Reinforcement of vocalizations through contingent vocal imitation

Maternal vocal imitation of infant vocalizations is highly prevalent during face-to-face interactions of infants and their caregivers. Although maternal vocal imitation has been associated with later verbal development, its potentially reinforcing effect on infant vocalizations has not been explored experimentally. This study examined the reinforcing effect of maternal vocal imitation of infant vocalizations using a reversal probe BAB design. Eleven 3- to 8-month-old infants at high risk for developmental delays experienced contingent maternal vocal imitation during reinforcement conditions. Differential reinforcement of other behavior served as the control condition. The behavior of 10 infants showed evidence of a reinforcement effect. Results indicated that vocal imitations can serve to reinforce early infant vocalizations.     

Evaluation of fixed momentary dro schedules under signaled and unsignaled arrangements

Fixed momentary schedules of differential reinforcement of other behavior (FM DRO) generally have been ineffective as treatment for problem behavior. Because most early research on FM DRO included presentation of a signal at the end of the DRO interval, it is unclear whether the limited effects of FM DRO were due to (a) the momentary response requirement of the schedule per se or (b) discrimination of the contingency made more salient by the signal. To separate these two potential influences, we compared the effects of signaled versus unsignaled FM DRO with 4 individuals with developmental disabilities whose problem behavior was maintained by social-positive reinforcement. During signaled FM DRO, the experimenter presented a visual stimulus 3 s prior to the end of the DRO interval and delivered reinforcement contingent on the absence of problem behavior at the second the interval elapsed. Unsignaled DRO was identical except that interval termination was not signaled. Results indicated that signaled FM DRO was effective in decreasing 2 subjects' problem behavior, whereas an unsignaled schedule was required for the remaining 2 subjects. These results suggest that the response requirement per se of FM DRO may not be problematic if it is not easily discriminated.     

A multilevel multitrait‐multimethod analysis of self‐ and peer‐reported daily affective experiences

We examined the psychometric properties of an experience‐sampling measure of affect (PANAS) using data from self‐ and peer reports. A multivariate multilevel model was used to assess the reliability of the latent PANAS scales at the within‐ and between‐person level. Findings suggest satisfying internal consistencies for self‐ and peer reports of affective experiences at both levels of analysis. Convergent and discriminant validity of the two affect scales were examined by means of a multilevel multitrait‐multimethod approach (MLM‐MTMM) indicating distinct findings at the within‐ and between‐person level. These findings provide further insights into the structural relations between the two PANAS scales: Whereas positive and negative affect were unrelated at the between‐person level; they were negatively correlated at the within‐person level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential emotion attribution to neutral faces of own and other races

Past research has demonstrated differential recognition of emotion on faces of different races. This paper reports the first study to explore differential emotion attribution to neutral faces of different races. Chinese and Caucasian adults viewed a series of Chinese and Caucasian neutral faces and judged their outward facial expression: neutral, positive, or negative. The results showed that both Chinese and Caucasian viewers perceived more Chinese faces than Caucasian faces as neutral. Nevertheless, Chinese viewers attributed positive emotion to Caucasian faces more than to Chinese faces, whereas Caucasian viewers attributed negative emotion to Caucasian faces more than to Chinese faces. Moreover, Chinese viewers attributed negative and neutral emotion to the faces of both races without significant difference in frequency, whereas Caucasian viewers mostly attributed neutral emotion to the faces. These differences between Chinese and Caucasian viewers may be due to differential visual experience, culture, racial stereotype, or expectation of the experiment. We also used eye tracking among the Chinese participants to explore the relationship between face-processing strategy and emotion attribution to neutral faces. The results showed that the interaction between emotion attribution and face race was significant on face-processing strategy, such as fixation proportion on eyes and saccade amplitude. Additionally, pupil size during processing Caucasian faces was larger than during processing Chinese faces.     

胡煦之"体卦主爻说"及对"卦变说"与"错综说"之批评

胡煦是清初一位有独到见解的易学家,他考镜源流,参以心得,深契易理.胡煦根据<周易>建立的一套很精深的生成论哲学,不仅具有解经的意义,更含有哲学的意味.他提出的"体卦主爻说"比较严密地说明了卦爻的生成与变化,对<周易>中"内外往来,上下终始"的解释更为合理,更为贯通,从根本上纠正了"卦变说"与"错综说"之误,在易学史上具有重要价值.     

ANIMALS,ANIMISTS, AND ACADEMICS

Abstract. Animism is the label given to worldviews in which the world is understood to be a community of living persons, only some of whom are human. (An older use of the term to label a putative “belief in spirits” is less useful.) Animists inculcate locally meaningful means of communicating with other‐than‐human persons, especially in order to express respect. Ethnographic accounts of particular animist ways of engaging with animal persons are noted. I argue that ethologists interested in engaging respectfully with animals while researching cognition, behavior, and other critical issues may find their research methods and results enhanced by learning from animists about tested methods of communicating with animals. The mediation of animists in this communicative engagement between animals and those who research among them is proposed not as a romantic gloss on modernist culture but in full recognition that the challenge offered by dialogue with marginalized and excluded “others” may result in a reconfiguration of academic protocols. Nonetheless, this entry into full relationality is seriously posed as an improved means of achieving established goals of understanding animals, humans, and the world we coinhabit.     

Factors affecting compliance with reference check requests

Structured reference checks have been demonstrated to be a reliable and valid predictor of job performance. However, the reference check is a unique assessment method for personnel selection in that a third party, the reference provider, is the source of the critical information on the candidate. If a reference provider is unwilling to either partially or fully comply with a reference check request, the usefulness of the reference check is likely to be compromised. This study examined the factors affecting compliance of the potential reference provider with a reference check request. The sample consisted of 905 U.S. adults who were recruited through the Prolific online crowdsourcing platform ( https://prolific.ac ). We asked the participants a series of questions related to their actual experiences over the past year in responding to reference check requests. We also included a between‐subjects scenario that examined whether job candidate performance, relationship to job candidate, and method of providing the employment reference would affect hypothetical compliance. The results of the study can be used to more deeply understand the factors that are related to the compliance of the reference provider, and as a result, more fully understand the value of the reference check for selection.     

The persons‐in‐relation perspective: Towards a philosophy for counselling in society

This paper is the first in a planned series, which aims to articulate and synthesise the persons‐in‐relation perspective in counselling and psychotherapy, drawing together the contributions of the philosopher John Macmurray, the psychotherapist Ian Suttie and the psychoanalyst Ronald Fairbairn. The paper introduces the persons‐in‐relation perspective, derived from Macmurray's work. It outlines the historical and cultural context leading to the emergence of modernism, and the response of personalism. It summarises John Macmurray's life and philosophy, focusing on his account of knowledge, its relation to the senses and the emotions, and his view of persons, society and religion. The paper goes on to develop a hypothesis about the rise of counselling in Britain, linking it to the decline of religion, the conflict between individualism and collectivism, and the re‐emergence of the persons‐in‐relation perspective. It concludes by posing challenges for the person‐centred and psychodynamic orientations, and for counselling as a whole.     

Using pretreatment and posttreatment assessments to enhance and evaluate existing treatment packages.

Pretreatment assessment data were used to enhance an existing treatment package to reduce aggression and to increase positive social interactions between a young boy and his peers. Based on the results of pretreatment assessments, additional reinforcement (differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with adult attention) and punishment (performing a nonpreferred task during time-out) components were added to an existing nonresetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (access to peers unless aggression occurred) plus time-out procedure. A posttreatment component analysis of the additional treatment components indicated that the reinforcement component facilitated positive social interactions and the punishment component suppressed aggression towards peers.     

Reinforcement of inhibition

A differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior (DRO) schedule with trials and delayed reinforcement was investigated. Periodically a wheel was briefly available to rats, followed six seconds later by brief availability of a bar. Variable-ratio food reinforcement of wheel turns was adjusted to give 95% turns. After variable-ratio-five reinforcement of bar presses produced 100% pressing, then separate ratio schedules were used for presses following turns (turn presses) and presses following nonturns (nonturn presses). Increasing nonturn-press reinforcements decreased turns, even though total reinforcements increased. Reversal by decreasing nonturn-press reinforcements raised turns, though with hysteresis. Thus food reinforcement increased nonturns even though delayed six to ten seconds after nonturns, a delay that greatly reduces response reinforcement. Those and other results indicate that the turn decrease was not due to reinforcement of competing responses. Evidence against other alternatives, and the reduction of responding by increased reinforcement, indicate that the term inhibition is appropriate for the phenomenon reinforced. Response-specific inhibition appears appropriate for this particular kind, since its effects are more specific to particular responses than Pavlovian conditioned-inhibition. Response-specific inhibition seems best considered a behavioral output comparable to responses (e.g., both reinforcible) but with important properties different from responses (e.g., different reinforcement-delay gradients).