EFFECT OF REINFORCEMENT PROBABILITY AND PRIZE SIZE ON COCAINE AND HEROIN ABSTINENCE IN PRIZE‐BASED CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT

Although treatment outcome in prize‐based contingency management has been shown to depend on reinforcement schedule, the optimal schedule is still unknown. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial (Ghitza et al., 2007) to determine the effects of the probability of winning a prize (low vs. high) and the size of the prize won (small, large, or jumbo) on likelihood of abstinence until the next urine‐collection day for heroin and cocaine users (N = 116) in methadone maintenance. Higher probability of winning, but not the size of individual prizes, was associated with a greater percentage of cocaine‐negative, but not opiate‐negative, urines.     

CREATING SINGLE‐SUBJECT DESIGN GRAPHS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL™ 2007

Over 10 years have passed since the publication of Carr and Burkholder's (1998) technical article on how to construct single‐subject graphs using Microsoft Excel. Over the course of the past decade, the Excel program has undergone a series of revisions that make the Carr and Burkholder paper somewhat difficult to follow with newer versions. The present article provides task analyses for constructing various types of commonly used single‐subject design graphs in Microsoft Excel 2007. The task analyses were evaluated using a between‐subjects design that compared the graphing skills of 22 behavior‐analytic graduate students using Excel 2007 and either the Carr and Burkholder or newly developed task analyses. Results indicate that the new task analyses yielded more accurate and faster graph construction than the Carr and Burkholder instructions.     

Argumentative Ordering of Utterances for Language Generation in Multi-party Human–Computer Dialogue

In trying to control various aspects concerning utterance production in multi-party human–computer dialogue, argumentative considerations play an important part, particularly in choosing appropriate lexical units so that we fine-tune the degree of persuasion that each utterance has. A preliminary step in this endeavor is the ability to place an ordering relation between semantic forms (that are due to be realized as utterances, by the machine), concerning their persuasion strength, with respect to certain (explicit or implicit) conclusions. Thus, in this article, we propose a mechanism for assessing utterances, in terms of their argumentative force. The framework designed conflates insights from Asher and Lascarides’ SDRT (“Segmented Discourse Representation Theory”), and from Anscombre and Ducrot’s AT (“Argumentation Theory”). These mechanisms are included in a language generation component of a multi-party dialogue system for book reservation applications (i.e., a “virtual librarian”), and thus evaluated via typical human–machine conversations.

篇章阅读的动态理解观和计算机模拟的应用

篇章阅读中信息加工的研究一直是文本心理学以及相关科学研究的热点问题。近几年,篇章阅读的动态理解观和计算机模型的影响力正逐步增大。与先前阅读加工观相比,动态理解观整合了阅读的即时加工和延时表征以及两者之间动态的相互关系,并试图捕捉篇章中的每一概念在整个阅读过程中不断变化的激活情况。利用计算机模型研究阅读加工则不像以往的研究方法都需要利用被试的实际阅读反应,在阅读理论的基础上编制的计算机模型能够模拟出人们阅读中的即时表现和阅读后的记忆内容,模拟的数据与行为学实验结果也非常一致     

Improving Human‐Machine Cooperative Classification Via Cognitive Theories of Similarity

Acquiring perceptual expertise is slow and effortful. However, untrained novices can accurately make difficult classification decisions (e.g., skin‐lesion diagnosis) by reformulating the task as similarity judgment. Given a query image and a set of reference images, individuals are asked to select the best matching reference. When references are suitably chosen, the procedure yields an implicit classification of the query image. To optimize reference selection, we develop and evaluate a predictive model of similarity‐based choice. The model builds on existing psychological literature and accommodates stochastic, dynamic shifts of attention among visual feature dimensions. We perform a series of human experiments with two stimulus types (rectangles, faces) and nine classification tasks to validate the model and to demonstrate the model's potential to boost performance. Our system achieves high accuracy for participants who are naive as to the classification task, even when the classification task switches from trial to trial.     

Evaluation of interactive computerized training to teach parents to implement photographic activity schedules with children with autism spectrum disorder

Training parents of children with autism spectrum disorder can be a challenge due to limited resources, time, and money. Interactive computerized training (ICT)—a self‐paced program that incorporates instructions, videos, and interactive questions—is one method professionals can use to disseminate trainings to broader populations. This study extends previous research on ICT by assessing the effect of ICT to teach three parents how to implement a photographic activity schedule using a systematic prompting procedure with their child. Following ICT, all parents increased their fidelity to implementation of an activity schedule during role‐play sessions with an adult. Fidelity remained high during implementation with their child and maintained during a 2‐week follow‐up.     

脑科学与心理学研究

随着现代科技的进步,脑科学特别是脑成像技术能够无损伤地探测人脑,成为脑功能研究的"显微镜".这些科技的发展对心理学研究具有重大影响.它使得意识能够受到真正科学地研究,促使心理学研究从"计算机隐喻"向"脑隐喻"的转变,并将使心理学理论形态更加复杂.     

Strengthening scientific verbal behavior: an experimental comparison of progressively prompted and unprompted programmed instruction and prose tutorials

Web-based software was used to deliver and record the effects of programmed instruction that progressively added formal prompts until attempts were successful, programmed instruction with one attempt, and prose tutorials. Error-contingent progressive prompting took significantly longer than programmed instruction and prose. Both forms of programmed instruction substantially increased the appropriate use of behavioral vocabulary during subsequent interpretive essays. These behavioral gains extended to a different setting, suggesting that more was being learned than simply how to answer programmed tutorial frames correctly.     

Simulating mother–child interaction: exploring two varieties of a non‐linear dynamic systems approach1

In theoretical analyses of early mother–child interaction, it has been argued that interaction should be studied in its flow over time, and that the behaviour of each interactant is likely to be non‐linearly determined. The mother–child dyad can be seen as a non‐linear dynamic system, the development of which is determined by the mutual relations between its elements. The present study is based on the idea that computer simulations can be used to find out what kind of empirical implication these ideas have. Accordingly, we describe two non‐linear dynamic systems‐based models for simulating mother–child interaction, i.e. a connectionist network model and a logistic growth model. Three determinants of the nature of the interaction, i.e. the child's irritability, the mother's sensitive responsiveness, and the intensity of an external stressor bothering the child, are varied systematically. Although the results of both simulations differed considerably, they shared the fact that small changes in stressor intensity produced abrupt changes from one type of interaction to another. In addition, increasing stressor intensity sometimes had the paradoxical effect of resulting in less, rather than more, distress on the side of the child. Though irritability and responsiveness were varied in a less fine‐grained way than stressor intensity, the results suggest that similarly small differences in these dimensions at different parts of the dimension's scale range have differentially strong effects on the nature of the interaction. It is concluded that these simulations help us to specify the nature of empirically researchable phenomena that are to be expected, given the assumptions listed above. Further elaboration of the models and comparison with longitudinal empirical data is needed to answer further theoretical and practical questions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.