Determination of discount functions in rats with an adjusting-amount procedure.

An adjusting-amount procedure was used to measure discounting of reinforcer value by delay. Eight rats chose between a varying amount of immediate water and a fixed amount of water given after a delay. The amount of immediate water was systematically adjusted as a function of the rats' previous choices. This procedure was used to determine the indifference point at which each rat chose the immediate amount and the delayed amount with equal frequency. The amount of immediate water at this indifference point was used to estimate the value of the delayed amount of water. In Experiment 1, the effects of daily changes in the delay to the fixed reinforcer (100 microliters of water delivered after 0, 2, 4, 8, or 16 s) were tested. Under these conditions, the rats reached indifference points within the first 30 trials of each 60-trial session. In Experiment 2, the effects of water deprivation level on discounting of value by delay were assessed. Altering water deprivation level affected the speed of responding but did not affect delay discounting. In Experiment 3, the effects of varying the magnitude of the delayed water (100, 150, and 200 microliters) were tested. There was some tendency for the discounting function to be steeper for larger than for smaller reinforcers, although this difference did not reach statistical significance. In all three experiments, the obtained discount functions were well described by a hyperbolic function. These experiments demonstrate that the adjusting-amount procedure provides a useful tool for measuring the discounting of reinforcer value by delay.     

冲动性消费行为内在机制研究述评 ———提升调节点在冲动性消费行为中所起作用

有关冲动性消费行为研究的文献众多,但难以从内在联系上进行统一。最近,利用提升调节点对冲动性消费行为内在机制的揭示是该领域的一个突破,从而有望把一些相关文献统一起来。作者介绍了冲动性消费行为内在过程;综述了用于冲动性消费行为内在机制研究的相关理论;从内在机制这个角度对有关冲动性消费行为文献进行评述。文章的最后提出了冲动性消费行为内在机制的进一步研究方向：利用调节点等相关理论,特别是调节适应理论对冲动性消费行为内在机制做进一步探讨     

An eight-alternative concurrent schedule: foraging in a radial maze.

In two experiments conducted in an eight-arm radial maze, food pellets were delivered when a photocell beam was broken at the end of each arm via a nose poke, according to either fixed-interval or random-interval schedules of reinforcement, with each arm providing a different frequency of reinforcement. The behavior of rats exposed to these procedures was well described by the generalized matching law; that is, the relationships between log behavior ratios and log pellet ratios were approximated by linear functions. The slopes of these log-log functions, an index of sensitivity to reinforcement frequency, were greatest for nose pokes, intermediate for time spent in an arm, and least for arm entries. Similar results were obtained with both fixed-interval and random-interval schedules. Addition of a 10-s changeover delay in both experiments eliminated the slope differentials between nose pokes and time spent in an arm by reducing the slopes of the nose-poke functions. These results suggest that different aspects of foraging may be differentially sensitive to reinforcement frequency. With concurrent fixed-interval schedules, the degree of temporal control exerted by individual fixed-interval schedules was directly related to reinforcement frequency.     

Absence of anticipatory contrast in rats trained on multiple schedules.

Rats were trained on three- and four-component multiple schedules in which two of the components were correlated with identical reinforcement schedules that remained unchanged throughout training. These target components differed in terms of whether their respective following schedules were either higher or lower in value. Unlike corresponding experiments previously reported with pigeons, higher response rates occurred in the target component followed by a higher valued schedule than in the target component followed by the lower valued schedule. Overall contrast effects occurred independently of these sequential effects, but were inconsistent across subjects. The results suggest that the effects of a following schedule of reinforcement are opposite for pigeons and rats, and that one reason previous studies have often failed to show contrast effects with rats is that the effects of the following schedule in rats are in competition with contrast dynamics.     

都市女性消费心理与行为

探讨女性消费心理与行为的特点,揭示女性消费的热点和趋势。结果表明：（1）都市女性消费具有时尚、理性、注重健康、品牌忠诚度高、注重心理享受等特点;（2）其消费热点和趋势主要体现在：网络消费渐成时尚;发展类消费日益攀升;时尚、品质、品位消费成为亮点;消费时尚的全球化趋势;（3）企业与商家在商业行为中若能合理利用现代都市女性消费的心理特点与规律,合理调整营销策略,必能赢得市场。     

Effects of ethanol withdrawal on muricidal behavior

When naive rats of our colony were individually housed for 1 month with free access to laboratory chow and water as drinking fluid, 6% exhibited muricidal behavior. When naive rats of the same colony were similarly housed but received ethanol 20% in water as the sole source of drinking fluid (ll.5 g ethanol/kg/day), the percentage of killer rats was the same. However, when the rats were housed in similar conditions and submitted to a 1-day ethanol withdrawal, the percentage of muricidal rats increased to 25%. Ethanol intake in the same conditions as described above did not change muricidal behavior of spontaneous killers and did not induce killing behavior in nonkiller animals. GABA-mimetic agents administered IP blocked ethanol withdrawal-induced killing behavior as well as spontaneous muricidal activity.