时序信息加工机制及其通道效应的实验研究

研究由两个实验组成,实验一采用纯粹的视听方式,以线段长度和声音频率为材料,对时序信息的加工方式（自动加工与控制加工）、编码特点（时序信息是何时编码的）以及通道效应进行了研究。实验二以汉字为材料重复实验一的过程;结果表明,时序信息的加工存在视听通道效应,其机制源于记忆,且与实验材料的加工深度以及加工方式有关;时序信息既包含有自动加工,又包含有控制加工。视觉刺激倾向于自动加工,而听觉则倾向于控制加工;时序信息是在项目学习时编码获得的,而不是在提取时建构的。     

THE EFFECTS OF CONTINGENT AND NONCONTINGENT REWARDS ON THE I.Q. SCORES OF CHILDREN OF ABOVE-AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE1

This study investigated the effects of candy reinforcement on I.Q. test scores in first and second graders of above-average intelligence. Thirty-six subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups and either given candy contingent on correct responses, noncontingently, or not given candy. After measuring all subjects on Form L of the revised Stanford Binet, each subject in the contingent group was given an M & M immediately following each correct answer on Form M, while a yoked-comparison subject received the same number of M & M's before responding to a question and therefore without regard to correctness of answers. It was expected that both types of candy administration would produce higher I.Q. change scores than the no-candy control group, but there were no statistically significant differences among the three treatments. The differences between the first and second test scores were 4.17 (contingent), 4.67 (noncontingent), and 1.00 (no reinforcement). Reasons for this failure to replicate previous findings were discussed.     

The effects of varying the distribution of generalization stimuli within a constant range upon the bisection of a sound-intensity interval by rats

Two male, albino rats were trained on a two-valued, self-paced, discrete-trials auditory discrimination. In the presence of a high-intensity stimulus (90 decibels SPL, 4 kiloHertz), response A was reinforced; in the presence of a low-intensity stimulus (50 decibels SPL, 4 kiloHertz), response B was reinforced. When discrimination performance was asymptotic, stimuli intermediate in intensity were presented with the training stimuli in a maintained generalization paradigm. Generalization gradients were derived from the relative frequencies of response A in the presence of each stimulus. A relative frequency of 0.50 was then determined and used as the bisection point of the intensity interval defined by the 90- and 50-decibel stimuli. The bisection point varied with the distribution of the stimuli presented in generalization. This effect was similar to context effects seen in human psychophysics.     

Conjunctive schedules of response-dependent and response-independent reinforcement

Pigeons received food when they emitted the number of responses specified by a fixed-ratio schedule, and the time specified by a fixed-time schedule had elapsed. The order of meeting the response and time requirements was irrelevant. In different conditions, stimuli signalled completion of one, both, or neither requirement. Ratio size interacted with stimulus condition to determine performance. When a stimulus signalled the end of the fixed-time period, under all ratios the birds tended to respond after the stimulus appeared. When stimuli followed both components, small ratios produced responding during the fixed-time period, and other ratios resulted in responses after the time period had elapsed. With either no stimulus changes, or with a stimulus correlated with completion of the ratio alone, responding first increased and then decreased as the ratio increased. Low and high ratios produced stable response frequencies and patterns in successive intervals. Intermediate ratios resulted in two types of performance. Intervals with long initial pauses and few responses during the fixed-time period were followed by intervals with short pauses and numerous responses and vice versa. The source of these dynamic effects was hypothesized to be number of responses per reinforcer in one condition and response-reinforcer contiguity in the other.     

PILLS OR SKILLS FOR HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN

The controversial nature of drug treatment of hyperactivity, the incidence and sequelae of hyperactivity, and problems of differential diagnosis of hyperactivity versus aggression were discussed. The effects of psychostimulant medication and behavior therapy on hyperactive children were reviewed with regard to effects on their social and academic behavior. Both treatments have resulted in clear short-term changes in social behavior but neither long-term academic nor long-term social effects have been shown with either treatment. Short-term effects on academic behavior have resulted from behavioral interventions but not from psychostimulants. However, the interventions have been too brief to allow one to draw unequivocal conclusions about the clinical efficacy of behavioral treatments. Although there have been long-term evaluations of psychostimulant therapy, there have not been any evaluations of long-term behavioral treatment programs for hyperactive children. Given the salutary short-term effects of behavior therapy with hyperactive children, extended clinical trials of behavior therapy need to be conducted. Finally, specific directions are suggested for future research.     

Intervention effects and relative variation as dimensions in experts' use of visual inference

Recent research indicates that when analyzing graphically presented single-subject data, subjects trained in visual inference appear to attend to large changes between phases regardless of relative variation and do not differentiate among common intervention effect patterns. In this follow-up study, experts in applied behavior analysis completed a free-sort task designed to assess the effects of these dimensions on their use of visual inference. The results indicate that they tended to differentiate among common intervention effect patterns but did not attend to relative variation in the data.     

The effects of the stimulus-reinforcer correlation in a discrete-trials IRT>t procedure

The correlation between a keylight and food in a discrete-trials, interresponse-time-greater-than 6-sec (IRT>6-sec) procedure was varied by manipulating the rate of response-independent food presentation in the intertrial interval. When the correlation was positive, the rates of pecking in the IRT>6-sec condition were high and food was obtained on only about 5% of the trials. Likewise, responding was maintained at a high rate in yoked birds that received the same presentations of the light and food as the birds in the IRT>6-sec condition. When the rate of reinforcement between trials was equated to or made greater than the rate of reinforcement within trials, the response rate decreased for all birds, and those decreases were considerably larger for the yoked birds. However, the percentage of trials in which reinforced responses occurred under the IRT>6-sec procedure did not increase substantially when the light and food were either uncorrelated or negatively correlated. The percentage of trials in which a reinforcer was obtained increased when the keylight was left on continuously and the discriminative stimulus was not presented on the key. The results show that the stimulus-reinforcer correlation affects responding in the discrete-trials IRT>6-sec procedure, but that the effects of the stimulus-reinforcer correlation vary as a function of whether reinforcement is response-dependent or response-independent. The differences between the effects of response-independent and response-dependent pairings and nonpairings of the light and food are best accounted for in terms of differences in the control of responding by background stimuli.     

项目在不同间隔时间呈现过程中的系列位置效应

以中国汉字为材料,考察不同中数比率（０．６,０．８和１．０）时,系列位置曲线不同部分性质的分化,结果说明,系列位置曲线不同部分的性质,是项目间隔时间和其时间变化的中数比率共同作用的结果,发现项目间隔时间变化中数比率所起作用更大,在项目呈现时间相同时,项目隔间的时间长短,决定项目之间的辨别程度,也影响到对项目正确提取的百分数。     

Similar consumption and responding across single and multiple sources of drug

Two experiments were conducted to assess whether total response output and total consumption would be similar when drugs are available from single and multiple sources of reinforcement, as predicted by behavioral economics. In Experiment 1, cigarette-deprived smokers were exposed to a concurrent-chains schedule in which equal fixed-ratio schedules served as the initial links, and different reinforcer magnitudes (i.e., number of cigarette puffs) were arranged across alternatives. After the session, obtained unit price was calculated and imposed in the next session when a different number of puffs was available according to a single fixed-ratio schedule. Thus, the unit price at which cigarette puffs could be earned was yoked within subjects across the single and concurrent-chains schedules. When plotted as a function of unit price, similar consumption and response rates were usually obtained across these schedules. Experiment 2 addressed a weakness of Experiment 1, namely, that responding was allocated exclusively to the larger reinforcer magnitude in concurrent-chains conditions, and therefore this schedule may have functioned as a single schedule. In Experiment 2, subjects were instructed to alternate responding between the two alternative schedules. Instructions produced approximately equal response allocation between the two alternatives. Again, similar consumption and response rates were observed across the single and instructed concurrent-chains schedules. These findings are discussed in the context of direct effects and behavioral economics perspectives of drug self-administration.     

重复启动条件下中文双字词的识别

采用重复启动的研究范式,研究了中文合成词与单纯词的识别．结果发现,在单字启动条件下与整词启动条件下,合成词与单纯词都存在显著的重复启动效应。单字启动与整词启动的启动量没有显著差异。合成词与单纯词１（成分字的构词数大于１）之间差异显著,合成词的识别快于单纯词１．但是,单纯词２（成分字的构词数等于１）的识别却快于合成词。实验还发现,合成词与单纯词１存在着明显的位置效应,位置１的启动效果大于位置２,实验结果主要支持了词素存储的假设,但有些结果不能用这种假设解释。