Effects of stimulus variation on the reinforcing capability of nonpreferred stimuli

We examined the effects of stimulus (reinforcer) variation in several different contexts. In Study 1, we identified high-quality (HQ) and low-quality (LQ) stimuli based on results of a paired-stimulus assessment and examined their effects when available under concurrent-reinforcement schedules for 8 participants. No participants showed preference for the LQ stimuli when compared singly or in a varied arrangement to the HQ stimulus. In Study 2, we identified nonpreferred (NP) stimuli based on results of a single-stimulus assessment and examined their effects when available under single-reinforcement schedules for 3 participants. Results of Study 2 were mixed. One participant's data indicated that the varied presentation of NP stimuli produced a modest improvement in performance over that observed when the stimuli were presented singly. By contrast, a second participant's data showed no facilitative effect for the varied delivery of NP stimuli and that the inclusion of an HQ stimulus in the varied arrangement obscured the reinforcing effects of the HQ stimulus. The 3rd participant's data showed no effect for the varied delivery of NP stimuli but an apparent facilitative effect when an HQ stimulus was included in the varied arrangement, which was attributable solely to the presence of the HQ stimulus.     

Breaking the waves: age differences in electrical brain activity when reading text with distractors

The authors tested whether older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults in ignoring task-irrelevant information during reading as a result of age-related decline in inhibitory processes. Participants were shown target sentences containing distractor words. They were instructed to read aloud each sentence and ignore distractors. The N400 event-related potential (ERP) was used to measure the extent of semantic processing of target and distracting information. It showed that younger adults semantically processed both target and distracting material, whereas online processing of target sentences in older adults was disrupted by the distractors. In older adults, memory for target information related to their susceptibility to distraction and inhibition efficiency. Implications for age-differences in inhibitory control, working memory, and resource capacity are discussed.     

The Effects of Framing, Reflection, Probability, and Payoff on Risk Preference in Choice Tasks

A meta-analysis of Asian-disease-like studies is presented to identify the factors which determine risk preference. First the confoundings between probability levels, payoffs, and framing conditions are clarified in a task analysis. Then the role of framing, reflection, probability, type, and size of payoff is evaluated in a meta-analysis. It is shown that bidirectional framing effects exist for gains and for losses. Presenting outcomes as gains tends to induce risk aversion, while presenting outcomes as losses tends to induce risk seeking. Risk preference is also shown to depend on the size of the payoffs, on the probability levels, and on the type of good at stake (money/property vs human lives). In general, higher payoffs lead to increasing risk aversion. Higher probabilities lead to increasing risk aversion for gains and to increasing risk seeking for losses. These findings are confirmed by a subsequent empirical test. Shortcomings of existing formal theories, such as prospect theory, cumulative prospect theory, venture theory, and Markowitz's utility theory, are identified. It is shown that it is not probabilities or payoffs, but the framing condition, which explains most variance. These findings are interpreted as showing that no linear combination of formally relevant predictors is sufficient to capture the essence of the framing phenomenon.     

In the Name of the Spirits -- A Reading of Solov'ëv's Justification of the Good

In this contribution, the author analyzes Vladimir Solov'ëv's intention to study the idea of the Good as something relatively independent from religion and metaphysics. Some implications of Solov'ëv's definition of moral philosophy in The Justification of the Good are investigated, and illustrated with his applied ethics of war in chapter 18 of this book. It appears that Solov'ëv's moral philosophy and his account of war must be understood in connection with the central place of the cult of ancestors in his ethics. The idea of the Good and the idea of God spring from a religious origin and appear in our efforts to conjure up and exorcize the spirits of our forefathers. The author explains this ethics by referring to Solov'ëv's article China and Europe. There, Solov'ëv assumes that the Christian mind is treatened by the danger of a cultural order in which the cult of ancestors is most purely preserved. In the future war against China, however, Christian civilization must show itself superior to its enemy without betraying its loyalty to its own ancestors. The author concludes that in Solov'ëv's ethics, the moral subject is divided between the confirmation of its own autonomy and its being haunted by the spirits of its forefathers, a haunt which results in relentless wars against others     

Implementation of a Culture-Specific Intervention for a Native American Community

Psychiatric services provided to Native Americans should be culturally relevant and integrated with the values and beliefs of the culture since Native Americans use Western health care as a last resort. Reduced utilization of services may be the result of cultural beliefs that sickness or illness comes from disharmony with oneself, one's community, and nature. Treatment entails resolving the disharmony and restoring a state of balance and integration. Western psychiatric services have not usually provided active psychiatric treatment, while simultaneously encouraging participation in native ceremonies and traditions of healing. For 3 years, the Wyoming State Hospital has offered Sweat Lodge ceremonies administered by the Wind River Reservation as part of a pattern of working together to improve the care of Native Americans admitted to the facility. Results indicate increased utilization of hospital services as well as increased patient and tribal satisfaction, improved health care outcomes, and reduced length of stay. This report argues that culturally specific and sensitive treatment interventions provide a concrete and specific benefit to the population which is targeted.     

The mechanisms underlying attributive projection1

The experiment investigated the validity of the cognitive dissonance reduction and stimulus generalization explanations of attributive projection. Subjects in a high dissonance condition were informed that they possessed considerable hostility (a negative trait), while those in a low dissonance condition were told that they possessed a great deal of assertiveness (a desirable trait). The dissonance mechanism received support in that (a) subjects' reports of their anxiety indicated that an ego threat was produced only in the high dissonance condition, as expected; and (b) hostility was projected onto others to a significantly greater degree than was assertiveness. The existence of only a weak relationship between degree of ego threat produced by the personality feedback and subsequent amount of projection, however, throws into question the validity of the hypothesized defensive function of projection. No support for the generalization mechanism was obtained since the subjects did not project a greater amount of either trait onto the similar targets (college students) than onto the relatively dissimilar targets (middleaged lawyers); possible reasons for this negative result were discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Multiple semantic encoding of homophones and homographs in contexts biasing dominant or subordinate meanings

The resolution of lexical ambiguity was studied in two experiments. While subsequent selection would appear to limit longer term storage to one meaning of an ambiguous word, multiple initial encoding of homophones and homographs was indicated by the intrusion of their alternative meanings across trials in a Brown-Peterson paradigm. In Experiment 1 subjects heard four words and then engaged in a 10osec distractor task. Written recall was then demanded. On context trials a homophone with two distinct alternative meanings was presented with other words biasing either a dominant or subordinate meaning, for example, look, stare,peer, glance. On the next trial words related to an alternative meaning were presented, for example, dock, wharf, quay, jetty. Intrusions of the graphic forms of alternative meanings le.g.,PIER) into critical trial recall occurred whether the dominant or subordinate meaning of the homophone had been biased by context. Experiment 2 employed visual presentation of homographs, for example, GOLD, IRON,LEAD, and oral recall, but was logically similar to Experiment 1. Intrusions of the alternative codings of homographs across trials again occurred, for example, GUIDE, DIRECT,lead, regardless of the meaning originally biased by context.