独立思考精神:优秀学者的必备品质

本文讨论独立思考精神对培养优秀学者的重要性。通过分析在中国文化中保持独立思考精神之难度,作者提出培养独立思考精神的四种方法:人是少数人的力量;拥有抗拒压力的勇气;将外在压力转化成内在动力;保持开放的心态,兼听则明。     

无意识目标启动的定义、机制及应用

无意识目标与社会态度、刻板印象和图式等一样, 是行为的满意状态或结果在个体头脑中的一种表征, 包含有目标设定、追求情境和追求手段等内容。这些内容能够被环境中的刺激自动激活, 在意识不到的情况下影响人的心理和行为。无意识目标启动的概念和其他心理表征的启动不同, 无意识目标启动能够促使带有动机性的行为出现, 启动线索的影响不会随着时间的推移而消失。无意识目标启动的自变量与自身心理状态和环境中他人的影响有关, 无意识目标启动的因变量与任务表现和社会关系的处理有关。“知觉-行为模型”、“无意识行为选择模型”、“评价准备模型”和“情感因素模型”能够分别从“无意识”和“目标”两个角度对无意识目标启动的心理机制进行解释。无意识目标启动原理在商业、教育、医疗等领域当中有着广泛的应用前景, 为了更好地完善理论研究和进行实际应用, 今后应该更加重视无意识目标启动的脑机制研究。     

The role of overt and covert self-rules in establishing a daily living skill in adults with mild developmental disabilities

The purpose of the current study was to explore the use of overt and covert self-rules in the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of a chained task by adults with mild developmental disabilities. This research differed from previous research in that the experimenter did not deliver reinforcement for correct responses during training, and we examined the correspondence between each self-rule statement and each subsequent response on each trial. Results showed that the self-rules participated in control over participants' responding, in that the skill was acquired and shown to generalize in the absence of experimenter-delivered reinforcement. Moreover, performance was shown to deteriorate when the emission of overt, but not covert, self-rules was blocked.     

论开展亲属活体供肾移植的风险与对策

肾脏移植是救治终末期肾功能衰竭的最佳手段。亲属活体捐献肾脏是扩大供肾来源的有效手段。当前国内开展亲属肾移植存在伦理、法律和健康风险,主要来自供体和医疗两方面。为防范风险,医务人员应严格审查供受者的血缘关系,签署完整规范的法律文书,进行全面细致的术前评估,制定完善的手术方案。     

The categorical interpretation of Guo Xiang’s “independent genesis”

Seemingly, “independent genesis” refers to the independent existence and changes of each thing, but it is clear that there cannot be any truly “independent” things at all. Each thing in the world has to stay in connection or relationship with other things outside itself if it wants to represent its own “independence” and “genesis” in terms of form; and inevitably such connection or relationship itself has to be embodied in the internal nature of each thing. In the metaphysical thought of Guo Xiang, the former was known as the quality of “interdependence”; and the latter the characteristics of “quality” or “quality image.” Such characteristics of “quality” or “quality image” were interdependent, which constituted the essence of each thing itself as “beingness” and “beinglessness,” and thus resulted in the independent manifestation and change of things in terms of their external forms. The grasping of essence of things as “beingness” and “beinglessness” depended upon comprehension or rational intuition, and that was the realm of “profundity” in Guo Xiang’s terms.     

HOME ACCESS MODIFICATIONS: EFFECTS ON COMMUNITY VISITS BY PEOPLE WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES

We examined the effects of access modifications to home entrances of people with physical disabilities on their reported community outings. An interrupted time-series design was used, in which the introduction of ramps was staggered across the homes of 6 people with moderate to severe mobility impairments. Four participants reported increases in weekly outings following installation of ramps at their entrances, and 2 reported a small decrease. These findings suggest that reducing the response requirements of access to and from the residence of people with mobility impairments may increase community visits, but may be insufficient given other environmental barriers in the community.     

A note on multiple and canonical correlation for a singular covariance matrix

A weaker generalized inverse (Rao's g-inverse; Graybill's c-inverse) can be used in place of the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse to obtain multiple and canonical correlations from singular covariance matrices.The author expresses his gratitude to a referee for his suggestions.     

Independent and social play among profoundly mentally retarded adults: training, maintenance, generalization, and long-term follow-up.

Play skills were taught to eight profoundly mentally retarded adults in two interrelated experiments. In Experiment 1, a multiple baseline across subjects design was used to assess the efficacy of verbal and physical prompts on independent play. In Experiment 2, the same subjects and experimental procedures were used to develop social play. Verbal prompting and graduated physical guidance procedures were found to be effective in substantially increasing independent play in Experiment 1 and social play in Experiment 2. Positive changes were also observed in collateral behaviors. Inappropriate play decreased slightly and stereotypy decreased to very low levels. Social interaction increased substantially in Experiment 2 when social play was targeted but little change was observed in Experiment 1 when only independent play was targeted. Treatment gains were maintained for 26 weeks in Experiment 1 and 10 weeks in Experiment 2. In addition, the treatment gains were generalized across subjects and settings in Experiment 2. Finally, regular follow-up checks showed that independent and social play remained in the repertoire of the subjects for 12 months following the termination of programmed maintenance.     

INCREASING THE INDEPENDENT RESPONDING OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN WITH UNPREDICTABLE SUPERVISION

We investigated the role of predictable versus unpredictable supervision on the independent task responding of three autistic children. In a predictable supervision condition, the therapist was present in the setting for a regular period of time and then was absent for the remainder of the session. In an unpredictable supervision condition, the therapist's presence was scheduled on a random, intermittent, and unpredictable basis throughout the session. The multiple baseline analysis showed that the unpredictable supervision produced much higher levels of on-task responding during the therapist's absence for all three children. Analysis of work completed during the therapist's absence also favored the unpredictable supervision condition. The results are discussed in relation to the literature on generalization and educational practice.     

Response–reinforcer dependency and resistance to change

The effects of the response–reinforcer dependency on resistance to change were studied in three experiments with rats. In Experiment 1, lever pressing produced reinforcers at similar rates after variable interreinforcer intervals in each component of a two‐component multiple schedule. Across conditions, in the fixed component, all reinforcers were response‐dependent; in the alternative component, the percentage of response‐dependent reinforcers was 100, 50 (i.e., 50% response‐dependent and 50% response‐independent) or 10% (i.e., 10% response‐dependent and 90% response‐independent). Resistance to extinction was greater in the alternative than in the fixed component when the dependency in the former was 10%, but was similar between components when this dependency was 100 or 50%. In Experiment 2, a three‐component multiple schedule was used. The dependency was 100% in one component and 10% in the other two. The 10% components differed on how reinforcers were programmed. In one component, as in Experiment 1, a reinforcer had to be collected before the scheduling of other response‐dependent or independent reinforcers. In the other component, response‐dependent and ‐independent reinforcers were programmed by superimposing a variable‐time schedule on an independent variable‐interval schedule. Regardless of the procedure used to program the dependency, resistance to extinction was greater in the 10% components than in the 100% component. These results were replicated in Experiment 3 in which, instead of extinction, VT schedules replaced the baseline schedules in each multiple‐schedule component during the test. We argue that the relative change in dependency from Baseline to Test, which is greater when baseline dependencies are high rather than low, could account for the differential resistance to change in the present experiments. The inconsistencies in results across the present and previous experiments suggest that the effects of dependency on resistance to change are not well understood. Additional systematic analyses are important to further understand the effects of the response–reinforcer relation on resistance to change and to the development of a more comprehensive theory of behavioral persistence.