The Effects of Noise on Helping Behavior Reconsidered

Previous research has shown that noise interferes with social cues from a person in need of help and reduces helping behavior. The research reported here investigates the role of other variables, such as nonverbal cues and sex of the participants involved, that may naturally accompany noise in influencing prosocial behavior. Two experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that noise alone may not reduce helping behavior, among other hypotheses. The results of the laboratory study were inconclusive because of the possible interference of demand characteristics. The results of a field study on the streets of a major city supported the major hypothesis and revealed that sex of the participants involved was the major predictor of helping behavior. The results were discussed in terms of adaptation to arousing stimuli and environmental load theories.     

Effects of Subcortical Lesion Site on Human Emotional Behavior

This is the first quantitative group study of recognition, expression, and other social-emotional behaviors after third ventricle damage in humans. Hypothalamic damage often induced appetitive disorders without affecting other emotional functions. In contrast, lesions in several hemispheric sites, especially right medial temporal, impaired emotional recognition; frontal and basal ganglia damage impoverished facial emotional expressions, this deficit being dissociated from general facial-motor impairment. These functional dissociations indicate that social-emotional behavior is regulated by multiple neural circuits, many of which by-pass hypothalamic nuclei. This conclusion is shown to be consistent with (a) the considerable animal evidence linking appetitive-survival behaviors with hypothalamic activity and (b) the accumulating human data on the specific contributions of hemispheric cortical-subcortical systems in the regulation of emotional recognition and expression.     

The Effects of Street Noise and Field Independency on Police Officers' Shooting Behavior

Two studies examining the effects of street noise on police officers' emotion, perception, and performance in simulated shooting events are discussed. Compared to previous research, our studies had a higher ecological validity. In our studies, "relevant" noise was introduced, the subjects were police officers instead of students, and the behavior we examined was police behavior in simulated firearms incidents. Results revealed that noise resulted in increased emotion, a narrowed perception, and an impairment in performance on secondary tasks. In Study 2, the effects of field independency on emotion, perception, and performance were examined. The outcomes showed that high field-independent subjects compared to low field independent subjects obtained better results regarding perception and performance. Finally, some implications are discussed.     

Effects of White Noise on Off-Task Behavior and Sleep for Elementary-Age Students with ADHD

Abstract

Children with ADHD were administered 75?dB of continuous white noise during independent seat work in the classroom and during bedtime in their homes. Compared to baseline all three students exhibited decreases in off-task behavior. Off-task behavior returned to original baseline levels when white noise was removed and decreased again when reintroduced in classrooms. White noise also decreased bedtime sleep latency and spontaneous night wakings at home. Both sleep latencies and night wakings increased during return-to-baseline conditions. Surprisingly, when white noise was reintroduced only in the classrooms sleep improved a second time. White noise in classrooms with or without simultaneous treatment during sleep at night resulted in lower levels of off-task classroom behavior as well as less disruptive sleep. Results were independent of whether children were on ADHD medication. Children, teachers, and parents all rated white noise favorably.     

Olfaction and Human Social Behavior: Effects of Pleasant Scents on Physical Aggression

Forty-eight male undergraduates participated in an experiment designed to investigate the effects of pleasant scents on physical aggression. Subjects were first angered or not angered by a male or female confederate, and then provided with an opportunity to aggress against this person. One third aggressed in the presence of a very pleasant scent (perfume), a second third aggressed in the presence of a mildly pleasant scent (pine-scented aerosol). The remaining subjects aggressed in the absence of any pleasant aroma. Results indicated that when the victim was male, aggression was enhanced by the presence of perfume if subjects had been angered, but reduced by this scent d they had not been provoked, in contrast, when the victim was female, aggression was enhanced by the presence of perfume regardless of whether subjects had previously been angered. The pine-scented aerosol failed to exert any significant effects upon subjects' behavior. These findings were interpreted as consistent with the suggestion that the impact of pleasant scents on social behavior may stem from several different mediating mechanisms, including heightened arousal and shifts in social perception.     

Effects of Data Noise on Statistical Judgement

People made forecasts from graphically presented time series. Series were sinusoids overlaid by a zero or positive linear trend and a zero, low, moderate, or high level of noise. Forecasting performance was affected by both these variables. However, it did not correlate with ability to identify the trend and correlated significantly with ability to detect the sinusoidal pattern only when series were noise-free. A second experiment showed that the effect of data noise was not influenced by the number of forecasts that people made from a series. These findings are consistent with the view that data noise does not affect the way that forecasts are made but that it impairs them for two reasons. First, it renders the anchor-and-adjust heuristics underlying them less effective. Second, it causes people to add more noise to their judgements in their attempts to make them representative of the data.     

关于人类基因组解读计划的某些思考

基因组图谱的完成 ,仅仅是测定了 30亿个核苷酸的排列顺序 ,随后更主要的、更艰巨的工作是解读、破译这些基因的结构与功能 ,以及基因之间的相互关系与调控作用 ,也即是要解读基因编译的蛋白质清单。人类基因组图谱的测序工作 ,仅仅是了解人类基因的共性 ,对于人与人之间的基因差异以及基因变异的研究 ,发现变异的疾病基因 ,通过分析这些特定的变异基因来诊断疾病或预测疾病的发生 ,将是今后更艰巨的任务。1　基因功能问题人类究竟有多少基因 ,开始认为有 10万个基因 ,后来一度估计有 14万个 ,当人们测定了基因组序列后 ,最后认为有 3万多个…     

人口性别比例失衡对人类行为的影响

男女比例协调本是自然进化的规律。可在我国, 人口性别比例失调的现象日趋严重, 深入理解这一现象对社会产生何种影响已经成为一件刻不容缓的工作。进化心理学和社会人口学这两个领域近年来分别开展了一系列与此问题相关的研究, 从性选择、择偶、婚姻、亲本投资、暴力行为和经济行为六个方面全面研究人口性别比例对人类行为的影响。     

催产素与人类社会行为

催产素被喻为爱的荷尔蒙和亲密荷尔蒙。研究者对它的兴趣由其对分娩和哺乳的促进作用转向它对人类社会行为的影响。催产素的常用研究方法包括尿液、血液、脑脊液测量法, 鼻腔喷入法和基因型分析法。催产素对人类社会行为的影响包括社会关系、社会性决策、社会性信息加工、社会性记忆、焦虑等方面。研究者正尝试将催产素应用于孤独症、社交焦虑症、抑郁症、强迫症和精神分裂症等精神疾病的临床治疗上。未来的研究应关注催产素的临床应用、负面作用和神经机制。     

Some Burning Issues in Research on Health Behavior Change

This response to five excellent commentaries is intended to clarify some issues in research on health behavior change that appear to be ambiguous or controversial, such as the debate about stage models versus continuum models or the search for moderators and mediators. The assumption of stages can be useful, but the quest for truly existing stages is considered fruitless because stage is a scientific construct, not nature. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) is designed as an implicit or explicit stage model, based on the distinction between a motivational and a volitional phase. As a template for targeted interventions, it suggests grouping individuals into preintenders, intenders, and actors. Due to indistinct boundaries between stages and to unstable social‐cognitive constructs, the validity of stage assessment becomes the foremost problem. However, if stage‐tailored interventions turn out to be superior to nontailored interventions, then the choice of the corresponding stage model is justified. When analysing the mechanisms of health behavior change or when predicting behaviors, the HAPA is also in line with nonstage (continuum) models. In the latter case, it examines moderators and mediators within a path‐analytic research design. It is suggested that more research be conducted on moderated mediation. Cette réponse aux cinq excellents commentaires tente de clarifier certains des résultats des recherches sur la modification des comportements relatifs à la santé, résultats qui semblent ambigus ou sujets à controverse, ce qui est le cas de la discussion sur les modèles en stades ou en continuum ou encore de la recherche de modérateurs et de médiateurs. L’hypothèse des stades peut se révéler fructueuse, mais il est inutile de considérer que les stades existent réellement puisque le stade, concept scientifique, ne relève pas de la nature. L’Approche des Processus d’Action en faveur de la Santé (HAPA) est par construction un modèle en stades implicites ou explicites basé sur la distinction entre une étape motivationnelle et une étape volitionnelle. Comme cadre pour des interventions ciblées, il propose de regrouper les individus en trois catégories: ceux qui n’ont pas encore l’intention d’agir, ceux qui ont cette intention et enfin ceux qui agissent. En raison des frontières fluctuantes entre les stades et de l’instabilité des concepts socio‐cognitifs, la validité de l’évaluation des stades devient le problème principal. Cependant, si les interventions programmées à partir des stades se révèlent plus efficaces que les autres, le choix de ce modèle est défendable. Quand on analyse les mécanismes des modifications du comportement en faveur de la santé ou quand on prédit ces comportements, l’HAPA accepte aussi le modèle en continuum. En ce cas, elle aborde les modérateurs et les médiateurs avec un plan de recherche en pistes causales. Il faut développer les recherches sur modérateurs et médiateurs.     

Effects of Situational Cues on Aggressive Behavior

Numerous situational factors are known to increase the likelihood that a person will behave aggressively. The current review addresses what is currently understood about the relationship between three theoretically relevant situational variables (the presence of weapons, alcohol cues, and exposure to media violence) and aggressive behavior. Theoretical models of aggression generally propose heightened accessibility of aggressive cognitions (i.e., priming) as a common mechanism to explain effects of these variables on aggression but differ in terms of factors that modulate whether and how activated mental content will influence behavior. Here, we discuss these factors and suggest ways in which models of priming might be integrated. We also underscore that, although aggression has been the focus of considerable research for decades, much more research is needed to better understand the psychological and biological processes that mediate effects of situational cues on aggression in humans.     

Some Foucauldian Perspectives on Issues in Human Sexuality

Abstract

This article uses the writings of Michel Foucault to analyse the mechanisms of power operative in the 1991 Anglican Bishop's statement Issues in Human Sexuality. While Foucault does not bequeath a systematic methodology his work vividly illustrates the processes through which ‘the other’ is constructed in the discourse of dominant groups. There are many disquieting examples of these discursive mechanisms operative in the Bishop's statement. The article demonstrates how a regulative world view is produced with the appearance of dispassionate objectivity.     

The Continuity Strategy,Human Behavior,and Behavior Analysis

The Psychological Record - In behavior analysis, continuity refers to the assumption of a similarity of behavioral principles or processes between nonhumans and humans, which is often considered to...     

The Effects of Noise and Speech on Cognitive Task Performance

In the present study, which is based on Loeb's 1986 analysis, we used five levels of noise that varied in intermittency and meaningfulness, crossed with sex of subject and time of day. Memory tasks that differed in their reliance upon long-term, short-term free recall, and sequential short-term memory were used as dependent variables. A total of 160 subjects, 20 per block, participated in the 2 × 2 × 5 (Sexes X Time of Day X Noise Conditions) experimental design. Results support the prediction that white noise enhances performance on tasks with sequential short-term memory demands (anagrams: p < .05; random letter generation: p < .002). We found complex interactions by sex of subject, time of day, and type of noise for those tasks that placed a heavy demand on short-term working memory, i.e., complex sorting (Noise X Sex, p < .05) and random letter generation (Sex X Noise X Time of Day, p < .05). The predicted effects for anagrams were not supported. These results call into question previous generalizations about the effects of noise on performance (Broadbent, 1978; Dornic, Sarnelid, Larson, Svensson, & Fernaeus, 1982; Poulton, 1977), alternative interpretations are presented.     

The Effects of Syntactic Complexity on Processing Sentences in Noise

This paper discusses the influence of stationary (non-fluctuating) noise on processing and understanding of sentences, which vary in their syntactic complexity (with the factors canonicity, embedding, ambiguity). It presents data from two RT-studies with 44 participants testing processing of German sentences in silence and in noise. Results show a stronger impact of noise on the processing of structurally difficult than on syntactically simpler parts of the sentence. This may be explained by a combination of decreased acoustical information and an increased strain on cognitive resources, such as working memory or attention, which is caused by noise. The noise effect for embedded sentences is less than for non-embedded sentences, which may be explained by a benefit from prosodic information.     

Science and Human Behavior at fifty

The golden anniversary of Science and Human Behavior is cause for celebration. Toward that end, the present paper is largely an historical consideration of the book, its inception and reception, both at the time of its publication and in subsequent years. The range and intensity of reactions to S&HB mark its impact and show it to be among Skinner's most important works, if not the most important. S&HB was written as an introductory psychology text--a vigorous use of the book in our teaching could do much to benefit the dissemination of behavior analysis.     

The Scientific Study of Human Sexual Behavior

Summary

A detailed, personalized report is provided concerning the data gathered to determine whether a workship planned for Greek and Turkish Cypriotes was feasible and desirable, to formulate the goals of the enterprise, actually to recruit participants, and to ascertain some of the opinions and attitudes likely to be expressed during that workshop. The data could not be utilized, however, because a few days before the participants were to gather in Northern Italy the government of the Greek community on the island was overthrown and five days later an invasion by the Turks began. The emphasis is upon the clinical or practical experience gained from this aborted attempt, which might be useful in future enterprises.