The strategies in past temporal discounting

对过去事件的加工涉及到对现在信息的加工,过去获得的价值能够为现在的生活带来的收益可能对过去事件的价值估计具有影响。本研究探讨了过去事件对现在生活的影响在过去时间贴现中的作用。采用延迟时间贴现范式任务,选取2周到50年共10个过去时间长度,要求被试在现在获得的奖金和过去获得的奖金之间进行偏好选择,并且完成对过去时间贴现决策策略的问题回答。采用曲线下的单位面积UAUr(t1,t1) 为过去时间贴现率,发现过去时间贴现率在过去2周和过去1个月之间[Z = 2.662,p = .008]、过去1年和过去3年之间[Z = 2.587, p = .010] 差异显著。对决策策略的回答进行内容分析(频次统计信度为0.875),发现过去事件能够为现在生活带来的收益影响了被试对过去事件的价值估计和偏好选择。从现在起到过去2周内,被试看重近的过去获得的奖金对现在的生活的帮助,偏好选择过去获得的奖金;在较远的过去,从过去2周起到过去1年内,奖金数量和获得奖金的时间之间的比例影响了被试的偏好选择;从过去1年起到过去50年内,远的过去获得的奖金对现在生活的影响微乎其微,被试偏好现在获得的奖金。本研究的结果支持了过去时间贴现和未来时间贴现具有不同的心理加工机制,并且有助于进一步了解过去时间的差别感受性的变化规律。     

自主任务转换中的重构和干扰

任务转换是研究执行功能的常用范式。任务转换通常伴随着转换代价：执行转换任务比重复任务的反应时更长、错误率更高。转换代价可能反映了任务设置重构(重构理论), 也可能表明任务之间存在干扰(干扰理论)。与任务线索范式相比, 自主任务转换范式更具生态效度, 而且不仅能获得转换代价这个传统结果, 还引入了任务选择比例、任务转换率等新指标, 其结果倾向于支持重构理论。此外, 新近研究指出自主任务转换可能也包含干扰的作用。未来, 应通过进一步改进实验范式等方法, 实现两大理论的融合。     

未来自我连续性及其对个体心理和行为的影响

一个人将现在自我和未来自我联系在一起的紧密程度反映了他/她在时间维度上自我连续性的强度, 即未来自我连续性。个体如何看待其现在自我与未来自我之间的连续和一致程度对个体的心理和行为有重要的影响, 特别是在跨期决策、储蓄和消费、学业成就领域、社会行为和健康领域等方面。未来研究可深入探讨未来自我连续性的神经基础及其影响因素, 并进一步拓展未来自我连续性相关的应用研究。     

Comparing rapid assessments of delay discounting with real and hypothetical rewards in children

Recent advances in assessment methodology have resulted in a highly efficient procedure for obtaining delay discounting rates for adults: a 5‐trial adjusting delay task (ADT‐5) examining intertemporal choice for hypothetical rewards. The low participant burden of this task makes it potentially useful for children, with whom delay discounting research is relatively limited. However, it is unknown whether results from this task match choice for real rewards. The present study assessed delay discounting for real and hypothetical monetary rewards using a modified ADT‐5 with 9 children admitted to a psychiatric day treatment program. Participants completed up to 3 tasks with each reward type in alternating order. No difference in discounting rate, via log(k), was observed between the first task of each reward type. This finding was replicated across subsequent tasks for the subset of participants (n = 6) who completed all 6 tasks. However, delay discounting of real and hypothetical rewards was not found to be statistically equivalent. These results suggest that a modified ADT‐5 using hypothetical rewards may be a viable option for assessing delay discounting in children with psychiatric diagnoses, but additional research is needed to explicitly examine whether hypothetical and real rewards are discounted equivalently in this population.     

Shyness,Self-regulation,and Cognitive Problem Solving in Typically Developing 4-year-olds: A Pilot Study

Because shy children are at risk for poor academic achievement, it is important to examine factors that contribute to variability in the relation between individual differences in shyness and cognitive functioning before school entry. The authors examined whether on-task facilitative private speech—a proxy of self-regulation—moderated the association between individual differences in shyness and performance on an executive function (EF) task in 52 typically developing 4-year-olds. They found that private speech interacted with shyness to predict performance on the EF task in girls but not in boys. More specifically, shyness was inversely related to EF task performance when girls used low amounts of regulatory private speech, but was positively related to performance when girls used high amounts of regulatory private speech. These preliminary findings are discussed in the context of implications for shy children in educational settings.     

What Would It Take to Get You into an Electric Car? Consumer Perceptions and Decision Making about Electric Vehicles

Americans buy millions of vehicles every year, but research on how those decisions are made, including personality and individual difference factors, has rarely taken full advantage of psychological insights. This is an increasingly important topic because, for instance, decisions to buy electric vehicles (EVs) rather than gasoline-powered vehicles have environmental and geopolitical consequences. A series of studies reveal the very different perceptions of EVs and gas vehicles. Although vehicle choices at the aggregate level were strongly correlated with economic considerations, individual consumer choices were correlated with delay discounting rates in Study 1 but not Study 2. These studies also did not find significant correlations between EV purchase decisions and a number of other individual difference traits often thought to be factors in such decisions (i.e., social value orientation, political attitudes, environmental attitudes, preference for novel products, or an array of core social values). Regression models indicate that factors which did predict vehicle choices concerns were about the performance and range of EVs, EV prevalence in general, and beliefs about what statements different vehicle types made about their owners and the owners’ values. More attention to the vehicle-associated values and immediate performance/use issues can help to promote EV purchase decisions and subsequent improvements in environmental and political stability.     

Laboratory analogue investigation of defusion and reappraisal strategies in the context of symbolically generalized avoidance

The present study examined and compared the effects of 2 analogues of cognitive treatments—cognitive defusion and cognitive reappraisal—on symbolically generalized avoidance established using a basic behavioral laboratory paradigm. This back‐translation design contributes to the development and validation of principle‐based definitions of the applied constructs of defusion and reappraisal. Eighty‐eight participants first underwent basic laboratory procedures designed to establish symbolically generalized avoidance in response to an arbitrary stimulus (a nonsense word). Participants were then randomized to defusion, reappraisal, or control conditions. The response variables were (a) equivalence responding—indicative of the trained relational network and analogous to the cognitive content responsible for symbolic generalization—and (b) avoidance—the behavioral impact of symbolic generalization. A between‐groups analysis revealed that defusion and reappraisal significantly increased the odds of nonavoidance responding. Discrete‐time survival mediation analyses provided preliminary support for the classification of defusion as a functional context intervention and reappraisal as a relational context intervention.     

Evaluating the effect of delay spacing on delay discounting: carry‐over effects on steepness and the form of the discounting function

Most delay discounting studies use tasks that arrange delay progressions in which the spacing between consecutive delays becomes progressively larger. To date, little research has examined delay discounting using other progressions. The present study assessed whether the form or steepness of discounting varied across different delay progressions. Human participants completed three discounting tasks with delay progressions that varied in the time between consecutive delays: a standard (increasing duration between delays), linear (equal duration between delays), and an inverse progression (decreasing duration between delays). Steepness of discounting was generally reduced, and remained so, following experience with the inverse progression. Effects of the delay progression on the best fitting equation were order‐dependent. Overall the hyperbola model provided better fits, but the exponential model performed better with data from the inverse progression. Regardless, differences in which model fit best were often small. The finding that the best fitting model was dependent, in some cases, on the delay progression suggests that a single quantitative model of discounting may not be applicable to describe discounting across all procedural contexts. Ultimately, changes in steepness of discounting following experience with the inverse progression appeared similar to anchoring effects, whose mechanism will require further study to delineate.     

Influence of maternal reflective functioning on mothers’ and children's weight: A follow-up study

Based on cross-sectional research linking poor reflective functionining (RF) to eating disorders, the current follow-up study tested whether maternal RF would explain the variance of mothers’ and children's weight beyond the effects of maternal emotional dysregulation. During pregnancy (Time 1 [T1]), 51 women were administered the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Seven months after delivery (Time 2 [T2]), mother–baby dyads who remained in the study (n = 44) were videotaped (Feeding Scale) during their feeding interaction. Last (Time 3 [T3]), the weight of the 34 children who were still in the study was collected at 3 years of age. Maternal AAI-RF at T1 did not correlate with the DERS at T1 nor with the quality of the feeding interacions at T2. However, it correlated, significantly, with maternal body mass index (BMI) at T1, r = −.298, P = .034, and marginally significantly with baby's BMI at T3, r = −.296, P = .089. Moreover, multiple regression models showed a trend indicating that maternal AAI-RF might explain the variance of mothers’ and children's weight beyond the effects of maternal emotional dysregulation. These findings suggest that working on maternal mentalization might contribute to helping prevent childhood obesity from pregnancy.     

Delay discounting of monetary gains and losses in adolescents with ADHD: Contribution of delay aversion to choice

Adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are known to have stronger preferences for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards in delay discounting tasks than their peers, which has been argued to reflect delay aversion. Here, participants performed a delay discounting task with gains and losses. In this latter condition, participants were asked whether they were willing to wait in order to lose less money. Following the core assumption of the delay aversion model that individuals with ADHD have a general aversion to delay, one would predict adolescents with ADHD to avoid waiting in both conditions. Adolescents (12–17 years) with ADHD (n = 29) and controls (n = 28) made choices between smaller immediate and larger delayed gains, and between larger immediate and smaller delayed losses. All delays (5–25 s) and gains/losses (2–10 cents) were experienced. In addition to an area under the curve approach, a mixed-model analysis was conducted to disentangle the contributions of delay duration and immediate gain/delayed loss amount to choice. The ADHD group chose the immediate option more often than controls in the gain condition, but not in the loss condition. The contribution of delay duration to immediate choices was stronger for the ADHD group than the control group in the gain condition only. In addition, the ADHD group scored higher on self-reported delay aversion, and delay aversion was associated with delay sensitivity in the gain condition, but not in the loss condition. In sum, we found no clear evidence for a general aversion to delay in adolescents with ADHD.