Visual reinforcement in the female Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens

Operant conditioning with Betta splendens (Bettas) has been investigated extensively using males of the species. Ethological studies of female Bettas have revealed aggressive interactions that qualitatively parallel those between male Bettas. Given these similarities, four experiments were conducted with female Bettas to examine the generality of a widely reported finding with males: mirror-image reinforcement. Swimming through a ring was reinforced by a 10-s mirror presentation. As with males, ring swimming was acquired and maintained when mirror presentations were immediate (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and delayed (Experiment 4). The failure of conventional extinction (Experiments 1 and 2) and response-independent mirror presentations (Experiment 3) to maintain responding confirmed the reinforcing properties of mirror presentation. These results extend previous findings of mirror images as reinforcers in males of the same species and illustrate a complementarity between behavioral ecology and the experimental analysis of behavior.     

时间限制和成就动机对职业决策线索加工的影响

采用信息板技术探讨了时间限制条件下成就动机对职业决策线索加工的影响.结果表明:(1)时间限制影响了个体职业选择过程的平均决策时间、信息搜索深度和信息搜索模式,但未对决策满意度造成显著影响;(2)追求成功动机影响决策时的信息搜索模式,避免失败动机影响决策时的信息搜索深度.     

Infant brain responses to live face-to-face interaction with their mothers: Combining functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) with a modified still-face paradigm

BackgroundNon-invasive imaging techniques, such as fNIRS, allow us to shed light on the neural correlates of infant’s social-emotional development within the context of parent-infant interaction. On a behavioral level, numerous studies have investigated parent-infant interaction employing the still-face paradigm and found that the primary caregiver(s), often the mother, is an important coregulator of the infant’s physiological and behavioral stress response. However, limited information is available on how the infant’s brain reacts to the maternal cues during real-life interaction.MethodsTherefore, the main aim of the current study was to design a fNIRS paradigm to study live mother-infant interaction and to explore the neural correlates of infant affect regulation during real-life dyadic interaction. To this end, a modified still-face paradigm was designed, which consists of live face-to-face mother-infant, and stranger-infant, interaction episodes, including stressful, “still-face” and non-stressful, “happy-face” interaction blocks, combined with infant fNIRS imaging.ResultsHemodynamic brain responses were collected in n = 10 (6 females, mean age 230.2 ± 17.5 days), typically developing infants using the Hitachi ETG-4000 continuous-wave system (22 channels spanning the frontal cortex; 10 Hz system sampling frequency). Infants with usable data (n = 7) showed negative activations, indicated by a decrease in oxygenated hemoglobin, over the middle frontal gyrus in response to happy-face (reunion) interaction with their mothers compared to a female stranger; suggesting deactivation of brain regions associated with affect regulation. We also explored correlations between infant brain responses to maternal interaction and infant characteristics (temperament) as well as experiential/environmental factors (mothers’ self-reported depression symptoms).ConclusionsAlthough the current results are very preliminary, they overall suggest that live design in infant populations is doable and offers unique opportunities to study the neural mechanisms underlying early caregiver(s)-child interaction in a more naturalistic context. Restrictions, and implications, of the methodology are critically discussed.     

社会规约性及呈现方式对理解会话中的间接回应的影响

间接回应是语言交流中很常见的形式。该研究采用自定步速阅读范式考察社会规约性及呈现方式对理解间接回应的影响。将社会规约性分为高、中、低三个水平,分别对应直接回应、间接拒绝、间接评价三种回应方式,呈现方式采用整句呈现和逐词呈现两种方式。结果发现,在整句呈现时,三种回应方式的阅读时间随规约性高低呈梯度变化,即直接回应的阅读时间最短,间接拒绝次之,间接评价最长; 而逐词呈现时,对间接拒绝和直接回应的阅读时间没有差异,都长于对间接评价的阅读时间。结果表明了社会规约性及呈现方式对间接回应的理解存在交互影响。     

The relationship between cognitive ability and personality scores in selection situations: A meta‐analysis

Several faking theories have identified applicants’ cognitive ability (CA) as a determinant of faking—the intentional distortion of answers by candidates—but the corresponding empirical findings in the area of personality tests are often ambiguous. Following the assumption that CA is important for faking, we expected applicants with high CA to show higher personality scores in selection situations, leading in this case to significant correlations between CA and personality scores, but not in nonselection situations. This meta‐analysis (66 studies, k = 115 individual samples, N = 46,265) showed this pattern of results as well as moderation effects for the study design (laboratory vs. field), the response format of the personality test, and the type of CA test.     

Searching for salvation: An analysis of US religious searching on the World Wide Web

Ministerial itinerancy is characteristic of, although not exclusive to, the British Methodist Church. Rational choice theorists Finke and Starke have claimed that, historically, itinerancy has served to promote and reinforce instrumental commitment to the local church. This article develops and assesses a rational choice analysis of the effects of ministerial itinerancy on the organisational commitment of Methodist congregations and their ministers. It concludes that rational choice theory can only offer a partial analysis and fails to take into account less instrumental forms of organisational commitment. The article surveys the current debate within the Methodist Church about the future of ministerial itinerancy and suggests that the Church may be in the process of recognising that ‘moving ministers’ is not necessarily good at ‘moving congregations’ to embrace the national Church's priorities. The article predicts that itinerancy will remain an important feature, but not a defining characteristic, of the Methodist ministry and will no longer tend to ‘go with the job’.     

The Origins of Walter Benjamin's Concept of Philosophical Critique

Focusing on Walter Benjamin's earliest pieces dedicated to school reform and the student movement, this article traces the basic critical approaches informing his mature thought back to his struggle to critically implement and transform the theory of concept formation and value presentation developed by his Freiburg teacher, Heinrich Rickert. It begins with an account of Rickert's work, specifically of the concept of Darstellung (presentation) and its central role in Rickert's postmetaphysical theory of historical research (which he characterizes as exclusively concerned with the Kantian quid juris). It shows that Rickert develops a speculative but practical theory of value recognition, which nevertheless leaves the status of value itself undetermined. Contra Rickert, Benjamin returns to the ignored quid facti, or origin of value, and shows that a metacritical, postmetaphysical approach such as Rickert's ultimately limits possible experience rather than grounding it. This basic insight, it is argued, is the cornerstone of Benjamin's concept of critique.     

Representation,Presentation and the Epistemic Role of Perceptual Experience

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the representational theory of perception, on which the world is represented as being a certain way in perceptual experience, cannot explain how there can be a genuinely epistemic connection between experience and belief. I try to show that we are positively required to deny that perceptual consciousness is contentful if we want to make its fitness for epistemic duties intelligible. (So versions of the representational theory on which experience has a merely causal purchase on belief are not considered.) But my aim is not just negative. I try to defeat representationalism in such a way as to motivate a robustly presentational theory of perception. According to such a theory, perceptions are relations not between a subject and a content but between a subject and an ordinary object (such that if the relation holds at t, an appropriate subject and object must exist at t, and the object must be presented to the subject). I end by sketching an account of perceptual experience that is meant to show that, contrary to a very popular misconception, there is a way to conceive perceptual consciousness as relational and presentational (not intentional and representational) that does not succumb to the celebrated ‘myth of the Given’.     

Chin prompt plus re-presentation as treatment for expulsion in children with feeding disorders

Expulsion (spitting out food) is a problem behavior observed in many children with feeding disorders. In the current investigation, we identified 4 children diagnosed with a feeding disorder who exhibited high rates of expulsion. Treatment with re-presentation (placing expelled liquids or solids back into the child's mouth) was not effective in reducing expulsion. Therefore, we added a chin-prompt procedure (the feeder applied gentle upward pressure to the child's chin and lower lip) for the initial presentation and the re-presentation. Chin prompt plus re-presentation resulted in low rates of expulsion for all 4 children. The results are discussed in terms of the potential underlying mechanisms behind the effectiveness of the chin-prompt procedure.     

注意缺陷多动障碍儿童的表征搜索

为探索ADHD儿童在时间维度上的视觉选择性注意的基本机制,揭示其表征搜索能力是否存在缺陷,研究采用RSVP范式,通过实验材料(字母和数字)和呈现方式操作两种搜索方式:序列搜索和平行搜索,比较ADHD儿童(18名)和控制组儿童(17名)的成绩差异。结果发现:①在平行搜索和序列搜索条件下,ADHD儿童的成绩均低于正常控制组;②比较平行搜索和序列搜索条件下的成绩变化,以及由低难度到高难度上成绩的变化,无论是正确率还是反应时均发现ADHD儿童和正常儿童具有相同的成绩变化模式。结论认为ADHD儿童在视觉选择性注意的基本搜索机制上并不存在明显缺陷。