Owning leads to valuing: Meta-analysis of the mere ownership effect

Mere ownership effect is the phenomenon that people tend to value what they own more than what they do not own. This classic effect is considered robust, yet effect sizes vary across studies, and the effect is often confused for or confounded with other classic phenomena, such as endowment or mere exposure effects. We conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis of 26 samples published before 2019 (N = 3024), which resulted in psychological ownership on valuing effect of g ∼ 0.57 [0.46, 0.69]. Suggestive moderator analyses supported the use of replica as the strongest moderators. Mere ownership effects were different from the null across all moderator categories and in most publication bias adjustments. We consider this as suggestive evidence that psychological owning leads to valuing, yet caution that much more research is needed. All materials, data, and codes are available on https://osf.io/fdyqw/ .     

Medical or relational language? Problem and goal formulation in family therapy with adolescents conducted in a psychiatric outpatient setting

The constructionist view assumes that therapy participants' maps of understanding depend on the institutional context and their personal perspectives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the initial maps of difficulties reported by family members starting family therapy. 106 families that were referred to a psychiatric institution for outpatient family therapy were asked open-ended questions regarding the context of the referral, and goal and problem formulation for the therapy. The data were analysed via the consensual qualitative research-modified (CQR-M) method, and comparisons between groups were performed. The obtained results show a diversity of perspectives. Of interest was the predominance of medical language in describing the problem and relational language in describing the goal of therapy. An analysis of differences between mothers, fathers, adolescent patient and their siblings was also performed. The findings highlight the complexity of notions that families start family therapy with and may help therapists navigate through the therapeutic contract formulation process.     

Effects of reinforcement rate and delay on the acquisition of lever pressing by rats.

The acquisition of lever pressing by naive rats, in the absence of shaping, was studied as a function of different rates and unsignaled delays of reinforcement. Groups of 3 rats were each exposed to tandem schedules that differed in either the first or the second component. First-component schedules were either continuous reinforcement or random-interval 15, 30, 60 or 120 s; second-component schedules were fixed-time 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 s. Rate of responding was low under continuous immediate reinforcement and higher under random-interval 15 s. Random interval 30-s and 60-s schedules produced lower rates that were similar to each other. Random-interval 120 s controlled the lowest rate in the immediate-reinforcement condition. Adding a constant 12-s delay to each of the first-component schedule parameters controlled lower response rates that did not vary systematically with reinforcement rate. The continuous and random-interval 60-s schedules of immediate reinforcement controlled higher global and first-component response rates than did the same schedules combined with longer delays, and first-component rates showed some graded effects of delay duration. In addition, the same schedules controlled higher second-component response rates in combination with a 1-s delay than in combination with longer delays. These results were related to those from previous studies on acquisition with delayed reinforcement as well as to those from similar reinforcement procedures used during steady-state responding.     

Twierdzenia o dedukcji niewprost

Przy pisaniu tego artykułu korzystałem z niezmiernie życzliwych i istotnych wskazówek i pomocy Pana Doc. drWitolda A. Pogorzelskiego. Poczuwam się w tym miejscu do miłego obowiązku złożenia Mu serdecznego podziękowania. Allatum est die 9 Januarii 1966     

Effects of different attentional strategies and practice on motor efficiency

The effect of different attentional strategies on motor efficiency, measured by reaction-response time components, has historically been based on memory-drum construct theory, which implied limited attention and motor-response processing. The present study contrasts these principles by using a recording system and automatic analysis of reaction-response parameters. A within-subject design allowed detailed observation of the frequency of each preparatory set within each parameter and with control of the effects of practice. Analysis indicates (a) practice changes the effects of the attentional strategies on the components of reaction response but not the actual movement; (b) the motor-set strategy produces shorter movement times and, inversely, higher motor reaction times; and (c) the motor-sensory set integrated strategy produces improvements on each component of the reaction response. These findings suggest the memory-drum construct theory needs revision and should be based on other attentional models.     

Perception of sweetness and bitterness in different vehicles

In the present study, we investigated taste-taste, taste-vehicle, and simultaneous taste-vehicle-taste mixtures. Subjects made estimates of the sweetness and bitterness of 27 stimuli. Sucrose (292, 585, and 1170 mM), caffeine (13, 26, and 52 mM), and binary mixtures of low (292-13 mM), middle (585-26 mM), and high (1170-52 mM) levels of both components were dispersed in water, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) 1% w/v, and gelatin 6% w/v. The sweetness and bitterness of the sucrose-vehicle-caffeine combinations were significantly weaker than the respective sucrose-vehicle and caffeine-vehicle combinations. The emerged mutual suppressive effects were asymmetrical and persisted when both tastants were presented in CMC and gelatin. Moreover, the increase in vehicle consistency and the simultaneous addition of another taste reduced the perceived intensity of a taste either presented alone or dissolved in water. For both sweetness and bitterness, the total taste suppression observed was always significant.     

B-varieties with normal free algebras

The starting point for the investigation in this paper is the following McKinsey-Tarski's Theorem: if f and g are algebraic functions (of the same number of variables) in a topological Boolean algebra (TBA) and if C(f)C(g) vanishes identically, then either f or g vanishes identically. The present paper generalizes this theorem to B-algebras and shows that validity of that theorem in a variety of B-algebras (B-variety) generated by SCI _B -equations implies that its free Lindenbaum-Tarski's algebra is normal. This is important in the semantical analysis of SCI _B (the Boolean strengthening of the sentential calculus with identity, SCI) since normal B-algebras are just models of this logic. The rest part of the paper is concerned with relationships between some closure systems of filters, SCI _B -theories, B-varieties and closed sets of SCI _B -equations that have been derived both from the semantics of SCI _B and from the semantics of the usual equational logic.To the memory of Jerzy Supecki