Do distracting activities increase tolerance for an infant cry?

Professionals recommend parents engage in distracting activities to mitigate negative effects of inconsolable infant crying (e.g., Deyo, Skybo, & Carroll, 2008; Goulet et al., 2009). We evaluated the availability of alternative activities on six undergraduates’ tolerance for a recorded infant cry; three students tolerated the cry longer when distracting activities were available. Our results show that distracting activities could decrease the aversiveness of inconsolable infant crying for some individuals; additional research in natural caregiving situations will help determine the generality and social validity of this finding.     

The role of temporal intervals on reinforcer accumulation

Animals accumulate reinforcers when they forgo the opportunity to consume available food in favor of acquiring additional food for later consumption. Laboratory research has shown that reinforcer accumulation is facilitated when an interval (either spatial or temporal) separates earning from consuming reinforcers. However, there has been no systematic investigation on the interval separating consuming reinforcers from earning additional reinforcers. This oversight is problematic because this second interval is an integral part of much of the previous research on reinforcer accumulation. The purpose of the current study was to determine the independent contributions of these two temporal intervals on reinforcer accumulation in rats. Each left lever press earned a single food pellet; delivery of the accumulated pellet(s) occurred upon a right lever press. Conditions varied based on the presence of either an intertrial interval (ITI) that separated pellet delivery from the further opportunity to accumulate more pellets, or a delay‐to‐reinforcement that separated the right lever press from the delivery of the accumulated pellet(s). Delay and ITI values of 0, 5, 10 and 20 s were investigated. The delay‐to‐reinforcement conditions produced greater accumulation relative to the ITI conditions, despite accumulation increasing the density of reinforcement more substantially in the ITI conditions. This finding suggests that the temporal separation between reinforcer accumulation and subsequent delivery and consumption was a more critical variable in controlling reinforcer accumulation.     

Theoretical implications of quantitative properties of interval timing and probability estimation in mouse and rat

Although theoretical discussions typically assume that positive and negative reinforcement differ, the literature contains little unambiguous evidence that they produce differential behavioral effects. To test whether the two types of consequences control behavior differently, we pitted money‐gain positive reinforcement and money‐loss‐avoidance negative reinforcement, scheduled through identically programmed variable‐cycle schedules, against each other in concurrent schedules. Contingencies of response‐produced feedback, normally different in positive and negative reinforcement, were made symmetrical. Steeper matching slopes were produced compared to a baseline consisting of all positive reinforcement. This free‐operant differential outcomes effect supports the notion that that stimulus‐presentation positive reinforcement and stimulus‐elimination negative reinforcement are functionally “different.” However, a control experiment showed that the feedback asymmetry of more traditional positive and negative reinforcement schedules also is sufficient to create a “difference” when the type of consequence is held constant. We offer these findings as a small step in meeting the very large challenge of moving negative reinforcement theory beyond decades of relative quiescence.     

Reinforcement,Rationality, and Intentions: How Robust Is Automatic Reinforcement Learning in Economic Decision Making?

Reinforcement learning is often observed in economic decision making and may lead to detrimental decisions. Because of its automaticity, it is difficult to avoid. In three experimental studies, we investigated whether this process could be controlled by goal intentions and implementation intentions. Participants' decisions were investigated in a probability‐updating task in which the normative rule to maximize expected payoff (Bayes' rule) conflicted with the reinforcement heuristic as a simple decision rule. Some participants were asked to set goal intentions designated to foster the optimization of rational decision making, while other participants were asked to furnish these goal intentions with implementation intentions. Results showed that controlling automatic processes of reinforcement learning is possible by means of goal intentions or implementation intentions that focus decision makers on the analysis of decision feedback. Importantly, such beneficial effects were not achieved by simply instructing participants to analyze the feedback, without defining a goal as the desired end state from a first‐person perspective. Regarding intentions supposed to shut down reinforcement processes by controlling negative affect, effects were more complex and depended on the specified goal‐directed behavior. The goal intention to suppress the disappointment elicited by negative feedback was not effective in controlling reinforcement processes. Furnishing this goal with an implementation intention even backfired and strengthened unwanted reinforcement processes. In contrast, asking participants to keep cool in response to negative decision outcomes through the use of goal intentions or implementation intentions increased decisions in line with Bayes' rule. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-control and mechanisms of behavior: Why self-control is not a natural mental kind

In this paper, I argue for two main hypotheses. First, that (philosophical) self-control is not a natural mental kind and, second, that there is no dedicated mechanism of self-control (indeed, the latter claim forms part of my argument for the former). By the first claim, I simply mean that those behaviors we label as “self-controlled” are a somewhat arbitrarily selected hodgepodge that do not have anything in common that distinguishes them from other behaviors. In other words, self-control is a gerrymandered property that does not correspond to a natural mental or psychological kind. By the second claim, I mean that self-controlled behaviors are not produced by a mechanism (or a set of them) that is not utilized in the production of other (non-self-controlled) behaviors. Not only is there no natural mental property of self-control, there is no mechanism (such as willpower) that is dedicated to producing self-controlled behavior. I further evaluate whether this account of self-control has enough explanatory power to account for a range of phenomena related to self-control (systematic self-control failures, etc.). I argue that my account does a better job of explaining these phenomena than accounts which appeal to a dedicated self-control mechanism.     

社会从众的生物学基础

社会从众是指个体改变态度或行为, 与他人保持一致的现象。社会认知神经科学采用社会心理学的实验范式研究发现：背内侧前额叶、纹状体、眶额皮层、脑岛、杏仁核和海马等多个脑区在社会从众中扮演重要角色; 能够提高多巴胺水平、改善大脑奖赏敏感性的某些神经递质可能间接影响从众。强化学习理论的奖惩预期可以部分解释社会从众的原因。未来研究应改进实验范式, 扩大研究群体, 借助神经、生化技术, 利用动物模型, 深入探讨社会从众的神经生物学基础。     

重复知盲效应的理论之争及脑机制

重复知盲现象自被发现至今已走过四分之一世纪, 这期间重复知盲的产生机制一直是争论的焦点, 并有标记个体化理论、类型节点不应期理论、竞争理论、提取失败理论和建构/归因理论等多种理论解释。大量研究证明, 重复知盲是一种视知觉失败现象, 但也有研究认为它是一种记忆失败现象。很多研究还发现, 重复知盲不仅受到呈现时间和间隔刺激个数的限制, 还受到实验材料的性质、刺激的空间位置及人们的反应方式等多种因素的影响。近些年来, 随着ERP和fMRI等技术的利用, 从更深层次揭示了重复知盲产生的脑机制。同时, 重复知盲也作为一种实验范式应用于视觉加工领域的研究中。目前关于重复知盲仍然有很多问题值得探索。     

时间心理学的新探索

时间是心理过程的存在方式,也是人格特征的存在方式。本文在综述国内外有关研究成果的基础上,对时间心理学研究的最新领域和热点问题进行了探索,主要包括三个方面：（1）时间知觉与意识,主要研究时间知觉和意识过程的关系,特别是探讨意识过程的时限和时间整合问题;（2）时间认知的脑机制,主要利用事件相关电位和脑成像技术探索时间信息加工的时程和功能定位问题;（3）时间人格研究,主要探讨时间洞察力的内涵和时间管理倾向的理论及其应用。     

音乐传达哲理性概念的认知神经机制

哲理性概念是音乐表现的对象之一。由于音乐不具有类似语言的语义性, 对哲理性概念的理解常常成为音乐欣赏者的困扰。基于此, 本项目聚焦于听者对哲理性概念的理解。通过选取音乐训练经历不同的人群为被试, 系统考察哲理性概念加工的认知神经机制。本项目成果将揭示音乐诱发哲理性概念加工的神经机制, 厘清音乐训练对音乐外在意义加工的作用, 从而在一定程度上回答人类对音乐意义理解的普遍性问题。     

人类疼痛表情研究进展

疼痛表情是人类疼痛表达的行为方式之一,具有重要的生存适应和社会交流价值。疼痛表情研究应当遵循行为观察方法,基于面部运动编码系统（Facial Action Coding System, FACS）的表情编码有助于疼痛表情的量化分析。年龄、性别、社会因素、文化背景等多种因素会影响疼痛表情表达,使疼痛表情在不同个体之间表现出共性和个性并存的特性。在不断改进研究方法的基础上,未来可对疼痛表情的生理心理机制作出更多阐述,并有望建立完备的人类疼痛表情信息库。