竞赛特质焦虑干扰抑制功能:对注意控制理论的检验

基于注意控制理论,采用反向眼跳范式,邀请48名运动员参加2项实验,考察竞赛特质焦虑对抑制功能的干扰效应。实验1(25人)为单因素组间设计,探讨竞赛特质焦虑对加工效能和操作成绩的影响。结果发现,竞赛特质焦虑提高眼跳方向错误率,不影响眼跳潜伏期,部分支持竞赛特质焦虑降低加工效能的假设;竞赛特质焦虑不影响按键准确率,支持竞赛特质焦虑不影响操作成绩的假设。实验2(23人)为两因素混合设计,在压力情境下探讨竞赛特质焦虑对加工效能和操作成绩的影响。结果发现,无论是在压力还是非压力情境下,竞赛特质焦虑均提高眼跳方向错误率,延长眼跳潜伏期,但不影响按键准确率,支持压力下竞赛特质焦虑降低加工效能而对操作成绩影响效果不明显的假设。综合2项实验,竞赛特质焦虑干扰抑制功能表现为降低抑制功能的加工效能但对操作成绩的影响效果不明显。本研究提示,注意控制理论适用于解释竞技运动领域焦虑与操作表现的关系。     

With a Little Help From My Friends: Bystander Context and Children's Attitude Toward Peer Helping

This experimental vignette study examined children's perceptions and evaluations of helping a peer, in the context of friendships and in the presence of by-standing peers. A total of 1246 children (8 to 12 years) reported their attitude toward helping when either friends of the helper, friends of the recipient of help, or no bystanders were present. In agreement with the competitive altruism model, children most strongly endorsed helping when friends of the helper were present compared to the other two situations. This indicates that children take reputation concerns into account when evaluating helping situations. However, in contrast to lower prosocial children, the evaluations of higher prosocial children were not influenced by the presence of by-standing peers. These children seemed to base their evaluation on increasing the recipient's welfare and less on reputation concerns of the helper.     

Contrived motivating operations alter delay‐discounting values of disordered gamblers

The present study required 9 disordered gamblers to make hypothetical selections between smaller and larger amounts of money at varying delays. Participants were also required to respond to the task given the contrived hypothetical conditions of earning twice or half as much as they did at their current jobs. The results demonstrated how participants’ delay discounting was altered via contrived motivating operations, strengthening the argument that discounting may be a state variable.     

RISKY CHOICE IN PIGEONS: PREFERENCE FOR AMOUNT VARIABILITY USING A TOKEN-REINFORCEMENT SYSTEM

Pigeons were given repeated choices between variable and fixed numbers of token reinforcers (stimulus lamps arrayed above the response keys), with each earned token exchangeable for food. The number of tokens provided by the fixed‐amount option remained constant within blocks of sessions, but varied parametrically across phases, assuming values of 2, 4, 6, or 8 tokens per choice. The number of tokens provided by the variable‐amount option varied between 0 and 12 tokens per choice, arranged according to an exponential or rectangular distribution. In general, the pigeons strongly preferred the variable option when the fixed option provided equal or greater numbers of tokens than the variable amount. Preference for the variable amount decreased only when the alternatives provided widely disparate amounts favoring the fixed amount. When tokens were removed from the experimental context, preference for the variable option was reduced or eliminated, suggesting that the token presentation played a key role in maintaining risk‐prone choice patterns. Choice latencies varied inversely with preferences, suggesting that local analyses may provide useful ancillary measures of reinforcer value. Overall, the results indicate that systematic risk sensitivity can be attained with respect to reinforcer amount, and that tokens may be critical in the development of such preferences.     

The competitive reaction time task: The development and scientific utility of a flexible laboratory aggression paradigm

Laboratory measures play an important role in the study of aggression because they allow researchers to make causal inferences. However, these measures have also been criticized. In particular, the competitive reaction time task (CRTT) has been criticized for allowing aggression to be operationalized in multiple ways, leaving it susceptible to “p-hacking.” This article describes the development of the CRTT and the ways in which its paradigm flexibility and analytic flexibility allows it to test a wide range of hypotheses and research questions. This flexibility gives the CRTT significant scientific utility, but as with any research paradigm, comes with the obligation that it has to be used with integrity. Although safeguards exist and there is little evidence of misuse, study preregistration can increase confidence in CRTT findings. The importance of findings such as those of Hyatt et al. (in press), which provide further evidence for the validity of the CRTT, are also noted.     

非暴力视频游戏中竞争情境对玩家合作倾向和攻击倾向的影响

使用中性视频游戏和亲社会视频游戏，采用单次双人给予倾向困境任务和辣酱范式分别测量被试的合作倾向和攻击倾向，旨在探究竞争性视频游戏情境对玩家合作倾向和攻击倾向的影响。结果发现：（1）在对合作倾向的影响上，无论是玩中性视频游戏还是亲社会视频游戏，竞争情境相比单人情境均能显著降低玩家的合作倾向；（2）在对攻击倾向的影响上，玩中性视频游戏，竞争情境相比单人情境能显著提高玩家的攻击倾向；但玩亲社会视频游戏，竞争情境与单人情境对玩家攻击倾向的影响差异不显著。本研究表明，游戏情境是影响玩家行为倾向的重要因素之一，在非暴力视频游戏中竞争情境对玩家行为倾向会产生消极影响，亲社会视频游戏在一定程度上能抑制竞争情境的消极效应。     

Analytic flexibility in laboratory aggression paradigms: Relations with personality traits vary (slightly) by operationalization of aggression

Competitive reaction time tasks (CRTTs) have been used widely in social science research, but recent criticism has been directed at the flexible quantification strategies used with this methodology. A recent review suggests that over 150 different quantification strategies have been used in this literature, and there is evidence to suggest that different operationalizations can affect the results and interpretations of experiments using CRTTs. In the current investigation, we reanalyze data from four existing samples from two different sites (total N = 600) to examine how the relations between a range of personality traits and aggression vary based on how aggression is operationalized. Our results suggest that there is a modest degree of heterogeneity in effect size and direction for these relations, and that effect size and direction were most consistent for traits more generally related to lab aggression (e.g., psychopathy, low Five-Factor Model agreeableness). In addition, profile matching analyses suggest that different operationalizations yield empirical correlates that are quite similar to one another, even when quantifying absolute rather than relative similarity. These results were consistent across site, methodology, and type of sample, suggesting that these issues are likely generalizable across most labs using CRTTs. We conclude with suggestions for future directions, particularly emphasizing the need for adequately-powered samples, and for researchers to preregister a plan for how CRTT data will be analyzed.