Is it relevant? Influence of trial manipulations of prospective memory context on task interference

The effects of blocked versus mixed presentation were tested on visual feature binding, assuming that blocked presentation enhances focused attention, whilst mixed presentation recruits extra attentional resources for intratrial as well as intertrial processing. The contextual interference effect suggests that although performance due to mixed presentation is either similar or worse than blocked presentation when tested immediately, it is better when tested after an interval. We explored whether this robust empirical effect, common in psychomotor performance, would be evident in visual feature binding. Stimuli were conjunctions of shape, colour, and location. Study–test intervals from 0 to 2,500 ms were used with a swap detection task. In Experiments 1A and 1B, participants ignored locations to detect shape–colour bindings. In Experiments 2A and 2B, they ignored shapes to detect colour–location binding. In Experiments 3A and 3B, they ignored colours to detect shape–location bindings. Whilst Experiments 1A, 2A, and 3A used blocked presentation, Experiments 1B, 2B, and 3B used mixed presentation of study–test intervals. The results of these experiments and a replication experiment using a within-subjects design showed that the contextual interference effect appeared when spatial attention was engaged, but not when attention was object based.     

儿童的注意瞬脱:注意在时间维度上的精细化发展

注意瞬脱体现了视觉注意短时加工多个目标的局限性,但牺牲对第二个目标的加工有益于对第一个目标的精细化加工,也体现了一种认知策略。这种同时加工多目标和保持目标特征之间的权衡体现在儿童注意瞬脱的发展中:随着年龄的增长,虽然牺牲了一些识别第二个目标的准确性,注意瞬脱更大,但瞬脱的时间窗口缩短,瞬脱恢复地更快,顺序交换错误和绑定错误更少,保证了对第一个目标的完整表征。这一发展轨迹体现了儿童视觉注意在时间维度上的精细化发展,这可能依赖于儿童知觉注意、工作记忆及抑制控制的发展。未来研究可以综合注意瞬脱各行为指标和神经相关物进一步探究其中的影响机制,还可以借助注意瞬脱范式探究儿童意识和跨通道整合能力的发展。     

视、听双重记忆原序报告成绩下降的可能的原因

本文两种交替报告中的通道转移最多,但是都没有引起成绩大幅度下降。     

动态还是静态?成分图像呈现方式对感知产品功效的影响

产品包装元素是影响产品功效的重要因素。前人研究集中探讨包装元素的数量、尺寸等特征对感知产品功效的影响, 缺乏深入探察成分图像不同呈现方式(动态 vs.静态)对感知产品功效的影响。鉴于此, 本文聚焦包装上的成分图像, 在科技赋能动态设计的现实背景下, 探究包装上成分图像的呈现方式(动态 vs. 静态)对感知产品功效的影响。通过三个情景实验和一个实验室实验发现:成分图像呈现方式会显著影响感知产品功效, 且心理意象在上述过程中发挥显著的中介作用, 同时感知绩效风险为上述中介效应成立的边界条件。本研究不仅拓展了心理意象和感知绩效风险的内涵和应用领域, 还为企业如何利用包装设计提高感知产品功效提供营销实践启示。     

Macaques’ (Macaca mulatta) use of numerical cues in maze trials

We tested the ability of number-trained rhesus monkeys to use Arabic numeral cues to discriminate between different series of maze trials and anticipate the final trial in each series. The monkeys prior experience with numerals also allowed us to investigate spontaneous transfer between series. A total of four monkeys were tested in two experiments. In both experiments, the monkeys were trained on a computerized task consisting of three reinforced maze trials followed by one nonreinforced trial. The goal of the maze was an Arabic numeral 3, which corresponded to the number of reinforced maze trials in the series. In experiment 1 (n=2), the monkeys were given probe trials of the numerals 2 and 4 and in experiment 2 (n=2), they were given probe trials of the numerals 2–8. The monkeys receiving the probe trials 2 and 4 showed some generalization to the new numerals and developed a pattern of performing more slowly on the nonreinforced trial than the reinforced trial before it for most series, indicating the use of the changing numeral cues to anticipate the nonreinforced trial. The monkeys receiving probe trials of the numerals 2–8 did not predict precisely when the nonreinforced trial would occur in each series, but they did incorporate the changing numerals into their strategy for performing the task. This study provides the first evidence that number-trained monkeys can use Arabic numerals to perform a task involving sequential presentations.     

THE USE OF AN ENHANCED SIMPLIFIED HABIT-REVERSAL PROCEDURE TO REDUCE DISRUPTIVE OUTBURSTS DURING ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

An enhanced simplified habit-reversal procedure was used with a 14-year-old boy who presented with a long history of disruptive, angry outbursts during tennis matches. Initial treatment involved simplified habit-reversal procedures delivered in a multiple baseline design across settings. Modest results led to additional supporting contingencies, including response cost. Results showed elimination of disruptive outbursts during both nontournament and tournament matches and highlight the importance of adding additional supporting contingencies to simplified habit reversal for some self-control problems.     

LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF A BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT FOR STUTTERING IN CHILDREN

We report 3.5-year follow-up data from children who participated in a study that evaluated a behavioral treatment for stuttering. Six of 7 subjects continued to be at or below the criterion of 3% stuttered words. Stuttering increased for 1 subject, but remained far below his baseline level. Social validity data are also reported.     

Pervasiveness of framing effects among physicians and medical students

Researchers have been documenting the influence of framing upon decision making for more than two decades; decisions appear to change in response to superficial changes in the presentation of possible outcomes. Several studies of medical decision making have revealed; for instance, that clinical decisions differ when options are presented as gains (survival rates) rather than losses (mortality rates). However, most studies of framing effects in the medical domain have utilized a very limited number of clinical problems that have not allowed an adequate test of the prevalence of the phenomena. To extend previous studies, we presented three groups of subjects (experienced internists, residents, and third-year medical students) with booklets containing twelve hypothetical medical cases. Half of the subjects received gain versions and half received loss versions of the same cases. Chi-square analyses revealed that framing did not influence any of the decisions of medical students and influenced the decisions of residents and experienced physicians on only two of the clinical problems (the same two problems). It appears that the prevalence of framing effects in the clinical domain may be limited.     

The effects of response cost and response restriction on a multiple-response repertoire with humans

In two experiments a multiple-response repertoire of four free-operant responses was developed with university students as subjects using monetary gain as reinforcement. Following baseline, one of the responses was reduced either by making monetary loss contingent upon it (response cost) or by removing it from the repertoire (response restriction). In Experiment 1 a multielement baseline design was employed in which baseline and restriction or response-cost contingencies alternated semirandomly every 3 minutes. In Experiment 2 a reversal design was employed (i.e., baseline, restriction or response cost, then baseline), and each response required a different amount of effort. Both experiments had the following results: (a) The target response decreased substantially; (b) most nontarget responses increased, and the rest remained near their baseline levels; and (c) no support was found for Dunham's hierarchical, most frequent follower, or greatest temporal similarity rules. For several subjects, the least probable responses during baseline increased most, and the most probable responses increased least. Furthermore, in Experiment 2, responses with the lowest frequency of reinforcement increased most (for all 7 subjects), and those with the greatest frequency of reinforcement increased least (for 5 subjects).     

Spatial Reversal as a Measure of Executive Functioning in Children With Autism

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the executive functioning performance of children with autism with chronological- and verbal-matched controls in a spatial-reversal task. Three groups of children participated in this experiment. One group was identified as having autism (7 boys), the 2nd group contained 7 typically developing children (6 boys, 1 girl) who were matched to the 1st group based on their verbal performance, and the 3rd group contained 7 typically functioning children (6 boys, 1 girl) matched to the 1st group based on chronological age. Each group was given a spatial-reversal task containing 2 problems. In the 1st problem, children selected a toy on a particular side in a pair. In the 2nd problem, the contingencies were reversed such that children were to choose the toy on the opposite side. Children with autism generally performed worse than comparison groups as indicated by their overall higher rate of errors. However, these results must be qualified by considering the performance for each problem: Errors for the children with autism were infrequent during the 1st problem but increased in the 2nd, whereas errors for comparison children showed the opposite pattern. When these results from the spatial-reversal task were intérpreted from the perspective of hypothesis-testing theory, the executive functioning deficiency of children with autism was found to involve the selection and testing of stereotypic response sets that were not likely to be revised or changed flexibly according to feedback from the environment or the demands of the task.