Finding the good in the bad: age and event experience relate to the focus on positive aspects of a negative event

All lives contain negative events, but how we think about these events differs across individuals; negative events often include positive details that can be remembered alongside the negative, and the ability to maintain both representations may be beneficial. In a survey examining emotional responses to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the current study investigated how this ability shifts as a function of age and individual differences in initial experience of the event. Specifically, this study examined how emotional importance (i.e. self-reported emotional arousal and personal significance), involvement (i.e. self and friend/family involvement in the 2013 Boston Marathon and self-involvement in prior marathons), and self-reported surprise upon hearing about the event related to the tendency to report focusing on the negative and positive aspects of the bombings. Structural equation models revealed that while greater emotional importance and surprise were associated with a greater focus on negative elements, involvement and age were associated with increased consideration of positive aspects. Further, emotional importance was more strongly related to an increased focus on negative aspects for young adults and an increased focus on positive aspects for older adults, highlighting a tendency for older adults to enhance positive features of an otherwise highly negative event.     

Baseline response rates affect resistance to change

The effect of response rates on resistance to change, measured as resistance to extinction, was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, responding in transition from a variable‐ratio schedule and its yoked‐interval counterpart to extinction was compared with pigeons. Following training on a multiple variable‐ratio yoked‐interval schedule of reinforcement, in which response rates were higher in the former component, reinforcement was removed from both components during a single extended extinction session. Resistance to extinction in the yoked‐interval component was always either greater or equal to that in the variable‐ratio component. In Experiment 2, resistance to extinction was compared for two groups of rats that exhibited either high or low response rates when maintained on identical variable‐interval schedules. Resistance to extinction was greater for the lower‐response‐rate group. These results suggest that baseline response rate can contribute to resistance to change. Such effects, however, can only be revealed when baseline response rate and reinforcement rate are disentangled (Experiments 1 and 2) from the more usual circumstance where the two covary. Furthermore, they are more cleanly revealed when the programmed contingencies controlling high and low response rates are identical, as in Experiment 2.     

时间知觉在老年人跨期选择中的作用

随着人口老龄化速度的加快,老年人的跨期选择问题受到越来越多的关注。时间知觉是影响跨期选择的重要因素之一。然而,目前从时间知觉的角度来探讨老年人跨期选择的研究比较有限。本文在总结国内外相关研究的基础之上,试图分析时间知觉的随龄变化如何影响老年人的跨期选择。具体而言,本文从时间长度知觉、时间成本知觉以及时间知觉相关心理动机三个方面进行探讨,并指出了时间知觉视角的局限性及今后的研究方向。     

对齐法在单因子和三因子多组比较中允许的不等参数率

在传统的多组验证性因子分析中,进行因子均值比较的前提条件是模型满足强测量不变性假设,但该假设在实证研究中很难满足。这时,Asparouhov和Muthén(2014)提出的对齐法是一种可供备选的多组分析法。通过蒙特卡洛模拟研究,探究了在对齐法精确估计模型参数前提下所允许的不等参数率范围。研究发现：在平均组样本量充足,识别算法为固定识别算法等理想状态下,对齐法在单因子模型多组比较中所允许的不等参数率可以是100%;在三因子模型中所允许的不等参数率上限是20%至30%;在此范围内,对齐法允许更多高程度不等参数;在组数目从30、15或9降至3时,对齐法能允许更多的不等参数在模型中。     

The development of attention to simple and complex visual stimuli in infants: Behavioral and psychophysiological measures

The study of visual attention in infants has used presentation of single simple stimuli, multi-dimensional stimuli, and complex dynamic video presentations. There are both continuities and discontinuities in the findings on attention and attentiveness to stimulus complexity. A continuity is a pattern of looking that is found in the early part of infancy that remains throughout adulthood. A discontinuity is an emerging sensitivity to the content of the information in the stimulus presentations and alterations in patterns of attention based upon stimulus comprehensibility. The current paper reviews some of these findings with particular application to complex video presentations.     

The surprisingly low motivational power of future rewards: Comparing conventional money-based measures of discounting with motivation-based measures

Temporal discount rates are often poor predictors of behaviors that we expect will be motivated by the future. The current research suggests this may be because conventional discounting measures are poor measures of the motivational value of future rewards. In six studies, I develop motivation-based measures of the present value (PV) of future rewards and compare the PVs obtained with those obtained using conventional money-based discounting measures. Conventional money-based PVs consistently overestimate motivation-based PVs and are discriminable from them. I explore explanations for this mismatch, including timing of effort exertion (Study 2) and loss aversion (Study 3), both features of the motivation-based measures. In Study 5, I use self-reports of valuation strategies and a time pressure manipulation to demonstrate that participants use different valuation strategies in the conventional money-based and the motivation-based measures that, in part, determine the difference in PVs obtained and the relatively low correspondence between them.     

Trait BIS predicts alpha asymmetry and P300 in a Go/No‐Go task

Inspired by the revised Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) theory the present study probed the association between individual differences in Trait BIS and electroencephalogram indicators of conflict processing/inhibition. Sixty‐nine male participants either high or low in Trait BIS completed a Go/No‐Go task while the electroencephalogram was recorded. As expected, Trait BIS was associated with the No‐Go‐anteriorisation of the P300 event‐related potential (i.e. an index of response inhibition presumably generated in the dorsal anterior cingulate—an area implicated in conflict processing) and with No‐ Go‐related changes towards left frontal alpha activity (i.e. presumably more activity in right prefrontal cortex—an area implicated in response inhibition). These findings support the role of conflict processing attributed to BIS functioning in the revised theory. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identities and Their Uses: Response to ��Rate, Probability And Matching�� by Rachlin And Locey

Some of the differences between Rachlin & Locey (2010) and Thorne (2010) are due to what assumptions are taken as givens versus questionable. Most of the other apparent differences are largely linguistic and can be resolved by agreeing on terminology. The identity combining both rate and probability of reinforcement is general, has already revealed order not previously noted, even in its currently simple form, and provides a way of incorporating additional variables known to influence and characterize behavior.     

The effects of a local negative feedback function between choice and relative reinforcer rate

Four pigeons were trained on two-key concurrent variable-interval schedules with no changeover delay. In Phase 1, relative reinforcers on the two alternatives were varied over five conditions from .1 to .9. In Phases 2 and 3, we instituted a molar feedback function between relative choice in an interreinforcer interval and the probability of reinforcers on the two keys ending the next interreinforcer interval. The feedback function was linear, and was negatively sloped so that more extreme choice in an interreinforcer interval made it more likely that a reinforcer would be available on the other key at the end of the next interval. The slope of the feedback function was -1 in Phase 2 and -3 in Phase 3. We varied relative reinforcers in each of these phases by changing the intercept of the feedback function. Little effect of the feedback functions was discernible at the local (interreinforcer interval) level, but choice measured at an extended level across sessions was strongly and significantly decreased by increasing the negative slope of the feedback function.     

Response rate correlates with indifference points in a delay‐discounting procedure

To study how effort affects reward value, we replicated Fortes, Vasconcelos and Machado's (2015) study using an adjusting‐delay task. Nine pigeons chose between a standard alternative that gave access to 4 s of food, after a 10 s delay, and an adjusting‐delay alternative that gave access to 12 s of food after a delay that changed dynamically with the pigeons' choices, decreasing when they preferred the standard alternative, and increasing when they preferred the adjusting alternative. The delay value at which preference stabilized defined the indifference point, a measure of reward value. To manipulate effort across phases, we varied the response rate required during the delay of the standard alternative. Results showed that a) the indifference point increased in the higher‐response‐rate phases, suggesting that reward value decreased with effort, and b) in the higher‐response‐rate phases, response rate in the standard alternative was linearly related to the indifference point. We advance several conceptions of how effort may change perceived delay or amount and thereby affect reward value.