The modulation of reward priority by top-down knowledge

Reward-associated features capture attention automatically and continue to do so even when the reward contingencies are removed. This profile has led to the hypothesis that rewards belong to a separate class of attentional biases that is neither typically top-down nor bottom-up. The goal of these experiments was to understand the degree to which top-down knowledge can modulate value-driven attentional capture within (a) the timecourse of a single trial and (b) when the reward contingencies change explicitly over trials. The results suggested that top-down knowledge does not affect the size of value-driven attentional capture within a single trial. There were clear top-down modulations in the magnitude of value-driven capture when reward contingencies explicitly changed, but the original reward associations continued to have a persistent bias on attention. These results contribute to a growing body of evidence that reward associations bias attention through mechanisms separate from other top-down and bottom-up attentional biases.     

Money talks in attention bias modification: Reward in a dot-probe task affects attentional biases

Attention bias modification (ABM) aimed at correcting dysfunctional biases in anxiety patients has met with only mild success. Inspired by recent studies showing large effects of financial reward upon attention shifts, we contrasted effects of traditional dot-probe ABM and reward upon attention biases in a between-subject 2 × 2 design. Twenty-seven participants in group cognitive behavioural therapy (GCBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD) were randomly assigned to undergo six sessions of a dot-probe task consisting of ABM or placebo ABM along with random or high reward following neutral stimuli. There was no influence of ABM on participants' attention bias over and above the influence of GCBT. Reward, however, had a strong influence on attention bias. Neither ABM nor reward reduced SAD symptoms over and above the effects of GCBT. The results add to the growing evidence that benefits of ABM through dot-probe training are unreliable but suggest on the other hand that rewarding attention may strongly influence dysfunctional attention biases.     

States of grace: Eureka moments and the recognition of the unthought known

In this paper we consider states of grace in analysis. These encompass a range of phenomena which share an experience of something being received or revealed rather than produced by the ego. It feels that they are events that happen rather than events that are made to occur. They are marked by a profound sense of transformation of feeling tone. The quality of relatedness in the analytic dyad is also heightened. Some of these phenomena have been referred to as experiences of the self, synchronicities, moments of meeting, the unthought known and Eureka moments. The latter are experiences of sudden realization where a meaningful thought or image emerges which results in a dramatic shift in direction of the analysis and a transcendence of impasse. Although many authors describe these phenomena, we find that a Jungian approach provides a loom on which these threads can be woven together. Jung's concept of the transcendent function and his understanding of the gift of grace are particularly illuminating here. We also consider the conditions which allow grace to be experienced and how these inform our analytic practice.     

Function word repetitions emerge when speakers are operantly conditioned to reduce frequency of silent pauses

Beattie and Bradbury (1979) reported a study in which, in one condition, they punished speakers when they produced silent pauses (by lighting a light they were supposed to keep switched off). They found speakers were able to reduce silent pauses and that this was not achieved at the expense of reduced overall speech rate. They reported an unexpected increase in word repetition rate. A recent theory proposed by Howell, Au-Yeung, and Sackin (1999) predicts that the change in word repetition rate will occur on function, not content words. This hypothesis is tested and confirmed. The results are used to assess the theory and to consider practical applications of this conditioning procedure.     

青少年大五人格对网络成瘾的影响:家庭功能的中介作用

目的:探究家庭功能在人格特征与网络成瘾之间的中介作用。方法:973名中学生被试完成基本人口学问卷、网络成瘾量表、人格五因素问卷、家庭功能评定量表。结果:(1)人格特征可以显著预测网络成瘾。其中,情绪性人格可以显著正向预测网络成瘾,责任心、宜人性显著负向预测网络成瘾。(2)家庭功能在情绪性、责任心对网络成瘾的影响具有部分中介作用、在宜人性对网络成瘾的影响具有完全中介作用。结论:在治疗中,可针对网络成瘾者的家庭功能进行积极干预,从而减轻其成瘾症状。     

儿童青少年时期加工速度和执行功能在流体智力发展中的作用

以7~15岁儿童青少年为研究对象,考察加工速度和执行功能对流体智力的影响。研究结果表明,随着年龄的增长,感觉运动加工速度、知觉加工速度对流体智力从具有直接影响到只通过执行功能中的记忆更新成分产生间接影响,但这种影响存在年龄间的差异。在童年中期（7~9岁）,知觉加工速度对流体智力不仅具有直接的预测作用,还通过记忆更新对其产生间接的影响。童年晚期（10~12岁）,感觉运动加工速度和知觉加工速度不再对流体智力具有直接预测作用,都是通过记忆更新和抑制/转换合成成分间接对流体智力起作用。青春期（13~15岁）,知觉加工速度对流体智力只通过记忆更新产生间接影响。     

Transformations of mathematical and stimulus functions

Following a pretest, 8 participants who were unfamiliar with algebraic and trigonometric functions received a brief presentation on the rectangular coordinate system. Next, they participated in a computer-interactive matching-to-sample procedure that trained formula-to-formula and formula-to-graph relations. Then, they were exposed to 40 novel formula-to-graph tests and 10 novel graph-to-formula tests. Seven of the 8 participants showed substantial improvement in identifying formula-to-graph relations; however, in the test of novel graph-to-formula relations, participants tended to select equations in their factored form. Next, we manipulated contextual cues in the form of rules regarding mathematical preferences. First, we informed participants that standard forms of equations were preferred over factored forms. In a subsequent test of 10 additional novel graph-to-formula relations, participants shifted their selections to favor equations in their standard form. This preference reversed during 10 more tests when financial reward was made contingent on correct identification of formulas in factored form. Formula preferences and transformation of novel mathematical and stimulus functions are discussed.     

Is the Brain a Quantum Computer?

We argue that computation via quantum mechanical processes is irrelevant to explaining how brains produce thought, contrary to the ongoing speculations of many theorists. First, quantum effects do not have the temporal properties required for neural information processing. Second, there are substantial physical obstacles to any organic instantiation of quantum computation. Third, there is no psychological evidence that such mental phenomena as consciousness and mathematical thinking require explanation via quantum theory. We conclude that understanding brain function is unlikely to require quantum computation or similar mechanisms.     

Conditions under which children experience inhibitory difficulty with a "button-press" go/no-go task

Go/no-go tasks seem to provide a simple marker of inhibitory development in young children. Children are told to respond to one stimulus on go trials but to make no response to another stimulus on no-go trials; responding on no-go trials is assumed to reflect a failure to inhibit the go response. However, there is evidence to suggest that a type of go/no-go task, which we call the "button-press" task, does not require inhibition. We investigated the conditions under which young children (M=3 years 6 months, N=120) experience inhibitory difficulty with this type of task. The data suggest that the speed of stimulus presentation is crucial and that other studies using this type of task have presented the stimuli too briefly. The importance of establishing the inhibitory credentials of a task before it is used as a marker of inhibitory control is emphasized.