四种注意情境下幼儿自我延迟满足的实验研究

将120名中等自控能力的3～5岁幼儿随机分配到四种注意情境下:两种奖励物同时呈现、只呈现即时奖励物、只呈现延迟奖励物、两种奖励物都不呈现,以探索幼儿自我延迟满足的注意机制及发展特点。结果发现:(1)幼儿自我延迟满足在两种奖励物都不呈现情境下平均延迟时间最长,在呈现奖励物的三种情境下平均延迟时间较短,表现出跨年龄稳定性;(2)3～5岁幼儿自我延迟满足发展存在显著年龄差异,表现出随年龄增长而提高的趋势。     

学习困难和优秀学生延迟满足能力的跨情境比较实验研究

探讨学习困难学生(学困生)和学习优秀学生(学优生)在三种不同情境下——独自操作、单一团体操作和混合团体操作,延迟满足能力的差异.结果表明:(1)在延迟满足实验中,被试变量(学优生、学困生)与情境变量(独自、单一团体、混合团体)的交互作用显著;(2)在独自操作和单一团体情境下,学优生延迟满足能力显著高于学困生,混合团体则不存在这种差异;(3)学优生的延迟满足能力在独自操作和单一团体时水平较高,而混合团体的成绩则显著的低于单一团体,学困生的延迟满足能力在单一团体和混合团体时水平较高,而单独操作成绩则显著低于混合团体.本研究一方面拓展了对延迟满足能力的群体比较研究,同时,对学困生的心理教育实践也有指导意义.     

Foregoing the labor for the fruits: The effect of just world threat on the desire for immediate monetary rewards

Previous theorizing and research suggest that the need to believe in a just world develops when children begin to understand the benefits of foregoing their immediate gratifications for more desirable, long-term outcomes. Drawing on this previous work, we propose that an extant just world threat may induce a desire for smaller, immediate rewards at the expense of larger, delayed rewards. Participants were exposed to the suffering of an innocent or non-innocent victim and then, in a different context, completed a temporal discounting task that assessed, across six time delays, their preferences for smaller, immediate monetary rewards versus a constant, larger, delayed reward. Consistent with our reasoning, participants exposed to the suffering of an innocent versus non-innocent victim more steeply discounted the value of the delayed reward—that is, they were willing to accept smaller immediate rewards in place of the larger, delayed reward. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Rejection Sensitivity and Executive Control: Joint predictors of Borderline Personality features

Two studies tested the hypothesis that rejection sensitivity (RS) and executive control (EC) jointly predict borderline personality (BP) features. We expected high RS to be related to increased vulnerability for BP features specifically in people who also had difficulties in executive control (EC). Study 1 tested this hypothesis using a sample of college students (N = 379) whereas Study 2 (N = 104) was conducted using a community sample of adults. Both studies operationalized EC by a self-report measure. For a subsample in Study 2 (N = 80), ability to delay gratification at age 4 was also used as an early behavioral precursor of EC in adulthood. In both studies, high RS was associated with increased BP features among people low in self-reported EC. Among those high in self-reported EC, the relationship between RS and BP features was attenuated. Study 2 found parallel findings using preschool delay ability as a behavioral index of EC. These findings suggest that EC may protect high RS people against BP features.     

Performance in a computerized self-control task by rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): The combined influence of effort and delay

The variables of delay and effort have been found to influence self-control predictably and in similar fashion when tested independently, but it is unclear how they influence self-control interactively. In the present study, I tested these two variables simultaneously to gain better understanding of their combined influence on self-control. A computerized task was employed in which monkey participants could sequence 1 or more digital images before “cashing-out,” after which they would receive their accumulated rewards. Delay was manipulated by adjusting the speed of the cursor used to select images. Cognitive effort was manipulated by presenting image sets that appeared in either a constant or a randomized configuration. For most monkeys, an interaction was found between the effects of delay and effort on the number of images selected before cashing-out. The results suggest that, when combined, these two variables have a complex influence on self-control.     

Pointing with the left and right hands in congenitally blind children

Congenitally blind and blindfolded sighted children at ages of 6, 8, 10 and 12 years performed a pointing task with their left and right index fingers at an array of three targets on a touch screen to immediate (0 s) and delayed (4 s) instructions. Accuracy was greater for immediate than delayed pointing and there was an effect of delay for the orientation of the main axis of the pointing distribution in both groups, indicating distinct spatial representations with development such as ego- and allocentric frames of reference, respectively. The pointing responses of the blind covered less surface area indicating better overall accuracy as compared to the sighted blindfolded. The hands differed for four of the six precision and accuracy parameters. The right hand performed better and seemed relatively contextually oriented, whereas the responses of the left hand were closer to the body and egocentrically oriented. The elongation of the scatter of the pointing responses was greater for the boys and more allocentrically oriented, indicating gender differences in spatial representation. The study provides a first evidence of ego- and allocentric spatial frames of reference in congenitally blind children and an ability to point at targets with the left and right hands in the total absence of vision.     

Children with Specific Language Impairment are not impaired in the acquisition and retention of Pavlovian delay and trace conditioning of the eyeblink response

Three converging lines of evidence have suggested that cerebellar abnormality is implicated in developmental language and literacy problems. First, some brain imaging studies have linked abnormalities in cerebellar grey matter to dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI). Second, theoretical accounts of both dyslexia and SLI have postulated impairments of procedural learning and automatisation of skills, functions that are known to be mediated by the cerebellum. Third, motor learning has been shown to be abnormal in some studies of both disorders. We assessed the integrity of face related regions of the cerebellum using Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning in 7–11 year-old children with SLI. We found no relationship between oral language skills or literacy skills with either delay or trace conditioning in the children. We conclude that this elementary form of associative learning is intact in children with impaired language or literacy development.     

Self-regulation during a single performance episode: Mood-as-information in the absence of formal feedback

This investigation used a daily diary methodology to examine goal revision and effort allocation processes over a single, 2-weeks performance episode in which individuals prepared for a course exam. Growth curve modeling revealed that daily goal exhibited a curvilinear trend in which it was stable and relatively high at the beginning of the time period, but rapidly declined as the exam approached. Daily effort exhibited a trend opposite of the goal trend, remaining low and relatively stable at the beginning and increasingly rapidly as the exam approached. Current mood predicted daily goal revision, with positive mood being positively related to goal revision and negative mood being negatively related to goal revision. The traits of behavioral activation system (BAS) sensitivity and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity moderated within-person relationships of positive and negative mood with goal revision. Simultaneous and lagged relationships among mood, goals, and daily effort were also examined.     

Personality and behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking are accurately inferred from faces

Growing evidence suggests that people are able to accurately infer some personality traits and behavioral outcomes from facial photographs. However, little research has examined whether people are able to accurately infer personality traits or behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking. In this study, we examined whether people were able to accurately infer, on average, others’ personality traits associated with risk-taking from facial photographs. We further examined whether such first impressions were associated with relevant and important behavioral outcomes—specifically, future discounting and gambling and problem gambling tendencies. Results suggest that people are able to accurately infer, on average, some personality traits and behavioral outcomes associated with risk-taking from faces.