Mediating factors in chick social pecking: 1. Effects of isolation,imprinting, and peer contact

Two experiments examined the influence of periods of social isolation on rates of intersubject pecking in pairs of domestic chicks. Of central interest was the effect of an imprinting condition wherein single birds were reared with either a red or green Styrofoam object. In the first experiment, imprinted subjects were given social pecking tests in the absence of the imprinting object, while in the second study the tests for social pecking were conducted in the presence of one of the imprinting objects. In the latter test the object was familiar to one bud of a pair, but was novel to the other animal. The results of both experiments showed that the rate of intersubject pecking of the imprinted subjects was intermediate to, and statistically different from both the low pecking rate of chicks reared in pairs and the high pecking rate of chicks reared in total isolation. The presence of a familiar object during tests in the second study seemed to serve as a secure base since chicks that had been reared with that object exhibited more social pecking than did chicks that were unfamiliar with the object. However, regardless of the provision of the object the social pecking of the imprinted chicks again fell on a point intermediate to the other groups. Hypotheses concerning a) intolerance of figureground movement and b) sheer stress of isolation were advanced to account for these results.     

Seeing and being seen in the experience of the client and the therapist

There is more to non-verbal communication than observing the client, although intense observation of the client has taken second place to listening to their words. After reflecting on the history of the use of sight in medicine and psychoanalysis, the author examines the significance for Freud and others of the ‘senses at a distance' (hearing and sight), and issues such as voyeurism and exhibitionism in the therapeutic relationship. The phenomenon of seeing and being seen is related through case examples to issues about distance and space, paranoid anxiety and communication disorders. Attention is also paid to illusion as a way of seeing, and its relevance in the counter-transference. The article concludes by looking at the way clients see therapists, tracing briefly the progression from self-pre-occupation to seeing the therapist as a separate other.     

镜像神经在药物心理渴求中的作用及机制

心理渴求是物质依赖者希望重新感受神经活性药物效应的渴望,其神经机制的早期影像研究,主要集中在前额皮质和奖赏中枢.镜像神经是新近发现的位于动作脑区,能理解、分析所观察动作的目的和性质,并通过内隐模拟,产生直接映射式的情绪和认知的神经.最新的研究发现尼古丁成瘾者在相关线索的刺激下,其镜像神经也能被激活.本研究旨在探索镜像神经参与相关线索下心理渴求形成的机制,为发展更可靠的依赖行为的生物学标记提供另一个重要目标,帮助人们更好地理解药物渴求形成的神经生物学基础与过程.     

模仿心理机制研究的历史、现状与展望

近年来模仿机制研究在深化皮亚杰理论的基础上,深入探讨了模仿与心理理解之间的发生、发展关系及其相互作用机制,并结合脑神经科学研究的最新进展,探讨模仿背后的脑神经机制。在梳理当前心理学、脑神经科学中TT理论、ST理论以及镜像神经理论研究的基础上,给出了进一步深化研究的展望。     

THE EXPLORATORY AND REFLECTIVE DOMAIN OF METAPHOR IN THE COMPARISON OF RELIGIONS

There has been a longstanding interest in discovering or uncovering resemblances among what are ostensibly diverse religious schemas by employing a range of methodological approaches and tools. However, it is generally considered a problematic undertaking. Jonathan Z. Smith has produced a large body of work aimed at explicating this and has tacitly based his model of comparison on metaphor, which is traditionally understood to connote similarity between two or more things, as based on a linguistic or pragmatic assessment. However, another possible approach is cognitive. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have championed the view of “conceptual metaphor,” which regards metaphor as being pervasive not only in language, but also in thought and action. Indeed, according to them, it basically structures our conceptual operations and hence views of the world through partially mapping knowledge across ontological domains, generally from the concrete to the abstract. I shall argue that a similar mechanism can fruitfully be applied to comparing religious schemas, as based on the postulated relationship between the domains of human and divine, physical and abstract, and as realized through expressions of journeying and reflection.     

STIMULUS EFFECTS ON LOCAL PREFERENCE: STIMULUS—RESPONSE CONTINGENCIES,STIMULUS—FOOD PAIRING,AND STIMULUS—FOOD CORRELATION

Four pigeons were trained in a procedure in which concurrent‐schedule food ratios changed unpredictably across seven unsignaled components after 10 food deliveries. Additional green‐key stimulus presentations also occurred on the two alternatives, sometimes in the same ratio as the component food ratio, and sometimes in the inverse ratio. In eight experimental conditions, we varied the contingencies surrounding these additional stimuli: In two conditions, stimulus onset and offset were noncontingent; in another two, stimulus onset was noncontingent, and offset was response contingent. In four conditions, both stimulus onset and offset were contingent, and in two of these conditions the stimulus was simultaneously paired with food delivery. Sensitivity to component food ratios was significantly higher when stimulus onset was response contingent compared to when it was noncontingent. Choice changes following food delivery were similar in all eight conditions. Choice changes following stimuli were smaller than those following food, and directionally were completely determined by the food‐ratio:stimulus‐ratio correlation, not by the stimulus contingency nor by whether the stimulus was paired with food or not. These results support the idea that conditional reinforcers may best be viewed as signals for next‐food location rather than as stimuli that have acquired hedonic value, at least when the signals are differential with respect to future conditions.     

Hierarchical resurgence

In resurgence, conventionally a target response is trained and then extinguished while some alternative response is reinforced. In the most common procedure, when the latter is extinguished, the former resurges. The present experiments examined resurgence after two responses were trained sequentially and subsequently extinguished. In Experiments 1 and 2, keypecking to one key was trained and then extinguished as keypecking to a different key was trained then later extinguished. In both experiments, regardless of the spatial location of the different keys, the last‐trained response resurged before the first‐trained one. The results were replicated in Experiment 3 where reinforcement rate of the first‐trained response was four times that of the second‐trained response. The results in conjunction with earlier experiments suggest that resurgence occurs hierarchically, although whether more or less recently trained target responses resurge first or later may depend on both current and historical variables. The results also raise questions about the interpretation of responding on a control key that sometimes is included in resurgence experiments to isolate resurgence from extinction‐induced responding.     

Embodied simulation: From neurons to phenomenal experience

The same neural structures involved in the unconscious modeling of our acting body in space also contribute to our awareness of the lived body and of the objects that the world contains. Neuroscientific research also shows that there are neural mechanisms mediating between the multi-level personal experience we entertain of our lived body, and the implicit certainties we simultaneously hold about others. Such personal and body-related experiential knowledge enables us to understand the actions performed by others, and to directly decode the emotions and sensations they experience. A common functional mechanism is at the basis of both body awareness and basic forms of social understanding: embodied simulation. It will be shown that the present proposal is consistent with some of the perspectives offered by phenomenology.