Enhancing Classroom Performance: A Review of Reinforcement Schedules

During the past decade the application of elementary principles of behavior have become a standard in the classroom teacher's repertoire of behavior change strategies. Unfortunately, the application of more advanced principles of behavior derived through basic behavioral research lies as an untapped resource for classroom teachers. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the use of systematic procedures to deliver reinforcers to enhance academic performance. In this paper we provide educators with information on the use of reinforcement schedules in academic settings. Various schedules of reinforcement are presented along with examples of their application in applied settings.     

杏仁复合体损毁对大鼠空间认知能力的影响

杏仁复合体损毁大鼠Ｍｏｒｒｉｓ迷宫作业学习成绩显著低于控制组,记忆成绩较显著低于控制组。其搜索目标时主要采用与控制组的图式策略相异的趋向式策略。策略差异提示：杏仁复合体参与大鼠空间认知的辅助加工。     

5-11岁儿童元知觉发展的实验研究

本项研究旨在探索 5 -1 1岁儿童元认知发展的规律 ,2 80名昆明市及路南县汉、撒尼族儿童参与了三项知觉实验 ,实验结果表明 :1儿童随年龄的增长 ,有关知觉组织策略的知识及自我监察的能力也逐渐发展 ,表现为系统观察、选取有效策略及计划性的增强。 2儿童对信息的加工不断深入 ,从表浅的加工过渡到详尽的加工 ,不仅要求补充必要的信息 ,而且主动搜索隐蔽的线索以促进识辨。3儿童自我评价从笼统、含糊逐渐向客观、全面发展。4路南儿童元知觉的发展晚于昆明儿童两年 ,但在路南的汉族儿童和撒尼族儿童之间不存在显著差异 ,说明文化教育对儿童元知觉发展的重要影响。     

TEACHING MULTIPLICATION FACTS TO STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Multiple baseline designs were used to examine the effects of an instructional package on accuracy of performance in solving multiplication facts by 3 students with learning disabilities. The instructional package included the following components: (a) a modified instructional sequence in which multiplication facts were grouped into the zeros, ones, doubles, fives, and nines categories, and those remaining; (b) identification of the category in which each fact belonged; (c) mnemonic strategies associated with solving facts in each category; and (d) steps to be completed for solving facts in each category. Results indicated that the instructional package produced substantial and immediate effects. After receiving instruction, a participant's accuracy was often 100%, and this was maintained throughout the evaluation even as other strategies were introduced. Comparable results occurred across students, demonstrating replication of the effects of the instructional package.     

Hill-climbing by pigeons

Pigeons were exposed to two types of concurrent operant-reinforcement schedules in order to determine what choice rules determine behavior on these schedules. In the first set of experiments, concurrent variable-interval, variable-interval schedules, key-peck responses to either of two alternative schedules produced food reinforcement after a random time interval. The frequency of food-reinforcement availability for the two schedules was varied over different ranges for different birds. In the second series of experiments, concurrent variable-ratio, variable-interval schedules, key-peck responses to one schedule produced food reinforcement after a random time interval, whereas food reinforcement occurred for an alternative schedule only after a random number of responses. Results from both experiments showed that pigeons consistently follow a behavioral strategy in which the alternative schedule chosen at any time is the one which offers the highest momentary reinforcement probability (momentary maximizing). The quality of momentary maximizing was somewhat higher and more consistent when both alternative reinforcement schedules were time-based than when one schedule was time-based and the alternative response-count based. Previous attempts to provide evidence for the existence of momentary maximizing were shown to be based upon faulty assumptions about the behavior implied by momentary maximizing and resultant inappropriate measures of behavior.     

突发事件中民众责任归因的心理需求与应对

突发事件发生后,通过责任归因对事件原因和责任归属进行推断是民众心理活动的重要特征之一。从民众心理需要来看,突发事件带来的不确定感驱使个体寻找事件的解释来实现认知闭合,控制感的不足则会让个体更加强调外部世界的秩序性,这两种需要也是事件中阴谋论传播和替罪羊效应的心理基础。相应地,在事件中负有责任的组织主体,也应当基于民众的心理需要采取适当的应对策略,来重塑组织形象和民众的信任,避免责任规避带来的负面效应。未来研究可以进一步从心理学视角补充整合性的实证证据,对突发事件的不同类型进行区分,关注责任归因与其他社会心理学变量之间的联系,以及探索适合中国社会的有效应对措施。     

事与愿违？思维抑制中的立即增强效应和延迟反弹效应

思维抑制作为一种重要的自我调节策略,对维护个体的心理健康具有重要意义,但在思维抑制的过程中,会出现立即增强效应或延迟反弹效应。本文在介绍思维抑制研究范式发展脉络的基础上,分别从信息加工和动机视角对思维抑制的加工机制及其影响因素进行了梳理,并据此指出未来研究应改进研究范式,考察环境变量对思维抑制的影响,整合理论解释以及开发改善精神障碍患者思维抑制的训练方法。     

Alexithymia as a potential source of symptom over‐reporting: An exploratory study in forensic patients and non‐forensic participants

The traditional interpretation of symptom over‐reporting is that it indicates malingering. We explored a different perspective, namely that over‐reporting of eccentric symptoms is related to deficits in articulating internal experiences (i.e., alexithymia). Given that alexithymia has been linked to sleep problems and that fatigue may fuel inattentive responding to symptom lists, we administered measures of alexithymia (TAS ‐20) and symptom over‐reporting (SIMS ), but also sleep quality (SLEEP ‐50) to forensic psychiatric outpatients (n = 40) and non‐forensic participants (n = 40). Forensic patients scored significantly higher on all three indices than non‐forensic participants. In the total sample as well as in subsamples, over‐reporting correlated positively and significantly with alexithymia, with r s being in the 0.50–0.65 range. Sleep problems were also related to over‐reporting, but in the full sample and in the forensic subsample, alexithymia predicted variance in over‐reporting over and above sleep problems. Although our study is cross‐sectional in nature, its results indicate that alexithymia as a potential source of over‐reporting merits systematic research.     

THE COMMUNITY VIEW REVISITED

Abstract: Joining a vast Wittgensteinian anti‐theoretical movement, John Canfield has argued that it is possible to read the claims that (1) “language is essentially communal” and (2) “it is conceptually possible that a Crusoe isolated from birth should speak or follow rules” in such a way that they are perfectly compatible, and, indeed, that Wittgenstein held them both at once. The key to doing this is to drain them of any theoretical content or implications that would put each claim at odds with the other. I argue here, first of all, that it is not possible to detheorize both (1) and (2) and still hope to say anything illuminating about the nature of language. In fact, Canfield himself does not succeed in detheorizing both (1) and (2) but ends up trivializing (1) and leaving (2) with quite a bit of theoretical content. I further argue, however, that this is getting the matter the wrong way around. Contra Canfield et al., it is only when we recognize this that we can appreciate how radical and innovative Wittgenstein's claims about language really are.     

Decision Support System and Multi‐Criteria Decision Aid: A State of the Art and Perspectives

The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of the Decision Support System within the field of multi‐criteria decision aid (MCDA). The MCDA tools have been incorporated into systems to create Multi‐Criteria Decision Support Systems (MCDSSs). In our literature review, we noticed that more than 100 papers have been written over a 20‐year period in which MCDSS was used as a decision‐making tool. The present paper describes some real applications of MCDSS in different fields, harmoniously combined with decision‐making methods such as analytic hierarchy process, Utility Additive, and Goal Programming. The present study proposes an integrative MCDSS evaluation through guidance on the tools most useful for a specific user with a particular decision problem. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.