恒河猴数相加能力的初步研究

本实验训练恒河猴对两组其和不超过8的刺激实体(卡片上的黑色圆点)进行相加,再与第三组刺激实体进行数多少的比较判断。实验共有9个训练程序,课题逐次由易到难,刺激的数目也由少到多。有一只恒河猴达到了全部9个程序的训练标准。证明恒河猴的确具有学会把两个数进行相加的能力。这种相加不可能是数数的结果,极可能是在知觉上将它们融合或接合在一起。     

The effect of reinforcement differences on choice and response distribution during stimulus compounding

In Experiments I and II, rats were trained to respond on one lever during light and another during tone. The absence of tone and light controlled response cessation. In the multiple schedule of Experiment I, all reinforcements were received for responding in tone or light; in the chain schedule of Experiment II, all reinforcements were received in no tone + no light for not responding. Experiment I subjects, for which tone and light were associated with response and reinforcement increase, responded significantly more to tone-plus-light than to tone or light alone (additive summation). Experiment II subjects, for which tone and light were associated with response increase and reinforcement decrease, responded comparably to tone, light, and tone + light. Thus, additive summation was observed when stimulus-response and stimulus-reinforcer associations in tone and light were both positive, but not when they were conflicting. All subjects in both experiments responded predominantly on the light-correlated lever during tone + light, even when light intensity was reduced in testing. Furthermore, when a light was presented to a subject engaged in tone-associated responding, all subjects immediately switched the locus of responding to the light-correlated lever. No change in locus occurred when a tone was presented to a subject engaged in light-associated responding, irrespective of the stimulus-reinforcer association conditioned to tone. The light-lever preference in tone + light indicates that the heightened responding observed in Experiment I was not the summation of tone-associated behavior with light-associated behavior. Rather, it appears to be the result of a facilitation of one operant (light-associated responding) by the reinforcement-associated cue for the other.     

Response summation to a compound stimulus in a context of choice

Key pecks by two groups of pigeons were reinforced on concurrent schedules. For group Ē, pecks were reinforced during either a visual or an auditory stimulus; for group E, an additional, extinction component was available, during which both visual and auditory stimuli were absent. After training, both groups were given a compound test to measure preference among four stimuli, the three used in training plus a compound of the visual and auditory stimulus. Group E showed preference for the compound, emitting more pecks and spending more time in this stimulus than in other stimuli. Group Ē showed no preference between the compound and visual stimulus, nor between the auditory stimulus and the absence of both stimuli, but preferred the former pair over the latter pair of stimuli.     

Rhythmic finger tapping to cosine-wave modulated metronome sequences: Evidence of subliminal entrainment

Rhythmic finger tapping was examined during synchronization to metronome sequences whose base intervals were slightly perturbed by a cosine-wave function with the period of four samples. Data were collected under perturbation levels of 1%, 3%, 5% and 7% in conjunction with base intervals of 400, 500, and 600 ms. Statistical analysis examined the relationship between the inter-response interval (IRI), inter-stimulus interval (ISI) and synchronization error (SE). It was observed that IRI and SE entrain to the periodicity of the ISI patterns even at perturbation levels close to and below the conscious auditory perception threshold. Furthermore, the similarity between the IRI and ISI increased in proportion to the perturbation level. It was also found that the relative perturbation level had more influence on the synchronization behavior than the absolute level. Finally, the observed rhythmic tracking data were modeled mathematically to examine the likelihood of three possible synchronization strategies.PsycINFO classification: 2330     

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) can adapt to perceptible and subliminal rhythm changes but are more variable

Children with DCD demonstrate impairments in bimanual finger tapping during self-paced tapping and tapping in synchrony to different frequencies. In this study, we investigated the ability of children with DCD to adapt motorically to perceptible or subliminal changes of the auditory stimuli without a change in frequency, and compared their performance to typically developing controls (TDC). Nineteen children with DCD between ages 6–11 years (mean age ± SD = 114 ± 21 months) and 17 TDC (mean age ± SD = 113 ± 21 months) participated in this study. Auditory perceptual threshold was established. Children initially tapped bimanually to an antiphase beat and then to either a perceptible change in rhythm or to gradual subliminal changes in rhythm. Children with DCD were able to perceive changes in rhythm similar to TDC. They were also able to adapt to both perceptible and subliminal changes in rhythms similar to their age- and gender- matched TDC. However, these children were significantly more variable compared with TDC in all phasing conditions. The results suggest that the performance impairments in bilateral tapping are not a result of poor conscious or sub-conscious perception of the auditory cue. The increased motor variability may be associated with cerebellar dysfunction but further behavioral and neurophysiological studies are needed.     

Acquired equivalences between auditory stimuli in dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

This study investigated whether dolphins would show evidence of equivalence class formation between auditory stimuli. Bottlenose dolphins were trained to press one or other of two response levers depending on which one of four auditory stimuli had been previously presented. Once they had learned the initial discriminations, the stimulus-lever contingencies was repeatedly reversed. Within any given session, however, pressing of one lever always led to reward with one set of two tones and pressing the other lever led to non-reward with an alternative set of two tones. After sufficient experience with this response reversal procedure, the dolphins spontaneously chose the same levers they had first learned to be correct with one of the across-set stimulus pairs when later in the session they were presented with the other of the across-set stimulus pairs. They thus demonstrated that they had associated the tones belonging to the two sets within two separate functional classes. It is discussed why the dolphins succeeded with auditory stimuli when they had previously failed in a similar task with visual stimuli. Received: 7 December 1999 / Accepted after revision: 23 June 2000     

Auditory Stroop reveals implicit gender associations in adults and children

Gender provides a powerful social heuristic for structuring incoming information. Thus, it may be difficult to attend to aspects of a person’s sex without also activating irrelevant gender associations. In two experiments, an auditory Stroop revealed implicit gender associations. Participants categorized the sex of voices saying names and words stereotypically associated with male, female or neutral gender roles. Both adults and children were slower when the voice’s sex was stereotypically incongruent with the spoken word or name. Although both groups showed such interference, children—who are generally less flexible about gender roles—showed more interference in response to gender-stereotypical words (e.g., football) than names (e.g., Rachel), whereas adults showed the opposite pattern. Given the simplicity of this task, the auditory Stroop might be used both to tap into implicit gender associations and to investigate their development.     

心理与教育测验中异常反应侦查新技术：变点分析法

变点分析法(change point analysis, CPA)近些年才引入心理与教育测量学, 相较于传统方法, CPA不仅可以侦查异常作答被试, 还能自动精确地定位变点位置, 高效清洗作答数据。其原理在于：判断作答序列中是否存在可将该序列划分为具有不同统计学属性两部分的点(即变点), 并且需使用被试拟合统计量(person-fit statistic, PFS)来量化两个子序列之间的差异。未来可将单变点分析拓展至多变点, 结合反应时等信息, 构建非参数化指标以及将现有指标拓展至多级计分或多维测验, 以提高CPA的适用广度及效力。     

Glutamate receptors in the medial geniculate nucleus are necessary for expression and extinction of conditioned fear in rats

Auditory fear conditioning requires anatomical projections from the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN) of the thalamus to the amygdala. Several lines of work indicate that the MGN is a critical sensory relay for auditory information during conditioning, but is not itself involved in the encoding of long-term fear memories. In the present experiments, we examined whether the MGN plays a similar role in the extinction of conditioned fear. Twenty-four hours after Pavlovian fear conditioning, rats received bilateral intra-thalamic infusions of either with NBQX (an AMPA receptor antagonist; Experiment 1) or MK-801 (an NMDA receptor antagonist; Experiment 1), anisomycin (a protein synthesis inhibitor; Experiment 2) or U0126 (a MEK inhibitor; Experiment 3) immediately prior to an extinction session in a novel context. The next day rats received a tone test in a drug-free state to assess their extinction memory; freezing served as an index of fear. Glutamate receptor antagonism prevented both the expression and extinction of conditioned fear. In contrast, neither anisomycin nor U0126 affected extinction. These results suggest that the MGN is a critical sensory relay for auditory information during extinction training, but is not itself a site of plasticity underlying the formation of the extinction memory.     

Brain correlates of early auditory processing are attenuated by expectations for time and pitch

The present study investigated how auditory processing is modulated by expectations for time and pitch by analyzing reaction times and event-related potentials (ERPs). In two experiments, tone sequences were presented to the participants, who had to discriminate whether the last tone of the sequence contained a short gap or was continuous (Experiment 1: go/nogo, Experiment 2: choice reaction). Expectations were induced by varying the temporal and pitch regularity of the sequence. Results were consistent across both experiments. Expectations for both time and pitch were associated with faster responding. Both temporal and pitch expectations led to an attenuation of the auditory N1, thus indicating a modulation of early, perceptual processing by temporal and pitch expectations. Effects of temporal expectations were also evident in a P300-like deflection, suggesting that temporal expectations also affect decision- or response-related processing stages.