Response acquisition and fixed-ratio escalation based on interresponse times in rats

The effectiveness of a fixed‐ratio (FR) escalation procedure, developed by Pinkston and Branch (2004) and based on interresponse times (IRTs), was assessed during lever‐press acquisition. Forty‐nine experimentally naïve adult male Long Evans rats were deprived of food for 24 hr prior to an extended acquisition session. Before the start of the session, three food pellets were placed in the magazine. Otherwise, no magazine training, shaping, nor autoshaping procedure was employed. The first 20 presses each resulted in the delivery of a 45‐mg food pellet. Then, the FR increased (2, 4, 8, 11, 16, 20, 25, 30) when each IRT in the ratio was less than 2 s during three consecutive ratios. Sessions lasted 13 hr or until 500 pellets were earned. On average, rats reached a terminal ratio of 11 (mean) or 16 (median) during the first session. Seven rats reached the maximum value of FR 30 and only one rat did not acquire the response. In most rats, a break‐and‐run pattern of responding characteristic of FR schedules began to develop in this acquisition session. Subsequently, the ratio‐escalation procedure continued during daily 2‐hr sessions. In these sessions, the starting ratio requirement was set at the terminal ratio reached in the previous session. Using this procedure, over half (26) of the rats reached the FR 30 requirement by the fourth session. These data demonstrate that a ratio‐escalation procedure based on IRTs provides a time‐efficient way of establishing ratio responding.     

Thing, Value, Time, and Freedom: A Consideration of Some Key Concepts in Marx’s Philosophical System

Criticizing the misunderstanding and wrong explanation of Marx’s philosophical system made by recent Chinese textbooks on Marxist philosophy, the author argues that Marx’s philosophy has practical, economical-philosophical, and ontological dimensions and stresses on reconstructing Marx’s philosophical system through synthesizing the above three dimensions. This paper intends to set up a new outline of Marx’s philosophical system, in terms of the following four concepts—thing, value, time, and freedom. Translated by Tang Jie from Zhexue Yanjiu, 2004:11     

Developing a Conceptual Framework of Employee Well-Being (EWB) by Applying Goal Concepts and Findings from Personality-Social Psychology

This paper reports an attempt to develop a foundation of a theory of employee well-being (EWB) by borrowing concepts and findings from research in personality-social psychology. The proposed conceptual framework has four central principles: The principle of goal selection based on valence, the principle of goal selection based on expectancy, the goal implementation principle, and the goal attainment principle. These principles have corollaries expanding the logic of the proposed theoretical relationships. Specifically, the principle of goal selection based on valence has nine corollaries: Approach versus avoidance goals, goal meaningfulness, high- versus low-level goals, goals related to cultural norms, goals related to deprived needs, goals related to basic versus growth needs, intrinsic versus extrinsic goals, goals producing flow, and autonomy in goal setting. The principle of goal selection based on expectancy has five corollaries: Goal-motive congruence, goal-cultural value congruence, goal-resources congruence, goal conflict, and adapting goals to changes in circumstances. The principle of goal implementation has two corollaries: Goal concreteness and goal commitment. Finally, the goal attainment principle has three corollaries: Recognition of goal attainment, intensity versus frequency of positive feedback, and progress reports.     

急性心肌梗死患者院前延误的影响因素

急性心肌梗死(AMI)患者的治疗关键在于早期诊断和及时开通闭塞的冠状动脉,患者在发病后能否及早到院接受再灌注治疗,对患者的治疗效果和预后有重要影响.院前延误时间(PDT)即为从患者出现症状至到达医院接受治疗的时间.AMI患者就医大多是延迟的,主要原因是患者不能决定自己的症状是否需要治疗,也就是患者决定就医时间延长.本研究目的是分析造成急性心肌梗死患者院前延误的相关影响因素,为患者赢得最佳治疗时间提供理论依据.     

登机牌信息要素及其布局研究

随着民航行业的快速发展,飞机登机牌的使用率越来越高,而不同航空公司所采用的登机牌在信息内容和布局设计等方面均缺乏相关的设计规范,因此有必要从可用性角度对登机牌进行系统的研究.首先,采用KANO问卷法对登机牌上的文字信息要素进行研究,并基于研究结果设计出新登机牌;然后,从搜索绩效和主观偏好两个方面对新旧登机牌进行比较评价研究.结果显示：①登机牌上必须呈现的信息主要包括登机时间、登机口、航班号、座位号、姓名、日期和目的地七项必要信息,以及可提高旅客使用体验的预计飞行时间信息,但登机牌上不能呈现旅客身份证号码等个人隐私信息;②基于信息要素研究结果重新布局设计的新登机牌在搜索绩效和主观偏好方面均显著优于现有登机牌.本研究结果可为将来的登机牌设计提供科学依据.     

Indecision and Avoidant Procrastination: The Role of Morningness—Eveningness and Time Perspective in Chronic Delay Lifestyles

The authors examined how time orientation and morningness—eveningness relate to 2 forms of procrastination: indecision and avoidant forms. Participants were 509 adults (M age = 49.78 years, SD = 6.14) who completed measures of time orientation, morningness—eveningness, decisional procrastination (i.e., indecision), and avoidant procrastination. Results showed that morningness was negatively related to avoidant procrastination but not decisional procrastination. Overall, the results indicated different temporal profiles for indecision and avoidant procrastinations. Avoidant procrastination related to low future time orientation and low morningness, whereas indecision related to both (a) high negative and high positive past orientations and (b) low present-hedonistic and low future time orientations. The authors inferred that distinct forms of procrastination seem different on the basis of dimensions of time.     

The Effect of Mental Practice on Performance in a Sequential Reaction Time Task

The effect of mental practice on performance in a dot-location RT task was investigated. Participants (N = 40) were required either to mentally practice, physically practice, or do no practice on an RT task in which the signals appeared in a repeating sequence. Correct mental practice, as opposed to incorrect mental practice and no practice, was predicted to have a positive (enhancing) effect on performance of the RT task. Despite previous evidence that mental rehearsal does enhance performance in many perceptual-motor tasks, neither correct nor incorrect mental rehearsal affected subsequent sequence learning; that is, no mental practice effect was observed. That surprising result is discussed in terms of motivational, psychoneuromuscular, separate memory systems, and transfer-appropriate processing explanations of mental practice.     

Learning to Minimize Energy Costs and Maximize Mechanical Work in a Bimanual Coordination Task

The authors addressed the hypothesis that economy in motor coordination is a learning phenomenon realized by both reduced energy cost for a given workload and more external work at the same prepractice metabolic and attentional energy expenditure. "Self-optimization" of movement parameters has been proposed to reflect learned motor adaptations that minimize energy costs. Twelve men aged 22.3 ± 3.9 years practiced a 90° relative phase, upper limb, independent ergometer cycling task at 60 rpm, followed by a transfer test of unpracticed (45 and 75 rpm) and selfpaced cadences. Performance in all conditions was initially unstable, inaccurate, and relatively high in both metabolic and attentional energy costs. With practice, coordinative stability increased, more work was performed for the same metabolic and attentional costs, and the same work was done at a reduced energy cost. Selfpaced cycling was initially below the metabolically optimal, but following practice at 60 rpm was closer to optimal cadence. Given the many behavioral options of the motor system in meeting a variety of everyday movement task goals, optimal metabolic and attentional energy criteria may provide a solution to the problem of selecting the most adaptive coordination and control parameters.     

Movement-Produced Feedback as a Mechanism For The Temporal Anticipation of Motor Responses

That part of the input hypothesis of motor timing behavior which postulates that movement-produced feedback can serve as a mechanism for the temporal anticipation of motor responses was tested. 32 male college Ss temporally anticipated (no preview) the coincidence of a moving pointer with a stationary one and executed the timing response with his right hand while either a high (HFB) or low (LFB) level of movement-produced feedback was indirectly manipulated in the left arm. The HFB group temporally anticipated with greater accuracy than the LFB group which supported that part of the input hypothesis being tested. Apparently, Ss were relying on proprioceptive feedback about the position of their left arm movement to cue the timing response of their right hand.