Accuracy of discrimination,rate of responding,and resistance to change

Pigeons were trained on multiple schedules in which responding on a center key produced matching-to-sample trials according to the same variable-interval 30-s schedules in both components. Matching trials consisted of a vertical or tilted line sample on the center key followed by vertical and tilted comparisons on the side keys. Correct responses to comparison stimuli were reinforced with probability .80 in the rich component and .20 in the lean component. Baseline response rates and matching accuracies generally were higher in the rich component, consistent with previous research. When performance was disrupted by prefeeding, response-independent food during intercomponent intervals, intrusion of a delay between sample and comparison stimuli, or extinction, both response rates and matching accuracies generally decreased. Proportions of baseline response rate were greater in the rich component for all disrupters except delay, which had relatively small and inconsistent effects on response rate. By contrast, delay had large and consistent effects on matching accuracy, and proportions of baseline matching accuracy were greater in the rich component for all four disrupters. The dissociation of response rate and accuracy with delay reflects the localized impact of delay on matching performance. The similarity of the data for response rate and accuracy with prefeeding, response-independent food, and extinction shows that matching performance, like response rate, is more resistant to change in a rich than in a lean component. This result extends resistance to change analyses from the frequency of response emission to the degree of stimulus control, and suggests that the strength of discriminating, like the strength of responding, is positively related to rate of reinforcement.     

Neural correlates of successful and unsuccessful verbal memory encoding

Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that episodic memory encoding involves a network of neocortical structures which may act interdependently with medial temporal lobe (mTL) structures to promote the formation of durable memories, and that activation in certain structures is modulated according to task performance. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to determine the neural structures recruited during a verbal episodic encoding task and to examine the relationship between activation during encoding and subsequent recognition memory performance across subjects. Our results show performance-correlated activation during encoding both in neocortical and medial temporal structures. Neocortical activations associated with later successful and unsuccessful recognition memory were found to differ not only in magnitude, but also in hemispheric laterality. These performance-related hemispheric effects, which have not been previously reported, may correspond to between-subject differences in encoding strategy.     

视觉搜索中多目标追踪的研究

在视觉信息的选择加工过程中 ,只有很少信息能够通过注意系统得到进一步的认知加工 ,其中视觉搜索起着十分重要的作用。本研究基于动态视觉信息注意追踪的研究 ,采用 3× 2× 2的实验设计 ,从如下三方面对注意追踪的规律进行了探讨 :(1)分心物数量 (1,5和 9)的变化对多目标注意追踪的影响 ;(2 )目标的显著性 (特征变化和特征不变 )对多目标注意追踪的影响 ;(3)目标运动形式 (目标随机运动和目标运动形式不变 )对多目标注意追踪的影响。研究结果表明 :(1)分心物数量的增加对目标的注意识别没有抑制作用 ;(2 )特征变化目标的注意识别速度显著高于特征不变的目标 ;(3)运动形式不变的目标较运动形式变化目标的注意识别速度快。     

班级结构对留守儿童心理健康的影响:同化还是对比效应?

基于河南和陕西两省17所农村学校4~9年级103个班级内4021名学生的调查数据,分析了班级结构(一般农村儿童在班级中所占比例)对不同家庭背景儿童心理健康的影响机制.采用学校固定效应模型控制校际间差异后发现:(1)对于自尊和未来压力感知,班级结构存在对比效应,即班级内一般农村儿童比例越高,留守儿童的自尊水平越低,特殊结构家庭的儿童会感知到的未来压力更大,但对一般农村家庭儿童的影响不显著;(2)对于抑郁症状,班级结构则存在同化效应,即所在班级内其他学生的平均抑郁水平对个体自身的抑郁症状有显著的预测作用.     

An exploratory study of psychodynamic therapists’ working with people with multiple sclerosis

There is little published on working psychodynamically with chronic illness and even less on the clinical insights of therapists working with people with multiple sclerosis. The objective of this study was to consider therapists’ reflections on the impact of multiple sclerosis on the internal worlds of clients with multiple sclerosis. I would also like to think about the challenges multiple sclerosis presents and how these challenges are worked with therapeutically. Finally, the impact of my multiple sclerosis diagnosis upon the research interviews was considered. Twelve counsellors / psychotherapists who had experience of working with clients with multiple sclerosis were interviewed. Data was analysed thematically and the findings revealed a number of significant themes. Denial appeared significant both for those with multiple sclerosis and those therapists working with them. Therapists also identified that people with multiple sclerosis hold a range of conscious and unconscious feelings in relation to their multiple sclerosis. Also, the meanings and impact of multiple sclerosis are broad and idiosyncratic. Therapists also faced a number of challenges in their work with people with multiple sclerosis: powerful countertransference feelings which could disable the therapy, embodied countertransference, the tendency to make generalisations, the physical reality of multiple sclerosis and its impact upon continuity, therapists’ unconscious phantasy and associations which if unaddressed could impact their ability to work with illness and the pressure multiple sclerosis placed on therapeutic boundaries. Therapists within the study recognised the need to work with both the physical reality of multiple sclerosis, as well as its psychological impact while at the same time keeping themselves open to powerful countertransference feelings and using them in the service of the therapy. The study has implications for theory, practice and future research.     

Embracing Chance Tactically: A Different Perspective on Risk Taking

Although they value certainty, people are willing to take risks to avoid losses. Consequently, they are risk‐seeking in the domain of losses but risk‐avoidant in the domain of gains. This behavior, frequently demonstrated in framing experiments, is traditionally explained in terms of prospect theory. We suggest a different account whereby involving chance in one's decisions may serve a strategic impression‐formation function. In the domain of losses actors may embrace chance to distance themselves from the outcomes and deflect possible blame. Given potential gains, however, actors may avoid uncertainty to enhance their association with valued outcomes. We test this idea by manipulating the level of actors' personal responsibility for the decision outcomes. The results of four studies consistently showed that when personal responsibility is high, the original framing effect is replicated (i.e., greater risk‐taking when choices are framed in terms of losses rather than gains). However, when because of assigned role or decision circumstances, actors experience low personal responsibility for the outcomes, and the classic framing effect is eliminated. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Early Positive Information Impacts Final Evaluations: No Deliberation‐Without‐Attention Effect and a Test of a Dynamic Judgment Model

Evaluation judgments were affected by information order and not by subsequent unconscious versus conscious deliberation. In three experiments, we examined the influence of early positive information on final evaluations of four objects. Based on a task analysis, we predicted primacy effects in judgments in a sequential data acquisition task. Thinking periods following presentation were used to manipulate conscious or unconscious processing. In all three studies, we found no effects of thinking manipulations but instead found reliable order effects. We developed and tested an online judgment model on the basis of the belief updating model of Hogarth and Einhorn. The model accounted for large proportion of the individual level variability, and model comparison tests supported the presence of a primacy effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ACTIONS AND AGENTS: NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL RECONSIDERED

Using a process‐oriented understanding of the relation between actions and agents, the author argues that an ontological agent is the ongoing effect or by‐product rather than the antecedent cause of actions. Applied to the relation between natural and supernatural in philosophical cosmology, this allows one to claim, first, that agents (whether natural or supernatural) are not sensibly perceived, but only inferred from the ongoing observation of empirical actions; second, that the distinction between the natural and the supernatural is then conceivably a distinction between interrelated processes rather than between independently existing agents; and third, that a higher order process of supernatural origin could be operative in a lower order empirical process without interference even though its existence and activity could only be established on the basis of a faith commitment, not empirical evidence. What Paul Ricoeur referred to as a “surplus of meaning” over and above the scientific explanation of an event would be in play with the claim of divine guidance for the cosmic process.     

The contribution of self‐deceptive enhancement to display rules in the United States and Japan

Socially desirable responding was tested as a mediator of American and Japanese college student differences in display rules. Americans endorsed the expression of anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, and surprise more than the Japanese. Americans also exhibited more self‐deceptive enhancement than the Japanese, and self‐deceptive enhancement partially mediated country differences on the endorsement of anger, disgust, happiness, and surprise, but not contempt and fear. These findings highlight the role of self‐deceptive enhancement in contributing to expressive display rules and support the point of view that socially desirable responding is a reflection of one's personality and culture rather than a statistical nuisance.