Social Context and the Dynamics of Cooperative Choice

Recent work using decontextualized economic games suggests that cooperation is a dynamic decision‐making process: Automatic responses typically support cooperation on average, while deliberation leads to increased selfishness. Here, we performed two studies examining how these temporal effects generalize to games with richer social context cues. Study 1 found that time pressure increased cooperation to a similar extent in games played with in‐group members and out‐group members. Study 2 found that time pressure increased cooperation to a similar extent in games described as competitions and games described as collaborations. These results show that previous positive effects of time pressure on cooperation are not unique to neutrally framed games devoid of social context and are not driven by implicit assumptions of shared group membership or cooperative norms. In doing so, our findings provide further insight into the cognitive underpinnings of cooperative decision making. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

未来时间洞察力的目标作用

未来时间洞察力是个体对未来时间的认知、体验和行动（或行动倾向）的一种人格特质,其目标不仅架起了现在与未来的桥梁,也影响个体的认知与行为,并且不同目标还具有不同的动力作用。但个体如何建构未来目标、确立优势目标等,需做进一步研究。     

整合模型还是占优启发式模型? 从齐当别模型视角进行的检验

实验从齐当别模型的视角,通过对决策过程反应时的考察分别对以累积预期理论(cumulative prospect theory)为代表的整合模型和启发式模型家族的重要成员--占优启发式模型(priority heuristic)--进行检验。结果表明,决策过程反应时并未随着占优启发式模型所假定的决策步骤的增加而变慢;也未随着选项之间整体值差值的变大而变快;模糊决策过程的反应时反而快于风险决策过程的反应时。无论是以累积预期理论为代表的整合模型还是占优启发式模型均不能满意地描述和解释人们的实际决策过程,而齐当别模型则能解释大部分实验结果。文章建议多角度、多指标探讨人们的决策过程,检验、修改、完善,以及建立新的启发式模型或决策过程模型(process model),以增进对人们如何进行风险决策的理解。     

Thinking about the past,present, and future: Time perspective and self-esteem in adolescents,young adults,middle-aged adults,and older adults

We examined time perspective and self-esteem in adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults. Time perspective was measured with scales that assess relative orientations and relationships among the past, present, and future. Age effects were examined with standard analytic strategies to determine categorical differences between age groups and with new statistical techniques designed to show continuous age patterns. Findings indicated that (1) thinking about the future was greatest for adolescents and young adults and lowest for middle-aged and older adults, and thinking about the present increased across ages; (2) fewer adolescents and middle-aged participants perceived that the time periods were interrelated compared to younger and older adults; and (3) across ages, a greater emphasis towards the past compared to other time periods was associated with lower self-esteem, whereas emphasizing the present and the future jointly was associated with higher self-esteem.     

The fast and the female: Gender differences in wellbeing and wage consequences of commute impedance

At equal distance, the impedance created by traffic congestion strongly affects the duration of commute. Extant literature indicates that commute impedance negatively affects wellbeing, distinctly from the distance and the duration of commute. These negative effects are reported to be larger for women. Consequently, workers, especially females, must be willing to accept lower wages if reaching the job location entails fewer traffic congestions and accommodates a speedier commute. Using the Canadian General Social Survey of 2015 and the Census of 2016, the present paper assesses the wellbeing and wage consequences of commute impedance on men and women who drive to work. The study first demonstrates that the negative impact of commute impedance on wellbeing is greater for women. Second, consistent with the greater negative effect of traffic congestion on their wellbeing, women appear to pay a price off their wages, in order to avoid commute impedance. The policy implications are discussed.     

Using automatic face analysis to score infant behaviour from video collected online

Online testing of infants by recording video with a webcam has the potential to improve the replicability of developmental studies by facilitating larger sample sizes and by allowing methods (including recruitment) to be specified in code. However, the recorded video still needs to be manually scored. This labour-intensive process puts downward pressure on sample sizes and requires subjective judgements that may not be reproducible in a different laboratory. Here we present the first fully automatic pipeline, using a face analysis software-as-a-service and a discriminant-analysis classifier to score infant videos acquired online. We compare human and machine performance for looking time and preferential looking paradigms; machine performance demonstrates a promising proof of principle for looking time and is above chance in classifying preferential looking. Additionally, we studied the characteristics of the video and the child that influenced automated scoring, so that future studies can acquire data that maximises the performance of automatic gaze coding and/or focus on improving automatic coding for particularly challenging data. We believe this technology has great promise for developmental science.     

Preference for free or forced choice in Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii)

Empirical investigations of humans, pigeons, rats, and monkeys have indicated that these species will select free over forced choice, even when faced with identical outcomes. However, the same has yet to be quantitatively confirmed in nonhuman great apes. This experiment is the first systematic investigation of preference for free or forced choice in great apes using a paradigm in which extraneous variables are highly controlled. Three orangutans were given a choice of one of two virtual routes, one that provided a choice and one that did not via a touchscreen computer program. Choice of either route was rewarded with the same type and quantity of food. Initial results indicated a preference for free choice across all three participants. However, in two control conditions, orangutans' preferences varied, suggesting a weaker tendency to exercise choice than species previously tested. We suggest further investigation of preference for free and forced choice in orangutans and other great apes through alternative experimental paradigms that focus on increasing the fidelity of free and forced choice options.     

On the measurement of time allocation on multiple variable-interval schedules

Six pigeons were trained on a modified multiple-schedule procedure. In a three-key chamber, the center key was lighted red or green, depending upon which component schedule was in effect. A response on this key transferred this color to each of two side keys, and responses on one of those keys produced reinforcers according to the component schedule. After 2 s, the side-key lights were extinguished, the center key was reilluminated, and a further center-key response was required to give access, as before, to the component schedules. Components alternated every 3 min. This limited-access procedure allowed both times spent switched into the side keys and time spent not switched in to be measured in the two components. Component reinforcer rates were varied over eight experimental conditions. Both component response rate and component time allocation were increasing functions of relative component reinforcer rate, and these functions were not significantly different. This finding implies that local response rates (responses divided by time switched in) were unaffected by changing component reinforcer rates on multiple schedules. Because a similar result was recently obtained for concurrent schedules, models of multiple and concurrent-schedule performance may need to consider only the time allocation of behavior emitted at equal tempo in the component schedules.     

INCREASING AUTISTIC CHILDREN'S SPONTANEOUS VERBALIZATIONS OF AFFECTION: AN ASSESSMENT OF TIME DELAY AND PEER MODELING PROCEDURES

We assessed the efficacy of time delay and peer modeling procedures in increasing autistic children's spontaneous verbalizations of affection. Four autistic children were taught to spontaneously say “I like (love) you” in response to a hug from a familiar person and their mother. Generalization from a free play training setting to free play outdoors and at home was assessed. Ancillary social and affection behaviors were also observed. Results indicated that the time delay was a quick and effective procedure for all the children. Peer modeling was unsuccessful in teaching the target behavior.     

Prompt-aided instruction of mirror-image discriminations: Abrupt prompt removal,time delay,and self-evaluation

This study compared three types of prompt-elimination procedures for helping children respond to left-right mirror-image stimuli. Three populations participated: normally developing preschoolers, students with mild mental retardation, and students with moderate mental retardation. All subjects were first trained to discriminate the stimuli in the presence of multiple pictorial prompts. These prompts required the subjects to discriminate the compounds on the basis of orientation. Then the prompts were eliminated, abruptly, with a time-delay procedure, or with a procedure requiring subjects to use the prompts to self-evaluate the accuracy of their responses. The results showed the following. First, most subjects rapidly discriminated the compound stimuli. Second, about 50% of the subjects of each population discriminated the task stimuli even when the prompts were abruptly removed. Time delay was highly effective with the normally developing preschoolers and students with mild mental retardation, but not with students with moderate mental retardation. The self-evaluation procedure was effective with all three populations.