The role of impulses in shaping decisions

This paper explores the extent to which decision behavior is shaped by short‐lived reactions to the outcome of the most recent decision. We inspected repeated decision‐making behavior in two versions of each of two decision‐making tasks, an individual task and a strategic one. By regressing behavior onto the outcomes of recent decisions, we found that the upcoming decision was well predicted by the most recent outcome alone, with the tendency to repeat a previous action being affected both by its actual outcome and by the outcomes of actions not taken. Because the goodness of predictions based on the most recent outcome did not diminish as participants gained experience with the task, we conclude that repeated decisions are continuously affected by impulsive reactions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人名相关自我加工的时间过程——事件相关电位研究提供的电生理证据

本研究采用事件相关电位技术（ERP）探讨了自我名字加工的神经机制。实验中向被试随机呈现大圆、小圆及名字,被试的任务是辨别大圆和小圆,名字是任务无关刺激。实验结果表明,被试自己的名字引发的P2及P3波幅都显著高于名人的名字及陌生人的名字。 与以往研究结果不同,本研究发现了P2波幅上的“自我名字效应”,即,人名相关的自我加工不仅表现在晚期成分P3上,同时还表现在早期成分P2上。所以,人名相关的自我加工过程分为早期和晚期两个加工阶段,前一个阶段可能是自动化加工,不需要意识参与,后一个阶段是意识加工。     

A Brief Pause between a Tagline and Brand Increases Brand Name Recognition and Preference

This paper explores the outcome of the visual encoding of brands in meaningful sentences (i.e. in taglines) on brand name recognition and preference. In this paper, it is shown that, above and beyond the role of conceptual priming during encoding at increasing recognition memory, there is a role of creating a temporal delay, or pause, between meaningful cues in the sentence and a key word (Experiment 1) or brand (Experiments 2a and 3) on memory. The pause is also associated with increased preference towards brands (Experiment 2b). These findings demonstrate a new way to enhance recognition of brand names that is not due to a pure generation effect but rather by increasing attention, which increases processing fluency of the target. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of atropine on the repeated acquisition and performance of response sequences in humans.

The present study assessed a 24-hr time course for the acute effects of intramuscular injections of atropine sulfate (0, 1.5, 3.0, and 6.0 mg/70 kg) in healthy adult humans responding under a two-component multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response sequences. Subjects resided in an inpatient research ward for the duration of the study. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed a different sequence of 10 responses in a predetermined order using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, the subjects' task was to acquire a new sequence each session. Eight sessions were conducted daily: one immediately before administration of the drug and then 0.5, 1.5, 3.0, 5.0, 7.0, 9.0, and 24.0 hr after administration. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Overall percentage of errors increased and overall response rates decreased in the acquisition and performance components as an orderly function of drug dose. However, these effects were selective in that behavior in the acquisition component generally was affected at lower doses than in the performance component. When behavior was affected in both the acquisition and performance components, the time courses of effects were similar. Drug effects began at 0.5 or 1.5 hr, reached peak effects between 3.0 and 5.0 hr, and returned to placebo levels between 7.0 and 9.0 hr postdrug in both schedule components. None of the drug doses produced reliable effects the day after drug administration (24-hr postdrug) in either schedule component. The present study provides the first within-subject assessment of the magnitude and duration of the effects of an anticholinergic on repeated acquisition and performance baselines and extends to atropine the selective effects on these two baselines demonstrated previously with other compounds in humans and nonhumans.     

Tests for equality of several alpha coefficients when their sample estimates are dependent

In a variety of measurement situations, the researcher may wish to compare the reliabilities of several instruments administered to the same sample of subjects. This paper presents eleven statistical procedures which test the equality ofm coefficient alphas when the sample alpha coefficients are dependent. Several of the procedures are derived in detail, and numerical examples are given for two. Since all of the procedures depend on approximate asymptotic results, Monte Carlo methods are used to assess the accuracy of the procedures for sample sizes of 50, 100, and 200. Both control of Type I error and power are evaluated by computer simulation. Two of the procedures are unable to control Type I errors satisfactorily. The remaining nine procedures perform properly, but three are somewhat superior in power and Type I error control.A more detailed version of this paper is also available.     

An alternative test for multisample sphericity

A test for multisample sphericity based on the efficient scores criterion is obtained as an alternative to the likelihood ratio test developed by Mendoza.     

Behavior changes during repeated eight-day extinctions

Pigeons were given repeated two-day conditionings alternating with eight-day extinctions using a trial procedure. One group had different key colors during each of the first five conditioning-extinction pairs; another group had the same key color throughout. Total extinction responses of both groups were quite constant over successive extinctions. This finding differs from the rapid declines found in most previous studies with bar-press and key-peck responses. The difference probably was due to our longer extinctions, because responses early in each extinction did decrease. However, that decrease was neutralized by increases in responses late in each extinction. The two opposite changes indicate the influence of two different factors during repeated extinctions, with neither factor having much stimulus specificity. The reduction of early responses may result from feeding changes confounded with extinction. The increase in later extinction responses may result from a decrease in the effect of unreinforced responses after their repeated occurrence.     

Univariate repeated measures techniques applied to multivariate data

Repeated measures designs in psychology have traditionally been analyzed by the univariate mixed model approach, in which the repeated measures effect is tested against an error term based on the subject by treatment interaction. This paper considers the extension of this analysis to designs in which the individual repeated measures are multivariate. Sufficient conditions for a valid multivariate mixed model analysis are given, and a test is described to determine whether or not given data satisfy these conditions.     

A significance test for multisample sphericity

The paper obtains a maximum likelihood criterion test for multisample sphericity. The test contains Mauchly's sphericity test as a special case.I would like to thank Professor R. E. Bargmann for his most valuable help.     

Constructing measures with maximum reliability

The scoring of response vectors to give maximum test-retest correlation is investigated. Simple sufficiency arguments show that the form of the best scores is very restricted. A general method is given for finding the best scores, deriving the best scores for the normal factor model, and showing by calculation of several particular cases that for a standard model for binary response it is easy to approximate the best scores.