The local organization of behavior: dissociations between a pigeon's behavior and self-reports of that behavior

The purpose of the experiment was to study the relation between what an organism does in a setting that demands temporal patterning of behavior and what it reports it has done. More specifically, a pigeon produced two classes, shorter and longer, of temporal patterns of key pecks (interresponse times) on a center key. Occasionally, a symbolic matching-to-sample probe arranged on side keys asked the pigeon whether its most recent pattern was a shorter or longer one. The longer reinforced pattern was always three times as long as the shorter one and the two patterns were reinforced equally often. Absolute duration of reinforced patterns was varied. In some conditions, interresponse-time distributions on the center key were bimodal, indicating a clear behavioral adaptation to the contingency, yet a bird did not report very well by appropriate side-key responding what its most recent interresponse time had been. In other conditions, the interresponse-time distributions were less clearly bimodal, yet a bird reported more accurately its previous interresponse time as shorter or longer. Thus, there was a dissociation between how well behavior on the center key conformed to the schedule requirement and how well a bird reported what it was doing on the center key. In addition, as absolute duration of the reinforced patterns was increased, a bird categorized its most recent pattern less well even as its preference for the shorter pattern increased dramatically. These results were interpreted as an example of the phenomenon of dissociation between tacit knowledge and knowledge.     

肿瘤治疗模式的哲学思考

外科手术往往是肿瘤治疗的首选方法,对于不能手术或已丧失手术机会者才考虑放疗,化疗。近年来,出现了诱导分化和凋亡等治疗手段,且在某些肿瘤的治疗上已取得了可喜的效果,这点新概念,新手术的出现,使得以往的肿瘤治疗模式受到了冲击,从以人为本,预防为主的哲学思想出发,我们似科可以提出这样的肿瘤治疗模式,诱导分化→启动凋亡→手术,放疗,化疗。     

Cognitive Event-Related Potentials in Neuropsychological Assessment

Neuropsychology is a behavioral approach to studying the brain, and an integration of neuropsychology with on-line processing measures of brain function is important for advancing the understanding of brain–behavior relationships. Cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs) are on-line processing measures that are of interest to neuropsychologists because they are linked to familiar neuropsychological test paradigms and because they have reached a degree of standardization sufficient to make them applicable in individual assessment. A selective review of cognitive ERPs is given, focusing on studies of attention in the oddball paradigm and arguing that an adequate assessment of attention is basic in understanding higher order cognitive functions. General principles for using ERP data to supplement and clarify neuropsychological analysis are discussed, and available evidence on dementia and traumatic head injury is reviewed. It is concluded that ERPs are a useful supplement to neuropsychological assessment. Although diagnostic use of ERPs must be guarded because of limited standardization and validation, information-processing analysis with ERPs may aid significantly in interpretation of behavioral data.     

Reinforcement rate and interresponse time differentiation

Reinforcement rate and differential reinforcement of IRTs were independently manipulated to assess their relative contribution to the control of interresponse times (IRTs). Modified percentile reinforcement schedules (Platt, 1973) allowed control of reinforcement rate while longest or shortest IRTs were selectively reinforced. In the absence of differential IRT reinforcement, mean IRT decreased with increasing reinforcement rate. Compared to this small effect of reinforcement rate, reinforcement of long IRTs produced large changes in mean IRT at constant reinforcement rates. No interaction of reinforcement rate and IRT reinforcement was detected. The demonstration of large IRT changes in the absence of reinforcement-rate changes indicates the precedence of IRT reinforcement over molar reinforcement-rate correlations in the determination of IRTs in these procedures.     

Memory for sequences of stimuli and responses

Two experiments sought to determine if pigeons could discriminate and remember recent sequences of stimuli and responses. A variant of Konorski's short-term memory procedure involving successive presentation of sample and test stimuli was used. The samples were stimulus-response pairs of the form, (S-R)₁–(S-R)₂. Differential test responding disclosed memory of the two-item samples, with birds showing earlier and greater control by the second item than the first (Experiment 1). When the retention interval separating the second item of the sample sequence from the test stimulus was lenghtened from .5 to 2.0 or 4.0 sec, a systematic loss of stimulus control resulted; however, when varied over the same temporal range, the interval between the two items of the sample sequence had a much smaller effect, or none at all (Experiment 2). These results support an account of response-sequence differentiation that stresses short-term memory of organized behavior patterns.     

Avoidance based on shock intensity reduction with no change in shock probability

Rats were trained on a free-operant avoidance procedure in which shock intensity was controlled by interresponse time. Shocks were random at a density of about 10 shocks per minute. Shock probability was response independent. As long as interresponse times remained less than the limit in effect, any shocks received were at the lower of two intensities (0.75 mA). Whenever interresponse times exceeded the limit, any shocks received were at the higher intensity (1.6 mA). The initial limit of 15 seconds was decreased in 3-second steps to either 6 or 3 seconds. All animals lever pressed to avoid higher intensity shock. As the interresponse time limit was reduced, the response rate during the lower intensity shock and the proportion of brief interresponse times increased. Substantial warmup effects were evident, particularly at the shorter interresponse-time limits. Shock intensity reduction without change in shock probability was effective in the acquisition and maintenance of avoidance responding, as well as in differentiation of interresponse times. This research suggests limitations on the generality of a safety signal interpretation of avoidance conditioning.     

Efficiency of visual information processing in children at-risk for dyslexia: habituation of single-trial ERPs

To investigate underlying learning mechanisms in relation to the development of dyslexia, event-related potentials to visual standards were recorded in five-year-old pre-reading children at-risk for familial dyslexia (n=24) and their controls (n=14). At the end of second grade the children aged 8 years were regrouped into three groups according to literacy level and risk factor. Single-trial analyses revealed N1 habituation in the normal-reading controls, but not in the normal-reading at-risks, and a N1 amplitude increase in the group of poor-reading at-risks and poor-reading controls. No P3 habituation was found in either group. The normal-reading at-risk group exhibited the longest N1 and P3 latencies, possibly compensating for their reduced neuronal activity during initial information extraction. In contrast, the poor-reading group only showed prolonged P3, and their increase in (initial small) N1 amplitude together with normal N1 latencies, suggests inefficient processing in an early time window, which might explain automatisation difficulties in dyslexic readers.     

A Grand Theory and a Small Social Scientific Community: Niklas luhmann in Slovenia

We analyse the reception of Niklas Luhmanns social metatheory in Slovenian social. The first part outlines the intellectual climate that prevailed in the decade before the post-socialist transition. The decline of the previously dominant Marxist ideology created space for other social theories. Luhmanns ideas were the most prominent among social macro theories in the initial phase. The second part describes variations in the reception of his ideas. The initial affirmative approach was upgraded by a number of more selective and critical approaches. The third part shows that, although his ideas are no longer quite so prominent, his work is both well recognized and firmly embedded in Slovenian social thought.     

Concerning the integration of sciences: Kinds and stages

The detailed analysis allows to discern seven kinds of integration, namely: I₁ consisting in the synthesis of scientific disciplines from their elements, including disciplinary unification I₁; I₂ inclusion of a science in (reduction to) another, more general; I₃ — links between different sciences, especially establishing of common elements; I₄ — interdisciplines bridging various sciences; I₅ — combination of two (or more) disciplines into a new (complex) science; I₆ — a general approach to several domains or multidisciplinary unification; I₇ — transdisciplinary sciences about relations of the same type in various traditional domains. These kinds of integration are interwoven with processes of differentiation, viz. D₁ — internal differentiation of the sciences resulting of I₁; D₂ — interdisciplinary differentiation concomitant I₄, and D₃ — specialization of I₇ sciences in several sections. As a result integration and differentiation are combined in the pairs I₁ — D₁, I₇ — D₃, and D₂ — I₄. The processes of integration (and differentiation) may be presented schematically in the following (not strictly isolated one of another) sequence: in the 17th century started I₁ followed by D₁, and in the last decades by I₁ during the 18th and the 19th c. cases of I₂ and I₃ appear; I₄ (together with D₂) is unfolding since the late 19th century. Finally, I₇ (and D₃), as well as I₅ and I₆ pertain to the latter half of our century. Representative are for one thing I₁, I₄, and I₇ outlining the main stages of integration and at the same time connected with respective kinds of differentiation.     

认知事件相关电位P_(300)与儿童的智力水平和年龄特征

诱发电位 (EP) ,亦称事件相关电位 (ERP) ,是神经系统活动功能的电生理指标。认知事件相关电位 P3 0 0 作为反映个体大脑认知功能的神经电生理的重要指标已经被许多有关研究所采纳。本研究从神经电生理的角度 ,一方面对认知事件相关电位 P3 0 0 与儿童的智力水平的关系进行测查 ,一方面对认知事件相关电位 P3 0 0 的年龄特点进行研究 ,以期了解和说明儿童认知发展的神经电生理基础及其年龄特征。实验表明 :儿童智力水平与 P3 0 0 各成分潜伏期呈负相关 ,与反映认知功能的主要指标 P3 的负相关达到非常显著水平 (P <0 .0 0 1 ) ,与 P3 0 0 各成分的振幅基本呈正相关 ,儿童不同智力水平之间 ,其反应认知功能的主要指标 P3 的潜伏期差异非常显著。儿童青少年 P3 0 0 的各潜伏期的发展总趋势随年龄增长而下降。其中 ,P3 的潜伏期随年龄增长而下降的趋势更为明显。P3 的振幅则随年龄增长而增大。六个年龄组间 P3 0 0 各成分差异均达到非常显著水平 (P <0 .0 0 1 )。