The Effects of Response Repetitions on Sight Word Acquisition for Students with Mild Disabilities

Single response learning trials, defined in terms of the three-term contingency model, were compared with repeated response learning trials. The purpose of Study 1 was to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of single and repeated response learning trials on sight word remediation. In Study 1, one single response learning trial having one response opportunity per word was compared to one repeated response learning trial having five response opportunities. In Study 2, three single response trials were compared to three repeated response trials. In both studies, the training conditions were compared using an alternating treatments design. Measuring the cumulative number of sight words mastered showed the training conditions equally effective. However, measuring (a) the mean duration of training sessions, (b) the cumulative frequency of words mastered per session duration, (c) the mean number of training sessions per word required for mastery, and (d) the training time per mastered word showed that the single response condition was more efficient. Discussion focuses on the need to include training data when determining best practices for teaching.     

Attention in the pigeon: a reevaluation

During training sessions, pigeons were successively exposed to compounds consisting of a white triangle on a red background and a white circle on a green background. Key pecking intermittently produced grain reinforcers in the presence of one form-color compound. Once key pecking was confined to the compound associated with reinforcement, the elements—red, green, triangle, and circle—were presented during a test in which no reinforcement was available. Each bird pecked nearly exclusively in the presence of the color previously associated with reinforcement, a result that might be interpreted as indicating that the subjects had attended to color, but not form during training. Pecking was next reinforced when either the triangle or the circle was present. Pecking in the presence of the form previously associated with reinforcement was acquired more rapidly. This result suggests that the birds had learned about the forms during training, and that conclusions about attention based on the lack of differential pecking in the nonreinforcement test may not be appropriate.     

Control by the auditory or the visual element of a compound discriminative stimulus: effects of feedback.

Groups of pigeons were trained to depress a treadle in the presence of a compound stimulus consisting of a tone and a red houselight (a) to avoid electric shock, or (b) to obtain grain. Immediate, exteroceptive feedback was equated for avoidance and appetitive groups within an experiment, but varied across experiments from elevation of a nonilluminated feeder to darkening of the chamber, termination of the tone, and elevation of an illuminated feeder. Responding in the absence of the compound stimulus postponed its next occurrence. After performance had stabilized, the degree to which each element controlled treadle pressing was determined. Generally, in the appetitive tests, the red light controlled much more responding than did the tone, but in the avoidance tests, the tone controlled more responding than did the red light.     

Show Me the Argument: Empirically Testing the Armchair Philosophy Picture

Many philosophers subscribe to the view that philosophy is a priori and in the business of discovering necessary truths from the armchair. This paper sets out to empirically test this picture. If this were the case, we would expect to see this reflected in philosophical practice. In particular, we would expect philosophers to advance mostly deductive, rather than inductive, arguments. The paper shows that the percentage of philosophy articles advancing deductive arguments is higher than those advancing inductive arguments, which is what we would expect from the vantage point of the armchair philosophy picture. The results also show, however, that the percentages of articles advancing deductive arguments and those advancing inductive arguments are converging over time and that the difference between inductive and deductive ratios is declining over time. This trend suggests that deductive arguments are gradually losing their status as the dominant form of argumentation in philosophy.     

道德判断中的框架效应:一个新的视角

道德领域亦存在框架效应,但有关这类偏差的研究仍然存在不足。研究以600名大学生为对象,以亚洲疾病和工厂风波两类经典情境为实验情境,设置正面和负面两类属性框架,以研究道德判断的框架效应。结果发现,在面临道德判断情境时,在正面框架下被试倾向于选择确定性方案,而在负面框架下被试倾向于选择风险性方案; 在正面框架下被试倾向于评价风险性方案更违背道德,在负面框架下则认为确定性方案更违背道德; 被试对情境中人物选择确定性或风险性方案道德之可谴责性评价与确定性或风险性方案本身之道德违背性评价的判断并不一致:在正面框架下,若情境中人物选择风险性方案,被试认为其行为更应受到谴责; 但在负面框架下,被试对情境中人物选择确定性方案和风险性方案在道德上应受谴责性的评价并无显著差异。研究还发现道德判断框架效应存在性别差异,负面框架下女生更为风险寻求。     

基于语料库统计的“音-形”激活概率及加工机制

为了了解心理词典中语音与汉字的联结情况以及从音到形的加工机制,研究首先计算出了基于语料库统计的“音-形”激活概率(某个音节激活其对应汉字的概率),并通过一个听写实验来验证这种激活概率是否反映实际加工中的激活情况。结果证明基于语料统计得到的“音-形”激活概率基本可以预测实际的“音-形”激活情况,表现为:“音-形”激活概率越高的汉字被激活的概率和强度越高,并且有明显的优势字效应; 该统计概率具有可独立于其他影响因素的预测功能。     

利他行为的内隐启动研究

通过视觉与组词任务启动范式的两个实验考察了利他人物形象与利他词语对利他行为的内隐启动效应。结果发现,完成利他人物形象视觉启动(实验1)与完成利他组词任务启动(实验2)的实验组被试,在独裁者分配任务中分配给他人的钱数显著多于控制组被试。研究结果表明:利他人物形象视觉和利他语义组词都可以使个体的利他行为被显著直接无意识启动,即内隐启动。研究对设计能更好地启动人们的利他行为的一般情境有重要的启示。     

大学生一般结果期待对风险决策偏好的影响

以一般结果期待的双维结构观点为基础,按照一般结果期待的乐观期待和悲观期待的水平将184名大学生样本划分为明显乐观、明显悲观、双重倾向和倾向不明四个类型,进而探讨不同类型大学生在创业投资情境下一般结果期待对风险决策偏好的影响。结果表明,风险概率、描述框架与一般结果期待的交互作用显著,在低风险概率、积极框架下,双重倾向型一般结果期待大学生比其他三个类型的大学生表现出明显的风险寻求偏好。     

具身心智对进化心理学的质疑与挑战

具身-生成心智倡导生命与认知的深刻连续性,它重新定义了自然选择,强调身体和生命活动对认知的关键意义,并指出每一个人都是经过文化适应的主体。它在心智进化的本质、认知的核心工作假设、人类本性与文化,以及基因、身体、生命活动与认知的关系等问题上都有着完全不同于进化心理学的理解,并对后者提出了质疑和挑战。     

Effects of achievement contexts on the meaning structure of emotion words

Little is known about the impact of context on the meaning of emotion words. In the present study, we used a semantic profiling instrument (GRID) to investigate features representing five emotion components (appraisal, bodily reaction, expression, action tendencies, and feeling) of 11 emotion words in situational contexts involving success or failure. We compared these to the data from an earlier study in which participants evaluated the typicality of features out of context. Profile analyses identified features for which typicality changed as a function of context for all emotion words, except contentment, with appraisal features being most frequently affected. Those context effects occurred for both hypothesised basic and non-basic emotion words. Moreover, both data sets revealed a four-dimensional structure. The four dimensions were largely similar (valence, power, arousal, and novelty). The results suggest that context may not change the underlying dimensionality but affects facets of the meaning of emotion words.