负性情绪背景和延迟对时间性前瞻记忆的影响

采用2（情绪效价：负性、中性）×2（延迟设置：无延迟、有延迟）的实验设计,探究负性情绪对时间性前瞻记忆的干扰效应。结果显示在无延迟条件下,负性情绪组的前瞻记忆成绩差于中性情绪组,负性情绪组的总时间监控次数和监控后期的时间监控次数均少于中性情绪组;在有延迟条件下,负性情绪组的前瞻记忆成绩和监控后期的时间监控次数与中性情绪组均无差异。结果说明负性情绪会干扰时间性前瞻记忆,而延迟可以消除这种干扰效应。     

On the blessing of abstraction

The “blessing of abstraction” refers to the observation that acquiring abstract knowledge sometimes proceeds more quickly than acquiring more speci?c knowledge. This observation can be formalized and reproduced by hierarchical Bayesian models. The key notion is that more abstract layers of the hierarchy have a larger “effective” sample size, because they combine information across multiple speci?c instances lower in the hierarchy. This notion relies on speci?c variables being relatively concentrated around the abstract “overhypothesis”. If the variables are highly dispersed, then the effective sample size for the abstract layers will not be appreciably larger than for the speci?c layers. Moreover, the blessing of abstraction is counterbalanced by the fact that data are more informative about lower levels of the hierarchy, because there is necessarily less stochasticity intervening between speci?c variables and the data. Thus, in certain cases abstract knowledge will be acquired more slowly than speci?c knowledge. This paper reports an experiment that shows how manipulating dispersion can produce both fast and slow acquisition of abstract knowledge in the same paradigm.     

Reinforcement value and fixed‐interval performance

The concept of reinforcement value summarizes the effect of different variables, such as reinforcement delay, reinforcement magnitude, and deprivation level, on behavior. In the present set of experiments, we evaluated the effect of reinforcement devaluation on performance under FI schedules. The literature on timing and reinforcement value suggests that devaluation generates longer expected times to reinforcement than the same intervals trained under control conditions. We devalued reinforcement with delay in Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2, and diminished deprivation in Experiments 3A and 3B. Devaluation reduced response rates, increased the number of one‐response intervals, and lengthened postreinforcement pauses, but had inconsistent effects on other timing measures such as quarter life and breakpoint. The results of delayed reinforcement and diminished deprivation manipulations are well summarized as reinforcement devaluation effects. These results suggest that devaluation may reduce stimulus control. In addition, we argue that the process by which delayed reinforcement affects behavior might also explain some effects observed in other devaluation procedures through the concept of reinforcement value.     

What children infer from social categories

Children hold the belief that social categories have essences. We investigated what kinds of properties children feel licensed to infer about a person based on social category membership. Seventy-two 4-6-year-olds were introduced to novel social categories defined as having one internal - psychological or biological - and one external - behavioral or physical - property. For half of the participants, the internal property was described as causing the external one; for the others, no causal relationship between properties was mentioned. Children were asked to choose as a novel exemplar of a category one with only the internal or only the external property. Children inferred that exemplars had a psychological property irrespective of causal status, but they inferred the presence of a biological property only when described as causal. Children did not draw systematic inferences regarding either of the two external properties. These findings indicate that children treat psychological and causal properties as central - and perhaps essential - to human kinds.     

Perceiving the Present: Systematization of Illusions or Illusion of Systematization?

Mark Changizi et al. (2008) claim that it is possible systematically to organize more than 50 kinds of illusions in a 7 × 4 matrix of 28 classes. This systematization, they further maintain, can be explained by the operation of a single visual processing latency correction mechanism that they call “perceiving the present” (PTP). This brief report raises some concerns about the way a number of illusions are classified by the proposed systematization. It also poses two general problems—one empirical and one conceptual—for the PTP approach.     

氟哌啶醇与丙咪嗪交互作用对成本效益决策的影响

本实验采用T迷宫延迟奖赏模型研究多巴胺D2受体拮抗剂氟哌啶醇和5-羟色胺重摄取抑制剂丙咪嗪的交互作用对成本效益决策的影响, 同时探讨了延迟时间对决策的影响。T迷宫两臂分别设置为低成本-低奖赏端和高成本-高奖赏端。实验结果发现：氟哌啶醇能够降低大鼠选择高成本-高奖赏端的次数, 丙咪嗪则能够增加大鼠选择高成本-高奖赏端的次数; 在同时注射这两种药物情况下, 丙咪嗪能够抑制由氟哌啶醇引起的对低成本-低奖赏端的选择倾向。另外, 实验发现, 随延迟时间的增加大鼠选择高成本-高奖赏端的次数相对减少。由此可见, 丙咪嗪能够反转由氟哌啶醇导致的对低成本-低奖赏端的选择倾向, 这可能是由于细胞间5-羟色胺含量的升高部分反转了由多巴胺系统受损导致的行为倾向; 延迟时间的改变可对决策倾向产生逆转, 因此成本的支出即延迟时间也是影响成本效益决策的重要因素。     

成瘾人群跨期选择的神经机制及干预方法

成瘾可分为物质成瘾和行为成瘾, 两类成瘾人群在跨期选择上都表现出高时间折扣率的缺陷, 但也有各自的特异性特征。成瘾人群跨期选择缺陷的神经基础主要集中在评估网络(腹内侧前额叶、纹状体、后扣带皮层等)、认知控制网络(前额叶皮层、前扣带皮层等)和预期想象网络(海马、杏仁核等); 可利用心理训练来改善成瘾人群跨期选择缺陷, 其干预方法包括工作记忆训练、预期想象训练、金钱管理指导等。未来研究应该从成瘾者跨期选择缺陷的认知机制、3个神经网络系统的交互作用机理、行为遗传学以及开发有效的干预方法等方面展开大量研究。     

降低决策冲动性的方法及其神经机制

大量实验研究显示, 成瘾患者、多动症患者和病态赌博者在决策中表现出冲动偏好。目前研究冲动性决策偏好的经典实验范式是延迟折扣任务。通过延迟折扣任务, 心理学家揭示了冲动性决策偏好的神经机制并构建了多种理论, 包括单一系统评价理论、双系统评价理论、自我控制理论和自我参照加工理论。基于这些理论, 已经发展出了多种降低决策冲动性的方法, 包括想象未来具体事件、工作记忆训练、预先承诺以及提高血液中葡萄糖水平, 其背后的神经机制是通过认知控制和价值表征理论来实现的。未来研究方向需集中于价值计算、价值系统和多体素模式分析(MVPA)在改善决策冲动性以及内在机制研究上的应用。     

反馈延迟与掩蔽类型对知觉类别学习的影响

通过两个实验探讨反馈延迟与掩蔽类型对知觉类别学习的影响。实验1光栅掩蔽条件下,采用2（类别结构：基于规则vs.信息整合）×2（延迟反馈：500vs.3000ms）被试间实验设计,实验2采用同样的实验设计,保持延迟反馈时间不变,但改掩蔽类型为黑屏掩蔽。结果发现：（1）光栅掩蔽条件下,反馈延迟削弱信息整合类别结构的成绩,不影响基于规则类别学习,内隐外显类别结构之间存在分离效应。（2）黑屏掩蔽条件下,信息整合与基于规则类别结构的成绩均不受到延迟反馈的影响,分离效应消失。实验说明“无关因素”掩蔽影响知觉类别学习,知觉噪音与标准噪音在反馈延迟影响知觉类别学习中起到重要作用,COVIS模型理论关于延迟反馈时间影响知觉类别学习的解释具有局限性。     

Perceiving the present and a systematization of illusions

Over the history of the study of visual perception there has been great success at discovering countless visual illusions. There has been less success in organizing the overwhelming variety of illusions into empirical generalizations (much less explaining them all via a unifying theory). Here, this article shows that it is possible to systematically organize more than 50 kinds of illusion into a 7 × 4 matrix of 28 classes. In particular, this article demonstrates that (1) smaller sizes, (2) slower speeds, (3) greater luminance contrast, (4) farther distance, (5) lower eccentricity, (6) greater proximity to the vanishing point, and (7) greater proximity to the focus of expansion all tend to have similar perceptual effects, namely, to (A) increase perceived size, (B) increase perceived speed, (C) decrease perceived luminance contrast, and (D) decrease perceived distance. The detection of these empirical regularities was motivated by a hypothesis, called "perceiving the present," that the visual system possesses mechanisms for compensating neural delay during forward motion. This article shows how this hypothesis predicts the empirical regularity.