准备时间和预先信息对任务切换的影响

两个实验采用任务线索范式,考察了准备时间和预先信息对任务切换的影响。实验1的准备时间为可预测,实验2的为不可预测,以考察准备时间的可预测性对任务切换的影响。以被试执行重复任务、切到任务和切离任务的正确反应时为主要指标,结果：（1）在准备时间可预测和不可预测两种条件下,准备时间和预先信息之间存在显著交互作用。在可预测条件中,重复和切到任务的反应时随着准备时间的增加而减少,但切到代价无显著变化,切离任务的反应时不受准备时间的影响,切离代价表现出反准备效应;不可预测条件下,三种任务的反应时都随着准备时间的增加而减少,但是切到和切离代价表现出反准备效应;（2）切离任务的反应时和代价显著高于切到任务的反应时和代价;（3）在这两种条件下,都没有出现切换代价的准备效应     

医管、医患双重博弈研究

在中国,老百姓"看病难,看病贵"问题已饱受各方诟病多时,政府不断出台的政策却收效甚微。通过分析医疗机构、管制者和患者所面临的风险与收益、行为与选择、医疗机构与管制者之间的重复博弈,医疗机构与患者之间的一次性博弈,提出医疗机构与管制者、医疗机构与患者的双重博弈假说。指出了"药价虚高"的根源以及解决的可能途径。     

材料类型和任务可预测性在任务转换中的作用

以阿拉伯数字和汉字数字为材料,采用奇偶判断和大小判断任务交替呈现范式,考察材料类型和任务可预测性在任务转换中的作用。结果发现:(1)对阿拉伯数字和汉字数字的反应时无显著差异,转换代价差异不显著;(2)不可预测任务反应时显著长于可预测任务,转换任务和重复任务都显示了基于可预测性的准备效应。表明材料类型对任务转换无影响,重复和转换任务都存在一般的任务控制更新过程。     

有限理性信任观:对理性计算和非理性态度的整合

信任是理性的还是非理性的,一直是信任研究中争论的焦点。在对理性信任观和非理性信任观进行比较分析之后,在"有限理性"和"心智成本"的框架下,提出了信任的有限理性观点,对信任的理性观和非理性观点做一整合。     

The effect of decision risk and project stage on escalation of commitment

We investigate the joint effects of decision risk and the stage of project completion on escalation of commitment. In two experiments, we demonstrate that the effect of decision risk is moderated by project stage such that the decision risk has the strongest effect on escalation of commitment at the intermediate stage of project completion. This is due to the dynamic influences underlying escalation of commitment. Whereas the need for project information influences resource commitment at the initial stage of a project, the need for project completion affects resource allocation at the terminal stage. In contrast, motivation to commit resources is disproportionately low at the intermediate stage since both the need for project information and the need for project completion are relatively weak. As such, the decision to commit resources is most sensitive to the moderating effect of decision risk when the project is about half complete.     

Effects of treatment‐integrity failures on a response‐cost procedure

Effects of incorrect or partial implementation (poor treatment integrity) on response cost are largely unknown. We evaluated reduced treatment integrity during response cost on rates of 2 concurrently available responses. College students earned points by clicking on either a black circle or a red circle on a computer screen. Experiment 1 compared 2 types of treatment‐integrity failures (omission and commission errors) across 2 levels of integrity (20% and 50%). Compared to 100% integrity conditions, omission errors did not suppress responding to the same extent, and commission errors reduced target responding but also decreased rates of alternative behavior. Experiment 2 compared the effects of 20% and 50% omission errors within subjects. Implementation at 50% integrity adequately suppressed responding, but treatment effects were lost at 20% integrity. There may be a critical level at which response cost must be implemented to suppress responding, which has important implications for application.     

Efficacy of and preference for reinforcement and response cost in token economies

Researchers have shown that both differential reinforcement and response cost within token economies are similarly effective for changing the behavior of individuals in a group context (e.g., Donaldson, DeLeon, Fisher, & Kahng, 2014; Iwata & Bailey, 1974). In addition, these researchers have empirically evaluated preference for these procedures. However, few previous studies have evaluated the individual effects of these procedures both in group contexts and in the absence of peers. Therefore, we replicated and extended previous research by determining the individual effects and preferences of differential reinforcement and response cost under both group and individualized conditions. Results demonstrated that the procedures were equally effective for increasing on‐task behavior during group and individual instruction for most children, and preference varied across participants. In addition, results were consistent across participants who experienced the procedures in group and individualized settings.     

The sunk cost effect with pigeons: some determinants of decisions about persistence

The sunk cost effect occurs when an individual persists following an initial investment, even when persisting is costly in the long run. The current study used a laboratory model of the sunk cost effect. Two response alternatives were available: Pigeons could persist by responding on a schedule key with mixed ratio requirements, or escape by responding on a second key. In Experiment 1, mean response requirements for persistence and escape were varied across conditions. Pigeons persisted (committing the sunk cost error) when persisting increased the mean response requirement only slightly but not when persisting was sufficiently nonoptimal. Experiment 2 explored more systematically combinations of ratios and probabilities assigned to the schedule key. Persistence varied with the ratio of the mean global response requirements for persistence and escape. In Experiment 3, transitions between ratios were signaled. This reduced nonoptimal persistence, and produced some instances of a reverse sunk cost error--escaping when persistence was optimal. In Experiment 4, it was optimal to escape after the second-smallest ratio ever presented. Pigeons escaped at approximately the optimal juncture, especially in conditions with added signals. Overall, this series of experiments suggests that the sunk cost error may arise in part because persistence is the default behavioral strategy in situations where the contingencies for escape and persistence are insufficiently disparate and/or it is relatively difficult to discriminate when to escape. The study also demonstrates the utility of animal models of complex decision making situations.     

Early experience of Cued Speech enhances speechreading performance in deaf

It is known that deaf individuals usually outperform normal hearing subjects in speechreading; however, the underlying reasons remain unclear. In the present study, speechreading performance was assessed in normal hearing participants (NH), deaf participants who had been exposed to the Cued Speech (CS) system early and intensively, and deaf participants exposed to oral language without Cued Speech (NCS). Results show a gradation in performance with highest performance in CS, then in NCS, and finally NH participants. Moreover, error analysis suggests that speechreading processing is more accurate in the CS group than in the other groups. Given that early and intensive CS has been shown to promote development of accurate phonological processing, we propose that the higher speechreading results in Cued Speech users are linked to a better capacity in phonological decoding of visual articulators.     

The patient,the nurse,his life and her mother: Psychodynamic influences in nurse education and practice

Using the film The Cook, the Thief His Wife and her Lover (from which this paper's title is borrowed) as a powerful illustration, the paper examines some of the unconscious processes which form part of everyday life for nurses working in the community, particularly on the wards of our hospitals. It is an attempt to describe some of these processes and to understand the conditions that promote them. With acknowledgements to the pioneers in this sort of work, such as Main, Menzies-Lyth, Trist, Bamforth and Jaques, the paper looks at the ethology of institutions and at activity that takes place on the boundaries between self and other, between the inner world and external reality, and between various levels in the hierarchy.

The paper identifies some of the ‘routines’ which grew up in nursing (and those which have replaced them), the unconscious purpose of which is to safeguard the emotional and psychological integrity of the nurse, through creating a distance between herself and her patients. The paper argues against removing these necessary defences until more helpful alternatives are in place. To fulfil this aim, it recommends that clinical supervision and support seminars should become a regular part of all nurse-training programmes, and should continue throughout the professional life of the nurse.