Rats (Rattus norvegicus) find occupancy of a restraint tube rewarding

Two experiments evaluated whether rats' occupancy of a restraint tube is reinforcing. In Experiment 1, each rat in the 0-min group moved freely in a chamber where a wall blocked access to a restraint tube. After 10 min the wall was removed, permitting 15 min of chamber access and tube entry. The other 2 groups were locked in the tube for 10 and 20 min respectively before release into the chamber for 15 min. Across sessions, rats locked up for 10 and 20 min entered the tube more frequently than rats in the 0-min group, and during the first 2 sessions rats in the 20-min group stayed in the tube longer than the other groups. Over sessions this difference disappeared. However, for all groups and sessions the mean percentage of session time in the tube exceeded chance expectations. This result suggests tube occupation was reinforcing. In Experiment 2’s Phase 1, rats could enter an open tube. On exiting, the tube door closed. A lever press opened the door for the rest of the 1-hr session. In Phase 2, these rats were locked in the tube for 10 min before the door opened. Upon exiting, the door closed. As in Phase 1, a lever press opened the door for the rest of the session. The latency between pressing and tube entry decreased over sessions, indicating that tube entry reinforced lever pressing. These results are difficult to reconcile with accounts of rat empathy based on the thesis that tube restraint distresses occupants.     

Breastfeeding and offspring’s compassion and empathy in adulthood: A study with an over 30-year follow-up

This study investigated whether breastfeeding predicts offspring’s dispositional compassion and empathy from early adulthood to middle age. The parents of the participants (N = 1,394) of the Young Finns study answered questions about breastfeeding in 1983, and the participants’ compassion and empathy were evaluated in 1997‒2012 (participants were aged 20‒50 years). Breastfeeding did not predict the course of compassion or empathy in adulthood at the age of 20‒50 years. The associations remained non-significant, when adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic factors, and a wide range of characteristics of the family environment (including mother’s gestational age; premature birth; birth weight; number of other children at home; parental mental disorder; parental relationship status; parental postnatal smoking; parental postnatal alcohol use; parenting behavior; and child’s externalizing behavior). In conclusion, breastfeeding seems not to predict offspring’s compassion or empathy in adulthood. The findings may present a hopeful perspective for children growing up with non-breastfeeding caregivers.     

Face detection in 2‐ to 6‐month‐old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species

Humans detect faces efficiently from a young age. Face detection is critical for infants to identify and learn from relevant social stimuli in their environments. Faces with eye contact are an especially salient stimulus, and attention to the eyes in infancy is linked to the emergence of later sociality. Despite the importance of both of these early social skills—attending to faces and attending to the eyes—surprisingly little is known about how they interact. We used eye tracking to explore whether eye contact influences infants' face detection. Longitudinally, we examined 2‐, 4‐, and 6‐month‐olds' (N = 65) visual scanning of complex image arrays with human and animal faces varying in eye contact and head orientation. Across all ages, infants displayed superior detection of faces with eye contact; however, this effect varied as a function of species and head orientation. Infants were more attentive to human than animal faces and were more sensitive to eye and head orientation for human faces compared to animal faces. Unexpectedly, human faces with both averted heads and eyes received the most attention. This pattern may reflect the early emergence of gaze following—the ability to look where another individual looks—which begins to develop around this age. Infants may be especially interested in averted gaze faces, providing early scaffolding for joint attention. This study represents the first investigation to document infants' attention patterns to faces systematically varying in their attentional states. Together, these findings suggest that infants develop early, specialized functional conspecific face detection.     

文学阅读如何影响读者的心理理论

文学阅读不但能提高读者的文学修养, 还能影响其心理状态。然而, 文学阅读经验是否一定能提高读者的心理理论仍然存有争议。近年来有关文学阅读与心理理论关系的实验性探讨不断增加。鉴于此, 作者从文本体裁、测量手段和个体差异角度分析了争议产生的原因。在此基础之上, 归纳了文学阅读影响心理理论的潜在机制, 即镜像神经系统和默认网络很可能是文学阅读促进心理理论提高的重要神经基础。     

慈悲冥想对利他行为的影响及其认知神经机制

慈悲冥想是一类旨在培养对自己和他人无条件的善意与同情的冥想练习方法, 主要包括慈心禅和怜悯禅修。诸多研究表明, 慈悲冥想可以促进练习者的利他行为。就影响机制而言, 慈悲冥想可能是通过增强对他人不幸的共情反应, 促进情绪的有效调控和提高亲社会动机来影响练习者的利他行为。未来的研究需选择更具生态效度的利他行为测量方法, 深入挖掘慈悲冥想影响利他行为的动态神经加工过程, 并尝试将慈悲冥想应用于临床群体。     

The Role of Referent and Expert Power in Mutual Help

This study explored the roles of referent power (i.e., influence based on sense of identification) and expert power (i.e., influence based on knowledge and expertise) in Schizophrenics Anonymous (SA), a mutual-help group for persons experiencing a schizophrenia-related illness. The study describes SA participants' experience of referent and expert power with SA members, SA leaders, and with mental health professionals. It also examines whether or not referent and expert power ascribed to fellow SA participants predicts the perceived helpfulness of the group. One hundred fifty-six SA participants were surveyed. Participants reported experiencing higher levels of referent power with fellow SA members and leaders than with mental health professionals. They reported higher levels of expert power for mental health professionals and SA leaders than for SA members. The respondents' ratings of their SA group's helpfulness was significantly correlated with ratings of referent and expert power. Although expert power was the best independent predictor of helpfulness, a significant interaction between referent and expert power indicated that when members reported high referent power, expert power was not related to helpfulness. These results are interpreted to suggest that there are multiple forms of social influence at work in mutual help.     

Welfare and Wealth, Poverty and Justice in Today’s World

This article argues that there is no sound basis for thinking that we have a general and strong duty to rectify disparities of wealth around the world, apart from the special case where some become wealthy by theft or fraud. The nearest thing we have to a rational morality for all has to be built on the interests of all, and they include substantial freedoms, but not substantial entitlements to others assistance. It is also pointed out that the situation of the worlds poor is not that of victims of disasters, but simply of less-developed technology, which can be repaired by full and free trade relations with others. The true savior of the worlds poor is the businessman, not the missionary. What we do need to do is strike down barriers to commerce, rather than requisition aid.     

A matter of facts

We discuss the justification of Bickle's “ruthless” reductionism. Bickle intends to show that we know enough about neurons to draw conclusions about the “whole” brain and about the mind. However, his reductionism does not take into account the complexity of the nervous system and the fact that new properties emerge at each significant level of integration from the coupled functioning of elementary components. From a methodological point of view, we argue that neuronal and cognitive models have to exert a mutual constraint(MC) on each other. This approach would refuse to award any priority of cognitive approaches over neuroscience, and reciprocally, to refuse any priority of neuroscience over cognitive approaches. MC thus argues against radicalreductionism at the methodological level.     

儒学是人类中心主义吗?

儒学主张“以人为中心”,是指以人的问题为中心,解决人与自然的关系问题,不是以人的利益为中心,主宰、掠夺自然的人类中心主义。儒学提倡以人与自然和谐统一为特征的德性主体,不是提倡以人与自然分离、对立为特征的认识和价值主体。儒学承认自然界的内在价值,同情、尊重一切生命的生存与权利,以“万物一体”为最高追求。     

A dialogue of unconsciouses. A contribution to the panel 'Jung and Ferenczi--the emergent conversation'

I want to explore the notion of 'mutual introjection, the developmental essence of an autobiographical dialogue', an idea that has recently crystallized in the continuing collaborative work of Gershon J. Molad of Israel and myself concerning the autobiographical contribution to the dialogue between analysis (Molad & Vida 2002). One of the sources of this crystallization is the experience of my consultative relationship with a Jungian colleague, who, after reading some of this collaborative work, paraphrased Jung's implication that if, in the course of treatment, the doctor is not as transformed as the patient, nothing has happened (1946). In this paper, I want to breathe some life into these theoretical-sounding words: 'mutual introjection, the developmental essence of an autobiographical dialogue'.