Punishment vs negative reinforcement in the aversive conditioning of auditory hallucinations1

The behavioural treatment of auditory hallucinations in three chronic schizophrenic patients is reported. Two treatment conditions, one in which white noise followed hallucinations and a second in which white noise was presented during reported hallucinations, were contrasted in a crossover design with a control condition where white noise was presented randomly. All three patients improved, although reported reductions in hallucinations were more marked in two cases than in the third. Some generalization of treatment effects was observed in all three patients. White noise presented concurrently with hallucinatory reports appeared to be the most effective. The implication of these findings for a theory of auditory hallucinations is discussed.     

Foundations of risk measurement. II. Effects of gains on risk

This paper presents the second part of a two-part study on axiomatizations of perceived risk. The first part (P. C. Fishburn, Foundations of risk measurement, I. Risk as probable loss. Mimeo., Bell Laboratories, 1981) focussed on risk as probable loss. The second part considers measures of risk that include effects of gains on perceived risk. It adopts the position that increased gains can reduce the risk of fixed probable losses without completely negating this risk. Moreover, every prospect that has no chance of yielding a loss is presumed to have no risk. Several numerical measures of risk are axiomatized. The more specialized are separable in gains and losses. Further specializations isolate the effects of loss and gain probabilities.     

灵长动物初级抽象概括能力的比较实验研究(Ⅰ)金丝猴对实物、照片和画片的概括

本实验的目的是研究金丝猴对于从三维客体到其二维的照片及图片的概括能力。实验在三只未成年金丝猴身上进行。在基础训练中,训练动物辨别墨水瓶模型和小房子模型。然后用它们的照片和图画进行测验。实验表明三只金丝猴都不能把对客体的辨别迁移到照片和图画上去。     

4-6岁儿童认知发展过程中直接认知成分与间接认知成分相互关系的研究

本实验是分析学前儿童认知过程中三种不同的条件(实物、照片、语言指示)对儿童计数、操作和比较活动的影响,探讨认知的各直接成分和各间接成分的关系在儿童认知发展中的作用;并了解3—6岁儿童在三种认知活动中的特点。     

豚尾猴(Macaca nemestrina)等灵长类动物反转学习的比较研究

不同种类猿猴脑高级机能的比较生理心理研究的资料很少,并且意见不完全一致。和(1997)曾报道黑猩猩较阿拉伯狒有较大的推断能力。Shell和Riopelle(1958)报道阔鼻猴蜘蛛猴(Ateles geoffroyi),卷尾猴(Cebus albifrons)     

睡眠剥夺时大鼠电休克阈值的变化

我们在研究睡眠剥夺影响大鼠记忆巩固的实验中,观察到睡眠剥夺引起大鼠条件反射的反应时(R T_(CR))明显缩短。我们认为,这可能反映了动物在睡眠剥夺后脑的兴奋性有所升高,本实验用电休克阈值作指标验证这一看法。     

Constant errors donot occur in the matched reproduction of angles

MacRae and Loh (1981) reported that when observers attempt to match angles, whether simultaneously or successively, and regardless of whether the angles have the same orientation or not, acute angles generally are set too large and obtuse angles, too small. Without presenting data, they argued indirectly that starting-position effects in their adjustment procedure could not have accounted for the errors. In four experiments, we have demonstrated that effects similar to MacRae and Loh’s do occur when their starting positions are used and that no such effects occur when psychophysical methods that minimize or eradicate starting position effects are used.     

Children's strategy preferences for resolving contradictory story information under two social conditions

This paper attempted to examine how children, when confronted with a literary implicature, resolve this implicature under two types of social conditions. More specifically, this paper identified five types of strategies which people employ to resolve text anomalies arising when old information in a story setting is incompatible with new information in a story ending. Two experiments demonstrated that third graders (8.4 and 8.6 years) and sixth graders (12.5 and 12.8 years) consistently selected certain strategies for resolving old and new, empirical and value, contradictory information. Although third and sixth graders demonstrated a similar strategy preference for resolving contradictory old and new information in formal conditions, the principal difference was that third graders modified old information to fit new information while sixth graders modified new information to fit old information. In contrasting the formal and informal conditions, third graders shifted their strategy preferences so as to minimize the amount of text restructuring in the formal condition; sixth graders, on the other hand, shifted their strategy preferences so as to maximize the amount of text restructuring in informal conditions. These findings suggest that story schema structures are more interpretive than story grammar psychologists presently assume.     

The relationship of moral maturity and ethical attitude1

Two issues related to Hogan's Survey of Ethical Attitudes (SEA) were investigated. First, the adequacy of Hogan's theoretical characterizations of the two poles of the SEA was tested. The results supported his characterization of the ethics of conscience, but only partially supported his characterization of the ethics of responsibility. Our second focus was on Hogan's prediction that “moral maturity” should be curvilinearly related to the SEA. As predicted, when moral maturity was measured in Hogan's sense, subjects scoring in the middle of the SEA dimension showed higher levels of moral maturity than those at either the ethics of conscience end or the ethics of responsibility end. In contrast, moral maturity in Kohlberg's sense was linearly related to the SEA with the most mature individuals scoring at the ethics of conscience end of the dimension. The total pattern of results highlights the importance of conceptual clarity and conceptual pluralism in research on morality.