社会支持对大学生主观幸福感的影响

采用量表法以 3 1 4名大学生为被试研究了社会支持与主观幸福感的关系 ,评估了社会支持对大学生主观幸福感的影响。差异检验表明 ,总体主观幸福感、生活满意度、朋友支持、其他支持以及总的社会支持存在性别上的差异 ,女生的得分均高于男生 ,而在积极情感和消极情感以及家庭支持方面则没有表现出性别差异。回归分析表明 ,社会支持的不同方面对主观幸福感的不同方面产生影响 ;在预测主观幸福感时 ,不同的社会支持指标的预测力是不同的。     

Framing prisoners and chickens: Valence effects in the prisoner’s dilemma and the chicken game

In an experimental study, we investigated how decisions in social dilemmas are affected by the valence of outcomes that are at stake. Prospect theory states that individuals are risk-averse when outcomes are framed as gains, and risk-seeking when outcomes are framed as losses. On the basis of this framework, previous research on social dilemmas has addressed the question of whether people are more cooperative in the negative domain than in the positive domain, but this research has led to inconsistent results. A possible explanation for this is that in many social dilemmas it is unclear whether cooperation or defection is the risky choice. In the current paper, we compare the well-studied prisoner’s dilemma with the less studied chicken game. Whereas in the prisoner’s dilemma it is unclear what constitutes the risky option, in the chicken game the risky option is quite clear. Consistent with predictions, we found in the chicken game more defection in the loss frame than in the gain frame, but no difference between the gain and loss frame in the prisoner’s dilemma. Moreover, choices were predicted by risk attitude in the chicken game, but not in the prisoner’s dilemma.     

Stochastic dynamics of stimulus encoding in schizophrenia: Theory, testing, and application

Cognitive processing among schizophrenia participants, entailing encoding of presenting stimulation into a format facilitating collateral processes (e.g., memory search), is examined in light of stochastic mathematical models of performance. Results implicate additional encoding operations (encoding subprocesses) as the source of schizophrenia encoding-process elongation. Convergent evidence for this inference, including that from auxiliary neuro-connectionist simulations, are brought forth. Developments from initial, fixed-parameter accounts include random-parameter mixtures, and their Bayesian extensions, formally mediating group-level results to assessment of individual performance. Outgrowths bear on model-selection methodology, according to coherence of group-level and individual-level model functioning (in part addressing the issue of “small-trial-sample model testing”); longitudinal monitoring of encoding-specific treatment response; evaluation of treatment-regimen efficacy with respect to encoding efficiency; and specification of times of measurement interest, in fMRI. The symptom significance of encoding elongation, strongly hinted at by model developments, along with a model-endowed window on exacerbating effects of stress, are drawn out.     

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior increases resistance to extinction: clinical demonstration, animal modeling, and clinical test of one solution

Basic research with pigeons on behavioral momentum suggests that differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) can increase the resistance of target behavior to change. This finding suggests that clinical applications of DRA may inadvertently increase the persistence of target behavior even as it decreases its frequency. We conducted three coordinated experiments to test whether DRA has persistence-strengthening effects on clinically significant target behavior and then tested the effectiveness of a possible solution to this problem in both a nonhuman and clinical study. Experiment 1 compared resistance to extinction following baseline rates of reinforcement versus higher DRA rates of reinforcement in a clinical study. Resistance to extinction was substantially greater following DRA. Experiment 2 tested a rat model of a possible solution to this problem. Training an alternative response in a context without reinforcement of the target response circumvented the persistence-strengthening effects of DRA. Experiment 3 translated the rat model into a novel clinical application of DRA. Training an alternative response with DRA in a separate context resulted in lower resistance to extinction than employing DRA in the context correlated with reinforcement of target behavior. The value of coordinated bidirectional translational research is discussed.     

Temporal preparation,response inhibition and impulsivity

Temporal preparation and impulsivity involve overlapping neural structures (prefrontal cortex) and cognitive functions (response inhibition and time perception), however, their interrelations had not been investigated. We studied such interrelations by comparing the performance of groups with low vs. high non-clinical trait impulsivity during a temporal preparation go no-go task. This task measured, in less than 10 min, how response inhibition was influenced both by temporal orienting of attention (guided by predictive temporal cues) and by sequential effects (produced by repetition/alternation of the duration of preparatory intervals in consecutive trials). The results showed that sequential effects produced dissociable patterns of temporal preparation as a function of impulsivity. Sequential effects facilitated both response speed (reaction times – RTs – to the go condition) and response inhibition (false alarms to the no-go condition) selectively in the low impulsivity group. In the high impulsivity group, in contrast, sequential effects only improved RTs but not response inhibition. We concluded that both excitatory and inhibitory processing may be enhanced concurrently by sequential effects, which enables the temporal preparation of fast and controlled responses. Impulsivity could hence be related to less efficient temporal preparation of that inhibitory processing.     

随机支持模型:青少年主观概率校准的特点

随机支持模型试图以假设支持为随机变量的方式描述主观概率的校准。采用随机配对的60个中国城市户籍人口的比较任务验证了该模型对初中、高中和大学生的适用性。研究还表明青少年主观概率校准的发展特点:青少年的正确率随年龄的增长而提高;主观概率判断(信心)不同年龄有显著差异,大学生信心最强,其次是初中生、再次是高中生;大学生主观概率判断的极端性最强,其次是初中生,再次是高中生;青少年的主观概率校准是过度自信的。     

Reversing the affective congruency effect: The role of target word frequency of occurrence

In this research the outcome of an affective priming experiment is shown to critically depend on the frequency of occurrence of the target words used. Low frequency target words (5.7 occurrences per million words) resulted in an affective congruency effect, i.e., faster responses following affectively congruent than incongruent primes. High frequency target words (32.6 occurrences per million) resulted in a reverse priming effect, i.e., faster responses following incongruent than congruent primes. The size of the congruency effect was larger than the size of the reverse priming effect, thus masking its emergence when word frequency was not taken into account. We propose that target word frequency has its influence via an accessibility-related mechanism having to do with differences in observed changes in affect between prime and target.