What is right with “deep” dyslexic patients?

Two aphasic adults with a specific acquired dyslexia were given tests requiring the processing of written words and sentences. Despite the general severity of the patients' deficits, some aspects of such processing appear to be relatively well preserved. The patients have particular difficulty reading aloud function words and abstract words; yet in word/nonword discrimination tests, both patients showed normal recognition of function words and one showed normal performance with abstract words. The patients do have a deficit in comprehension of visually presented words and sentences; yet their performance on comprehension tests was considerable and, moreover, showed meaningful relationships with their ability to read aloud.     

Reducing residential electrical energy use: payments, information, and feedback

Monetary payments, energy information, and daily feedback on consumption were employed to reduce electricity use in four units of a university student housing complex. A combined multiple-baseline and withdrawal design permitted both within- and between-unit comparisons. Payments produced immediate and substantial reductions in consumption in all units, even when the magnitude of the payments was reduced considerably. Feedback also produced reductions, but information about ways to conserve and about the cost of using various appliances did not. It was also found that, in general, payments combined with either information or feedback produced no greater effect than payments alone.     

Concurrent schedules: a quantitative relation between changeover behavior and its consequences

Data from several published experiments on concurrent variable-interval schedules were analyzed with respect to the effects of changeover delay on the time spent responding on a schedule before changing to an alternate schedule: i.e., the interchangeover time. Interchangeover time increases as the duration of the changeover delay increases, and the present analysis shows that a power function describes the relation. The power relation applied in spite of numerous differences in the experiments: different variable-interval schedules for the concurrent pairs; equal or unequal reinforcement rates for the schedules of the concurrent pairs; different durations of the changeover delay; response-dependent or response-independent reinforcers; pigeons or rats as subjects; different reinforcers. A power function also described the data in experiments where the changeover incurred a timeout, where a fixed ratio was required to changeover, and also when asymmetrical changeover delays were used.     

Demand for food on fixed-ratio schedules as a function of the quality of concurrently available reinforcement

Six rats lever pressed for food on concurrent fixed-ratio schedules, in a two-compartment chamber. In one compartment, mixed diet pellets were delivered on fixed-ratio schedules of 1, 6, 11, and 16; in the other, either no food was delivered, or sucrose or mixed diet pellets were delivered on fixed-ratio 8. The number of pellets obtained in the first compartment declined as a function of fixed-ratio size in that compartment in all three conditions, but the decline was greatest overall with mixed diet pellets concurrently available in the other compartment, and least with no food concurrently available. The result is discussed in terms of economic demand theory, and is consistent with the prediction that elasticity of demand for a commodity (defined in operant terms as the ratio of the proportionate change in number of reinforcements per session to the proportionate change in fixed-ratio size) is greater the more substitutable for that commodity are any concurrently available commodities.     

Clock control of human performance on avoidance and fixed-interval schedules

The avoidance and fixed-interval performances of human subjects were studied in two experiments. Addition of time-correlated stimuli (added clock) improved behavioral efficiency, since response rates decreased without decreases in reinforcement rates. Response-dependent display of the clock maintained a second, observing response and reductions in clock duration weakened such observing behavior. Generally, the reinforcing properties of the clock were more apparent with the avoidance than with the fixed-interval schedule, a finding attributed to temporal cues already provided by delivery of the fixed-interval reinforcers. Reduced rates of the main response when the clock was dependent on an observing response were more than offset by rates of the observing response in the majority of subjects. Thus, the results do not support an interpretation of the reinforcing properties of added clocks simply in terms of work reduction.     

媒体多任务的效用：听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合的实验证据

采用心理旋转范式和词汇判断范式,探讨媒体多任务经验不同者在听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合情境下对图形一致性和真假词的判断表现。结果发现：（1）以判断图形一致性为实验任务,在无声和低音干扰条件下,低经验组的正确率均显著高于高经验组,两组的反应时差异均不显著;在高音干扰条件下,高经验组的反应时显著短于低经验组,正确率则没有显著差异。（2）以真假词判断为实验任务,对真词进行判断,在三种听觉条件下,高经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时最短,与低经验组无显著差异,但正确率显著高于低经验组,与另两种听觉条件没有显著差异;低经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时显著长于另两种听觉条件,正确率则显著高于无声条件,与不匹配条件差异不显著。对假词的判断,低经验组在三种听觉条件下的反应时均显著短于高经验组,正确率与高经验组均无显著差异。研究表明,媒体多任务经验丰富者相比经验缺乏者受到任务无关的纯短高音干扰的影响要小,在需要视听通道语义整合的加工中具有一定的优势。     

语音信息对不同水平中国英语学习者语义加工的影响

研究通过同音异义词对被试判断句子语义正误的干扰实验,来考查语音信息对不同英语水平的中国英语学习者语义加工的影响。实验结果发现,英语水平较高的中国被试所受到的同音异义词的干扰较大,而英语水平普通的被试受到的干扰很小。这一结果说明,英语学习者的水平越高,其语音信息的使用程度越高。     

挫折情境下自我肯定对执行功能的影响

为探讨挫折情境下自我肯定对执行功能的影响,创设挫折和非挫折情境,采用价值观自我肯定干预,通过Stroop范式和2-back范式分别测量抑制控制和工作记忆的刷新能力。结果发现,挫折情境下的Stroop任务和2-back任务反应时均高于非挫折情境;挫折情境下自我肯定组在Stroop任务和2-back任务上的反应时均显著低于非自我肯定组,而非挫折情境下两组的反应时没有显著性差异;Stroop效应量在情境与肯定条件上的交互作用不显著。结果表明挫折降低了执行功能的任务表现,自我肯定干预能够改善挫折情境下执行功能相关的任务成绩,促进了个体对工作记忆任务的刷新能力和Stroop任务的认知表现,但对抑制控制能力的改善没有明显作用。     

Situational information and the design of representative learning tasks: What impact does a scoreboard have on expert taekwondo fighters' behaviour and affective-cognitive responses?

Designing representative learning tasks is one means to enhance sports practice. Recent work has highlighted how the presence of situational information could help the design of these tasks by shaping intentions and enhancing the affective demands of practice, however this has yet to be empirically tested. This study tested this hypothesis by manipulating the presence of a scoreboard featuring time and score situational information as expert taekwondo athletes fought in practice. Nine taekwondo fighters fought with and without situational information in a counterbalanced order. Behaviour was assessed by tracking fighters' location coordinates to assess fighter-fighter dyad coordination and through notational analysis of attacking actions. Affect and cognition were assessed with mixed-methods that included perceptual scales measuring anxiety, arousal, mental effort, score perception, and post-fight video-facilitated confrontational interviews to explore how conditions differed. The results revealed that the presence of the situational information had significant effects on taekwondo players. When present, fighters reported greater cognitive anxiety (d = 0.39, p < 0.05), somatic anxiety (d = 1.11, p < 0.05) and emotion intensity (d = 0.33, p < 0.05). The enhanced affective demands were associated with behaviour changes that included fighters preferring to spend time at closer distances (d = 0.25, p < 0.05), and more predictable technique selection (d = 1.04, p < 0.05). Qualitative data supported these findings. Players also reported their intentions were coupled to the context of scoreboard. This study reveals that situational information changes the affective and behavioural demands of practice to be more like competition. Further, situational sampling affords performers the opportunity to practice attuning to the relevant affordances for a specific context.