Mangabeys (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cercocebus torquatus lunulatus</Emphasis>) solve the reverse contingency task without a modified procedure

Problem solving often relies on generating new responses while inhibiting others, particularly prepotent ones. A paradigm to study inhibitory abilities is the reverse contingency task (Boysen and Berntson in J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 21:82–86, 1995), in which two different quantities of food are offered to an individual who receives the array he did not choose. Therefore, mastery of the task demands selecting the smaller quantity to obtain the larger one. Several non-human primates have been tested in the reverse contingency task. To date, only great apes and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) have succeeded in the original task, with no need of procedural modifications as the large-or-none contingency, correction trials or symbolic stimuli substituting for actual food quantities. Here, four mangabeys were presented with two stimulus arrays of one and four raisins in the context of the reverse contingency task. Three of them learned to perform the task well above chance without a modified procedure. They also reached above-chance performance when presented with two stimulus arrays of zero and four raisins, despite the initial difficulty of choosing a null quantity. After a period of 7–10 months, in which the animals were not tested on any task, all three subjects continued to perform well, even when presented with novel quantity pairs.     

情境特异比例一致变化对冲突效应的影响

采用Hedge和Marsh任务与比例一致性操纵相结合,分别以刺激的空间位置和形状作为比例一致操纵的情境线索,考察刺激-反应联结学习与注意调节在比例一致效应中的作用。结果发现,在情境比例一致操纵下,冲突效应的效应量受到比例一致操纵的影响产生反转。表明刺激-反应联结学习在情境特异比例一致效应中起到主要作用。     

The Significance of Contingency and Detours in Hans Blumenberg’s Philosophical Anthropology

Although time was a predominate theme in Continental philosophy for the first half of the twentieth century, philosophical attention has increasingly shifted to space. This paper contributes to the phenomenology of space through Hans Blumenberg’s philosophical anthropology. Blumenberg elucidates the significance of phenomenological distance for the contingent existence of humans. Spanning from the experience of early human ancestors to history and epistemology, Blumenberg’s work reveals how contingency pervades human existence. Blumenberg understands names, myths, rhetoric, and metaphors as cultural techniques that function as means of self-preservation by distancing an overwhelming and disorienting reality and managing the felt contingency of human existence. Developing upon Blumenberg’s insights into human contingency and distance, the paper argues that detours offer a way to address the contemporary, existential issues posed by the increasing rate of technological change and environmental problems.     

Comparisons of standardized and interview-informed synthesized reinforcement contingencies relative to functional analysis

We compared the functions of problem behavior identified by (a) a functional analysis (FA), (b) an interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) that was informed by the results of an open-ended interview and a structured observation, and (c) a standardized-synthesized contingency analysis (SSCA) in which we synthesized three common functions of problem behavior across 12 individuals in a controlled consecutive case series. We then compared outcomes across assessments. The FA was sufficient in identifying the variables maintaining problem behavior for 11 of the 12 participants, replicating the findings of Fisher, Greer, Romani, Zangrillo, and Owen (2016). Error type (i.e., false positives, false negatives) and error prevalence were similar across functions identified by the IISCA and the SSCA, calling into question the utility of the open-ended interview and the structured observation that informed the IISCA.     

Using the Step it UP! Game to increase physical activity during physical-education classes

The Step it UP! Game is an interdependent group reinforcement contingency based on the Good Behavior Game. We evaluated the effects of the Step it UP! Game on the number of steps taken by 3rd-grade students during physical-education (PE) classes at a local public elementary school. We divided the class into 2 teams and awarded a “Step it UP! Champ” badge to the members of the team with the highest mean step totals at the end of each game. We used a reversal design to compare the mean number of steps taken while playing the game and during regular PE classes. Overall, participants took more steps while playing the game than they did during class periods without the game. When given the opportunity to choose playing the Step it UP! Game or having regular PE class during a follow-up session, 16 of 18 participants voted to play the game.     

The role of auditory context in action-effect-related motor adaptation

Previous research indicates that adding auditory effects to a (silent) action can lead to substantial efficiency gains in the performance of the action, while compromising the connection between the motor and the auditory event (e.g., by removing, or by delaying the auditory effects), leads the agent to compensate for the loss of auditory feedback by executing actions in a way which increases the probability of success or enhances feedback in other modalities, thus departing from the optimal action performance. The current study explored how this motor adaptation was affected when the quality of auditory feedback was reduced by contextual factors, while keeping the physical link between the action and auditory effect intact. In two experiments, participants elicited pure tones by pinching a force sensitive resistor (FSR). In some of the conditions action-effect contingency was reduced by intermixing externally initiated tones with the self-induced ones. Pinch-force measurements indicated that action optimization was affected by contextual factors. The influence of auditory context was the most pronounced when the discrimination of self-induced and external tones was made difficult by the similarity and temporal proximity of the self-induced and external tones. In these conditions, tone eliciting actions were more forceful in comparison to conditions in which no external tones were presented, and in comparison to conditions in which the external tones were easily distinguishable from self-induced ones. This suggests that contextual factors can induce similar motor adjustments as manipulating the physical connection between the action and its sensory consequences.     

PROBLEMS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY IN THE COURSE OF THEIR MODERN HISTORY

Abstract. It is misleading to speak of warfare between science and Christian theology, as Andrew White did in 1896. White also was mistaken in exaggerating the conflict between the church and Galileo and Copernicus. The more important issue between science and theology has to do with the mechanistic interpretation of nature. When he introduced the principle of inertia in his natural philosophy, René Descartes insisted that God's immutability renders it impossible for God to intervene in the creation. He reduced the idea of God to a deistic notion by speaking of motion exclusively as a property of bodies. Even though Isaac Newton offered a different view, the Cartesian view dominated subsequent thinking. This made dialogue with theology difficult. Michael Faraday, followed by Albert Einstein, introduced the idea of field; bodily phenomena were subordinated as manifestations of fields. The precursor of the idea of field is the Stoic idea of spirit, which is close to the biblical concept of spirit. Thomas Torrance and I have taken this concept of field as an occasion to reopen dialogue. Mechanistic thinking accounts for the tension between Darwinian thought and theology. In principle the tension can be resolved, because the Bible itself asserts that all living things were brought from the earth—that is, organic life emerged from inorganic matter. Thus, emergence, contingency, and novelty are consistent with Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Contingency can be related conceptually to the activity of God in creation.     

医学专业研究生扩招对其培养目标与模式的影响

从医学专业研究生招生的现状及目前研究生培养目标和模式中存在问题出发,分析了我国医学专业研究生招生规模不断扩大对研究生教育的影响,并针对以上变化和问题提出针对逐渐膨胀的医学研究生群体,应采取新的管理及教育模式,从而使研究生的质量和水平得到全面的提高,使我国医学研究生教育水平逐渐与世界接轨.     

权变管理理论与《易经》哲学思考

随着全球经济一体化的日益深入,组织所面临的内外环境更加复杂．权变管理理论对组织的决策、计划、领导等方面的作用越来越受到人们的重视,本文将结合《易经》哲学的一些观点从变化观、系统观、过程观等方面对权变管理理论进行探讨．     

Expression of negative affect during face‐to‐face interaction: a double video study of young infants' sensitivity to social contingency

The purpose was to assess infants' sensitivity to social contingency, taking affective state into account, during face‐to‐face interaction with the mother in a double video set‐up. Infants' behaviour during three sequences of live face‐to‐face interaction were compared to two sequences where the interaction between the infant and the mother was set out of phase, by presenting either the infant or the mother with a replay of their partners' behaviour during earlier live interaction. We found a significant negative correlation between the infant's degree of negative affect and the average time of looking at the mother during the live sequences. A median split was calculated to separate the infants into a high‐negative‐affect group and a low‐negative‐affect group on the basis of their emotional responses during the experiment. The low‐negative‐affect infants looked significantly more at their mothers than other foci during the live but not the replay sequences, while the high‐negative‐affect infants did not show this difference. The results suggest that 2–4‐month old infants are able to distinguish between experimental distortion of contingent aspects in live and replay sequences, but that this effect of the replay condition may not be shown by moderate to highly distressed infants. Our findings underline the importance of taking infants' emotional state into account in experiments intended to assess their capacity for intersubjective communication. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.