Self and Identity Among Aging Immigrants in The Joy Luck Club

This article uses George Herbert Mead's theory of symbolic interaction to examine self and identity among aging immigrants in Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club (1989). Social scientists have largely bypassed analysis of fictional accounts of the Asian diaspora. My motivation for employing Mead's theory is to extend social scientific analysis to novels on aging and ethnicity. By examining self-narratives in fictional representations of the aging immigrant experience, I assess how identity develops out of particular social conditions and is achieved through social, psychological processes. Despite some limitations, symbolic interaction offers insights into the process whereby the present brings reinterpretation of the past and individuals are compelled to assign meaning to their life histories.     

偏好反转的兼容性假设的实验研究

本文采用一种新的偏好诱导方法——实物交换方法 ,对偏好反转中的兼容性假设进行实验验证。实验结果支持兼容性假设 ,并发现了一种新的现象 ,即偏好反转的倒置现象。偏好反转与偏好反转的倒置相映成趣 ,为解释风险决策中偏好反转的兼容性假设提供了充足的证据 ,也对风险决策中的纯粹理性提出了更多的挑战。     

假设检验思维过程中的启发式策略研究

本研究运用自编的一个关于规则发现的计算机程序研究了大学生问题解决过程中形成假设、设计实验、实施检验三个阶段上的“假设———检验”的思维过程。结果发现,规则差别对规则发现有显著影响,反馈方式在本实验条件下没有主效应,启发式是假设检验过程中的重要思维策略     

Sample-specific ratio effects in matching to sample

In a symbolic matching-to-sample task, pigeons were trained using sample-specific, fixed-ratio “observing responses.” Subsequently, in a mixed condition, each sample was presented equally often with each ratio requirement, i.e., the ratios were no longer correlated with the samples. In a second experiment, pigeons were trained initially in the mixed condition and subsequently shifted to the sample-specific condition in which the required ratios were correlated with the samples. Results of both experiments suggested joint control of choices by ratio value and by the exteroceptive stimuli. The discriminative properties of the ratios appeared to outweigh absolute ratio-size effects.     

Choice: Some quantitative relations

Six pigeons responded in fifty-six conditions on a concurrent-chains procedure. Conditions included several with equal initial links and unequal terminal links, several with unequal initial links and equal terminal links, and several with both unequal initial and terminal links. Although the delay-reduction hypothesis accounted well for choice when the initial links were equal (mean deviation of .04), it fit the data poorly when the initial links were unequal (mean deviation of .18). A modification of the delay-reduction hypothesis, replacing the rates of reinforcement with the square roots of these rates, fit the data better than either the unmodified delay-reduction equation or Killeen's (1982) model. The modified delay-reduction equation was also consistent with data from prior studies using concurrent chains. The absolute rates of responding in each terminal link were well described by the same hyperbola (Herrnstein, 1970) that describes response rates on simple interval schedules.     

A model and algorithm for multidimensional scaling with external constraints on the distances

A method for externally constraining certain distances in multidimensional scaling configurations is introduced and illustrated. The approach defines an objective function which is a linear composite of the loss function of the point configurationX relative to the proximity dataP and the loss ofX relative to a pseudo-data matrixR. The matrixR is set up such that the side constraints to be imposed onX's distances are expressed by the relations amongR's numerical elements. One then uses a double-phase procedure with relative penalties on the loss components to generate a constrained solutionX. Various possibilities for constructing actual MDS algorithms are conceivable: the major classes are defined by the specification of metric or nonmetric loss for data and/or constraints, and by the various possibilities for partitioning the matricesP andR. Further generalizations are introduced by substitutingR by a set ofR matrices,R _i ,i=1, ...r, which opens the way for formulating overlapping constraints as, e.g., in patterns that are both row- and column-conditional at the same time.     

Choice and foraging

In Experiment 1, six naive pigeons were trained on a foraging schedule characterized by different states beginning with a search state in which completion of a fixed-interval on a white key led to a choice state. In the choice state the subject could, by appropriate responding on a fixed ratio of three, either accept or reject the schedule of reinforcement that was offered (either a variable-interval five-second or a variable-interval 20-second). If the subject accepted the schedule, it entered a “handling state” in which the appropriate variable-interval schedule was presented. Completion of the variable-interval schedule produced food. The independent variable was the fixed-interval value in the search state, and the dependent variable was the rate of acceptance of the long variable-interval in the choice state. Experiment 2 was identical except that the search state required completion of a variable-interval, instead of a fixed-interval, schedule. The rate of acceptance of the long variable-interval schedule in both experiments was a direct function of the length of the search state, in accordance with both optimality theory and the delay-reduction hypothesis.     

Memory for recent behavior in the pigeon

Variations of the symbolic delayed-matching-to-sample procedure were used to study a pigeon's memory for a small number of pecks. In the first experiment a choice of a left or right sidekey after a delay or retention interval was reinforced if a bird had not pecked at all or had pecked exactly once, before the delay, respectively. In the second experiment a choice of a red or green sidekey, regardless of its position, was reinforced if a bird had not pecked at all or had pecked exactly twice, respectively. In the first experiment a bird could orient toward the correct choice during the delay, whereas it could not in the second experiment. In a third experiment a feature-probing method was used to study a pigeon's memory for a number of pecks in the context of certain other pecks. The results showed that a pigeon can remember a small number of pecks for one-half to one minute or more and that the percent correct is a decreasing function of the log retention interval. When a second number of pecks is different from the first number, memory for the first number lasts only a few seconds. When a second number is the same, memory lasts considerably longer. The more recent number of pecks is remembered better. The results are interpreted in terms of a theory which holds that a reinforcer, in general, may act on a subjects' memory for recent behavior to generate patterns of behavior.     

脑内信息加工的不连续性假说

根据阅读眼动的实验资料 ,提出脑内信息加工的时间不连续性假说 ,认为脑内加工相继信息间存在暂时性中断。最近观察到的注意间隙现象为这一假说提供了新的实验证据。     

Public and private self-consciousness as specific psychopathological features

Public self-consciousness (PUBSC) and private self-consciousness (PRISC) represent aspects of dispositional self-directed attention. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether four clinical groups, namely patients with a diagnosis of social phobia, panic disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder or bulimia nervosa, and normal controls differentiated on the basis of their PUBSC and PRISC scores. Results indicated that both PUBSC and PRISC are extremely elevated in patients with social phobia. Patients with panic disorder and patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder score somewhere between social phobics and normal controls on PUBSC and PRISC scales. Bulimics had significantly higher PUBSC values than both controls and patients with panic disorder, but had lower values than social phobics. Compared to normal controls, bulimics showed no elevated PRISC scores. In addition, contrary to the other groups, PUBSC and PRISC seem to be unrelated in bulimics. Thus, PUBSC and PRISC appear to be specific psychopathological features for German females when comparing groups with different mental disorders and normal controls.