Transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect

The testing effect is the finding that taking a review test enhances performance on a final test relative to restudying the material. The present experiment investigated transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect using semantic and orthographic cues to evoke conceptual and data-driven processing, respectively. After a study phase, subjects either restudied the material or took a cued-recall test consisting of half semantic and half orthographic cues in which the correct response was given as feedback. A final, cued-recall test consisted of the identical cue, or a new cue that was of the same type or different type of cue (semantic/orthographic or orthographic/semantic) as that used for that target in the review test. Testing enhanced memory in all conditions. When the review cues and final-test cues were identical, final recall was higher for semantic than orthographic cues. Consistent with test-based transfer-appropriate processing, memory performance improved as the review and final cues became more similar. These results suggest that the testing effect could potentially be caused by the episodic retrieval processes in a final memory test overlapping more with the episodic retrieval processes in a review test than with the encoding operations performed during restudy.     

医疗服务成本控制过程伦理范式的选择

不同伦理范式对医疗服务成本控制过程会产生不同的影响.运用经济伦理学及管理伦理学的原理和方法,结合医疗卫生服务机构的行业性质及特点,选择出现实可行的医疗服务成本控制过程的伦理范式.使医疗卫生服务机构在医疗服务成本控制过程中,从成本控制标准的确定、成本控制方法及途径的选择到成本控制结果的分析及考评等环节融入相关伦理内涵.使医疗服务成本控制更好地遵循恰当的伦理范式,更好地履行医疗卫生服务机构的宗旨和职责.     

Examination of a Perceived Cost Model of Employees’ Negative Feedback-Seeking Behavior

The present study extends the feedback-seeking behavior literature by investigating how supervisor-related antecedents (i.e., supervisors’ expert power, reflected appraisals of supervisors, and supervisors’ emotional intelligence) influence subordinates’ negative feedback-seeking behavior (NFSB) through different cost/value perceptions (i.e., expectancy value, self-presentation cost, and ego cost). Using data collected from 216 supervisor-subordinate dyads from various industries in Taiwan, we employ structural equation modeling analysis to test our hypotheses. The results show that expectancy value mediates the relationship between supervisor expert power and subordinates’ NFSB. Moreover, self-presentation cost mediates the relationship between reflected appraisals of supervisors’ and subordinates’ NFSB. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are also discussed.     

Energetic Cost and Stability during Human Walking at the Preferred Stride Frequency

The possibility that preferred modes of locomotion emerge from dynamical and optimality constraints and the energetic and dynamical constraints on preferred and predicted walking frequency are explored in this article. Participants were required to walk on a treadmill at their preferred frequency, at a frequency predicted as the resonance of a hybrid pendulum-spring model of the legs, and at frequencies ±15%, ±25%, ±35% of the predicted frequency. Walking at the preferred and predicted frequencies resulted in minimal metabolic costs and maximal stability of the head and joint actions. Mechanical energy conservation was constant across conditions. The head was more stable than the joints. The joints appeared to be in service of the head in maintaining a stable trajectory. The major findings of this study suggest a complementary relationship between energetic (physiological) and stability constraints in the adoption of a preferred frequency of walking. Multiple subsystems may be involved in constraining observed macroscopic behavior in intact biological systems. The approach and results of the study imply that a useful tack in understanding how dynamical control structures arise is to study the potential criteria that serve to act as constraints on skilled movement patterns in unimpaired and impaired populations.     

Experimental and Behavioral Approaches to Alcoholism: Kongressrapport

Hypochondriasis is highly prevalent in medical settings, has detrimental effects for affected individuals, and is associated with high societal costs. Although cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective in the treatment of hypochondriasis, it is not widely available because of a lack of properly trained therapists. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate therapy forms that require less therapist time. The authors investigated the effect and economic impact of group CBT delivered in a psychiatric setting among 24 people with hypochondriasis. A within-group design with prolonged baseline was used, and all participants received 10 weeks of group-based treatment. The primary outcome measures were the Health Anxiety Inventory and the Illness Attitude Scales. Results indicate significant improvement on both measures at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up (Cohen's d = 1.03–1.72). Medical and nonmedical costs were substantially lowered. The authors conclude that group-based CBT delivered in a psychiatric setting is an effective and potentially highly cost-effective treatment for hypochondriasis.     

Inhibition in task switching: The reliability of the n − 2 repetition cost

The n???2 repetition cost seen in task switching is the effect of slower response times performing a recently completed task (e.g. an ABA sequence) compared to performing a task that was not recently completed (e.g. a CBA sequence). This cost is thought to reflect cognitive inhibition of task representations and as such, the n???2 repetition cost has begun to be used as an assessment of individual differences in inhibitory control; however, the reliability of this measure has not been investigated in a systematic manner. The current study addressed this important issue. Seventy-two participants performed three task switching paradigms; participants were also assessed on rumination traits and processing speed—measures of individual differences potentially modulating the n???2 repetition cost. We found significant n???2 repetition costs for each paradigm. However, split-half reliability tests revealed that this cost was not reliable at the individual-difference level. Neither rumination tendencies nor processing speed predicted this cost. We conclude that the n???2 repetition cost is not reliable as a measure of individual differences in inhibitory control.     

Task-switch costs subsequent to cue-only trials

There is abundant evidence that there is a performance cost associated with switching between tasks. This “switch cost” has been postulated to be driven by task performance on the preceding trial, but recent research challenges any necessary role of previous task performance in driving the cost. Across three experiments, we investigated whether it is difficult to switch from a task that was prepared but never performed. We replicated the finding of a switch cost following cue-only trials (involving no task performance) whilst controlling for a potential cue-switching confound. This cost was larger than that following completed trials when preparation interval was short (300?ms), and it reduced significantly with a longer preparation interval (1000?ms) on the current trial. We also found that preparing only to attend to a particular visual dimension (colour or shape) was sufficient to drive a significant subsequent switch cost, which appeared to be residual in nature; we speculate that this cost may reflect the persistence of unfulfilled task intentions and/or a strategic slowing when consecutive intentions conflict.     

Learning to allocate limited time to decisions with different expected outcomes

The goal of this article is to investigate how human participants allocate their limited time to decisions with different properties. We report the results of two behavioral experiments. In each trial of the experiments, the participant must accumulate noisy information to make a decision. The participants received positive and negative rewards for their correct and incorrect decisions, respectively. The stimulus was designed such that decisions based on more accumulated information were more accurate but took longer. Therefore, the total outcome that a participant could achieve during the limited experiments’ time depended on her “decision threshold”, the amount of information she needed to make a decision. In the first experiment, two types of trials were intermixed randomly: hard and easy. Crucially, the hard trials were associated with smaller positive and negative rewards than the easy trials. A cue presented at the beginning of each trial would indicate the type of the upcoming trial. The optimal strategy was to adopt a small decision threshold for hard trials. The results showed that several of the participants did not learn this simple strategy. We then investigated how the participants adjusted their decision threshold based on the feedback they received in each trial. To this end, we developed and compared 10 computational models for adjusting the decision threshold. The models differ in their assumptions on the shape of the decision thresholds and the way the feedback is used to adjust the decision thresholds. The results of Bayesian model comparison showed that a model with time-varying thresholds whose parameters are updated by a reinforcement learning algorithm is the most likely model. In the second experiment, the cues were not presented. We showed that the optimal strategy is to use a single time-decreasing decision threshold for all trials. The results of the computational modeling showed that the participants did not use this optimal strategy. Instead, they attempted to detect the difficulty of the trial first and then set their decision threshold accordingly.