Children's understanding of habitual behaviour

Research into the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) has shown how children from a very early age infer other people's goals. However, human behaviour is sometimes driven not by plans to achieve goals, but by habits, which are formed over long periods of reinforcement. Habitual and goal‐directed behaviours are often aligned with one another but can diverge when the optimal behavioural policy changes without being directly reinforced (thus specifically hobbling the habitual learning strategy). Unlike the flexibility of goal‐directed behaviour, rigid habits can cause agents to persist in behaviour that is no longer adaptive. In the current study, all children predict agents will tend to behave consistently with their goals, but between the ages of 5 and 10, children showed an increasing understanding of how habits can cause agents to persistently take suboptimal actions. These findings stand out from the typical way the development of social reasoning is examined, which instead focuses on children's increasing appreciation of how others' beliefs or expectations affect how they will act in service of their goals. The current findings show that children also learn that under certain circumstances, people's actions are suboptimal despite potentially ‘knowing better.’     

The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation

The success of human culture depends on early emerging mechanisms of social learning, which include the ability to acquire opaque cultural knowledge through faithful imitation, as well as the ability to advance culture through flexible discovery of new means to goal attainment. This study explores whether this mixture of faithful imitation and goal emulation is based in part on individual differences which emerge early in ontogeny. Experimental measurements and parental reports were collected for a group of 2‐year‐old children (N = 48, age = 23–32 months) on their imitative behavior as well as other aspects of cognitive and social development. Results revealed individual differences in children's imitative behavior across trials and tasks which were best characterized by a model that included two behavioral routines; one corresponding to faithful imitation, and one to goal emulation. Moreover, individual differences in faithful imitation and goal emulation were correlated with individual differences in theory of mind, prosocial behavior, and temperament. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the mechanisms of social learning, ontogeny of cumulative culture, and the benefit of analyzing individual differences for developmental experiments.     

网络募捐中求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响：有中介的调节模型

基于框架效应和共情–助人行为假说,以82名大学生为被试,通过实验探讨了网络募捐中求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响,并考察了目标框架的调节作用以及共情的中介作用。结果表明：目标框架调节了求助者的面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的影响。在积极框架下,消极面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的积极影响显著高于积极面部表情;而在消极框架下,两种面部表情对捐助者的共情和捐助意愿的影响均无显著差异。研究还发现了有中介的调节作用模型,共情在求助者的面部表情对捐助意愿的影响中发挥中介作用,而目标框架是有中介的调节变量。     

Effects of training, prompting, and self-monitoring on staff behavior in a classroom for students with disabilities

This study extended the limited research on the utility of tactile prompts and examined the effects of a treatment package on implementation of a token economy by instructional assistants in a classroom for students with disabilities. During baseline, we measured how accurately the assistants implemented a classroom token economy based on the routine training they had received through the school system. Baseline was followed by brief in-service training, which resulted in no improvement of token-economy implementation for recently hired instructional assistants. A treatment package of prompting and self-monitoring with accuracy feedback was then introduced as a multiple baseline design across behaviors. The treatment package was successfully faded to a more manageable self-monitoring intervention. Results showed visually significant improvements for all participants during observation sessions.     

Effects of public posting,goal setting,and oral feedback on the skills of female soccer players

We evaluated the effects of public posting, goal setting, and oral feedback on the skills of 3 female high school soccer players during practice scrimmages. The dependent variables were the percentage of appropriate responses when the player (a) kept and maintained possession of the ball, (b) moved to an open position during a game restart (e.g., goal or corner kick), and (c) moved to an open position after passing the ball. We also assessed the extent to which changes in practice performances generalized to games. A social validity questionnaire was completed by both players and coaches to assess the acceptability of the intervention's goals, procedures, and outcomes. Results indicate that the intervention was effective in improving performances during practice scrimmages but produced limited generalization to game settings.     

Attribute Framing and Goal Framing Effects in Health Decisions

Levin, Schneider, and Gaeth (LSG, 1998) have distinguished among three types of framing—risky choice, attribute, and goal framing—to reconcile conflicting findings in the literature. In the research reported here, we focus on attribute and goal framing. LSG propose that positive frames should be more effective than negative frames in the context of attribute framing, and negative frames should be more effective than positive frames in the context of goal framing. We test this framework by manipulating frame valence (positive vs negative) and frame type (attribute vs goal) in a unified context with common procedures. We also argue that the nature of effects in a goal-framing context may depend on the extent to which the research topic has “intrinsic self-relevance” to the population. In the context of medical decision making, we operationalize low intrinsic self-relevance by using student subjects and high intrinsic self-relevance by using patients. As expected, we find complete support for the LSG framework under low intrinsic self-relevance and modified support for the LSG framework under high intrinsic self-relevance. Overall, our research appears to confirm and extend the LSG framework.     

How to Regulate a Practice: The Case of Cosmetic Surgery

How should a practice, subservient to a public good, be regulated in order to guarantee fair access without encouraging improper claims? In the first place, a clear understanding of the goal of the practice is indispensable for knowing what criteria the regulation must contain. As to the purely formal aspect, the regulation of any practice must include both general rules and particular instances. Finally, to resolve conflicts, committees in which different kinds of expertise are represented should be installed. These three theses are illustrated by the Dutch regulation for cosmetic surgery.     

工作绩效与工作满意度、组织承诺和目标定向的关系

在全面回顾工作绩效及其影响因素的基础上,通过关键事件方法和问卷调查方法,对来自全国的1066位雇员进行了施测,运用AMOS软件,对工作绩效结构进行验证性因素分析,并对文中提出的假设进行了检验。之后,提出并验证了影响员工工作绩效的态度因素及整合模型。研究结果显示：工作满意度、组织承诺和目标定向对工作绩效的各个子维度的影响是不一致的。工作满意度越高,员工的工作绩效越好;另一方面,组织承诺和目标定向对雇员工作绩效各个子维度的影响不一致。文章最后对全文进行了总结,并对后续研究给出了建议     

无意识目标：激活与追求

目标自动激活模型认为,目标是行为满意状态或结果在个体头脑中的表征,它能够通过相关情境自动激活。无意识目标的激活方式有语义激活、工具激活和人际激活。无意识目标追求与有意识目标追求在目标实现、目标投射和动机特征方面相似,但其行为产生机制有所不同。未来研究应该对无意识目标的机制及其具体应用进行深入的探讨     

内在动机及其前因变量

该文比较系统地介绍了目前国内外关于内在动机的概念和具体影响因素诸方面的研究进展,并对未来的研究发展方向进行了展望。内在动机主要是由于活动过程本身特性或个体内发性精神需要所引发的一种活动或工作动力。相关影响因素主要涉及个体需要兴趣情感因素、工作任务本身特性、个体成就目标设置、自我效能感、组织授权与交换以及外在激励方式等方面。未来研究的方向主要在于内在动机具体结构的深入探讨以及不同影响因素的中介变量、调节变量以及诸因素交互作用综合模型的建立等方面