The timing of natural prehension movements

Prehension movements were studied by film in 7 adult subjects. Transportation of the hand to the target-object location had features very similar to any aiming arm movement, that is, it involved a fast-velocity initial phase and a low-velocity final phase. The peak velocity of the movement was highly correlated with its amplitude, although total movement duration tended to remain invariant when target distance was changed. The low-velocity phase consistently began after about 75% of movement time had elapsed. This ration was maintained for different movement amplitudes. Formation of the finger grip occurred during hand transportation. Fingers were first stretched and then began to close in anticipation to contact with the object. The onset of the closure phase was highly correlated to the beginning of the low velocity phase of transportation. This pattern for both transportation and finger grip formation was maintained in conditions whether visual feedback from the moving limb was present or not. Implications of these findings for the central programming of multisegmental movements are discussed.     

Job stress and job performance controversy: an empirical assessment

This study examined the relationship between job stress and employees' performance and withdrawal behavior among nurses (N = 440) in two hospitals in a metropolitan Canadian city on the east coast. Job stressors assessed included role ambiguity, role overload, role conflict, and resource inadequacy. Employees' performance was operationalized in terms of job performance, motivation, and patient care skill. Withdrawal behaviors assessed were absenteeism, tardiness, and anticipated turnover. Multiple regressions, curvilinear correlation coefficients, and canonical correlations were computed to test the nature of the relationship between stressors and the criterion variables of the study. In general, data were more supportive of the negative linear relationship between stress and performance than for positive linear or curvilinear relationship. However, the stressor role ambiguity did exhibit a monotonic nonlinear relationship with a number of criterion variables. Employees' professional and organizational commitment were proposed to moderate the stress-performance relationship. However, the data only partially supported the role of the moderators.     

Changing the response unit from a single peck to a fixed number of pecks in fixed-interval schedules

Each of three pigeons was studied first under a standard fixed-interval schedule. With the fixed interval held constant, the schedule was changed to a second-order schedule in which the response unit was the behavior on a small fixed-ratio schedule (first a fixed-ratio 10 and then a fixed-ratio 20 schedule). That is, every completion of the fixed-ratio schedule produced a 0.7-sec darkening of the key and reset the response count to zero for the next ratio. The first fixed-ratio completed after the fixed-interval schedule elapsed produced the 0.7-sec blackout followed immediately by food. These manipulations were carried out under two different fixed-interval durations for each bird ranging from 3 min to 12 min. The standard fixed-interval schedules produced the typical pause after reinforcement followed by responding at a moderate rate until the next reinforcement. The second-order schedules also engendered a pause after reinforcement, but responding occurred in bursts separated by brief pauses after each blackout. For a particular fixed-interval duration, post-reinforcement pauses increased slightly as the number of pecks in the response unit increased despite large differences in the rate and pattern of key pecking. Post-reinforcement pause increased with the fixed-interval duration under all response units. These data confirm that the allocation of time between pausing and responding is relatively independent of the rate and topography of responding after the pause.     

Good behavior game: effects of individual contingencies for group consequences on disruptive behavior in a classroom

Out-of-seat and talking-out behaviors were studied in a regular fourth-grade class that included several "problem children". After baseline rates of the inappropriate behaviors were obtained, the class was divided into two teams "to play a game". Each out-of-seat and talking-out response by an individual child resulted in a mark being placed on the chalkboard, which meant a possible loss of privileges by all members of the student's team. In this manner a contingency was arranged for the inappropriate behavior of each child while the consequence (possible loss of privileges) of the child's behavior was shared by all members of this team as a group. The privileges were events which are available in almost every classroom, such as extra recess, first to line up for lunch, time for special projects, stars and name tags, as well as winning the game. The individual contingencies for the group consequences were successfully applied first during math period and then during reading period. The experimental analysis involved elements of both reversal and multiple baseline designs.     

Stimulus control in the goldfish after massed extinction

Compared with the data of goldfish trained only with stimuli correlated with reinforcement, interspersed reinforcement-stimulus and extinction-stimulus trials resulted in sharper stimulus control and a marked reduction in the percentage of key-presses emitted in the presence of stimuli located near the extinction stimulus on the test dimension. If non-reinforced trials were not interspersed with reinforced trials, there was no sharpening of stimulus control and less reduction in key presses in the presence of stimuli near the extinction stimulus on the test dimension.     

伦理学的规范及其社会使命

苏联伦理学专业工作者在《高等学校马克思主义伦理学基础》教学大纲草案中,把马克思主义伦理学的规范问题作为一个专题进行了研究。可以说,它是当前苏联学术界对这一科学命题的各种看法的总结。马克思主义伦理学被理介为“关于道德发展的社会本质和规律性、关于共产主义道德形成的规律性、关于道德原别与道德规范和它在争取共产主义社会的斗争中的作用”的科学。对这一概念,肯定要做仔细的分析研究工作。这     

论马克思主义对于人的本质的理解

人的本质问题是一个重要的哲学问题,它在现代思想斗争中占有重要地位。在对人的本质的理解上,马克思主义同露骨的神学观念、唯心主义观念和人本学观念发生了冲突。神学观念的出发点是,人的特征、人的本质是由超自然的、神的本原所决定的,而人的得到拯救是同承认造物主本人的意志联系着的,是同根据神所感召的唯灵主义道德原则来确定信徒的一切思想、情感和行动联系着的。它认为只有在彼岸世界     

今日的辩证法

M.馬尔科維奇的《今日的辯证法》一文,是南斯拉夫杂志《我們的主题》一九六三年第九期(辯证法問題专号)的第一篇文章。作者强調指出,辯证法作为普遍的哲学方法,不仅是获得知識的方法,而且是研究和解决人道主义問题、确定人們活动的目的和手段的方法。作者认为当代大多数論述辯证法的著作的“根本缺点”在于:对辯征法范疇缺乏确切的說明,把辯证法原則解釋成絕对的教条,辯证法的論证和运用有很大局限性。而那些反对所謂教条主义的“馬克思主义者”,也极不关心辯证法问題。作者认为,辯证法就是普遍的哲学的方法論、方法、理論、实踐和事物本身的辯证法。作者认为辯证的原則和非辯证的原则在实踐經驗上都有一定根据,辯证法原則不能完全駁倒非辯证的原則。作者在談到自然辯证法时,肯定自然辯证法的存在。但认为自然辯证法和人的辯证法是不可分的。作者在强調人是自然的人,自然是人的自然,主体和客体密切联系时,否定了物质第一性、意識第二性的原則,攻击了恩格斯坚持的辯证唯物主义反映論。作者认为,革命就是促进人的解放,辯证法就是促进自然人化,实現人的自然(本性)的革命的方法。作者把馬克思主义的共产主义說成是一般人道主义的共产主义.作者认为,进步的最高标准是人的全面解放,在現有历史条件下实現最大限度的人性自由;辯证法就是实現进步的理論和方法。总之,作者力图用資产阶級的人性論、人道主义来曲解辯证法,修正馬克思主义哲学的基本原理。     

黑格尔逻辑学中的矛盾和总体

这是加罗第最近在克雷蒙-惠朗大学的一篇报告。加罗第近几年来把黑格尔哲学的遺产的价值捧得很高,他指責斯大林所犯的“哲学錯誤”之一,就是拋弃了黑格尔的遺产。1962年,他发表四百多頁的一本著作《上帝已經死了》,对黑格尔哲学作出了他自己的分析。在这里譯出的这篇文章中,他所分析的黑格尔邏輯学中的“矛盾”和“总体”的問题,就是“二”和“一”的問題。加罗第說,黑格尔哲学的体系以总体为中心范畴,这个体系始于絕对的总体,又以絕对的总体告終,所以是思辨的、唯心主义的,是一种神学的世界观。至于以矛盾为中心范畴的黑格尔的方法,則只要把它唯物主义地顛倒过来,就具有科学价值,因为这是經现代各门科学发展的成果所証明的辯証法。加罗第用了物理学、生物学和美学上的一些例子,駁斥了黑格尔的带有神学性质的总体概念,认为矛盾不是总体的环节,反之,总体乃是矛盾的环节。他主张对正在产生的总体而言,矛盾是第一性的,但他认为用辯証法的矛盾处理問題的目的,在于找到具体生动的和諧,这也就是辯証法的最大的优越性。加罗第借口冲破“教条主义”,借口反对辯証唯物主义給科学研究规定各种“清规戒律”,号召不怕不断地对科学結論作最根本的修正,却不肯定辯証唯物主义的基本规律的永远普遍有效的真理。他把相对說成是絕对的,而排斥了相对之中的絕对的东西。同时他强調辯証法是自由的內在规律和創造的內在规律。这种創造的自由,就是通过对事物之間的矛盾的处理而求得一个新的协調的总体。所以,加罗第在本文中所鼓吹的,实质上乃是主观主义和詭辯論,是矛盾調和論。     

无产阶级专政与全民国家

近几年来,我们党作了巨大的理论工作。苏共第二十二次代表大会给马克思列宁主义的宝库带来了特别重大的贡献。达次代表大会提出了一系列对共产主义建设实践有极其重要意义的新原理和结论。这些结论之一是:无产阶级专政的国家由于社会主义的完全和最终的胜利而转变为全民国家。达一结论完全建筑在马克思列宁主义的根本原理之