Feedback in discriminative avoidance learning: Mechanistic versus cognitive views

Presentation of a feedback stimulus, a non-aversive event never paired with shock, following an avoidance response has been found to be an effective reinforcer in avoidance learning. Alternative formulations of the feedback effect, one a version of the traditional S-R mechanistic, two-factor theory and the other a cognitive (informational) theory, were evaluated with a view toward determining which type of formulation provides a more viable explanation of avoidance learning. The conclusion reached, however, was that both informational and fear-reduction positions operationalize their critical concepts in the same manner, and to date there are no empirical grounds for distinguishing these different views.     

Asymmetrical attributions for approach versus avoidance behavior

Five studies examined responsibility inferences and/or person and situation attributions in positively versus negatively valenced motivational contexts. In Experiment 1, participants received information about a teaching assistant who was promised a reward or threatened with a punishment when asked for compliance with a requested transgression. The teaching assistant was perceived as more responsible for complying given the positive than the negative incentive. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2 using different vignettes and incentives. Experiment 3 revealed that the effect of incentive valence on perceived responsibility for compliance remains significant when statistically controlling for perceived compliance rates. Experiment 4 then demonstrated that there are not only greater responsibility judgments given a positive than a negative incentive but also greater dispositional attributions. Finally, Experiment 5 revealed that a similar incentive valence effect is found in other appetitive versus aversive motivational contexts. Theoretical explanations of this phenomenon are discussed.     

Approach versus avoidance: different types of commitment in intimate relationships

The major objective of the present study was to examine whether approach versus avoidance commitment to one's intimate relationship was differentially predictive of relationship quality parameters in the long run. In the 1st testing period, 134 participants (67 romantic couples) answered questions about approach- versus avoidance-related measures. Commitment and relationship quality parameters such as satisfaction and emotions depending on the partner's presence were assessed in all 3 testing periods. The proposed distinction between an approach and an avoidance type of commitment was validated through correlations with other approach- versus avoidance-related measures. Longitudinal analyses revealed that approach commitment predicted relationship quality parameters positively, whereas avoidance commitment predicted them negatively. The results are discussed in terms of the benefit of an approach-avoidance-based conceptualization of commitment.     

The adoption of approach versus avoidance goals: The role of goal-relevant resources

The present research investigated whether the adoption of approach versus avoidance goals is affected by goal-relevant resources. When individuals have few goal-relevant resources, they should prefer avoidance goals, whereas when individuals have many goal-relevant resources, they should adopt approach goals. The individual’s outcome expectancy is assumed to mediate this relationship. This hypothesis is supported by the findings of four multi-method studies with student samples. A cross-sectional field study showed a positive relationship between the extent of goal-relevant resources and approach goal adoption. In a longitudinal field study, a high number of resources predicted the increase in personal approach goal adoption over a period of 4 months, controlling for neuroticism. Two experiments showed that the manipulation of resources affected approach versus avoidance task goal adoption, with outcome expectancy mediating the relationship. These findings complement existing findings on dispositional determinants of approach versus avoidance goal adoption.     

Rational numbers: Componential versus holistic representation of fractions in a magnitude comparison task

This study investigated whether the mental representation of the fraction magnitude was componential and/or holistic in a numerical comparison task performed by adults. In Experiment 1, the comparison of fractions with common numerators (x/a_x/b) and of fractions with common denominators (a/x_b/x) primed the comparison of natural numbers. In Experiment 2, fillers (i.e., fractions without common components) were added to reduce the regularity of the stimuli. In both experiments, distance effects indicated that participants compared the numerators for a/x_b/x fractions, but that the magnitudes of the whole fractions were accessed and compared for x/a_x/b fractions. The priming effect of x/a_x/b fractions on natural numbers suggested that the interference of the denominator magnitude was controlled during the comparison of these fractions. These results suggested a hybrid representation of their magnitude (i.e., componential and holistic). In conclusion, the magnitude of the whole fraction can be accessed, probably by estimating the ratio between the magnitude of the denominator and the magnitude of the numerator. However, adults might prefer to rely on the magnitudes of the components and compare the magnitudes of the whole fractions only when the use of a componential strategy is made difficult.     

When planning is needed: Implementation intentions and attainment of approach versus avoidance health goals

OBJECTIVE: This study tested whether forming implementation intentions is an effective strategy for attaining health goals focused on trying to avoid a negative state. DESIGN: Participants chose to either eat more healthy snacks (i.e., an approach goal) or eat fewer unhealthy snacks (i.e., an avoidance goal) over two weeks and were randomly assigned to create an implementation intention to do this or not. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors measured fat and calorie intake after one week and after two weeks. RESULTS: After two weeks, the participants who ate most unhealthily were those who pursued an avoidance goal and did not form an implementation intention. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that forming implementation intentions for avoidance goal pursuit can help people attain important health goals.     

Spoken numbers versus Arabic numerals: differential effects on adults' multiplication and addition.

J.-A. LeFevre, Q. Lei, B. L. Smith-Chant, and D. B. Mullins (2001) examined effects of auditory versus Arabic visual presentation formats on performance of simple multiplication. They observed a smaller problem-size effect (response time [RT] increases with numerical size) with auditory stimuli compared with Arabic stimuli. If this arises during problem encoding, as opposed to during subsequent calculation processes, the authors would expect comparable Format x Problem Size interactions for both multiplication and addition. For multiplication, the authors replicated the finding of a smaller problem-size effect for auditory stimuli than for Arabic stimuli, but found the opposite pattern for addition whereby the problem-size effect was larger with auditory stimuli than with Arabic stimuli. Decomposition of mean RT into its ex-Gaussian components, mu and tau, demonstrated that the triple interaction arose entirely in connection with tau. This suggests that the effects of auditory versus Arabic format on RT substantially reflected format-related shifts in the use of procedural strategies.     

Three-dimensional audio versus head-down traffic alert and collision avoidance system displays

The advantage of a head-up auditory display for situational awareness was evaluated in an experiment designed to measure and compare the acquisition time for capturing visual targets under two conditions: standard head-down Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System display and three-dimensional (3-D) audio Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System presentation. (The technology used for 3-D audio presentation allows a stereo headphone user to potentially localize a sound at any externalized position in 3-D auditory space). Ten commercial airline crews were tested under full-mission simulation conditions at the NASA-Ames Crew-Vehicle Systems Research Facility Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator. Scenario software generated targets corresponding to aircraft that activated a 3-D aural advisory (the head-up auditory condition) or a standard, visual-audio TCAS advisory (map display with monaural audio alert). Results showed a significant difference in target acquisition time between the two conditions, favoring the 3-D audio Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System condition by 500 ms.     

Procedural justice and the hedonic principle: how approach versus avoidance motivation influences the psychology of voice

The authors investigate the relation between the hedonic principle (people's motivations to approach pleasure and to avoid pain) and procedural justice. They explore whether approach or avoidance motivation increases the effect that people feel they were treated more fairly following procedures that do versus do not allow them an opportunity to voice their opinion. Experiments 1 and 2 reveal that these procedures influence procedural justice judgments more strongly when people conduct approach motor action (arm flexion) than when they conduct avoidance motor action (arm extension). Experiment 3 indicates that individual-difference measures of participants' approach motivations predicted procedural justice judgments following voice versus no-voice procedures. The authors conclude that people's motivational orientations stimulate their fairness-based reactions to voice procedures.     

Chained schedules of avoidance: Reinforcement within and by avoidance situations

Four rats were exposed to chained schedules with variable-cycle avoidance in both links. Responding in the initial link cancelled shocks scheduled once per minute and, according to a conjoint fixed-ratio schedule, produced a terminal link where scheduled shock rates varied from 0 to 8 shocks per minute in different conditions of the experiment. Response rates in the terminal link increased as a function of the scheduled shock rate. Response rates in the initial link, on the other hand, decreased as a function of the shock rate actually received (rather than scheduled) in the terminal link. While consistent with other studies of aversive control, these results differ from those obtained in chained schedules of positive reinforcement in that increases in reinforcement within the terminal link of the chain did not systematically increase the reinforcing value of that link.     

Myopic regret avoidance: Feedback avoidance and learning in repeated decision making

Decision makers can become trapped by myopic regret avoidance in which rejecting feedback to avoid short-term outcome regret (regret associated with counterfactual outcome comparisons) leads to reduced learning and greater long-term regret over continuing poor decisions. In a series of laboratory experiments involving repeated choices among uncertain monetary prospects, participants primed with outcome regret tended to decline feedback, learned the task slowly or not at all, and performed poorly. This pattern was reversed when decision makers were primed with self-blame regret (regret over an unjustified decision). Further, in a final experiment in which task learning was unnecessary, feedback was more often rejected in the self-blame regret condition than in the outcome regret condition. We discuss the findings in terms of a distinction between two regret components, one associated with outcome evaluation, the other with the justifiability of the decision process used in making the choice.     

Matching the graphical display of data to avoidance versus approach motivation increases outcome expectancies

This study is the first demonstration of the effect of motivational focus (approach vs. avoidance) on the interpretation of graphical view of personal data, specifically, weight loss progress. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to see the bogus weight loss data charted against either a goal or a baseline reference line. In the first experiment, we accessed participants' chronic motivational focus. In the second study, we primed motivation by exposing the participants to either a gain- or loss-focused health message. The results demonstrate that participants with either chronic or manipulated approach motivation predicted higher future weight loss in the goal reference line condition than in the baseline reference line condition. The opposite pattern was observed for participants with either chronic or manipulated avoidance motivation. The potential of matching graphical data display to personality characteristics to promote effective health management is discussed.     

存在图:逻辑和认知

作为思维的动画,存在图是查尔斯·皮尔士在现代符号逻辑草创时期所建立的图式逻辑。20世纪初期,现代观念的符号逻辑出现之时,存在图在学界的研究有着完全相反的立场,其传播过程更是相当微妙。存在图的哲学方面对当前哲学研究具有重要的意义和影响,如镜像逻辑和图像之间的关系、逻辑常项的意义问题、镜像逻辑的认知经济性、弗雷格-罗素论题的失败以及思维语言假设的失败等。     

Repression versus sensitization in response to media violence as predictors of cognitive avoidance and vigilance

Repression and sensitization as situational modes of coping with anxiety were examined as predictors of trait measures of cognitive avoidance and vigilance. In this study, 303 undergraduates saw a violent film clip to elicit anxiety. Increases in skin conductance level (SCL) and state anxiety (STA) from baseline were measured to identify repressors (high SCL, low STA) and contrast them with sensitizers (low SCL, high STA) and genuinely low anxious individuals (low SCL, low STA). State anger was also recorded. Trait measures of vigilance and cognitive avoidance were collected 2 weeks earlier. Significant SCL × STA interactions indicated that repressors scored higher on cognitive avoidance and lower on vigilance compared to sensitizers and low anxious participants. Repressors were less likely than sensitizers to report gaze avoidance during the clip. The anger by SCL interaction was nonsignificant, suggesting that repressors and sensitizers differ specifically in the processing of anxiety rather than negative affect in general.     

Peer conflict avoidance: associations with loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance

Failure to resolve peer conflict is associated with children's reports of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance. Although these relationships are well established, researchers have not examined the association between the avoidance of peer conflict and various adjustment characteristics. The current study examined the association between avoidance of conflict and measures of loneliness, social anxiety, and social avoidance for 59 pupils in Grade 4 (31 boys and 28 girls) and 47 in Grade 8 (22 boys and 25 girls). Volunteers indicated that conflict avoidance based on autonomy, e.g., independence issues, and interpersonal issues, e.g., closeness and cohesion, was associated with scores on loneliness for boys and girls, respectively. Conflict avoidance for emotional and physical well-being and fear of punishment was associated with increased reports of loneliness and social anxiety for children in Grade 4.