Choice and conditioned reinforcement.

A potential weakness of one formulation of delay-reduction theory is its failure to include a term for rate of conditioned reinforcement, that is, the rate at which the terminal-link stimuli occur in concurrent-chains schedules. The present studies assessed whether or not rate of conditioned reinforcement has an independent effect upon choice. Pigeons responded on either modified concurrent-chains schedules or on comparable concurrent-tandem schedules. The initial link was shortened on only one of two concurrent-chains schedules and on only one of two corresponding concurrent-tandem schedules. This manipulation increased rate of conditioned reinforcement sharply in the chain but not in the tandem schedule. According to a formulation of delay-reduction theory, when the outcomes chosen (the terminal links) are equal, as in Experiment 1, choice should depend only on rate of primary reinforcement; thus, choice should be equivalent for the tandem and chain schedules despite a large difference in rate of conditioned reinforcement. When the outcomes chosen are unequal, however, as in Experiment 2, choice should depend upon both rate of primary reinforcement and relative signaled delay reduction; thus, larger preferences should occur in the chain than in the tandem schedules. These predictions were confirmed, suggesting that increasing the rate of conditioned reinforcement on concurrent-chains schedules may have no independent effect on choice.     

不同部件亮度条件下的汉字识别初探

本文采用命名作业法探讨在不同汉字部件亮度条件下的字频效应、笔画数效应及部件在汉字识别中的作用。结果表明 :1在本实验条件下 ,字频效应仍非常明显 ,但没有笔画数效应 ;2在上下型汉字的识别中 ,其上半部的作用比下半部更为重要 ,而对左右型汉字而言 ,其右半部的作用比左半部更为重要 ;3部件亮度条件对命名反应时有显著影响 ,但是否可以称为“部件亮度效应”尚值得进一步研究。     

奖惩频率对3～5岁幼儿完成博弈任务的影响

通过对情感决策的常用研究工具——标准爱荷华博弈任务进行了得失总量不变而频率改变的修改,并使之适合于年幼的3～5岁儿童,可以比较幼儿在不同奖惩频率任务中的表现,从而考察奖惩频率对幼儿情感决策的影响。对120名3～5岁幼儿在四种不同类型的任务中的表现进行分析后,所得实验结果如下:(1)儿童对惩罚和奖励频率的变化比较敏感:正向博弈任务中,"有利纸牌不变,不利纸牌的惩罚总量不变,只增加不利纸牌的惩罚频率"可以使3～5岁儿童完成博弈任务的成绩有显著提高;逆向博弈任务中,"不利纸牌不变,有利纸牌的奖惩总量不变,而有利纸牌奖励频率的增加"能促使4～5岁幼儿更多更快地做出正确选择。(2)幼儿的情感决策能力在3～4岁时期发展迅速,而在4～5岁时仍然有较快发展。     

空间频率影响恐惧面孔表情加工的神经通路

恐惧情绪由于其具有威胁性而优先得到有效的加工。其中空间频率作为处理面孔信息的基础成分, 通过不同的神经通路影响恐惧面孔表情的加工。双通路观点认为在皮层下通路上, 低空间频率的恐惧面孔表情存在优先传递性, 高空间频率则主要通过皮层通路对恐惧面孔表情进行精细化加工; 而多通路则能够更加灵活地处理空间频率对情绪加工的影响。未来研究应明确脑区及其子区域在多条通路上的作用, 从而进一步验证视觉信息是如何影响情绪加工的。     

Intuitions about sample size: the empirical law of large numbers

According to Jacob Bernoulli, even the ‘stupidest man’ knows that the larger one's sample of observations, the more confidence one can have in being close to the truth about the phenomenon observed. Two-and-a-half centuries later, psychologists empirically tested people's intuitions about sample size. One group of such studies found participants attentive to sample size; another found participants ignoring it. We suggest an explanation for a substantial part of these inconsistent findings. We propose the hypothesis that human intuition conforms to the ‘empirical law of large numbers’ and distinguish between two kinds of tasks–one that can be solved by this intuition (frequency distributions) and one for which it is not sufficient (sampling distributions). A review of the literature reveals that this distinction can explain a substantial part of the apparently inconsistent results. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Orthographic neighbors and visual word recognition

Two lexical decision experiments, using words that were selected and closely matched on several criteria associated with lexical access, provide evidence of facilitatory effects of orthographic neighborhood size and no significant evidence of inhibitory effects of orthographic neighborhood frequency on lexical access. The words used in Experiment 1 had few neighbors that were higher in frequency. In Experiment 2, the words employed had several neighbors that were higher in frequency. Both experiments showed that words possessing few neighbors evoked slower responses than those possessing many neighbors. Also, in both experiments, neighborhood size effects occurred even though words from large neighborhoods had more potentially interfering higher-frequency neighbors than words from small neighborhoods.     

Time course of frequency effects in spoken-word recognition: evidence from eye movements

In two experiments, eye movements were monitored as participants followed spoken instructions to click on and move pictures with a computer mouse. In Experiment 1, a referent picture (e.g., the picture of a bench) was presented along with three pictures, two of which had names that shared the same initial phonemes as the name of the referent (e.g., bed and bell). Participants were more likely to fixate the picture with the higher frequency name (bed) than the picture with the lower frequency name (bell). In Experiment 2, referent pictures were presented with three unrelated distractors. Fixation latencies to referents with high-frequency names were shorter than those to referents with low-frequency names. The proportion of fixations to the referents and distractors were analyzed in 33-ms time slices to provide fine-grained information about the time course of frequency effects. These analyses established that frequency affects the earliest moments of lexical access and rule out a late-acting, decision-bias locus for frequency. Simulations using models in which frequency operates on resting-activation levels, on connection strengths, and as a postactivation decision bias provided further constraints on the locus of frequency effects.     

Beyond the molar-molecular distinction: we need multiscaled analyses.

Dinsmoor's (2001) adherence to molecular analyses may require him to assert that molar and molecular principles are mutually exclusive, but to instead analyze the phenomena of avoidance as inherently multiscaled is to follow a well-established practice in the natural sciences. Besides the issue of scale, two-factor theory, which Dinsmoor advocates, has little to say about some important and longstanding results in experiments that qualify as avoidance.     

《心理学报》被引情况分析

该文统计了《心理学报》自1956年创刊以来发表的论文被引用的情况,对有关数据进行分析,确定了120篇重要论文。对这些论文从作者合作情况、核心作者分布、系统分布、选题分布四方面进行分析,得出《心理学报》是心理学核心期刊中的核心期刊。     

无语境条件下汉语词类歧义词的意义激活

以单字词为实验材料,采用启动命名任务,在孤立词条件下考察了汉语词类歧义词不同意义激活的时间进程特点。实验发现,歧义词的两种意义都能被激活,但主要意义激活得较早,次要意义激活速度较慢;当两种意义都激活之后,次要意义的激活水平降低,而主要意义仍维持在一定激活水平。结果表明,汉语词类歧义词的多重激活过程会受到意义相对频率的影响。