TEACHER POPULARITY AND CONTRAST EFFECTS IN A CLASSROOM TOKEN ECONOMY

There is a common fear that the use of a token economy in one classroom might harm pupil performance in situations where the contingencies are not in effect. This study investigated potential contrast effects on measures of children's productivity and attitudes toward teachers. Six children with reading deficits participated. A multiple baseline design was used to assess the effects of a token economy which was systematically introduced across three teachers. Dependent measures included two rating forms of teacher popularity and work rate on a programmed reading series. The results indicated that the token system was effective in increasing the children's productivity and that no consistent behavioral contrast effects occurred. Furthermore, children's attitudes toward teachers did not appear to be influenced by the token economy until only one teacher was not delivering tokens. At this point, her popularity declined until she also delivered tokens. The token economy manipulation appeared to have a specific, desirable effect on the targeted behavior (i.e., work rate) and had minimal negative or positive “side effects” on teacher popularity.     

Some parameters of behavioral contrast and allocation of interim behavior in rats

Two experiments examined the effects of baseline reinforcement rate and component duration on behavioral contrast and on re-allocation of interim behavior in rats. Positive behavioral contrast occurred during multiple variable-interval 10-second extinction (VI 10 EXT) after a multiple VI 10 VI 10 baseline condition, but not during multiple VI 60 EXT following multiple VI 60 VI 60 baseline. Component duration had no significant effect on contrast. These results differed from those found in studies of pigeons' key pecking. Contrast was accompanied by an increased rate of drinking in the changed component, but drinking in the constant component did not decrease. These results are not consistent with the competition theory of contrast, but are consistent with the predictions based on the matching law. However, no current theory seems to account for all instances of behavioral contrast.     

De-polarizing verbal irony

In three studies participants were asked to rate the degree of irony perceived in comments relating to five variations of a scenario, ranging from one pole to the opposite pole and passing through three in-between states. In study 1, the comments pertained to the polar extremes of a dimension, e.g. “It’s uphill!” stated with reference to varying degrees of steepness both uphill and downhill (i.e. steep, slightly steep, flat, slightly sloping downhill and steeply sloping downhill). In study 2, the comments were of an “intermediate” nature (e.g. “This hill is neither uphill nor downhill!”) and, as in Study 1, they were used to refer to the same five varying degrees of the same dimension. Study 3 involved the stimuli from both of the first two experiments in a between-participants design.

The results consistently demonstrated that verbal irony does not only apply to (weakly or strongly) polarised statements and situations, but it can also apply to intermediate comments and experiences. The perceptual structure of the dimensions involved modulates the effect.     

X线碘对比剂过敏试验的价值

讨论当前X线碘对比剂过敏试验存在的争议和问题,并提出修改意见,以明确指导临床正确使用,规避医疗风险,保障患者安全。针对碘对比剂有关过敏试验的相关文件规定及部分产品说明书的相关内容进行深入解读,对碘过敏试验是否应进行及其试验方法进行讨论并提出修改建议。根据我国现行卫生行政法规要求,目前碘对比剂应进行碘过敏试验。建议相关政...     

情绪记忆权衡效应:对复杂情绪刺激的记忆

情绪记忆研究最近一致发现了情绪记忆权衡效应,即人们对情绪事件的中心或核心特征的记忆增强,而对情绪事件的周围或背景特征的记忆受损.该效应证明情绪记忆具有选择性,情绪唤醒可以诱发出多种记忆选择性效应,并具有相当强的普遍性和稳定性,同时受较多主、客观因素的影响.相关理论逐步深入地阐述了该效应发生的可能机制,该效应在注意分配、编码以及编码后加工上的行为证据不断积累,但相关神经机制研究十分缺乏.未来研究应重视该效应的神经与遗传机制以及探讨面孔情绪诱发的记忆权衡效应等.     

Gene Doping and the Responsibility of Bioethicists

In this paper we will argue: (1) that scholars, regardless of their normative stand against or for genetic enhancement indeed have a moral/professional obligation to hold on to a realistic and up-to-date conception of genetic enhancement; (2) that there is an unwarranted hype surrounding the issue of genetic enhancement in general, and gene doping in particular; and (3) that this hype is, at least partly, created due to a simplistic and reductionist conception of genetics often adopted by bioethicists.     

WHEN BETTER IS WORSE. On the therapy/enhancement distinction in sports

The standard therapy/enhancement distinction is usually related to health purposes and some sense of normality. In this paper, I will challenge the basis of the distinction arguing that only the first part of it is related to health and, consequently, the distinction should be better understood as differentiating between qualitative and quantitative consequences of interventions. As health and normality are broad concepts inside of which it is possible to make some ulterior distinctions, I will propose three different senses of normality in order to more easily grasp the therapy/enhancement distinction. As with the distinction between therapy and enhancement, the difference between sports- and non-sports-persons is usually stated in terms of health and normality. I will challenge this assumption, too. In my opinion, the main difference between people, sportspeople and athletes should be related to the practice itself. Once the practice of a sport is taken seriously, along with its tough and demanding lifestyle, it is possible to properly analyse the distinction between people who practice and do not practice sport; the different levels at which they participate—quite obviously—have little to do with health purposes. Finally, I will revisit the standard therapy/enhancement distinction in sport in order to provide a way to easily reformulate this distinction allowing embarrassing blunders to be avoided and athletes’ health to be adequately cared for. I will conclude this paper with two open questions related to the use of the therapy/enhancement distinction for sport purposes and the challenge that it represents for some basic values of sport.     

Generalization in a child's oppositional behavior across home and school settings

A 9-year-old clinic-referred boy, his mother, and his teacher were observed in 38 home and 38 school sessions on the same days. Categories of the boy's oppositional behavior and the inappropriate social attention of his mother and teacher were graphed to visually inspect changes during baseline, a parent-training phase, a follow-up phase, and a final parent-training booster phase. Parent-training phases produced reductions in the mother's inappropriate attention and in the boy's oppositional behavior, whereas the follow-up and baseline phases were associated with higher rates of these categories. Generalization occurred in the school across these home phases, as seen in the increase in rates of the boy's problem behavior, despite the lack of change in his teacher's attention. Correlational analyses of proportion scores reflecting the boy's home-school oppositional behavior and mother-teacher social attention suggested his responsiveness to relative changes in adult social contingencies across settings.     

Effects of different accessibility of reinforcement schedules on choice in humans

Based on the delay-reduction hypothesis, a less profitable schedule should be rejected if its duration exceeds the mean delay to reinforcement. It should be accepted if its duration is shorter than the mean delay. This was tested for humans, using a successive-choice schedule. The accessibility of the less profitable (variable-interval 18 s) schedule was varied by changing the duration (in terms of a fixed interval) of the waiting-time component preceding its presentation. Forty-eight students were randomly assigned to three groups. In Phase 1, the duration of the less profitable schedule equaled the mean delay to reinforcement in all groups. In Phase 2, waiting time preceding the less profitable schedule was reduced in Group 1 and increased in Group 2. Thus, the schedule was correlated either with a relative delay increase (Group 1) or a delay reduction (Group 2). In Group 3, conditions remained unchanged. As predicted, acceptance of the less profitable schedule decreased in Group 1 and increased in Group 2. The increased acceptance in Group 2 was accompanied by a decreased acceptance of the more profitable (variable-interval 3 s) schedule, resembling a pattern of negative contrast. Response rates were higher under the component preceding (a) the more profitable schedule in Group 1 and (b) the less profitable schedule in Group 2. Implications for the modification of human choice behavior are discussed.     

Contrast and undermatching with regular or irregular alternation of components

Behavioral contrast and response-ratio sensitivity to reinforcement were compared in multiple schedules in which components alternated strictly or according to a pseudorandom sequence. Average component durations in the two regimes were always 60 s, and order of presentation of component alternation regimes was counterbalanced across subjects. In Part 1, the reinforcer rate in one component was reduced from 60 per hour to zero, while that in the other component was unchanged. Positive behavioral contrast occurred in the constant component in that response rates increased, but neither the reliability nor the magnitude of contrast was affected by the manner in which components alternated. Part 2 was similar, except that a number of different reinforcer rates were used in the varied component. Neither contrast nor sensitivity of response ratios to changes in reinforcer ratios depended on the regime of component alternation. Thus, the predictability in time of future reinforcement conditions, which is a feature of regular multiple scheduling, does not appear to be a determinant of multiple-schedule performance.