Neural events in the reinforcement contingency

When neural events are analyzed as stimuli and responses, functional relations among them and among overt stimuli and responses can be unveiled. The integration of neuroscience and the experimental analysis of behavior is beginning to provide empirical evidence of involvement of neural events in the three-term contingency relating discriminative stimuli, responses, and consequences. This paper is aimed at highlighting exemplar instances in the development of this issue. It has long been known that the electrical stimulation of certain cerebral areas can have a reinforcing function. Extraordinary technological advances in recent years show that neural activity can be selected by consequences. For example, the activity of in vitro isolated neurons that receive dopamine as a reinforcer functions as a cellular analogue of operant conditioning. The in vivo activity of populations of neurons of rats and monkeys can be recorded on an instant-to-instant basis and can then be used to move mechanical arms or track a target as a function of consequences. Neural stimulation acts as a discriminative stimulus for operant responses that are in turn maintained by neural consequences. Together with investigations on the molecular basis of classical conditioning, those studies are examples of possibilities that are being created for the study of behavior-environment interactions within the organism. More important, they show that, as an element in the three-term contingency, neural activity follows the same laws as other events.     

Children do show negative priming: further evidence for early development of an intact selective control mechanism

Reactions to stimuli that were shortly before presented as distractors are usually slowed down; this phenomenon is known as negative priming. Negative priming is an accepted index for tapping into selective control mechanisms. Although this effect is well established for adults, it has been claimed that children do not show negative priming. Recently, however, V. E. Pritchard and E. Neumann challenged this view and concluded that selective control mechanisms are already fully developed in young children. The authors of the present study analyzed differences between older studies, in which no negative priming had been observed, and the Pritchard and Neumann (2004) study. In sum, the present study yielded further evidence for an intact selective control mechanism in young children. The authors also linked this empirical finding to the broader literature on negative priming by a direct comparison with an adult sample.     

Improving self‐regulated learning of preschool children: Evaluation of training for kindergarten teachers

Background In the context of lifelong learning, self‐regulated learning is an important competence. Children between 4 and 6 years of age are at a crucial step in their life to develop self‐regulatory competence. That is why their kindergarten teachers play an important role as instructors as well as role models. Aim This study tested the effects of self‐regulation training for kindergarten teachers concerning their own self‐regulation and methods to foster self‐regulation in children at preschool age whom they were teaching. Sample In this study, 35 German kindergarten teachers and 97 children participated. All adult participants were graduated kindergarten teachers. Method The kindergarten teachers were tested with a questionnaire 2 weeks before and after the training. At the same time, the preschoolers were interviewed. A waiting control group design was applied. Results and conclusions The results obtained by means of analyses of variance show that the self‐regulation of the kindergarten teachers as well as the self‐regulated learning of preschoolers whose kindergarten teachers took part in the training improved significantly. The results indicate that it is possible to improve self‐regulated learning of preschool children by a training programme for kindergarten teachers.     

School‐based integrated and segregated interventions to reduce aggression

The goal of the study was to assess two types of school‐based interventions—a class intervention (integrated) and a small group counseling (segregated) intervention for highly aggressive children—and to determine which is more efficacious in reducing individual and classroom aggression, lessening internalizing and externalizing behavior, and increasing positive classroom relationships. The study, conducted in Israel, included 904 children from 13 schools. In each school, one age level was selected and divided randomly into three experimental conditions: psychoeducational class intervention, small group counseling, and control. In all classrooms, the highly aggressive children were identified a priori (n=166). Analyses were conducted separately for the aggressive children and their nonaggressive classmates, in a nested procedure (mixed models). Results showed similar positive outcomes on all variables in both treatment groups, and higher compared with the control group. The discussion focuses on the strengths of each type of intervention. Aggr. Behav. 35:342–356, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A Longitudinal Test of the Model of Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition

Using data from a longitudinal study of college students, this study assessed the relationships among the threat perceptions of realistic threat and intergroup anxiety, the ideological motives of system justification and social dominance orientation (SDO), and political conservatism. Those who had higher perceptions of realistic threat and intergroup anxiety at the end of their first year of college showed higher levels of system justification and SDO at the end of their second and third years of college, controlling for precollege expressions of each variable. Higher levels of these two ideological motives at the end of students' second and third years of college were associated with more politically conservative attitudes at the end of students' fourth year of college, again controlling for precollege expressions. These longitudinal results are discussed in terms of a model of political conservatism as motivated social cognition.     

Cue-task associations in task switching

Cognitive flexibility can be studied using the task-switching paradigm. This paradigm requires subjects to adapt behaviour to changing contexts as indicated by a cue. In our study, we addressed the question of how cue-based implementation of mental “task sets” occurs. We assumed that cues build up associations to the tasks that they indicate. These associations lead to retrieval of the associated task set once the cue shows up again. In three experiments, we tested this assumption using a negative transfer paradigm. First participants were exposed to one cue-task mapping. After a training phase, the cue-task mapping changed in either of two ways. Whereas one group of participants got new cues, the other experienced a reversal of the learnt cue-task mapping. Our results show that participants build up cue-task associations and that these formerly learnt associations can hamper the implementation of new cue-task mappings (particular with mapping reversal). Prolonged preparation time decreased the cost of changing the cue-task mapping but did not change the overall pattern of results.     

The epidemiology of suicide in Israel: international and intranational comparisons

A comparison of overall rates of completed suicide is made between Israel and selected European and North American countries. Rates for Israel are generally lower. A second comparison is made among different national-religious groups in Israel. Rates are higher for Jews than for the Muslim minority. An explanation is attempted for both sets of findings.     

Like a bee on a windowpane: Heyting's reflections on solipsism

This paper presents the content of the unpublished notes that the Dutch mathematician Arend Heyting wrote in different periods of his life on solipsism and that are preserved in Heyting's archive at the University of Amsterdam. Most of the notes are quoted here and translated into English. Their study shows the originality of Heyting's reflections on a subject that was typical of his master, L. E. J. Brouwer, the father of intuitionism.     

The questions lay interviewers ask

Two studies were conducted to determine the kinds of questions people formulate for testing a hypothesis about another's personality. One group of subjects tested the hypothesis that the interviewee was an extrovert; another group tested the hypothesis that the interviewee was an introvert. Still another group was not provided with a hypothesis; instead, this group was asked to discriminate between an extroverted and an introverted interviewee. All subjects were free to formulate any kind of questions they wished. Analysis of the content of the questions performed by independent judges revealed that the great majority of the questions formulated by all of the groups either presented a choice between extroverted and introverted features or were open-ended. The percentage of questions about features that were consistent with the hypothesis was not significantly greater than the percentage of questions about features that were inconsistent with the hypothesis. Furthermore, in all of the groups there were virtually no biased questions–questions that already assume that the hypothesis is true. Finally, the questions asked by subjects who entertained either the extrovert hypothesis or the introvert hypothesis were as diagnostic (as rated by independent judges) as were the questions asked by subjects whose task was to discriminate between extroverts and introverts. The results were shown to be consistent with the diagnosing strategy but not with the confirmatory strategy of information-gathering.     

Effects of practice, instructions, and modeling on components of assertive behavior

Unassertive psychiatric patients matched on age, years of education, diagnosis, and self-reported assertiveness were assigned to one of five conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Test-Retest, (2) Practice-Control, (3) Instructions, (4) Modeling, (5) Modeling plus Instructions. All subjects were videotaped (Pre- and Post-Test) while responding to five interpersonal situations requiring assertive responses. Pre- and Post-Test responses for all subjects were rated independently by judges on seven verbal and non-verbal components of assertiveness. Analyses of variance for difference scores followed by multiple t-test comparisons indicated that the Modeling plus Instructions group was superior or equal to the Instructions alone or Modeling alone groups on five of the seven components. Instructions alone and Modeling alone led to greatest improvement in the remaining two components. No differences were found between the Practice-Control and Test-Retest groups on any of the seven components of assertiveness. No differences (Post-Pretest) were found among the groups on a self-report measure of assertiveness.