Determination of a behavioral transfer function: White-noise analysis of session-to-session response-ratio dynamics on concurrent VI VI schedules

Six pigeons were exposed to concurrent variable-interval schedules in which the programmed reinforcer ratios changed from session to session according to a pseudorandom binary sequence. This procedure corresponded to the stochastic identification paradigm (“white-noise experiment”) of systems theory and enabled the relation between log response ratios in the current session and log reinforcer ratios in all previous sessions to be determined. Such dynamic relations are called linear transfer functions. Both nonparametric and parametric representations of these, in the form of “impulse-response functions,” were determined for each bird. The session-to-session response ratios resulting from the session-to-session pseudorandom binary variations in reinforcer ratios were well predicted by the impulse-response functions identified for each pigeon. The impulse-response functions were well fitted by a second-order dynamic model involving only two parameters: a time constant and a gain. The mean time constant was 0.67 sessions, implying that the effects of abrupt changes in log reinforcer ratios should be 96% complete within about five sessions. The mean gain was 0.53, which was surprisingly low inasmuch as it should equal the sensitivity to reinforcement ratio observed under steady-state conditions. The same six pigeons were subjected to a similar experiment 10 months following the first. Despite individual differences in impulse-response functions between birds within each experiment, the impulse-response functions determined from the two experiments were essentially the same.     

Molecular maximizing characterizes choice on Vaughan's (1981) procedure

Pigeons keypecked on a two-key procedure in which their choice ratios during one time period determined the reinforcement rates assigned to each key during the next period (Vaughan, 1981). During each of four phases, which differed in the reinforcement rates they provided for different choice ratios, the duration of these periods was four minutes, duplicating one condition from Vaughan's study. During the other four phases, these periods lasted six seconds. When these periods were long, the results were similar to Vaughan's and appeared compatible with melioration theory. But when these periods were short, the data were consistent with molecular maximizing (see Silberberg & Ziriax, 1982) and were incompatible with melioration, molar maximizing, and matching. In a simulation, stat birds following a molecular-maximizing algorithm responded on the short- and long-period conditions of this experiment. When the time periods lasted four minutes, the results were similar to Vaughan's and to the results of the four-minute conditions of this study; when the time periods lasted six seconds, the choice data were similar to the data from real subjects for the six-second conditions. Thus, a molecular-maximizing response rule generated choice data comparable to those from the short- and long-period conditions of this experiment. These data show that, among extant accounts, choice on the Vaughan procedure is most compatible with molecular maximizing.     

Intelligence and fertility in the United States: 1912-1982

Results are presented for the 1st analysis of the relationship between IQ and completed fertility using a large, representative sample of the US population. Correlations are predominantly negative for cohorts born between 1894 and 1964 but are significantly more positive for cohorts whose fertility was concentrated in the baby boom years. Previous studies reporting slightly positive correlations appear to have been biased in their restriction of samples to atypical cohorts. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC), a nonprofit research organization affiliated with the University of Chicago, conducted the General Social Survey (GSS) in the US each year from 1972 to 1982, except for 1979. A combination of block quota and full probability sampling was employed. Hour-long interviews were completed with 12,120 respondents who were English-speaking, noninstitutionalized adults (18 years or older) living within the continental US. Such questions as age, place of birth, income and occupation, were asked in each interview. Other questions about attitudes on various social, political, and moral issues were rotated in different years. The unique opportunity this data set affords is an overview of the relationship between intelligence and fertility for a nationally representative sample of Americans whose major reproductive years fell between 1912 and 1982. Data were consolidated from the 4 surveys in which the vocabulary test was given (1974, 1976, 1978, and 1982). Respondents were divided into 15 birth cohorts of 5-year intervals ranging from before 1894 to 1964. Correlations between vocabulary scores and number of siblings are markedly negative across all 15 cohorts. Vocabulary sibling correlations are more negative in every cohort than vocabulary offspring correlations. Previous reports of a neutral or slightly eugenic relationship appear to be due to the nature of the samples used, in part because the cohorts chosen were atypical, and in part because they did not include nonwhites. Childless respondents averaged slightly higher scores than did those with 1 or more children, indicating that the automatic exclusion of the childless from sibling-IQ studies has not spuriously inflated negative correlations.     

On the impact of human operant research: Asymmetrical patterns of cross-citation between human and nonhuman research

Reactions to published accounts of research with human subjects, as well as research with nonhuman subjects, were assessed by examining citations in several samples of empirical articles in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. A stable, asymmetrical pattern emerged: Nonhuman research was cited in both human and nonhuman articles, but human research was cited primarily in human articles. Thus, human operant research appears to have had little influence on the nonhuman research which constitutes the bulk of the experimental analysis of behavior. Interpretation of this lack of impact depends on the functions one envisions for human research, several of which are discussed.     

信息与世界观

目前正在广泛地讨论信息对于个人和社会的意义。讨论的问题涉及原始信息、通讯技术、工业的机器人化、管理工作的计算机化和科学的数学化。哲学上有依据的各种原理的研究论题提出了许多需要专门加以探讨的、令人注意的唯物主义辩证法和认识论的问题,例如概念的形成和发展及其文字表达,衡量与评价、结构与功能、原始资料与信息的关系等问题。但这些问题并不是本文探讨的对象。本文仅从世界观方面,阐述随着信息工艺的迅速发展,信息对人们的意义。但是只有在原则性的争论中才触及世界观。此外,经验也表明,     

实践——认识 认识——实践

马列主义哲学的发展当然不能归结为单纯地补充新的结论,毫无疑义也要求发展它的基本原理和原则。我们认为,应当用这种观点看待实践概念这个辩证唯物主义的主要范畴。实践在否定它历史上的旧形式的同时不断发展着,因此,对实践及其在认识过程中的作用的科学理解也要发展。由于“自在”必然性变成“为我”必然性,即社会关系的自觉改造这种具有世界历史意义的转变,从资本主义向社会主义过渡的时代意味着社会实践的性质的极其重要的变化。现代科     

论萨特尔

如果说,海德格尔是胡塞尔的追随者;那么可以说,萨特尔是海德格尔的追随者;如果说,海德格尔按照胡塞尔否定了的方向发展了现象学,那么萨特尔则是遵循着被海德格尔所摒弃的方法发展了至关重要的本体论学说。尽管海德格尔和萨特尔二人具有同样的现象学倾向,尽管他们都认为人处于一种衰落境况之中,但是,他们的理论动机却有着深刻的差别,并且他们的经历也很不相同。首先,萨特尔似乎对所谓浪漫主义的“存在的情感”不大感兴趣,而海德格尔却深受那种情感的影响。在萨特尔看来,存在既不向我们自动显露     

胡塞尔与现代资产阶级哲学

对现代资产阶级哲学进行批判分析的透彻的研究,不能仅限于指出十九和二十世纪各种资产阶级哲学派别的思想性质。无庸置疑,确定这种阶级性质是对资产阶级哲学派别进行历史唯物主义分析的一个重要方面,因为从哲学上阐述的资产阶级世界观的思想性质归根结底是由资产阶级社会基础的客观社会过程决定的。从这种基础出发,也可以对哲学世界观与其他形式的社会意识(艺术、政治、宗教等)的普遍联系进行科学的解释和探索。但是我们不能忽视,我们只有同时也研究哲学认识发展的特殊机制,把哲学理解为特殊的精神现象,揭示哲     

解释学

四、要记述1966年至1976年之间解释学发展的热门时期,困难的确不小。限于篇幅,我们只能谈一下:(1)一些主要的关于解释学的讨论会;(2)几种关心解释学问题的杂志;(3)圣经解释学在这一时期的发展;(4)一般性的和有关文化方面的解释学在这一时期的发展;(5)解释学向其他知识领域的渗透和它与这些领域的交流情况。 (1)讨论会在这一时期举行了许多关于解释学或与解释学有关的会议,举行这些会议的地方或部门有:德鲁大学,约翰斯·霍普金斯大学,罗