The psychophysics of uneconomical choice: non-linear reward evaluation by a nectar feeder

Uneconomical choices by humans or animals that evaluate reward options challenge the expectation that decision-makers always maximize the return currency. One possible explanation for such deviations from optimality is that the ability to sense differences in physical value between available alternatives is constrained by the sensory and cognitive processes for encoding profitability. In this study, we investigated the capacity of a nectarivorous bat species (Glossophaga commissarisi) to discriminate between sugar solutions with different concentrations. We conducted a two-alternative free-choice experiment on a population of wild electronically tagged bats foraging at an array of computer-automated artificial flowers that recorded individual choices. We used a Bayesian approach to fit individual psychometric functions, relating the strength of preferring the higher concentration option to the intensity of the presented stimulus. Psychometric analysis revealed that discrimination ability increases non-linearly with respect to intensity. We combined this result with a previous psychometric analysis of volume perception. Our theoretical analysis of choice for rewards that vary in two quality dimensions revealed regions of parameter combinations where uneconomic choice is expected. Discrimination ability may be constrained by non-linear perceptual and cognitive encoding processes that result in uneconomical choice.     

Beauty, Ethnicity, and Age: Does Internalization of Mainstream Media Ideals Influence Attitudes Towards Older Adults?

Mainstream North American media promotes the message that attaining a thin, youthful appearance is central to a woman’s value and social role while appearing older is highly undesirable. However, appearance ideals and attitudes toward aging differ substantially across cultural and ethnic groups, which may influence the degree to which one internalizes media ideals and holds anti-aging attitudes. Consequently, this study examined the relationships between internalization of the youthful, thin-ideal appearance perpetuated by mainstream North American media and attitudes toward the elderly in a sample of 281 undergraduate females under the age of 30 attending a university in the Western United States. Specifically, European American (n?=?115), Asian American/Pacific Islander (n?=?74), Hispanic/Latina (n?=?52), and African American (n?=?42) women voluntarily completed self-report measures of internalization of media ideals and attitudes towards older adults. Attitudes towards the elderly were significantly more negative at higher levels of internalization of North American appearance ideals, independent of ethnicity. These data suggest that internalization of North American appearance ideals perpetuated by media are related to negative attitudes towards older adults. Future research should investigate the influence of negative attitudes about aging on behaviors toward older adults or one’s own aging process.     

Resource control and status as stimuli for arousing power motivation: An American-Chinese comparison

In this paper, we analyze power motivation from a cross-cultural perspective. Power motivation has been mainly studied within the Western culture. However, previous research suggests that some contours and nuances of power and power motivation may be culturally specific. In this article, we analyze cultural differences between American and Chinese students in how power motivation is aroused. Drawing from the cross-cultural literature, we propose that having decision-making control over resources increases levels of power motivation among Americans but not Chinese, whereas status-elevation increases power motivation among both Americans and Chinese. These hypotheses were tested experimentally with resource-control, status-elevation, and neutral conditions. The first hypothesis was fully supported, but the second one was only partially supported. Levels of power motivation in the neutral condition (i.e., dispositional power motives) were similar for American and Chinese participants, but power motivation arousal was greater for Americans than Chinese, in both power arousal conditions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the power motivation construct in a non-Western context.     

Previous reward decreases errors of commission on later ‘No‐Go’ trials in children 4 to 12 years of age: evidence for a context monitoring account

Inhibitory control is widely hypothesized to be the cornerstone of executive function in childhood and the central deficit in a number of developmental disorders, including attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, recent evidence from adults indicates that performance on response inhibition tasks may primarily reflect non‐inhibitory attentional control (context monitoring) processes. Yet it may be that inhibition plays a more central role in childhood – a time when the architecture of cognitive processes might be more transparent due to wide variability in skill level. Here we directly test inhibitory and context monitoring explanations of task performance on a Go/No‐Go task in a large group of children 4–12 years of age. We conclude that traditional inhibitory conceptualizations of task performance on the Go/No‐Go task cannot account for our findings, calling into question evidence supporting a central role for inhibitory control in cognitive development or developmental psychopathology.     

African American Children’s Racial Discrimination Experiences and Mental Health

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The current study examined how African American children’s experiences of perceived personal racial discrimination and perceived vicarious racial...     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Does It Bring About Improvements in Affect Regulation in Individuals with Eating Disorders?

The current investigation sought to determine whether a standard outpatient dose of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training (2 h per week) coupled with standard CBT treatment would be sufficient to produce changes in affect regulation over the course of day hospitalization treatment. In an uncontrolled pre-post treatment design, 65 women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa were assessed at the beginning of treatment and at the end of treatment on affect regulation. Findings indicated that participants demonstrated a significant improvement in their ability to regulate affect, suggesting that weekly DBT treatment may play an important role in producing changes in affect regulation. Secondary analyses on eating disorder outcomes revealed a significant increase in weight gain as well as a significant reduction in restriction, bingeing, purging and eating disordered cognitions. Findings are discussed in the context of clinical and treatment implications for those with severe eating disorders.     

Reading and Character: Weil and McDowell on Naïve Realism and Second Nature

Both Simone Weil and John McDowell analogize value or meaning to sensations such as colour or heat, and this analogy is a strategy for resisting anti‐realism. However, McDowell's analogy tacitly accepts the very dualism which he is criticizing, while Weil's analogy is both more naïve and more radical than his. Like McDowell, Weil argues that virtuous character is the actualization of a second nature, but she emphasizes the role of the body in this process. Fully trained, the agent's body is a transparent medium through which she reads circumstances – and through which the circumstances, clearly perceived, express themselves in action.