido, with its theoretical maximum being the total size of libido. If more than half of the libido were repressed, then fear of death would be greater than libido and therefore the most powerful motivator.

The level and motivating force of Bruce Wayne's fear of death would depend on his and his society's volume of suppressed libido and the pressure generated by it.

For developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, fear of death signified the absence of integrity (1965, p. 260) and a result of the despair of having lead a life experienced as meaningless. From this theory, fear of death would most probably not serve as a motivator, rather it is a symptom of a subjectively failed life.

The loner Bruce Wayne, leading a life of compulsive-obsessive crime hunting, might well despair at the lack of generativity and intimacy in his life, and fear death more than a beloved father of several adult children.

Leaving psychoanalysis behind, fear of death has been the subject of empirical psychology predominantly in two contexts: as an ailment of the sick (e.g. cancer patients) and old that  palliative psychology attempts to alleviate; and as a cause (or correlate) of religiosity. Both fields yield no results concerning the relation between fear of death and motivation. The dearth of experimental studies on the effects of fear of death are probably due to the impossibility to induce this emotion in an ethical way.

But there is a vast amount of research into fear as a motivator, mostly from the perspective of persuasion in education (stop smoking) or advertisement (buy this or else). Motivation psychology postulates a variety of basic motivators: physiological needs such as hunger, sleep, and sex; social desires such as belonging and appreciation; changing goals and spontaneous emotions; etc. And it has been found that different personalities are motivated more strongly by different motivators. I would suspect that there are people for whom fear of death is "the strongest motivator", and others for whom it isn't, because they are more motivated by positive goals (approach motivation, which correlates with extroversion, positive emotionality, and behavioral activation) than negative goals (avoidance motivation, which correlates with neuroticism, negative emotionality, and behavioral inhibition).

Bruce Wayne being introverted, neurotic, and emotionally negative (but active), is a good candidate for being motivated by avoidance and fear in his social life (but an aggressive desire to succeed in his career as a crime hunter). I would guess that fear of death would drive him strongly, if the Blind Prisoner managed to associate (or prime) climbing without a rope with Batman's lack of a social life (e.g. show him visions of the women that loved him but he did not love back), but that he would be rather unafraid, if the rope was withheld in the context of Batman battling crime.

Sources:

Freud, Sigmund (1908). Die "kulturelle" Sexualmoral und die moderne Nervosität. GW VII, 143-167. [english Translation: "Civilized" sexual morality and modern nervous illness. SE 9, 177-204; online available as "Civilized" sexual morality and modern nervousness, quote from p. 40]
Erikson, Erik H. (1965 [1950]) Childhood and Society, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.


Uncsoncious expectation of other people to be motivated by the same values as you

I think two close concepts are that of "naïve realism" and the false consensus effect.

The basic idea of naive realism is very simple. You believe your beliefs to be true! That seems a bit silly, but we can create a concrete example. Let's say you think President Trump is a great president. You have some reasons for believing it, and you have faith in your own cognitive abilities to judge evidence and come to logical conclusions. Therefore, if someone disagrees with your they must either have bad information or have different values (i.e. be bad people since most of us think of ourselves as good people).

The false consensus affect seems a bit closer to what you describe. That people (in this case, you) "overestimate the extent to which their opinions, beliefs, preferences, values, and habits are normal and typical of those of others (i.e., that others also think the same way that they do)"


Can forgetting labor pain be an evolutionary advantage as animals don't know how to avoid labor?

I agree.  The connection between having sex and the pain of labor is so distant, it seems unlikely that it could be selected against.  In theory though, there could be enough time in human history for it to have happened, especially early on when child mortality was much higher than now.  If every mother who remembered extreme pain in labor never gave birth again, and a large proportion of those babies died, the attribute could disappear within a generation or two.

However, there is evidence that mothers don't always forget the pain of labor.  Even if they do forget to some extent, I'm not sure how that compares to other kinds of pain.  For example, marathon runners forget the pain of their last race.

Some advantages of remembering the pain of labor could be preparation for subsequent births and arranging support in advance.


Measurement of phase difference between two signals using cross correlation vs. fourier transform

Methods 1 and 2 are matematically equivalent, but I have experienced that method 2 is computationally more efficient for high sampling rates and large ranges of delay (notice that method 2 does not require a loop).


If I have understood things right, I think it is some form of 'Cognitive dissonance'

According to wikipedia,"cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values"

I remember experiencing the feel in one of the Ayn Rand books. As kids, our basic belief would be that our parents love us the most. Their love is the purest form of unconditional love. No matter what you do, they will always love and be for you for what you are. Suddenly , one day you wake up to the fact that the belief you have is entirely foolish. Your parents love you not for 'what you are' but just because 'who you are - their child'. You question yourself if your parents(as persons) would love you the same way if you had not been their kid. Because the answer to the question is a simple no. I cried at the very thought. Our mind tries to defend the previous comforting belief and disprove the new bitter realization and then helplessly experience outbursts.

This is more seen in case of religious beliefs as said in the quote. Your deep rooted beliefs are shattered and the mind can't smoothly accept the new version - Cognitive Dissonance, as they term it.


Could a failure of condensed inner speech be linked to slowed cognition?

I did not find a study trying to test your idea. I suppose your hypothesis could be tested by comparing the results Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) on the expanded/condensed dimension of participants with induced slower condition to a control group.

McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough (2011) studied the correlations between the dimensions and psycho-pathological variables. They found the expanded/condensed dimension was not predictive of psychopathology.

McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2011). The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults. Consciousness and Cognition, 20(4), 1586–1593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.005


When and how did the concept of psychological trauma begin to be extended and expanded to include more mundane and less severe experiences?

One can't be certain what that kind of allusion refers to, but there has been a level of controversy stemming from the changes to the trauma criterion in DSM-IV (it was changed again in DSM-5). The change in DSM-IV--which does correspond with the time frame you mention--was seriously lambasted in some corners, e.g.:

Criterion A1, certifies three groups of people as potentially eligible for the diagnosis of PTSD: direct recipients of serious threat or harm, such as rape victims or combat veterans; those experiencing vicarious exposure to the trauma experienced by others, such as bystanders at a drive-by shooting; and those experiencing ‘informational exposure’. This third group is new in DSM-IV. It consists of people who are ‘confronted with’ information about threats to others, such as horrified television viewers of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (Marshall et al., 2007). Although the authors of the original PTSD diagnosis surely would not have envisioned these viewers as trauma victims (McNally & Breslau, 2008), our current DSM concept of trauma certifies them as trauma survivors just as much as it does those who escaped the World Trade Center before its collapse. In fact, one survey indicated that about 4 per cent of American adults living far from the scenes of the terrorist attacks developed apparent PTSD (Schlenger et al., 2002), presumably while watching coverage of the attacks from the comfort of their living rooms. These people developed what Young (2007) wryly calls ‘posttraumatic stress disorder of the virtual kind’ (p.21).
Because of this bracket creep in the definition of trauma (McNally, 2003a), most people today qualify as trauma survivors. For example, in one epidemiological survey, 89.6 per cent of adults in southeastern Michigan were trauma survivors by DSM-IV criteria (Breslau & Kessler, 2001). [...]

On the other hand, there are studies which point to a limited practical impact of that textual change between DSM-III and IV, in terms of actual PTSD diagnoses:

We used data from the 2009 PTSD diagnostic subsample (N=3,013) of the Nurses Health Study II. We asked respondents about exposure to stressful events qualifying under 1) DSM-III, 2) DSM-IV, or 3) not qualifying under DSM Criterion A1. Respondents selected the event they considered worst and reported subsequent PTSD symptoms. Among participants who met all other DSM-IV PTSD criteria, we compared distress, symptom severity, duration, impairment, receipt of professional help, and nine physical, behavioral, and psychiatric sequelae (e.g. physical functioning, unemployment, depression) by precipitating event group. Various assessment tools were used to determine fulfillment of PTSD Criteria B through F and to assess these 14 outcomes.
Participants with PTSD from DSM-III events reported on average 1 more symptom (DSM-III mean=11.8 symptoms, DSM-IV=10.7, non-DSM=10.9) and more often reported symptoms lasted one year or longer compared to participants with PTSD from other groups. However, sequelae of PTSD did not vary systematically with precipitating event type.

In other words, the expanded definition could have possibly been abused, but in practice that didn't happen much.


How is motivation influenced by chance of reward?

Our subjective estimation of probability is affected by many irrational factors, one of which is the accessibility of exemplars (Availability Heuristic). Since we usually hear about lottery winners, and not so much about those who didn't win, we over-estimate the probability of winning. It may be similar with your estimation of the probability of the project becoming irrelevant - it is affected by how easy it is for you to imagine the project failing, something that can be affected by lots of irrational factors (like how self-confident the project leader is, or even worse, how much you like him/her).

Dan Gilbert has a nice TED talk mentioning the Availability Heuristic in lottery and other similar biases in estimating gains and probabilities.


Is a person who believe that their depression is curable more likely to overcome it?

Is a person who believes that it's possible to overcome their depression more likely to overcome it then a person who believes that there's no hope overcoming their depression?

The answer depends on many factors; and if therapy is received, as with all mental health conditions, it also depends on the form of therapy the depressed client receives and the rapport between client and the therapist.

CBT is often the go to form of therapy within IAPT services advocating for therapies which they can easily measure outcomes.  However, as pointed out in my answer on the limitations of CBT,

  There are a fair few factors which can prevent CBT from becoming effective, and a trained and certified CBT practitioner will be able to assess the suitability of CBT. If they operate ethically, they will not go ahead with providing CBT to someone who it would not benefit.

  One of the biggest factors which doesn't allow CBT to work is that if the client is not willing or able to challenge their thoughts and behaviours, then CBT will not be effective.

There are articles covering the effect of positive expectations creating positive outcomes.  Scheier & Carver (1993) pointed out that

  People who see desired outcomes as attainable continue to strive for those outcomes, even when progress is slow or difficult.  When outcomes seem significantly unattainable, people withdraw their effort and disengage themselves from their goals.  Thus, people's expectations provide a basis for engaging in one or two very different classes of behavior; continued striving versus giving up.

Belief that your depression can be cured will help by a considerable margin.

  There is evidence consistent with the suggestion of the cognitive model of depression that certain negative cognitions can produce and maintain the state of depression. There is also good evidence that depressed mood affects the relative accessibility of positive and negative cognitions. Thus, negative cognitions appear to produce depression, and, conversely, depression increases the probability of just those cognitions which will cause further depression. This reciprocal relationship between depression and cognition may form the basis of a vicious cycle which will perpetuate and intensify depression. (Teasdale, 1983).

Owen Lightsey (1994) also looked at positive automatic thoughts (PATs) as a "stress buffer".

  Is it possible that positive automatic thoughts (PATs) may similarly protect against depression? Such a finding could have considerable clinical significance. Cognitive therapies tend to focus on elimination of negative cognitions and on replacing maladaptive beliefs with adaptive beliefs (e.g., Beck et al., 1979); there is little focus on PATs per se. If PATs are found to uniquely buffer the effects of stress, straightforward training in generation of PATs could help to confer resilience

Later in the article he pointed out that things can be a little complicated:

  Results for the overall sample confirmed the hypothesis that PATs predict future happiness: Higher frequency of pre-existing PATs was associated with greater future happiness. This finding suggests that PATs have an impact not only on immediate well-being, as suggested by Goodhart (1985), but also on future well-being. Contrary to hypotheses, however, the overall PATs x Stressful Event interaction did not predict either depression or happiness. Unexpectedly, a subtype of PATs — PATs about social self-worth — behaved in a manner consistent with a stress buffer role: The interaction of PATs about social self-worth with stressful events predicted unique variance in depression, above the variance accounted for by other Factor x Stress interactions.

It won't necessarily mean you are doomed if you feel there is no end to your mental health problems; it just means it will take longer to help you. All depression can be dealt with effectively and successfully given enough time and proper support.

References

Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press.

Goodhart, D. E. (1985). Some psychological effects associated with positive and negative thinking about stressful event outcomes: Was Pollyanna right?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 48(1), 216. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.48.1.216

Lightsey, O. R. (1994). " Thinking positive" as a stress buffer: The role of positive automatic cognitions in depression and happiness. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41(3), 325. DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.41.3.325

Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1993). On the power of positive thinking: The benefits of being optimistic. Current directions in psychological science, 2(1), 26-30. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770572

Teasdale, J. D. (1983). Negative thinking in depression: Cause, effect, or reciprocal relationship?. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 5(1), 3-25.  DOI: 10.1016/0146-6402(83)90013-9


What do depressants treat? Are they used in bipolar to treat mania?

Depressants belong to a general class of drugs that decrease activity in one or more parts of the nervous system. Depression in the usual sense of the word comprises a particular subset of depressed states, particulars as it refers to lack of happiness or drive. Not all depressed states are considered depression in the common sense of the word. Similarly, not all stimulated states are the opposite of this depression. Different parts of the brain can be depressed or stimulated, and the affects of these effects come in many forms and resulting psychological states. Generally speaking, a depressant can be used to treat a condition if that particular depressant decreases activity in a part of the nervous system that is overactive in that condition. Anxiety, as you have mentioned, is a prime example condition where one part of the brain is overactive, for which certain depressant drugs can calm that part of the brain to effect relief from the anxiety. If a particular case of depression is caused by overactivity in one or more brain regions, then it could in theory be possible to treat that depression using depressants that decrease activity in those particular brain regions. The key thing to keep in mind here is that mental depression can be caused by over or underactivity in various brain regions, so there is a possibility of using either specific types of stimulants or specific types of depressants to effect relief.


Are there innate differences between men's and women's behavior?

This is still a matter of fierce debate between the essentialist and cultural camps.

There is little argument that gender differences are shaped by culture, but there is now a growing evidence supporting the hypothesis that gender differences are also partly the outcome of biological disposition.

Much of such biological disposition is the outcome of hormonal influence. Given that such influence was demonstrated even if prenatal, and that the instructions to the postnatal generation of hormones is coded in our DNA, you can argue that such influence falls into the definition of innate.

You may wish to start with these papers:

Alexander, Gerianne M., and Melissa Hines. "Sex differences in response to children's toys in nonhuman primates (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus)." Evolution and Human Behavior 23.6 (2002): 467-479.
Hassett, Janice M., Erin R. Siebert, and Kim Wallen. "Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of children." Hormones and behavior 54.3 (2008): 359-364.
Maestripieri, Dario, and Suzanne Pelka. "Sex differences in interest in infants across the lifespan." Human Nature 13.3 (2002): 327-344.


Survey tool with clickable version of the "Geneva emotion wheel"

I made up a SVG version connected to a hidden html form. It's not perfect, but it may be useful anyway. You can find it here.

Note that a sufficient screen resolution is required.

Please send me feedbacks if you use it so that I can improve it.


Is "learning" part of cognitive psychology?

Yes, cognitive psychology incorporates the study of learning. You can see this reflected in other sources that provide general descriptions of cognitive psychology, e.g.:

http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.htm
http://psych.rutgers.edu/co
http://infed.org/mobi/the-cognitive-orientation-to-learning/

I'm not recommending these as especially definitive sources; these are just the other three of the first four hits for a Google search of "cognitive psychology learning".

However, cognitive perspectives on learning are not the only perspectives available in psychological theory (see also radical behaviorism).


How is memory structured (from a modeling perspective)?

The structure of memory depends on what you're trying to model. Since there are many types of memory, this question is almost too broad. So instead of giving you a systematic review, I'll give a quick tour of some models I know which should give you a starting point.

List memorization appears to be modeled by a combination of neuron weight updates and integrators saving symbols modeled as vectors. See "An Integrated Model of Context, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory" by Jan Gosmann.

Task/procedural memory has been modeled as a stack-like data-structure while still representing the symbols as vectors. See "A scaleable spiking neural model of action planning" by Blouw et al.

Spatial memory is weirder and seems to be best modeled as a function space. See "Vector-based navigation using grid-like representations in artificial agents" by Banino et al.

Visual memory has some nice models too, but I don't know them that well.


Does not consistently providing a reward strengthen operant conditioning?

What you're thinking of is called an Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule. Different Reinforcement schedules have different effects, variable ratio in particular seems to be what you're getting at:

  a reinforcement schedule in which the number of responses necessary to produce reinforcement varies from trial to trial

What's important is the behavior is reinforced intermittently but regularly enough to be "worth" it. This produces a powerful effect; I don't immediately have any sources but I do believe B.F. Skinner ran a number of such trials. where the subject will repeatedly perform the behavior in an attempt to get more rewards.

An explanation I've heard is that with a predictable reward schedule (fixed ratio) your participant knows they can except a reward, so there's no reason to mindlessly perform the task over and over; compare a Slot Machine (variable ratio) to a machine that gives out money on a fixed number of tries (fixed ratio). A subject knows with the fixed ratio machine they can always get their reward at any time. With the slot machine you have to keep playing and playing to get that big next reward.

Remember that for proper Shaping you should start with a high percentage (100%) initially to condition the response otherwise the participant might not be conditioned at all. Going back to the gambling example, it's much more effective if you give your participant a taste of winning when they play the slots or they'll quickly quit as it seems there's no reward to be had at all.

Shaping involves immediate rewarding behaviors approaching the desired behavior, it's certainly more important to start with a high % of rewarding, especially with non-human subjects when getting them to perform the wanted task can be problematic to begin with.


Reliable channel or method for self-study of Psychology

Psychology can be said to be an empirical science which is built up out of the elements of experience (Avelin, 1933).

Assuming Psychology in general is empirical, its principles can be investigated by experiments, e.g., through the gold standard of clinical research, namely randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Such studies are generally considered to be reliable, yet they are not always accurate, as they are still prone to all sorts of troubles, to name a few see Fig. 1.

All these potential sources of error can lead to false conclusions and hence different studies may yield conflicting evidence. As such, the 'truth' may be out there, but often it is represented in the scientific community by consensus, rather than fact. Different people may adhere to different beliefs, and rely their views on a select number of results, rather than the consensus. As such, even reputable textbooks may convey a biased message.

To search for the book of truth, as you seem to do, is in vain. It hasn't existed, does not exist, and will not exist. In fact, the best sources are meta-studies that compare the available data critically and come to a consensus, rather then stating them as facts.

Fig. 1. source: Sessley & Imrey (2015)

References
- Avelin, Nature (1933); 132: 841–3
- Sessley & Imrey, Anesthesia-analgesia (2015); 121(4): 134-42


Are there emotions that motivate pattern completion?

Canonical models of emotions in relation to pattern comclusion can not be provided.

The emotional of the musical sequences completion are directly related to the tonality.

Emotions related to the tonality are presented in the semantic memory.

It is possible the study of a partial mapping that relates tonality and emotions.

The best text, in my opinion, is:
Sloboda, John, A. (1985). The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music.
This is a compilation of numerous research in this area, others very interesting books can be found of this author.


What are the different branches of Psychoanalysis?

In the context of the question I think it makes sense to limit the scope to earlier developments in psychoanalysis. Thompson (1957) gives an overview of what can be called psychoanalytic schools. She includes:

Freudian psychoanalysis
Individual psychology (Alfred Adler)
Analytical psychology (Carl Gustav Jung)
Object relations theory (Sándor Ferenczi, Otto Rank)
(Wilhelm Reich)
Karen Horney (sometimes denoted »Culturalist Psychoanaysis«)
Erich Fromm (sometimes denoted »Culturalist Psychoanaysis«)
Harry Stack Sullivan (sometimes denoted »Culturalist Psychoanaysis«)

On the other hand, several psychoanalytic psychologies can be distinguished. Following a systematization by Gottfried Fischer, there are:

Drive theory/drive psychology (psychodynamic theory)
Ego psychology (Freudian psychoanalytic psychology/structural theory)
Object relations theory
Self psychology

Newer psychoanalytic schools comprise e. g. Lacanian psychoanalysis, interpersonal psychoanalysis and relational psychoanalysis – but for a more comprehensive list see Kernberg (2001) and Gabbard (2009).

Literature:

Frosh, Stephen (2012). A Brief Introduction to Psychoanalytic Theory. London: Palgrave.
Gabbard, Glen O. (2009) Textbook of Psychotherapeutic Treatments. American Psychiatric Publishing. (Ch. 1: Theoretical Models of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy)
Kernberg, Otto F. (2001). Recent Developments in the Technical Approaches of English-Language Psychoanalytic Schools. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Volume LXX, Issue 3, 519–547.
Thompson, Clara Mabel (1957). The different schools of psychoanalysis. American Journal of Nursing, 57, 1304–1307.
Thompson, Clara Mabel & Mullahy, Patrick (1951). Psychoanalysis: Evolution and Development (3rd ed.). New York: Hermitage House.


Reading vs. watching a lecture: which activity results in higher knowledge retention?

Consider this, communication is more than 50% nonverbal. Studies vary (from 93% nonverbal to 75%) and the actual percentage is difficult to interpret, but it is generally accepted that most of the communication is nonverbal.
That being said, a book is only written word and content, whereas a lecture is dynamic, versatile, and incorporates much of the nonverbal content.
Moreover, a lecture and video has much more stimulus going to the brain and this does have an impact on memory retention. Consider how PTSD cases arise; they are due to an individual experiencing hyper-stimulation (from the emotional brain) which in turn creates very strong memories. The same would hold true when comparing learning through reading and learning through a lecture.
However
This depends on many things:

For example if the lecturer is boring and monotone, it's the same or worse (boring lectures can put people to sleep) than giving a student something to read.

It also depends on the student's ability and motivation. If he or she is motivated and enjoys the subject, they will retain a lot of information from reading and working on their own due to their sense of joy in the subject--an emotional response will in turn encode memories more strongly.

Lastly it depends on how well the concept is explained. If a student does not understand a concept then for them to perform the calculations it will require a lot more memory work. If they understand something, then the actual memory work will be less, because they need not recall as much information in order to solve the problem.

In general though I would say that videos and lectures have more potential of creating memory retention due to providing more stimuli for the student.


Perceptual flicker when rotating my face

I'm guessing that you are experiencing the interplay of two mechanisms: When you start to turn your head, the "vestibulo-ocular reflex" tries to hold the visual scene steady by counteracting your head movement. But as you continue to turn your head (apparently at about 30 deg. intervals), a "saccade" kicks in to restore your gaze to a point straight in front of your face.

A similar effect can be observed when the visual scene moves, as when you look out a train window, but in this case, rather than the vestibulo-ocular reflex, it would be "smooth pursuit eye movement" that tries to hold the visual scene steady. (Wikipedia has good articles for all three of the quoted terms.)

An interesting way to check this hypothesis would be to videotape your face as you perform the experiment and observe your eye movements in the video. I'm looking forward to a YouTube posting...


How to detect which memory is being used when answering a yes or no question?

It depends whether the answers are well known facts. If I know well my name, the color of my hair and whether I can ride a bike then semantic memory is used to answer these questions. If I have a doubt whether I can ride a bike, then I may use other types of memory like episodic or even procedural to come up with an answer.

Also, I may use episodic memory to answer a specific question today, but if I have to answer the same question tomorrow I will probably use semantic memory because it has become a general fact that is stored in semantic memory.

  Semantic memory reflects our knowledge of the world around us, hence
  the term 'general knowledge' is often used. It holds generic
  information that is more than likely acquired across various contexts
  and is used across different situations.


Which parts of the brain are affected by dopamine?

Quoting my thesis:

CNS Dopamine/DA projections primarily emerge from two subcortical basal ganglia nuclei in the brain stem, travelling along three major pathways (Purves et al., 2004).
The nigrostriatal pathway, connecting the substantia nigra and the striatum, is mainly implicated in higher motor control. The mesolimbic pathway contains DA projections from the Ventral Tegmental Area/VTA and the pars compacta of the Substantia Nigra (SNc) to limbic systems including hip- pocampus, amgydala and thalamus, and is critical in learning and memory in a mechanism that is well-investigated (Lisman & Grace, 2005). The mesocortical pathway connects the VTA and SNc to the cortex. In contrast to the extensive noradrenergic innervation of the cortex, DA therefore reaches only selected areas (Foote & Morrison, 1987). DA density is extensive in prefrontal and anterior cingulate areas, and falls off rapidly across an rostro-caudal gradient. The temporal lobe is only weakly innvervated (including the enthorinal cortex), and little to no innervation reaches parietal and especially occipital lobes, though DA fibers in monkey area 7 have been reported (Foote & Morrison, 1987).

So basically, subcortical innervation is rich, but cortical innervation is focused on frontal areas. DA is often depicted as having zero cortical presence outside of frontal areas, but this is false; while DA innervation density falls off sharply outside of the frontal lobes, at least in humans and other apes, there is some DA reaching at least as far back as the temporal lobes.
Of course, this is only the direct effect of DA. In principle, all of the brain is strongly affected by the effects of DA, because frontal cortices, who are strongly influenced by DA, in turn strongly influence the rest of the bain.
Sources (obviously): Foote, S. L., & Morrison, J. H. (1987). Extrathalamic modulation of cortical function. Annual review of neuroscience, 10, 67–95.


Are there any standard psychometric scales that are only applicable to within-subject designs?

I think your intuitions are correct, and the reason is that Likert scales often suffer from poor construct validity.

One example that comes to mind is Alter et al. (2010), who use a mixed design, and note that participants in both conditions gravitate toward the middle of the scale on their first rating. They suggest that participants do not know how to use the scale at first; however, their second rating is informative because it can be compared to the first.

Several other studies (e.g. Dittrich et al., 2007; Olson et al. 2007) suggest that Likert scales are best used for relative rather than absolute judgments. Within-subject designs may abide by this rule because participants will implicitly use their previous ratings as anchors.

Although within-subject designs are often preferred, many times they are not feasible. (For instance, an experimental manipulation may make it impossible for a subject to be in both conditions without jeopardizing the effect of the manipulation). However, a properly designed scale may be usable in a between-subjects design. The key here is wording the question such that subjects will make judgements relative to some other criterion. So you may say something like:

"Compared to the last time you received one free beer, how happy were you upon receiving
 ten free beers?"

-5       -4       -3       -2       -1       0       1       2       3       4       5
less happy than last time      neither more or less happy     much happier than last time

This example is a little contrived--in fact it's not that great since the question is leading--but hopefully you get the idea.

Since you mention happiness, I will note that this issue has arisen in the happiness literature. Happiness is often assessed by a Likert scale, but the wording of the question
can evoke different comparative standards. For instance, Steffel & Oppenehimer (2009) report that people respond differently whether they think about intra- vs inter- personal happiness (i.e. "How happy are you compared to others?" vs "How happy are you compared to how happy you would like to be?") When left to their own accord, they typically adopt an inter-personal comparison. However it is best to make this comparison explicit whenever possible to avoid these issues.

  Alter, A. L., Oppenheimer, D. M., & Zemla, J. C. (2010). Missing the
  trees for the forest: A construal level account of the illusion of
  explanatory depth. Journal of personality and social psychology,
  99(3), 436. PDF

  Dittrich, R., Francis, B., Hatzinger, R., & Katzenbeisser, W. (2007).
  A paired comparison approach for the analysis of sets of Likert-scale
  responses. Statistical Modelling, 7(1), 3-28. PDF

  Olson, J. M., Goffin, R. D., & Haynes, G. A. (2007). Relative versus
  absolute measures of explicit attitudes: Implications for predicting
  diverse attitude-relevant criteria. Journal of Personality and Social
  Psychology; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(6), 907.

  Steffel, M., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Happy by what standard? The
  role of interpersonal and intrapersonal comparisons in ratings of
  happiness. Social indicators research, 92(1), 69-79.


Method for evaluating how emotionally evocative a question is?

You could go with the most direct approach: After every question, ask your subjects how emotionally aroused the last question made them, for example by using a visual analogue scale. Now, this might not be suitable for your research (maybe you don't want your subjects to start to think about their own emotional state), but I think there's a danger in using advanced measurement technologies just for the heck of it. I would imagine a direct question would give your research quite high face validity for example.

However, if want to go with a more indirect approach I would recommend you check skin conductance measurements out. Here, you could for example (there are numerous examples) check out the research on precognition, which started with an experiment by Dean Radin. In these studies, you can see how skin conductance measurements vary with the content of presented pictures quite nicely (never mind if you agree with the precognition hypothesis or not).


The advantage (at the current state of the technology) is that you don't need to use a remote with your hands, so the paralyzed could move their exoskeletons, for instance. For now, there is still the downside that the the device needs to be trained and the commands that can be read are rather simplistic. However, in the future these types of devices will greatly enhance human-computer interaction by allowing the brain the communicate in the same way as it communciates naturally with the environment. So, imagining yourself as the robot moving around (and the robot following your imagined moves) is a lot more fluent, intuitive, and precise than pressing a bunch of buttons! The technology still needs to get to this stage, however.


How can STDP fit with reciprocal connectivity?

Consider that elimination of such a phenomena is not ideal. It's been proposed that actual neuronal networks exist under the tension of synchronous decoupling.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627308001281

To answer your question though, you probably should consider that reciprocal connections might not be between two individual neurons. Rather, axons in the cortex are clumped into minicolumns, each one having 20+ pyramidals in supragranular layers. It's conjecture, but it's possible that the reciprocal connections are between different pyramidals within minicolumns (or even different pyramidals within columns or whatever other macro-structure you want).


What can clinical psychologists do that psychiatrists can't do?

Short answer is that psychiatrists are medical doctors and (more often than not) medical researchers, and thus psychiatrists themselves often do not practice psychotherapy.

Psychiatrists

Psychiatrists are physicians, which means they have received a medical degree (M.D.) and have completed medical training, along with an additional four-year residency in psychiatry. Some psychiatrists pursue additional fellowship training after their residency. Thus, it takes at least twelve years of practice to become a psychiatrist.

Psychiatrists are legally allowed to prescribe psychotropic medications to patients. This is because they are medically trained to do so, having completed a medical degree and medical training. A large portion of this medical training is dedicated to learning how psychotropic medications work in the brain and in the body, particularly in those of patients with mental illnesses. For this reason, psychiatrists are generally more aware of the physical symptoms of illness (much like a doctor would be) as well as the mental symptoms, and thus must make an informed evaluation to determine whether the patients' symptoms are due to physical or mental factors (or both).

Though psychiatrists can perform psychotherapy, the vast majority are purely medical researchers. A psychiatrist may thus refer a patient to a clinical psychologist or a specifically-trained therapist for their individual psychotherapy needs. A physician or psychiatrist (both trained in psychopharmacology by definition) who both practices psychotherapy and prescribes psychoactive medication may refer to themselves as a "psychopharmacologist", though this is more of a distinction than a formal occupation.

Clinical psychologists

Clinical psychologists are PhDs who have received several years of graduate training in the science and theory of psychology-based dysfunction and mental illness. They do not receive medical training, but they do undergo 2-4 years of supervised clinical practice before they are licensed as clinical psychologists.

A clinical psychologist's job description is a bit more broad than that of a psychiatrist. While many provide psychotherapy to patients suffering from mental illness, other clinical psychologists may opt to teach, administer psychological testing, conduct research, work with administrators, develop treatment and prevention programs, or work as psychological consultants.

Though there is very little that a clinical psychologist can do that a psychiatrist simply can't do, a clinical psychologist is trained in mental health and well-being first and foremost, and thus is typically called on to perform tasks related to mental health (such as psychotherapy or psychometric testing). The difference may be comparable to that of a professor versus a teacher. Though the professor typically undergoes more training, they split their focus between their research and their students (and may prioritize research first), whereas high school teachers are often teachers through-and-through, and thus their primary focus is on the students. Thus the teacher role is a bit more interpersonal.


What do the weights of an artificial neural network represent in biological neurons?

The weights in an artificial neural network are an approximation of multiple processes combined that take place in biological neurons. Myelination plays a role, but not a major one. Weights in artificial neural networks can be positive or negative numbers.

Weight magnitude. The magnitude of a weight is analogous to a combination of increased dendritic connections between neurons, number of synapses between their dendrites, density of neurotransmitter receptors on the post-synaptic terminals, as well as increased neurotransmitter vesicle formation and fusion on the pre-synaptic terminals.

Positive weights. Positive weights are analogous to the pre-synaptic terminals of the synapses releasing excitatory neurotransmitters (i.e. glutamate). They make it more likely the receiving cell will fire an action potential.

Negative weights. Negative weights are analogous to inhibitory neurotransmitters (i.e. GABA) being released at the synapse. They make it less likely the receiving cell will fire an action potential.

Myelination

Myelination increases the distance that action potentials can travel down the axon. The membrane voltage potential decays much closer to the cell body if the axon is not myelinated. One analogy is that of a garden hose. If the axon is not myelinated, then the garden hose is leaky with holes, and less water pressure (that caries water pressure waves, the action potentials) makes it to the end of the hose.

However, increased myelination is not necessarily analogous to an increased weight. For example, if there are few dendrites between two neurons, with few synaptic connections, then myelination would have little effect.

Learning

You also mentioned learning. During learning, the weights in an artificial neuron increase or decrease. In biological neurons, learning takes place at multiple scales and areas (i.e. non-synaptic and synaptic). At first, during increasing connection strength, you may see increased vesicle fusion, then increased neurotransmitter receptors, then new synaptic boutons, and new dendrites. When "unlearning", or forgetting, these processes happen in reverse.

Overall, a weight in artificial neurons clump a lot of biological complexity into one number that only crudely approximates the degree of connection strength between two biological neurons.


Are there any benefits to having Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

I'm guessing that OCD correlating with conscientiousness is probably an advantage. The 2015 study by Inchausti et al. that made this finding had other anxiety disorders as controls. I don't know if that difference still holds vs the general population... An older paper (Samuels et al., 2000) found negatively in this direction. As summarized in Rector et al. (2002):

To our knowledge, examination of the FFM [five factor model] in OCD has occurred only recently in a single
epidemiological study (Samuels et al., 2000). Participants with a lifetime diagnosis of OCD were
compared with community participants without a lifetime history of OCD and matched on gender,
race, and age. Patients with OCD were found to score higher on neuroticism (all facets) and lower
on extraversion (i.e. assertiveness facet only) versus community controls. In addition, participants
with OCD were found to be less agreeable, although no differences were observed on the domains
of openness and conscientiousness.

Rector et al. themselves did a fairly complicated study in which they found that OCD patients (surprisingly) had below average conscientiousness (compared to non-ill controls) but this turned out to mirror the patients' level of depression; while a simple F-test between groups was statistically significant, a MANOVA with the depression score as covariate was not. The graph below is kinda suggestive of that because the conscientiousness subscores for OCD and major depression look pretty similar.

Rector et al. did not exclude OCD patients with comorbid depression (or vice-versa), which explains well enough the above because:

In the ECA study (Reiger
et al., 1988) 31.7% of OCD patients were diagnosed as having a co-morbid MDD.

Which kinda makes it difficult to get meaningful results from such studies... do we (only) care what the personality advantages/traits of those OCD but without depression are? Etc.
A 2009 study on perfectionism and OCD by Wu and Cortesi found that

content conceptualized as "adaptive" perfectionism showed no correlation with any obsessive-compulsive symptoms

As the paper explains there's however disagreement in the literature whether it is appropriate to distinguish maladaptive vs adaptive perfectionism (this paper obviously takes the view that the distinction makes sense).

There are some blogs that assert that OCD is correlated with higher IQ. But while looking into this I found a press release for recent (2017) meta-analysis to the contrary:

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is not associated with a higher intelligence quotient (IQ), a myth popularized by Sigmund Freud, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Texas State University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The study, published in the Neuropsychology Review, is believed to be the first analysis of existing data on the link between IQ and OCD sufferers verses the general population. The authors tracked the origins of the myth to the French philosopher, physician and psychologist Pierre Janet in 1903, but it was Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, who popularized the hypothesis in 1909.
"Although this myth was never studied empirically until now, it is still a widely held belief among mental-health professionals, OCD sufferers and the general public," says Dr. Gideon Anholt, a senior lecturer in BGU's Department of Psychology.
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of all the available literature on IQ in OCD samples versus non-psychiatric controls (98 studies), and found that contrary to the prevailing myth, OCD is not associated with superior IQ, but with normative IQ that is slightly lower compared to control samples. The authors suggested that the small reduction in IQ scores in OCD sufferers may be largely attributed to OCD-related slowness and not to intellectual ability.
The popular misconception about OCD has been further promoted by TV programs like "Monk," which show an individual with OCD using his superior intelligence to solve challenging mysteries. Yet, such beliefs about OCD may facilitate the misconception that there are advantages associated with the disorder, potentially decreasing one's motivation to seek professional help.

And the actual meta-analysis:

Across studies, small effect sizes were found for FSIQ and VIQ, and a moderate effect size for PIQ, exemplifying reduced IQ in OCD. However, mean IQ scores across OCD samples were in the normative range. Moderator analyses revealed no significant moderating effect across clinical and demographic indices. We conclude that, although lower than controls, OCD is associated with normative FSIQ and VIQ, and relatively lowered PIQ.

Likewise there are popsci assertions (e.g. the aforementioned blog) that OCD correlates with creativity. It wasn't too hard to find a study that supports at least some of that

OCD was unrelated to the self-rating [of creativity] but was correlated with the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviours.

And interestingly this study also found OCD correlating positively with conscientiousness. I personally don't see the correlation with BICB they found as significant because there's no mention of correcting for multiple comparisons and there are well over 20 comparisons made:

The problem with studying creativity with statistics is that there hasn't been a widely accepted test for creativity. I remember trying to answer here a question on the link between schizophrenia and creativity (let me see if I can find the link). The results were all over the place depending on what measure of creativity was used. And due to the varied measures, no luck in finding a meta-analysis. Even for disorders much more popularly associated with creativity, e.g. bipolar or schizophrenia, there are serious methodological concerns which prompt continued skepticism in some (but not all) researchers.


Is satisficing conceptualised as being unconscious/automatic, or conscious/volitional?

Satisficing is goal directed and satisficers intend to achieve satisfactory results. Therefore, satisficing seems to involve conscious choices being made.

However, in Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT), unconscious thought produces superior decisions compared to conscious thought when decision making is complex and there are paragraphs of Nelson and Winter (1982) that indicate that satisficing can be achieved from a sequence of mechanical, automatic steps of rule following.

Therefore looking at both H.A. Simon's conception and the findings from Nelson and Winter, satisficing can be either conscious or unconscious.


How does a person know if he should seek treatment for depression since feeling moody is unavoidable?

TLDR

Many people say they are feeling depressed when really they are just suffering from a low mood.  Andrew Solomon said

  The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality. And it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment. Everything there was to do seemed like too much work. (Solomon, 2013)

This talk was about how depression affected him and his life, and is a good introduction to the subject.

The type of depression will depend on diagnostic criteria (see Different types of Depression below) but basically, depression is not just feeling sad.  When you are depressed, it is difficult to carry on with day-to-day life effectively for varying reasons, over a period of days or more.

Longer answer

There are many grey areas in the assessment of depression, just like there are with some other mental health problems.  The main traditional diagnostic systems used are currently the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems - ICD-11 (WHO, 2018), and a formal diagnosis using the ICD-11 classification system is as follows:

  A [single] depressive episode is characterized by a period of almost daily depressed mood or diminished interest in activities lasting at least two weeks accompanied by other symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt, hopelessness, recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, changes in appetite or sleep, psychomotor agitation or retardation, and reduced energy or fatigue (ICD-11 6A70).
  Recurrent depressive disorder is characterized by a history or at least two depressive episodes separated by at least several months without significant mood disturbance (ICD-11 6A71).

The DSM-5 system requires match in at least five out of nine criteria for a diagnosis of major depression, although there are moves to improve the diagnostic procedures for mental disorders through systems such as HiTOP (Stony Brook Medicine, 2017; Kotov, et al., 2017).  However, one thing I think we can all agree on is that there are two different categories of depression.

Endogenous
Depression resulting from internal, possibly biological influences, as a result of possible genetic factors, or reactions to chemical/hormonal imbalances; and
Exogenous
Depression resulting from external influences in a person’s life, such as grief, loss or trauma.

Different types of Depression

There are several types of depression.

Unipolar Depression
The sufferer feels melancholic with no experience of any highs.  DSM-5 states that the criteria for diagnosis are the same as other forms of depression, however, the diagnosis is to be recorded with the specifier “with melancholic features” (p. 185).
Bipolar Disorder (BPD)
There are Bipolar I and Bipolar II disorders, both with severity levels of mild moderate and severe, and DSM-5 considers BPD to be a bridge between schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders in terms of symptoms, family history, and genetics; so, DSM-5 has a separated Bipolar Disorders from depressive disorders (p. 123).
Suicide risk for Bipolar Disorders is 15 times greater than the general population, and may account for 25% of all completed suicides (p. 131), with a prevalence rate of 36.3% of attempts for Bipolar I and 32.4% for Bipolar II and in terms of genetics, the risk of suicide seems to be 6½ times higher among first-degree relatives (a person's parent, sibling, or child) of those diagnosed with Bipolar II compared to Bipolar I    (p. 138)
Major Depression (Major Depressive Disorder in DSM-5 (p. 160))
Again, with severity levels of mild, moderate and severe, the module notes indicate that this is the most common form of depression.  Looking at DSM-5, diagnosis requires five (or more) of the diagnostic criteria to be present most of the day, nearly every day, during the same 2-week period.
Sufferers will feel down and uninterested in any activity external to them, and they are generally less motivated to deal with their basic needs.
Suicidal behaviour has a possibility of existing at all times and most completed suicides are not preceded by unsuccessful attempts, with an increased risk of completion within men, and those who are single or living alone (p. 167).
Mild Depression
This sounds to be a separate disorder, with the sufferer still able to engage in life but finding their activities harder to do.  However, looking at DSM-5, the criteria to look for are the same as Major Depressive Disorder, with few, if any, symptoms in excess of those required to make a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (p. 162 & 188).
Atypical Depression
DSM-5 classifies this as the same as all other depressive disorders, but must have a specifier of “with atypical features”.  DSM-5 goes on to say that Atypical Depression, compared to the past, does not connote an uncommon or unusual clinical problem as the term might imply.  The levels of hypersomnia required are defined as at least 10 hours of sleep per day including daytime napping (or at least 2 hours more than when not depressed) (p. 186).
Persistent Depressive Disorder (previously Dysthymia)
Looking at DSM-5, this is a diagnosis which would be given when depression in any form is suffered for most of the day, for more days than not, over the last 2 years (p. 168), and the module notes help with other aspects by indicating that sufferers may not be aware of the condition and just see it as part of life, whilst feeling unimportant, dissatisfied and scared.
Psychotic Depression
DSM-5 states that the criteria is the same as other forms of depression, however, the diagnosis is to be recorded with the specifier

“with psychotic features”
(delusions and/hallucinations are present, of which some are mood-congruent and some are mood-incongruent),
“with mood-congruent psychotic features”
(the content of all delusions/hallucinations are consistent with the typical depressive themes of personal inadequacy, guilt, nihilism…) or
“with mood-incongruent psychotic features”
(the content of all delusions/hallucinations are not consistent with the typical depressive themes of personal inadequacy, guilt, nihilism…) (p. 185).

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
This is depression which affects the sufferer during certain seasons.  In most cases, SAD affects people during the autumn and winter months where daylight hours are less, but less commonly, there can be affects during the summer months due to heat and/or humidity or body image issues etc. (WebMD, 2017)  DSM-5 requires this to be recorded the same as any other depression, but with the specifier “with seasonal pattern” (p. 187). This enables you to not diminish the severity of the depression based on the fact that it is just seasonal.
Postnatal Depression
DSM-5 requires this to be recorded the same as any other depression, but with the specifier “with peripartum onset” (p. 186).  This enables you to not diminish the severity of the depression based on the fact that it is a result of giving birth to a child.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
There is a set of criteria laid out from page 171, with a requirement that the criteria must be met for most menstrual cycles that occurred in the preceding year and
in the majority of menstrual cycles, at least five symptoms must

be present in the final week before the onset of menses
start to improve within a few days after the onset of menses; and
become minimal or absent in the week post-menses

DSM-5 also talks about a depressive disorder which is specific to 7-18 year olds only, with onset before 10 years old, and that is Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (pp. 156-160).

References

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Edition). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Kotov, R. et al., 2017. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): A dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(4), pp. 454-477. doi: 10.1037/abn0000258

Solomon, A. (2013). Depression, the secret we share — TED Talks. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_depression_the_secret_we_share
[Accessed 8 June 2017].

Stony Brook Medicine (2017). The Hierarchical Taxonomy Of Psychopathology (HiTOP). [Online]
Available at: https://medicine.stonybrookmedicine.edu/HITOP/publications
[Accessed 23 May 2017].

WHO (2018). ICD-11. [Online]
Available at: https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en


Are there cognitive benefits to two hand typing versus one finger?

Benefits of touch typing on task performance:
I assume that when comparing skilled individuals, two handed touch typing on a traditional keyboard is faster, more reliable, and more automatic, than the other methods of text input that you mention (e.g., phone or tablet keyboards). These advantages are discussed here.

Faster input means that ideas can be expressed more quickly.
Visual attention does not need to be allocated to the keyboard which permits more attention to be placed on the content or the screen.
The greater reliability and automaticity mean that less attention needs to be allocated to the task of typing than to other methods.
A more consistent keyboard layout across devices further justifies the investment in learning touch typing.

For further discussion of the cognitive and performance benefits of skilled touch typing, check out Yechiam et al (2003). Discussing the benefits of touch typing over visual typing, they state:

  One main distinction of the touch-typing strategy appears to be the
  ability to look at the screen while typing and to devote a minimal
  level of visual search to the keyboard (Cooper, 1983). This ability is
  gained through the memorization of key positions and finger
  trajectories, which makes touch-typing a difficult skill to acquire.
  Other differences between touch-typing and visually guided typing
  include touch typists' (a) use of all fingers of both hands, as
  opposed to the use of one hand of only some of the fingers; (b) fixed
  assignment of fingers to keys; (c) reduced arm movements; and (d)
  fixed locations of the palms (Crooks, 1964).

Broader cognitive benefits of touch typing:
While I have not read any specific research testing the idea, I think the benefits of touch typing relate to its superiority as a text entry method and not as some broader tool for brain integration. A large body of research on psychomotor and cognitive performance suggests that transfer across disparate domains tends to be minimal. The domains would need to have some overlapping elements.

More broadly, there is a strong link between unemployment and depression (e.g., Frese & Mohr, 1987). Engaging in meaningful or enjoyable activity might help improve mood in some cases (e.g., juggling, mastering some other new skill). However, I don't think the mechanism of that mood improvement would be hemispheric brain balancing.

References

Cooper, W. E. (1983). Introduction. In W. E. Cooper (Ed.), Cognitive aspects of skilled typewriting (pp. 1-38). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Crooks, M. (1964). Touch typing for teachers. London: Pitman.
Frese, M., & Mohr, G. (1987). Prolonged unemployment and depression in older workers: A longitudinal study of intervening variables. Social Science & Medicine, 25(2), 173-178. PDF
Yechiam, E., Erev, I., Yehene, V., & Gopher, D. (2003). Melioration and the transition from touch-typing training to everyday use. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 45(4), 671-684.


Link between certain aspects of basic behavioural traits

Not really.  It's possible that behavioural traits are genetic to some extent, but it's impossible to separate that from the environmental influences enough to link to specific events such as invading other countries.  Also, usually invaders stayed to colonize the country they invaded so that there was a mixing of the genes of invaded and invaders.  So even if there were links between genetics and likelihood to invade, you couldn't make the connection now between historical events and the behavioural traits of the current generation.


What is the definition of sanity? How can I prove someone either sane or insane?

Sanity is an explicit legal definition. It is generally not a psychological term. This is Wikipedia's definition of Sanity which aligns perfectly to my understanding of abnormal psychology. (emphasis mine):

  In criminal and mental health law, sanity is a legal term denoting that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for his or her actions. The official legal term is compos mentis. It is generally defined in terms of the absence of insanity (non compos mentis). It is not a medical term, although the opinions of medical experts are often important in making a legal decision as to whether someone is sane or insane.

Psychologists are often called in to determine "sanity" but they deduce whether one fits the legal definition based on any psychological disorders the individual might have. "Insanity" in this sense could be considered to be one of many psychological disorders that would cause one to be unable to function in a court room and understand their rights.

"Temporary Insanity" was a previously common but largely ill regarded legal excuse in the earlier days of psychology. It is not a psychological term nor does it have a psychological definition.

You'll note the DSM does not include diagnostic criteria for sanity. It is not a term commonly used in research or psychiatry because as you suggest it is much too broad of a concept.

Research on "insane" people is as uselessly broad as it would be on "silly" or "dumb" people. Instead research is conducted on specific conditions or measures.

Wikipedia has some information on Sanity in Psychiatry and Psychology but note these are very outdated ideas and I'm not aware of any current researchers who respect these theories as valid.


If take a look at the Wikipedia article @Fizz provided in the comments, it does say that Functionalism is different to Behaviourism

  because it is only concerned with the effective functions of the brain, through its organization or its "software programs".

The full explanation of why it is different is that Behaviourism is

  a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that all behaviors are either reflexes produced by a response to certain stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment, together with the individual's current motivational state and controlling stimuli.

In other words it looks at how people's current and past experiences affect the person's mood and behaviours.

Functionalism states that

  mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role – that is, they have causal relations to other mental states, numerous sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs.

Comparing the human brain to the computer whilst trying to explain this philosophy, the Wikipedia article points out that

  brains are physical devices with neural substrate that perform computations on inputs which produce behaviors.

Where Behaviourism just looks at the initial stimuli and resulting behaviours, Functionalism looks at the brain functions and tries to explain how behaviours manifest themselves in reaction to the information the brain receives.


The effects of online chat on written language skills

The research on this topic is limited; it seems, however,  that the advent of online and mobile communication may assist in improving literacy skills of children and people learning a second language.

The use of phonetic abbreviations, assists the learner in developing the connection between verbal and written language. The use of acronyms relies on the users knowledge of how words are spelt. Which requires a presumption of literacy.

Although some studies are inconclusive, the trend shows that texting and online chat assists in child literacy. Enforced limitations on text size, and the use of a, rapidly, evolving language, promotes creativity in the use of written language.

  Recognising that many, if not most, textisms are some form of phonetic
  abbreviation, Plester, Wood and Joshi (2009) argue that to produce and
  read such abbreviations requires, in the texter, a level of
  phonological awareness (and orthographic awareness). While spelled
  incorrectly in a conventional sense, many textisms are phonologically
  acceptable forms of written English. Decades of research has
  demonstrated a consistent association between different forms of
  3phonological awareness and reading attainment.  David Crystal,
  honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, believes
  that sending frequent texts can actually help children to read and
  write because of the abbreviations used. “People have always used
  abbreviations ... They do not actually use that many in texts but when
  they do they are using them in new, playful and imaginative ways that
  benefit literacy” (Leake, 2008).

  Crystal (2008) believes that the widespread concern about the impact
  of texting on children’s literacy is unfounded. The brevity of the
  text style, and the 160 character constraint of an SMS, requires the
  author to write economically, inventively and playfully – doing this
  is good practice when learning to read and write. Wood, Plester and
  Bowyer (2008) concur that “when texting, the children have the freedom
  to ‘play’ with the construction of language that they are learning
  about at school, and are creative in their use of it. They also have
  regular engagement with it.” Plester, Wood and Joshi (2009) believe
  that any engagement with the written word (as opposed to the spoken
  word) – including reading and writing textisms in digital form on
  mobile phones – is beneficial for children. Wood, Plester and Bowyer
  (2008) posit that “children’s use of this technology appears to have a
  positive impact on their developing literacy, as it provides children
  with an additional resource for learning about and experimenting with
  letter-sound correspondences and language, and for reading and
  ‘decoding’ text.” They conclude that “If our children are showing
  difficulties with reading and spelling attainment, it would seem that
  this is in spite of the contribution of textism use, not because of
  it.”

....

  Evolution of language Language changes constantly. To illustrate this
  point, at the beginning of each school year Cindi Rigsbee, a sixth-
  and seventh-grade reading-resource teacher in the USA, shows her
  learners texts from Old English, Middle English, contemporary English
  from the time of Jane Eyre, and a MySpace page. Throughout the year,
  Rigsbee often refers back to this lesson to remind her learners of the
  different forms of writing (Bernard, 2008). Other teachers have
  contrasted IM lingo with Shakespeare to demonstrate how English has
  evolved (Lee, 2002)

(The effects of texting on literacy: Modern scourge or opportunity? - Shuttleworth Foundation)

The use of texting and online chat has also promoted Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The emphasis being on the written language, and the inability to utilize body language, and facial gestures, as a bridge to overcoming learning difficulties.

  It was found that text-based online chat promotes noticing more than
  face-to-face conversations, especially in terms of learners’ noticing
  of their own linguistic mistakes.

....

  Philp’s (1999) findings pushed the agenda of research on noticing away
  from general evidentiary studies on the positive effect of noticing on
  SLA  towards exploratory studies on contextual factors that affect
  noticing. Realizing the potential effect of learners’ memory capacity
  on noticing as laid out in Doughty’s (2001) cognitive comparison
  framework, Mackey, Philp, Egi, Fujii, and Tatsumi (2002) designed a
  study to explore the relationship between learners’ working memory
  (WM) capacities and their noticing of interactional feedback. They
  found that there was a positive relationship between WM capacities and
  their noticing of interactional feedback, and that learners at lower
  developmental levels exhibited more   noticing than those at higher
  levels.

(NOTICING AND TEXT-BASED CHAT, Chun Lai and Yong Zhao, Michigan State University)

It is unclear what the advent of technological communication has upon the literacy of   adult native language. Any links to current research on this would be welcome.

Note I would like to acknowledge that I have used the links provided in the comments to answer this question.

Will update answer upon acquisition of new material.


How does one respond to an ADD/ADHD diagnosis of one's self or one's child?

There actually is the same kind of controversy over depression. The French documentary Dépression, une épidémie mondiale nicely summarizes how a well-meant change in diagnostic criteria (from DSM-IV to DSM-5) backfired and the pharmacoceutical industry now use this to diagnose every sadness or exhaustion as depression with the intention to sell drugs and make money.
There has also been controversy over schizophrenia for at least two hundred years. Other mental disorders are equally highly controversial. It is just that ADHD is a "fashion disorder" today and therefore covered by the media, which gives laypeople the impression that only this disorder is controversial.
As for ADHD, we live in a society that favours certain personality traits and disfavours others, and those kids that don't sit still very well, need a higher input speed, or are simply socially maladjusted, are often diagnosed with ADHD, although they are perfectly healthy and normal and would only need a different kind of learning environment or better familial support.
On the other hand, this does not mean that ADHD does not exist. If the diagnosis was given by an expert after careful investigation, then the patient will certainly profit from therapy. But the therapy cannot be deduced from the diagnosis alone. It must take into consideration the etiology (what caused the disorder?) and the circumstances (how does the patient live?), as well as the personality of the patient. Because the same symptoms of the same disorder can have widely varying causes, and you want your therapy to address those causes and not just ease the symptoms.
Therefore a meaningful diagnosis will include an analysis of the cause. ADHD can be genetic, caused by harmful substances, or psycho-social. Therapy will differ in each case.
If you want to evaluate a diagnosis and recommended therapy, I would recommend you go see another expert. Evaluating them yourself would require you study medicine and psychology to an extent probably not feasible. Be extremely careful of reading stuff on the net! Much of what you find there is published by companies who are in search of patients to sell medication to, or by laypeople.
I don't know where you live, and probably don't know how you can find trusted experts in your country. In Germany, where I live, the best path to take would be to approach therapeutic organizations or even your health insurance and ask them for whom you should turn to.
Generally, psychiatrists appear to be more likely to prescribe medication, while psychologists seem to prefer non-medical therapy. The best therapy for many mental disorders is a combination of both, with medication used to alleviate the current symptoms, and psychotherapy working mid- to long-term on changing behavior (and personality) so that medication is no longer necessary or can at least be reduced. I know people with ADHD who live well without medication, simply by creating for themselves the environment that they can flourish in.
All the best.

tl;dr
Find a doctor you can trust, and trust them.


How many dendrite connections vs axon terminals does a multipolar cerebral neuron have?

Multipolar neurons have multiple inputs (dendritic connections), and one output (the axon).There are also bipolar cells in the retina, these have one dendrite (input) and one axon (output) (Nelson & Connaughton, 2012).

Regarding dendrites:
A striking example are the Purkinje cells in the cortex. These cells have elaborate dendritic trees making 100,000 to 200,000 connections, but still there is just one axon. Hence they integrate massive amounts of (sensory) information and funnel it into one output signal (Purves et al., 2002).

Hence, dependent on the cell type, neurons can have one or as many as 200k dendritic connections.

Regarding axon terminals:
As far as I am aware, all neurons have just one axon. The axon can target neurons along the way (en passant) and the axon can terminate in multiple terminals contacting various cells. Some neurons contain one terminal (e.g. bipolar cells), others as many as thousands of terminals (Brady et al., 2012).

The only situation where multiple axons arise from one cell is when the axon bifurcates along the way, sending one or more collaterals from the axon off back to the cell. Basically, the neuron has still just one axonal output, but collateral regulatory info is sent off back to the cell.

There are situations where multiple axons arise, but that occurs only in neurons that have been tinkered around with genetically.

References
- Brady et al., Basic Neurochemistry. 8th ed (2012)
- Nelson & Connaughton, Bipolar Cell Pathways in the Vertebrate Retina. In: Webvision (2012)
- Purves et al. (eds), Neuroscience. 2nd ed. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates


With great difficulty. I'm half-joking because I'm not totally sure, but the first observation is that DSM-IV also used these brackets, so the ICD-10 isn't alone.

  The DSM-IV definition utilizes four degrees of severity that reflect the level of intellectual impairment: IQ levels between 50–55 to approximately 70 characterize mild mental retardation, 35—40 to 50–55 characterize moderate mental retardation, 20–25 to 35–40 characterize severe mental retardation, and IQ levels below 20–25 characterize profound mental retardation.

As far as actually testing the profound levels of retardation, it seem to me that alternative tests might be used in practice, e.g. a 2018 Texas HHS guideline says:

  In some situations, an individual’s limitations may be so extensive that a full scale IQ
  score cannot be obtained from a standardized intelligence test. In these situations, an
  estimate of the individual’s IQ score, or, IQ score equivalent should be stated with clinical
  justification. For example, if an individual’s ability to comprehend oral instruction or
  visual demonstration is not adequate for a formal appraisal of general intellectual
  functioning, the use of an Adaptive Behavior Composite (e.g., provided by the VABS)
  may serve as an estimate of the individual’s intellectual functioning when accompanied
  by a clinical justification explained in the DID report. However, not all measures of
  adaptive behavior (e.g., ABAS, ICAP, and SIB) are appropriate for establishing an IQ
  score equivalent.

VABS is the  Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales; there's a reasonably cited paper by Bölte and Poustka (2002) correlating the ABC subscale of that with IQ < 70 (which is measured on the WISC-R/WAIS-R scale). But it also notes that the because of floor effects with WISC/WAIS we can't be certain that the substitute is really appropriate. It also cites some other papers some of which disagreed with this idea of substituting VABS for IQ.

The ICD-11 has moved away from merely using the IQ as discriminator, but has kept it. The DSM-5 was a little bolder:

  DSM-5 abandoned specific IQ scores as a diagnostic criterion, although it retained the general notion of functioning two or more standard deviations below the general population.

As the Texas guideline explains further:

  the DSM-5 (pages 33-36)
  is the first edition to classify level of severity based on adaptive functioning rather than IQ
  score. The DSM-5 explains that “the various levels of severity are defined on the basis of
  adaptive functioning, and not IQ scores, because it is adaptive functioning that determines
  the level of supports required.” In other words, the DSM-5 recognizes that adaptive functioning has greater practical significance because it is a better indicator of the
  individual’s ability to function in society.

And Texas has basically adopted the DSM-5 in this regard, classifying ability by an (approved) ABL test, of which there are several, but since that's not the main topic here... I won't detail that any further.


What is the set of cards used in the Wisconsin/Berg Card Sorting task?

The 64 card version is just a shorter version, according to (Greve, 2001). Instead of running 128 total trials, there are only 64. The original test was developed and, crucially, normed for 128 trials. However, this version takes a long time to administer, and clinicians were interested in a shorter version. It was found that cutting the number of trials in half worked reasonably well.

So the short answer seems to be that the decks are the same.


Put a fixation cross on top of a image in Expyriment?

This should work:

picture = expyriment.stimuli.Picture("/path/to/picture.jpg")
fixcross = expyriment.stimuli.FixCross()
picture.present(update=False)
fixcross.present(clear=False)

Alternatively, you can first plot the fixation cross on top of the picture and then present it:

picture = expyriment.stimuli.Picture("/path/to/picture.jpg")
fixcross = expyriment.stimuli.FixCross()
fixcross.plot(picture)
picture.present()


Do subjects with a missing cerebellum have a superior ability to verbalize motion sequences?

I think that this question is hard to answer because there is little known about the cerebellum, and few instances of people who have been born without one. There are only 10 known cases of complete cerebellar agenesis, which can hardly be considered a sample size.

Broadly speaking, the cerebellum can be seen a 'fine tuning' device in the brain. It does not initiate movement, but rather allows movement to be fine-tuned and coordinated by receiving input from sensory systems in the spinal cord. This 'fine tuning' can apply to other areas, such as behavior, affect, and social expectations, as well as speech difficulty (often in the form of slurred speech). However, it is not well known how the cerebellum affects cognitive functions.

The 'output source' for the cerebellum is its Purkinje cells. But since Purkinje cells are found in high quantities within the cerebellum itself, they are unlikely to be of much use if the patient has no cerebellum to begin with. Therefore, it is not clear how the brain could 'replace' cerebellar function. I think that muscle memory and conscious developmental strategies are the only methods to overcome setbacks from cerebellar agenesis, and after reading a few case studies, common anecdote seemed to confirm this.

Given this information, and given the lack of evidence in any of the observed ten cases, I would conclude that it is likely that patients with a missing cerebellum do not have any sort of extraordinary ability elsewhere in the brain -- much less related to their own deficit. However, this cannot be confirmed without more case studies of cerebellar agenesis.


Decrease in d' with concurrent increase of criterion

Within the classical signal detection framework, the effect of bias is studied by keeping the signal and signal plus noise stimuli identical, which should keep d' constant, and manipulating the instructions to the subjects or the payoff/cost matrix to change the bias. Under these conditions, we expect d' to remain constant since it is defined by the signal and signal plus noise distributions. Changing the instructions or payoff/cost matrix can change the underlying distributions even if the stimuli are fixed because forcing someone to use an unnatural criterion could add additional noise. This will cause a decrease in d'. For fixed distributions, changing the criterion can only change d' (as defined by ZD−ZF and not mu2-mu1/sigma) if the distributions are not Gaussian.

The attached graphic looks like the experiments manipulated the stimuli/paradigm by changing the inter-stimulus interval (ISI). This seems to have changed the underlying signal and signal plus noise distributions and causes d' to increase as the bias decreases. Potentially the longer ISI gives the subject more processing time leading to an increased d'. Depending on how bias is calculated (cf. Two different values for criterion in signal detection theory?), the criterion could be staying constant relative to the noise alone stimuli, but the bias could be changing.


Evidence for gender-based math ability differences?

It is generally understood that girls develop a small to moderate deficit in math abilities, compared to boys, over the course of schooling, as measured by mean school grades or test scores (Hyde & Linn, 2006 give a number of .08 standard deviations in favor of men for mathematical problem solving on average, a larger effect favoring elementary school girls, and no difference for high school math; on the maths section of the SAT, girls score ~.3 SD below boys). Similarly, particularly math-heavy academic disciplines (such as physics, maths, computer science) feature a smaller proportion of women than other disciplines, although this effect is attenuated for some surprising cases, such as statistics, and present for some math-light degrees, such as philosophy. This effect is the stronger, the further advanced the position is (e.g., the ratio of female maths BAs is much higher than the ratio of female math PhDs).
All in all, across these various measures, women tend to score slightly worse than men, although not across the board, and extreme differences are only observable in comparatively rare and extreme contexts (e.g., math PhDs).

The variance ratio (that is, how much more men vary compared to women) is somewhere around 1.1 as given by Hyde, indicating that men show a bit, but not much more variance.

These findings concern data from the United States. Janet Hyde has published multiple cross-national meta-analyses on this topic, including:

Cross-National Patterns of Gender Differences in Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis

Gender, culture, and mathematics performance

Gender Similarities in Mathematics and Science

Her primary finding is the culture dependence of this gender gap. For example, she observes the gap not only varies with countries, but also interacts with, for example, gender equality (although see Fryer & Levitt, 2009). It is different for various ethnic groups within countries (e.g., amongst US Asians, women are somewhat more frequently top scorers). Furthermore, the effects are highly variable in time; for example, the ratio of female math PhDs hit an all-time low of 5% in the 1950s, was higher in the pre-war time, and has been on a steady upwards trend ever since.

Combining all of this evidence, it seems to me fair to say that there is currently, in Western countries in this time, somewhat stronger math performance by boys, but that there is no convincing evidence that this pattern is necessarily generalizable.


Are liars inclined to lie to themselves?

Although I cannot answer the question on lying, (self-)speech and thinking are intimately linked to each-other, and actually used in UX-design (e.g. Krahmer, 2004). He compared two different approaches of thinking-aloud. In other words, people are perfectly able to verbalize their thoughts and actually do so.
One of the approaches he compares is a proposal of Ericsson and Simon (1993). In their nice and brief paper, they discuss (and refer to) many scientific papers (e.g. cognitive scientific and psychological) where self-speech is used during problem solving. Moreover, it showed that self-speech is related to other variables that correspond to thoughts.

In their review, Ericsson and Simon (1993) found that [[...]] there seemed to be close correspondence between subjects’ thoughts and what information that they looked at--when subjects verbalized thoughts about objects in the environment they very frequently looked at them.

I must admit that self-speech in this way is only used as a methods of identifying cognitive processes, and is often a mandated task in the experiment. However, the fact that people are able to reflect on their thoughts, gives me reason to believe that they can do so unconsciously too. If someone could correct me or confirm this, I invite you to do so.


Does your voice pitch affect your perceived authority?

There's quite a bit of research related to this topic:

Male CEOs with deeper voices make more money and manage larger companies (Mayew et al., 2013).
People are more likely to say they would vote for a political candidate with a deeper voice (Klofstad et al., 2012; Tigue et al., 2011).
People rate lower-pitched voices as more persuasive than higher-pitched voices (Apple et al., 1979).
Somewhat contrary to the above findings, people tend to raise the pitch of their voice when they are in a position of authority (Ko et al., 2014).


Representing the relation between objects + their attributes in neurons is called The Binding Problem. The Wikipedia article I've linked to is a bit questionable at the moment, so you may want to read the paper "Biologically Plausible, Human-Scale Knowledge Representation" instead. In the paper, the authors describe different ways of encoding symbols and their relation in neurons, using the NEF and SPA.

The paper shows how populations of neurons can represent vectors and symbols can be defined as vectors. Relations between symbols can be defined as operations on these symbols carried out by connection weights between populations.

For example, the scenario in the original post could be represented as:

$V = BLUE*CIRCLE + RED*TRIANGLE$

Where each word is it's own N-dimensional vector, $+$ is vector addition and $*$ is circular convolution.

Further discussion of this model can be found in this StackExchange answer.


Bayesian models of faking in selection and recruitment settings

Quantitative papers

There are a number of papers that didn't use a Bayesian approach but provide a relevant basis for developing quantitative Bayesian models:

Zickar et al (2004) performed a mixed-model using item response theory to examine different classes of respondents to personality tests. While it doesn't appear to be a Bayesian analysis, it is an example of a more sophisticated quantitative model. Essentially it concludes that there is more than one type of "faking" process.
Komar et al (2008) performed a statistical simulation of the faking process that represented various mathematical models of faking. While this study wasn't Bayesian in approach and it didn't involve data collection, the mathematical models discussed are relevant in describing parameters of interest to a Bayesian model of faking (e.g., proportion of participants faking, average magnitude of faking, variability in magnitude of faking, etc.).

Bayesian papers

There are a couple of papers that I've found that have used a Bayesian approach to study faking.

Kuncel et al (2011) in their review article of faking detection techniques discuss a general approach for assessing honest responding originally presented by Prelec (2004) known as Bayesian Truth Serum. The approach involves asking respondents to indicate their own response to a question and to estimate the proportion of the population that would give the same response. If the respondent's estimate of the population proportion is greater than the average estimate, then the response to that question is expected to be more honest. The argument is that if we acquire our beliefs about the population from our experience, we are more likely to over estimate the degree to which the belief is shared with others because our experience is biased to include ourselves. See also this paper by Ray Weaver.
Ortega et al (2011)  applied a Bayesian approach to faking bad in malingering contexts.

References

Komar, S, Brown, D. J., Komar, J. A., & Robie, C. (2008). Faking and the validity of conscientiousness: A monte carlo investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology
Kuncel, N. C,  Bornemann, M.,  and Kiger, T. (2011).  Innovative Item Response Process and Bayesian Faking Detection Methods: More Questions than Answers. New Perspectives on Faking in Personality Assessment
Edited by Matthias Ziegler, Carolyn MacCann and Richard Roberts.
Ortega, A., Wagenmakers, E.-J., Lee, M.D., Markowitsch, H.J., & Piefke, M. (in press). A Bayesian latent group analysis for detecting poor effort in the assessment of malingering. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. PDF
Prelec, D. (2004). A Bayesian Truth Serum for Subjective Data. Science, 306, 462-466. PDF
Zickar, M., Gibby, R. E., Robie, C. (2004). Uncovering faking samples in applicant, incumben, and experimental data sets: An application of mixed-model item response theory. Organizational Research Methods, 7, 168-190.


To what degree does environment govern the severity of symptoms in schizophrenia?

I think reading about the genain quadruplets should give you a clear idea of the effect of environment on schizophrenia. Basically, the quadruplets had a genetic disposition to this disorder and all 4 siblings were admitted at some point or another to the National Institute of Mental Health as schizophrenic. However, there were differences in the severity of the disorder in all 4 siblings due to the way they were treated by their parents, showing that despite genetic dispositions to a disorder, environmental factors do affect the severity of it.


Are there any pragmatic uses of hallucinogens?

Hallucinogens play an important psycho-social role in many societies. Their positive impact seem to be primarily religious (see Tripping the Way to God: Hallucinogens and Religion).
However they do play an important role in the lab inducing a state similar to psychosis. They also play a limited role in psychiatry.
Psychedelic psychotherapy as the name suggested is the combination of hallucinogens with a form of psychotherapy. It is not widely practiced.
Research into cannabidiol], a cannabis constituent with anti-psychotic properties instead of the typical high anxiety and psychosis symptoms, has been published; see  "Cannabidiol, a Cannabis sativa constituent, as an antipsychotic drug" by Zuardi et al, 2006.
Eli Lilly tried to make a drug based on these glutamate receptors interactions called LY2140023. It was shown to be ineffective by itself.
Many hallucinogens are used for alternative primary purpose like benadryl and nitrous oxide (laughing gas).


Training adults on how to react to social cues.

Yes. The first step in teaching others to recognize and how to respond to social cues is to help them learn self-awareness. They need to become aware of how they feel and naturally respond to stimuli. People with ASD often struggle with having a detached look of themselves- ToM. That too someone can overcome through self-awareness. Google scholar self-awareness and social competence.