INFLUENCING CHILDREN'S PREGAMBLING GAME PLAYING VIA CONDITIONAL DISCRIMINATION TRAINING

Past research has demonstrated a transformation of stimulus functions under similar conditions using gambling tasks and adults (e.g., Zlomke & Dixon, 2006), and the present study attempted to extend this research. Experimenters exposed 7 children (ages 7 to 10 years) to a simulated board game with concurrently available dice differing only by color. Following initial exposure to the game, participants were trained to discriminate between two contextual cues representing the relational frames of more than and less than. Following the training procedure, experimenters reexposed participants to the simulated board game. Six of the 7 participants demonstrated an increased preference toward the die with the color that had been paired with more than during the conditional discrimination training.     

SOCIETAL MEMBERSHIP,SCORE STATUS,AND GAME BEHAVIOR

Appartenance sociale, bilan relatif des gains acquis et comportement de jeu. Analyse phénoménologique. — Etude des preférénces, des raisons et du comportement reel de choix de sujets belges et américains dans une tâche qui laisse la possibilité de se comporter coopérativement ou compétitivement. La tâche utilisée est un jeu à somme non-nulle dont la matrice est structuréd de telle sorte que l'on puisse différencier deux objectifs parmi trois possibles : maximiser son propre gain (ou le gain conjoint des deux partenaires) ou bien maximiser la différence entre son propre gain et celui de l'autre. Les Auteurs ont comparé 15 dyades de sujets belges et 15 dyades de sujets américains, jouant en 100 essais. Les résultats montrent que le choix réel des sujets est trés semblable d'une culture à l'autre et que, dans chaque culture, il varie selon que les gains déjà acquis par un sujet sont supérieurs, inférieurs ou égaux à ceux du partenaire, au moment du choix. Enfin, on note que, bien qu'aucune différence marquée n'apparaisse dans le comportement réel, il y a des différences sensibles d'une culture à l'autre dans les raisons invoquées par les sujets pour justifier leurs préférences : ces différences sont encore plus apparentes si on tient également compte de l'état relatif des gains déjà acquis par un sujet par rapport à son partenaire. En général, les sujets belges ont tendance à justifier leur préférence pour la compétition par des raisons de compétition; les sujets américains, surtout quand ils ont l'avantage, par des raisons relatives à leur gain personnel. Cette dernière réaction est “irrationnelle” dans la présente tâche puisque la préférence pour une attitude coopérative permet de maximiser son propre gain.     

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF LEADER REWARD BEHAVIOR, SUBORDINATE EXPECTANCIES, AND SATISFACTION

Positive and punitive leader reward behavior and their longitudinal relationships with subordinate expectancies and satisfaction were studied in a large manufacturing organization. Longitudinal data were collected approximately one year apart from 132 managerial, engineering and supervisory employees. Cross-lagged correlations suggested that positive leader reward behavior was causally related to higher effort-to-performance expectancy, as well as higher satisfaction with work, opportunities for promotion and overall satisfaction. Punitive leader reward behavior was suggested to be causally related to lower satisfaction with work, supervision and overall satisfaction. Implications were discussed for the use of leader reward behavior and for future research.     

影响博弈结果的方法效应研究

最后通谍博弈和独裁者博弈是实验经济学的经典博弈,也被心理学家用来研究人的公平和利他行为。该研究考查了经济学和心理学通常的报酬支付方式、博弈中待分配的金额是否影响博弈结果,以及两个博弈进行组内实验时是否会产生顺序效应。结果发现支付方式和金额不影响博弈结果,但有顺序效应产生。该研究对国内研究者进一步借用这两个博弈的相关研究打下了一定的方法学基础。     

THE EFFECTS OF REHEARSAL GROUP SIZE AND VIDEO FEEDBACK IN BEHAVIOR MODELING TRAINING

This study was done to assess the effects of the number of observers present during behavioral rehearsal (one or ten) and the presence or absence of videotaped replays of each rehearsal attempt on accurate reproduction of a model's performance. The study was done as part of a behavior modeling training program designed to teach college students eight key behaviors for doing on-the-job training. Thirty-six students were drawn from two evening business school courses and randomly assigned to three experimental conditions (i.e., one observer/videotaped feedback, large group observing/videotaped feedback, and large group observing/no videotaped feedback) during the behavioral rehearsal portion of the program. This investigation revealed that the presence of one observer and videotaped feedback enhanced reproduction scores. Reproduction was measured by three different methods. Possible theoretical explanations for these results are discussed. Implications for the practice of behavior modeling are suggested.     

THE EFFECTS OF A GOOD BEHAVIOR GAME ON THE DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF SUDANESE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

An endemic version of the Good Behavior Game was applied in a rural Sudanese second-grade classroom. Official letters of commendation, extra time for recess, victory tags, and a winner's chart were used as backup reinforcers. The class was divided into two teams, and the teacher indicated she would place a check on the board after every rule violation. The students were also told that the team with the fewest marks would win the game and receive the aforementioned prizes. After an initial adaptation period, the rate of disruption was charted across four treatment phases: viz., baseline I, introduction of the game, baseline II, and reintroduction of the game. It was observed that the game phases were associated with marked decreases in the rate of seat leaving, talking without permission, and aggression. The teacher, principal, parents, and students were consequently individually interviewed, and their comments spoke strongly for the social validity of the game.     

A TALE OF TWO JOB MARKETS: ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND ITS EFFECTS ON HIRING PRACTICES AND JOB SEARCH BEHAVIOR

Small firms employ half the U.S. private sector workforce, yet recruitment research has traditionally focused on large firms. The present study attempts to advance knowledge on how recruitment practices vary with firm size. Results suggest that the recruitment practices of larger firms are generally more formal and bureaucratic than those of smaller firms. In addition, the study demonstrates that many job seekers have distinct preferences regarding firm size, and that preferred firm size is related to job search behavior. Taken together, these findings suggest that firm size is an overlooked and important aspect of the recruitment/job search context. The processes involved in matching employers and applicants differ so much as a function of firm size that one might argue that large and small firms comprise separate labor markets.     

GAME THEORY AND KNOWLEDGE BY SIMULATION

This paper makes a connection between some developments in game theory and issues about everyday psychological knowledge. I argue that there are two-person situations in which agents will do badly if they use a particular simple theory of rationality to predict one another's actions. If we assume that our everyday techniques for anticipating one another's actions will get better results than this, it follows that these techniques do not consist in applying a theory like this one. One alternative is that when we anticipate actions we supplement whatever theories we have with a capacity to imagine the other person's motivation. I sketch a way of modelling this capacity. ¹ 1 This paper went through many drafts. Martin Davies was very patient with several of them. Remarks by Susan Hurley and Alex Cacelnik at a crucial moment helped me see what I was trying to say. I should like to dedicate the paper to Stephan Körner, former editor of Ratio, who recently celebrated his eightieth birthday.
     

INDIAN AND CANADIAN CHOICE BEHAVIOUR IN A MAXIMIZING DIFFERENCE GAME AND IN A GAME OF CHICKEN1

The behaviour of Indian and Canadian male university undergraduates was observed in a mixed-motive maximizing difference game (MDG) and in a game of chicken. It was found that the Indians were more competitive than the Canadians in the MDG and that this difference was considerably reduced in the chicken game. Relative to their choices in the MDG the Canadians were more likely than the Indians to choose competitively in the chicken game. It was suggested that this was due to the Indians greater reluctance to take risks. Other differences based on conditional probabilities of responding also were found and it was argued that the Canadians' cooperation might have been related to their greater propensity to use a “tit-for-tat” response strategy.     

VALUE AND SIZE PERCEPTION

A detailed review is presented of studies related to the accentuation hypothesis of Bruner & Goodman (1947). It is found that the results from (1) coin studies, (2) symbol studies, and (3) other studies are conflicting and do not substantiate the hypothesis. Through an analysis of this hypothesis and a specification of the concept of perception, the various designs are found to be inadequate for demonstrating perceptual accentuation of size. The hypothesis is forwarded that value asserts an influence upon imaginary processes related to the experience of size.     

CHOICE BEHAVIOR OF NONPATHOLOGICAL WOMEN PLAYING CONCURRENTLY AVAILABLE SLOT MACHINES: EFFECT OF CHANGES IN PAYBACK PERCENTAGES

In a simulated casino environment, 6 nonpathological women played concurrently available commercial slot machines programmed to pay out at different rates. Participants did not always demonstrate preferences for the higher paying machine. The data suggest that factors other than programmed or obtained rate of reinforcement may control gambling behavior, which should encourage behavior analysts to look beyond direct, contingency‐driven explanations of gambling.     

PLAYING FATHERS' GAMES

“The Blank Page”, Isak Dinesen's Dinesen Isak Last Tales Harmondsworth: Penguin 1986  [Google Scholar] acclaimed story and its feminist reading, led by Susan Gubar's Gubar Susan “?‘The Blank Page’ and Issues of Female Creativity.” The New Feminist Criticism Ed. Elaine Showalter. London: Virago 1986 292 313  [Google Scholar] seminal work, epitomizes the defiance and subversiveness of women's writing. However, what Dinesen refers to in her story as “the germ” of women's narratives, has been ignored. This germ or source is the biblical story of Achsah, the daughter of Caleb (Joshua 15 and Judges 1), a dramatic story of concealed subversion of a national leader who gambled with his daughter to advance his conquests, and that of a daughter who dared to defy her appropriation as the spoils of war. The biblical text and the traditional commentary accompanying it present the story as a domestic narrative of familial arrangements, therefore concealing its political significance and marginalizing it within the context of the national narrative of conquests and settlement in the land of Canaan. Re‐reading the text shifts the focus from the professed context, namely the narrative of conquest whose protagonist is Caleb, to the concealed one, namely the emotional junction of father–daughter relations, whose protagonist is Achsah. Reading the story of Achsah in this new context not only sheds light on Dinesen's view of women's subversiveness, but also outlines the politics of women's resistance and its implications.     

EFFECT OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENT ON VISUAL PERCEPTION OF FIGURE–GROUND

Eight experiments, based on the original design of Schafer & Murphy (1943) for study of the development of the figure—ground relationship, are examined and the results found to be contradictory. The definition given of the perception of the figure–ground relationship is judged to be inadequate and ascribed to an unwillingness of behavioristically oriented psychologists to analyze the term perception with reference to perceptual experience.     

CHILD BEHAVIOR AND DEVELOPMENT

l'A. présente une analyse behavioriste du développement de l'enfant, qui est l'application à un domaine spécialisé d'une approche behavioriste de la psychologie générale. Il montre tout d'abord ce qu'est l'analyse behavioriste, en examinant successivement quelle philosophie de la science elle implique, et quels en sont les concepts, les principes, les bases méthodologiques essentielles et les applications pratiques. Il évoque, ensuite, comment se posent dans une telle perspective, les problèmes que I'on retrouve constamment dans l'étude du développement de l'enfant : liaison entre hérédité et milieu, nature psychologique de l'enfant, stades du développement, recherches des moyennes par âge ou recherches longitudinales. Il termine par un bref bilan des contributions de l'analyse behavioriste à l'étude du développement de l'enfant, en s'attachant particulièrement au fait qu'elle a fait progresser les méthodes de recherche, permis de préciser et de compléter les concepts et les principes, et démontré la valeur pratique des principes.     

USE OF ESCAPE AND REWARD IN THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN DURING DENTAL TREATMENT

A reinforced practice procedure was used to facilitate cooperative behavior in five children, aged 3 to 6 years, during dental treatment. In a multiple baseline design across subjects, the children were rewarded with escape, inexpensive stickers, and praise for cooperative behavior in the presence of the sights, sounds, and some sensations of the dental instruments prior to actual dental treatment. Direct observations of disruptive behavior via a 15-s interval recording system indicated baseline levels as high as 90% were reduced to less than 15% by the final treatment visit. In addition, the procedure was effective in reducing overall heart rate and blood pressure reactivity to dental treatment. All children were rated by the involved dental professionals as more cooperative and relaxed following exposure to reinforced practice.