Response–reinforcer dependency and resistance to change

The effects of the response–reinforcer dependency on resistance to change were studied in three experiments with rats. In Experiment 1, lever pressing produced reinforcers at similar rates after variable interreinforcer intervals in each component of a two‐component multiple schedule. Across conditions, in the fixed component, all reinforcers were response‐dependent; in the alternative component, the percentage of response‐dependent reinforcers was 100, 50 (i.e., 50% response‐dependent and 50% response‐independent) or 10% (i.e., 10% response‐dependent and 90% response‐independent). Resistance to extinction was greater in the alternative than in the fixed component when the dependency in the former was 10%, but was similar between components when this dependency was 100 or 50%. In Experiment 2, a three‐component multiple schedule was used. The dependency was 100% in one component and 10% in the other two. The 10% components differed on how reinforcers were programmed. In one component, as in Experiment 1, a reinforcer had to be collected before the scheduling of other response‐dependent or independent reinforcers. In the other component, response‐dependent and ‐independent reinforcers were programmed by superimposing a variable‐time schedule on an independent variable‐interval schedule. Regardless of the procedure used to program the dependency, resistance to extinction was greater in the 10% components than in the 100% component. These results were replicated in Experiment 3 in which, instead of extinction, VT schedules replaced the baseline schedules in each multiple‐schedule component during the test. We argue that the relative change in dependency from Baseline to Test, which is greater when baseline dependencies are high rather than low, could account for the differential resistance to change in the present experiments. The inconsistencies in results across the present and previous experiments suggest that the effects of dependency on resistance to change are not well understood. Additional systematic analyses are important to further understand the effects of the response–reinforcer relation on resistance to change and to the development of a more comprehensive theory of behavioral persistence.     

Identifying Potential Mass Shooters and Suicide Terrorists With Warning Signs of Suicide,Perceived Victimization,and Desires for Attention or Fame

In the United States and Europe, the distinction between public mass shooters and suicide terrorists no longer seems particularly meaningful. A number of public mass shooters have considered using bombs and claimed to be sacrificing themselves for an ideological cause, and many suicide terrorists have attacked without organizational support, using firearms, for what appear to be largely personal reasons. Previous research has also documented several common factors in these offenders’ lives, including (a) suicidal motives and life indifference, (b) perceived victimization, and (c) desires for attention or fame. These factors are not always easy for observers to recognize in advance, so mental health professionals, the public, and law enforcement officials might need help from experts to more successfully identify at-risk individuals. This article reviews the evidence of each factor, provides a list of specific warning signs, and offers recommendations for future research. Ultimately, an evidence-based approach to prevention could help save both the lives of many potential victims and the lives of the would-be attackers themselves.     

Evidence of Non-Linear Associations between Frustration-Related Prefrontal Cortex Activation and the Normal:Abnormal Spectrum of Irritability in Young Children

Burgeoning interest in early childhood irritability has recently turned toward neuroimaging techniques to better understand normal versus abnormal irritability using dimensional methods. Current accounts largely assume a linear relationship between poor frustration management, an expression of irritability, and its underlying neural circuitry. However, the relationship between these constructs may not be linear (i.e., operate differently at varying points across the irritability spectrum), with implications for how early atypical irritability is identified and treated. Our goal was to examine how the association between frustration-related lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) activation and irritability differs across the dimensional spectrum of irritability by testing for non-linear associations. Children (N = 92; ages 3–7) ranging from virtually no irritability to the upper end of the clinical range completed a frustration induction task while we recorded LPFC hemoglobin levels using fNIRS. Children self-rated their emotions during the task and parents rated their child’s level of irritability. Whereas a linear model showed no relationship between frustration-related LPFC activation and irritability, a quadratic model revealed frustration-related LPFC activation increased as parent-reported irritability scores increased within the normative range of irritability but decreased with increasing irritability in the severe range, with an apex at the 91st percentile. Complementarily, we found children’s self-ratings of emotion during frustration related to concurrent LPFC activation as an inverted U function, such that children who reported mild distress had greater activation than peers reporting no or high distress. Results suggest children with relatively higher irritability who are unimpaired may possess well-developed LPFC support, a mechanism that drops out in the severe end of the irritability dimension. Findings suggest novel avenues for understanding the heterogeneity of early irritability and its clinical sequelae.     

Neuroethical and Social Implications of Using Transcranial Electrical Stimulation to Augment Creative Cognition

Recent research indicates that transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) of specific brain regions can successfully improve various forms of creative cognition. Although the endeavor to increase human creative capacity is intriguing from a neuroscientific perspective, and of interest to the general public, it raises numerous neuroethico-legal and social issues (NELSI). This review explores these issues by considering (a) whether using brain stimulation to improve creative cognition qualifies as a ‘treatment’ or an ‘enhancement,’ (b) how direct-to-consumer (DTC) and do-it-yourself (DIY) use of tES should be regarded and regulated, and (c) what the developing landscape of creativity-related neurostimulation could (and should) become.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Unexpected events disrupt visuomotor working memory and increase guessing

When an unexpected event, such as a car horn honking, occurs in daily life, it often disrupts our train of thought. In the lab, this effect was recently modeled with a task in which verbal working memory (WM) was disrupted by unexpected auditory events (Wessel et al. in Nature Communications, 7, 11195, 2016). Here we tested whether this effect extends to a different type of WM—namely, visuomotor. We found that unexpected auditory events similarly decremented visuomotor WM. Moreover, this effect persisted for many more trials than had previously been shown for verbal WM, and the effect occurred for two different types of unexpected auditory events. Furthermore, we found that unexpected events decremented WM by decreasing the quantity, but not necessarily the quality, of items stored. These results showed an impact of unexpected events on visuomotor WM that was statistically robust and endured across time. They also showed that the effect was based on an increase in guessing, consistent with a neuroscience-inspired theory that unexpected events “wipe out” WM by stopping the ongoing maintenance of the trace. This new task paradigm is an excellent vehicle for further explorations of distractibility.     

Relationship between pathogenic beliefs and interpersonal problems: a cross-sectional study of Thai patients with depression

Pathogenic beliefs (PBs) are a key construct within control-mastery theory, a dynamic cognitive-relational psychotherapy approach. It is common for these beliefs to trigger interpersonal problems. The present study explored the relationship between PBs and interpersonal problems. Sixty-eight patients with depressive disorder were assessed using a 54-item Pathogenic Belief Scale (PBS), and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32). Eight sub scales of the IIP-32 were analysed, along with the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) dominance and love dimensions. The PBS was significantly associated with the IIP-32 total score (r?=?.608, p?r?=??.285, p?相似文献   

The reliability and stability of visual working memory capacity

Because of the central role of working memory capacity in cognition, many studies have used short measures of working memory capacity to examine its relationship to other domains. Here, we measured the reliability and stability of visual working memory capacity, measured using a single-probe change detection task. In Experiment 1, the participants (N = 135) completed a large number of trials of a change detection task (540 in total, 180 each of set sizes 4, 6, and 8). With large numbers of both trials and participants, reliability estimates were high (α > .9). We then used an iterative down-sampling procedure to create a look-up table for expected reliability in experiments with small sample sizes. In Experiment 2, the participants (N = 79) completed 31 sessions of single-probe change detection. The first 30 sessions took place over 30 consecutive days, and the last session took place 30 days later. This unprecedented number of sessions allowed us to examine the effects of practice on stability and internal reliability. Even after much practice, individual differences were stable over time (average between-session r = .76).     

Viral videos and virtue: Moral elevation inductions shift affect and interpersonal goals in daily life

Laboratory studies suggest that witnessing virtuous acts triggers moral elevation, an emotion characterized by feeling uplifted and increased prosocial motives. However, it remains unknown whether regular inductions can increase elevation and prosocial motives in daily life without being vulnerable to habituation or adaptation effects. Participants (total N = 181) were randomly assigned to elevating vs. neutral or amusing inductions (video or recall tasks) for seven days (Study 1), ten days (Study 2), or 12 days over one month (Study 3). Multilevel growth models showed that relative to comparison conditions, elevation inductions increased daily elevation, positive affect, and prosocial outcomes (compassionate goals and affiliation), and decreased self-protective motives (self-image goals). Adaptation effects occurred for immediate responses when exercises occurred daily, but not when spaced out over time, and not for outcomes measured later each day. Results suggest benefits of brief, regular elevation experiences and have implications for interventions targeting specific emotions.     

How are cognitive and physical difficulty compared?

Tasks that require less physical effort are generally preferred over more physically demanding alternatives. Similarly, tasks that require less mental effort are generally preferred over more mentally demanding alternatives. But what happens when one must choose between tasks that entail different kinds of effort, one mainly physical (e.g., carrying buckets) and the other mainly mental (e.g., counting)? We asked participants to choose between a bucket-carrying task and a counting task. Our participants were less likely to choose the bucket task when it required a long reach rather than a short reach, and our participants were also less likely to choose the bucket task the smaller the final count value. We tested the hypothesis that subjective task durations provided a common currency for comparing the difficulties of the two kinds of tasks. We found that this hypothesis provided a better account of the task choice data than did an account that relied on objective task durations. Our study opens the door to a new problem in the study of attention, perception, and psychophysics—judging the difficulty of different kinds of tasks. The approach we took to this problem, which relies on two-alternative forced choice along with modeling the basis for the choice, may prove useful in future investigations.