The Human Meaning of the Brain

This study attempts to show that brain research brings to light religious meanings. There is a physical basis of religion in that the way the brain has evolved makes possible the religious meanings of human experience. The brain grows out of and reflects the universe. The brain is an icon of God. In the analysis of the brain's various parts and functions the relational dimensions of reality are uncovered in their physical basis. This points to ultimate reality as social and to a social God. As such, the structures of reality, experienced through the brain, reflect the reality of God.     

应当建立科学的医疗纠纷技术鉴定体制

现行的医疗纠纷技术鉴定模式年来在解决医疗纠纷中起到了重要作用,但随着卫生改革的进一步深化和法制的日趋健全,以及人们法律意识的不断提高它的缺陷也日益突出。应当建立新的医疗技术鉴定管理体制,鉴定委员会的人员鸺成,增强医疗技术透明度,建立时效制度和回避制度。     

系统视角下致癌基因与遗传背景的相互作用

肿瘤是当今人类生命健康的主要威胁之一。致癌基因与遗传背景和肿瘤的形成有密切关系。致癌基因与遗传背景,致癌基因与抗癌基因之间的时空结构和非线性作用都有可能使正常细胞恶变,导致肿瘤的形成。致癌基因与遗传背景实际上构成了细胞中的一个完整的遗传系统。本文试图用系统方法探讨两者的相互作用,以便更好地探讨肿瘤发生的机理和治疗手段。     

Locus of control,perceived responsibility for prior fate,and helping behavior

One-hundred-and-sixty adolescents participated in two studies designed to investigate the relationship between $\text{I}\text{E}$ and helping behavior as mediated by the perceived cause of another's need. In the first study, Ss were given the opportunity to help, either “indirectly” or “directly,” a supervisor who had been over- or underpaid in a prior similar task. Internals helped more in the “direct” help than the “indirect” help conditions but their helping behavior and their perceptions of their supervisors were not consistent. The perceptions of the externals were relatively consistent with their greater help of the “overpaid” supervisor. In study 2, the Ss were given additional information to increase the possibility of their making causal attributions as a function of the supervisor's prior fate. Once again, the external subjects' helping behavior reflected their perception of their supervisor's merit. The internal subjects exhibited relatively little helping behavior regardless of their supervisors' prior fate or perceived competence.     

Mechanics of the animate.

Behavior is treated as basic physics. Dimensions are identified and their transformations from physical specification to axes in behavioral space are suggested. Responses are treated as action patterns arrayed along a continuum of activation energy. Behavior is seen as movement along a trajectory through this behavior space. Incentives or reinforcers are attractors in behavior space, at the centers of basins of lowered potential. Trajectories impinging on such basins may be captured; repeated capture will warp the trajectory toward a geodesic, a process called conditioning. Conditioning is enhanced by contiguity, the proximity between the measured behavior and the incentive at the end of the trajectory, and by contingency, the depth of the trajectory below the average level of the potential energy landscape. Motivation is seen as the potential of an organism for motion under the forces impinging on it. Degree of motivation is characterized by the depth of the potential field, with low motivation corresponding to a flat field and a flat gradient of activation energy. Drives are the forces of incentives propagated through behavior space. Different laws for the attenuation of drive with behavioral distance are discussed, as is the dynamics of action. The basic postulate of behavior mechanics is incentive-tracking in behavior space, the energy for which is provided by decreases in potential. The relation of temporal gradients to response differentiation and temporal discrimination is analyzed. Various two-body problems are sketched to illustrate the application of these ideas to association, choice, scalar timing, self-control, and freedom.     

Real-time detection of orientation during negative behavioral contrast with key pecking and a turning response

We developed a video system for real-time detection of a pigeon's orientation and for reinforcement of a “turning response.” Using this system, negative behavioral contrast was found across key-peck and turning responses. In addition, turning away from the pecking key was detected by the system just after presentation of the negative discriminative stimulus on the key. The results suggest that avoidance of the discriminative stimulus in the constant component, which has been regarded as a causal factor for negative contrast (additivity theory), is not the primary factor for negative behavioral contrast of pigeons' key pecking, but may account for negative local contrast.     

Enhancement of conditioned autonomic responses in monkey when preshock signals occasion operant suppression.

Classical pairings of a sound stilulus with shock elicited larger magnitude and more rapidly conditioned autonomic responses when subjects were responding on variable-interval schedules for food than when they were eating freely available food. The difference was not attributable to changes in control values of heart rate and blood pressure, or to alterations in motor activity, but appeared related to operant suppression.     

A SELF-EVALUATION TOKEN SYSTEM versus AN EXTERNAL EVALUATION TOKEN SYSTEM ALONE IN A RESIDENTIAL SETTING WITH PREDELINQUENT YOUTH1

This study compared the effects of self-evaluation and adult-dispensed tokens on room-cleaning behavior of six predelinquent youths in a residential token-economy setting. The self-evaluation token system proved to be as effective as the external adult-administered system in increasing room-cleaning behavior and was more effective in maintaining performance after contingencies were withdrawn. The self-evaluation token system increased resistance to extinction, compared to the external token system, and appeared to be a useful component for a traditional token-economy system.     

Good to the last drop? Millikan stories as “canned” pedagogy

In recent literature, the famous Millikan oil-drop experiment appears as a case of “good scientific judgment” on the one hand, and scientific misconduct on the other. This article discusses different interpretations of the fact that Nobel laureate Robert Millikan’s notebooks show that he eliminated a number of oildrops in his published 1913 paper on the charge of the electron, while reporting that he had included all the drops. Starting with the common source of all Millikan stories, historian of physics Gerald Holton’s 1978 paper, I discuss recent “canned” versions of Millikan-as-misbehaver in books on scientific fraud. Then I examine some versions of Millikan-as-good-scientist, particularly the reconstruction by historian of physics Allan Franklin, and the views of some practicing physicists. Finally, we have an instructive head-on collision between the two standard treatments of Millikan. The problem with canned stories is not only insufficient information; we also lack a realistic evaluation of the role of ethics in science. As a fundamentally knowledge-seeking enterprise, science may harbor an inherent, perhaps irresolvable, conflict between scientific and ethical concerns. The author’s special interests include standards for “good science”, science and values, and social psychology.     

A comparison of pacing contingencies in classes using a personalized system of instruction

This study compared the effects of multiple versus single deadline contingencies on distribution of unit-mastery test taking by students in four university classes taught using the personalized system of instruction. Rate of test taking was most uniform when multiple deadlines were imposed throughout the course. When deadlines were infrequent, a scalloped pattern of test taking developed.