Choice between reliable and unreliable outcomes: mixed percentage-reinforcement in concurrent chains.

Pigeons' choices between alternatives that provided different percentages of reinforcement in mixed schedules were studied using the concurrent-chains procedure. In Experiment 1, the alternatives were terminal-link schedules that were equal in delay and magnitude of reinforcement, but that provided different percentages of reinforcement, with one schedule providing, reinforcement twice as reliably as the other. All pigeons preferred the more reliable schedule, and their level of preference was not systematically affected by variation in the absolute percentage values, or in the magnitude of reinforcement. In Experiment 2, preference for a schedule providing 100% reinforcement over one providing 33% reinforcement increased systematically with increases in the duration of the terminal links. In contrast, preference decreased systematically with increases in the duration of the initial links. Experiment 3 examined choice with equal percentages of reinforcement but unequal delays to reinforcement. Preference for the shorter delay to reinforcement was not systematically affected by variation in the absolute percentage of reinforcement. The overall pattern of results supported predictions based on an extension of the delay-reduction hypothesis to choice procedures involving mixed schedules of percentage reinforcement.     

Reply to silberberg and ziriax

Silberberg and Ziriax (1985) report that a modification of Vaughan's (1981) procedure produces results inconsistent with melioration (the position advocated by Vaughan) but consistent with a process they term molecular maximizing. Here it is argued that the theory of molecular maximization is not sufficiently unambiguous that researchers other than the developers can test its predictions, and that in any case none of the data presented by Silberberg and Ziriax are both clearly consistent with molecular maximization and inconsistent with melioration.     

More on concurrent interval-ratio schedules: a replication and review.

It has been suggested that the failure to maximize reinforcement on concurrent variable-interval, variable-ratio schedules may be misleading. Inasmuch as response costs are not directly measured, it is possible that subjects are optimally balancing the benefits of reinforcement against the costs of responding. To evaluate this hypothesis, pigeons were tested in a procedure in which interval and ratio schedules had equal response costs. On a concurrent variable time (VT), variable ratio-time (VRT) schedule, the VT schedule runs throughout the session and the VRT schedule is controlled by responses to a changeover key that switches from one schedule to the other. Reinforcement is presented independent of response. This schedule retains the essential features of concurrent VI VR, but eliminates differential response costs for the two alternatives. It therefore also eliminates at least one significant ambiguity about the reinforcement maximizing performance. Pigeons did not maximize rate of reinforcement on this procedure. Instead, their times spent on the alternative schedules matched the relative rates of reinforcement, even when schedule parameters were such that matching earned the lowest possible overall rate of reinforcement. It was further shown that the observed matching was not a procedural artifact arising from the constraints built into the schedule.     

James and Carnap on philosophical systems and the role of temperaments

The relationship between American pragmatism and logical empiricism is complicated at best. The received view is that by around the late 1930s or early 1940s pragmatism had been replaced, supplanted, or eclipsed by the younger and more logic-oriented form of empiricism developed in interwar Vienna. Recently, however, this picture has been challenged, and this paper offers further reasons for thinking that the received view is inadequate. Through a critical examination of William James's Pragmatism and “The Sentiment of Rationality” and Rudolf Carnap's “Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language” and other works, the paper builds a case for the existence of a rather striking correspondence between the work of one of pragmatism's most vaunted figures and the thought of logical empiricism's most famous advocate. Not only were both philosophers interested in what might be called metaphilosophy or the psychology of philosophy, both held very similar deflationary views.     

新冠疫情期间中小学教师工作-家庭冲突和抑郁:有调节的中介模型

本研究考察新冠疫情期间,工作-家庭冲突是否通过职业倦怠增加中小学教师抑郁水平,以及心理弹性是否调节该中介作用。1127名中小学教师参与线上调查,完成中小学教师工作-家庭冲突问卷、中小学教师职业倦怠问卷、抑郁自评量表及中学教师心理弹性量表。结果发现：(1)大多教师疫情前后工作生活情况、工作-家庭冲突与抑郁的状况变化不大,少数教师疫情期间工作生活情况、工作-家庭冲突与抑郁状况变差或好转;(2)教师工作-家庭冲突与抑郁、职业倦怠呈正相关,三者均与心理弹性负相关;(3)控制额外变量后,职业倦怠是工作-家庭冲突与抑郁间的中介变量,在疫情期间工作生活状态更好、更差以及与疫情前后没有差别的教师中均成立;(4)对于感知疫情后情况更好的教师,心理弹性调节了工作-家庭冲突与职业倦怠的关系。对于感知疫情后情况更差的教师,心理弹性调节了职业倦怠与抑郁的关系。因此,缓解工作-家庭冲突和职业倦怠、提高心理弹性可减少中小学教师抑郁,保持心理健康。     

A rich palette of Bible use: A theoretical and empirical contribution from the context of Protestant Christian primary schools in the Netherlands

The aim of this study is to gain empirical knowledge about how the Bible functions in the context of Protestant Christian primary schools in the Netherlands. It presents the results of an empirical explorative and qualitative study on the perceptions of teachers and school administrators (directors and internal supervisors) on the goals of Bible use in Protestant primary education, as well as the roles of teachers and pupils, and how these can be understood in terms of religious pedagogical models and theories. Five small focus group interviews with teachers and six interviews with school administrators revealed a variety of goals teachers hold regarding Bible use in education and a variety of divisions of teacher–learner roles in this regard. The findings also show some particular characteristics when compared with secondary schools.