Food deliveries during the pause on fixed-interval schedules

Pigeons were trained on fixed-interval schedules of food delivery. In Experiments I and II, the fixed interval was initiated by the previous fixed-interval reinforcer; in Experiment III, the fixed interval was initiated by the first key peck following the preceding fixed-interval reinforcer (a chain fixed-ratio one, fixed-interval schedule). During the postreinforcement pause, variable-time schedules delivered food independent of any specific response. Rate of food delivery during the pause had only small effects on pause duration in Experiments I and II. In Experiment III, however, pause duration increased systematically with the rate of food delivery during the pause. These data suggest that the momentary proximity to reinforcement delivered via the fixed-interval schedule exerts potent control over pause termination. Additional analysis revealed that pause termination was unaffected by the intermittent delivery of food during the pause. Such data suggest that the temporal control by fixed-interval schedules is highly resistant to interference.     

福至心灵：幸运感知对消费行为的影响及其理论解释

寻求幸运的行为从古至今广泛存在于人类生活的方方面面,幸运感知如何影响消费行为的理论成果为消费研究领域做出了重要贡献。通过系统回顾相关文献发现,个体的幸运感知会对冒险行为、独特性寻求、传染效应、特定事物的态度和幸运消费产生影响。归因理论、人格特质理论、认知启动理论、反事实思维、社会比较理论、控制感理论和启发式决策可以用于解释幸运感知对消费行为的影响。未来研究应深化幸运感知影响消费行为的作用机制并拓展边界条件及其双向结果。     

助推手卫生的行为干预策略

保持手卫生是感染防控的重要策略,但是如何提高其依从性成为预防传染性疾病和减少医疗机构获得性感染的一大挑战。以行为科学为基础的手卫生助推干预以更“隐性”的方式将洗手转变为一种可自动触发的行为习惯,弥补了以知识分享和健康宣教为主的传统手卫生干预策略的诸多局限性。基于影响机制的不同,手卫生助推干预策略可分为提供决策信息、优化决策选项、影响决策结构、提醒决策方向4个大类的框架体系。多模式助推策略的有效性也已在实践中得到印证,但目前还非常缺乏在中国社会文化情境下开展的助推洗手行为的干预研究,今后可尝试基于行为科学理论有针对性地在医院、学校和社区等公共场所开展此类干预研究和实践,为感染防控、疾病预防和改善公共健康做出相应的贡献。     

类别注意控制定势在注意捕获中的加工机制

注意捕获是指注意定向的过程中刺激不自觉地捕获注意的现象。在复杂的视觉搜索任务中,类别注意控制定势(cACS)能够帮助我们将注意引导到与目标定义类别匹配的刺激上,并对其进行优先加工。探讨cACS在注意捕获中的加工机制,不仅能够扩展注意捕获领域的理论研究,还能对实际生活提供指导。通过文献梳理,从cACS的作用阶段、cACS的加工强度及cACS作用时的激活脑区三个方面总结了注意捕获中的cACS的加工机制。未来研究可以就抑制分心物的ACS、不同类型的cACS加工差异和人工类别ACS加工过程等进行探讨。     

Population growth and social structure of confined colonies of mongolian gerbils: Scent gland size and marking behaviour as indices of social status

Male gerbils have larger ventral scent glands, and they mark more than females. In both sexes, scent gland activity is dependent on gonadal hormones. Observations on colonies of gerbils, living in enclosures or cages, showed that both scent gland size and marking behaviour were related to social status. In colonies founded by a single pair, breeding was confined to the original female. The infertility of the daughters was due to failure of sexual maturation. As this was always associated with a lack of development of the scent glands, the functional state of the latter could be used as an index of fecundity. A change in social organization (eg removal of the parents) caused previously infertile females to conceive and was accompanied by development of the scent glands If there was competition for dominance, the scent glands of the losers regressed; at autopsy, their ovaries and uteri appeared to be nonfunctional. The founding father usually had a larger scent gland than his sons, but the inhibition of sexual function was not as severe as in the females. However, the father characteristically showed much more marking behaviow in a neutral territory than his sons. None of the fem ales-except the mother-showed appreciable marking, and her scores were much lower than those of the dominant male. Asymptotic populations were reached at about the same level in enclosures and cages, implicating an intrinsic capacity for control independent of the number of animals per unit of space but probably related to the natural size of a social group. Stabilization of numbers was achieved not only by reproductive inhibition of young females, but also by cessation of breeding by the founding mother and death of litters. Littermates raised in enclosures without their parents showed delayed sexual maturation accompanied by fighting which resulted in the formation of a hierarchy headed by a breeding female and a dominant (marking) male.     

Agonistic behavior between wild and genetically sterile male Norway rats (rattus norvegicus)

Genetically sterile male Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, were tested in the laboratory to determine both 1) behavioral characteristics, and 2) the ability of sterile males to compete aggressively and sexually with wild Norway rat males. Sterile males were larger in weight, more frequently dominant, won as many fighting encounters, were as aggressive as wild males, and mounted females more frequently. Behavioral activities were similar for both strains when compared under laboratory conditions with no apparent abnormal behavior exhibited by the sterile males. Use of sterile males in biological control programs is discussed.     

Changes in Anxiety Control Beliefs Following a Brief CBT Treatment and Their Association With Anxiety Symptom Reduction

Anxiety control beliefs (i.e., beliefs regarding one’s ability to cope with external, fear-inducing threats and internal reactions to those perceived threats) have been found to negatively predict anxiety symptoms in children and adults and to be modifiable by cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders. The current study examines whether changes in anxiety control beliefs were seen following a brief, intensive treatment for specific phobias, and whether those changes were associated with improvements in the targeted phobia and comorbid anxiety disorder symptoms. Participants were 135 children and adolescents (M age = 9.01 years, 49% male) who received one-session treatment (OST) with or without parental involvement for their primary specific phobia. Results indicated that self-reported anxiety control beliefs significantly increased following treatment and that these increases significantly predicted reductions in specific phobia severity and symptoms of comorbid anxiety disorders 6 months and 1 year following treatment. Findings illustrate that involvement in a single 3-hour OST was associated with changes in anxiety control beliefs and demonstrate the potential importance of targeting control beliefs in pediatric anxiety treatment.     

Childhood Maltreatment,Emotional Response Inhibition,and Suicide in Psychiatric Inpatients

Childhood abuse and/or neglect adversely influences development of neurocognitive systems that regulate affect and behavior. Poor inhibitory control over emotional reactions is thus one potential pathway from maltreatment to suicide. Adult psychiatric inpatients completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and an emotional stop-signal task indexing negative emotional action termination (NEAT): the ability to inhibit ongoing motor reactions to aversive stimuli triggered by negative affect. Clinical interviews assessed suicidal thoughts and behaviors during hospitalization (n = 131) and at follow-up assessments 6 months later (n = 87). Our primary aim was to examine whether maltreatment history and NEAT explain overlapping variance in suicidal behaviors (1) retrospectively and (2) 6 months following hospital discharge. Contrary to prediction, childhood maltreatment was unrelated to history of suicidal behaviors. However, NEAT was consistently associated with prior suicidal acts, even controlling for suicidal ideation and demographic covariates. NEAT similarly contributed to the prediction of post-discharge suicidal behaviors, whereas we found no effect of maltreatment history. The present study suggests that NEAT captures suicide risk independently of childhood maltreatment. Results implicated NEAT impairment specifically, rather than broader response inhibition deficits (e.g., to positive stimuli), in past and future suicidal behaviors. These findings provide preliminary support for NEAT as a behavioral vulnerability marker for suicide, with implications for understanding links between maltreatment history and suicidal acts.     

The role of temperament traits as predictors of depressive symptoms and resilience in adolescents

From the initial sample of 956 adolescents from the Basque Country (Spain), 790 (M_age = 14.56, 49.4% girls) completed at least two waves including Wave 1 (retention rate: 82.6%), analyzing temperament traits as longitudinal predictors of depression and resilience. Positive affectivity (PA) predicted decreased depression and increased resilience, while negative affectivity (NA) had the opposite effect, and effortful control (EC) predicted reduced depression. Results indicated that PA protects adolescents who are low in EC against depression. In contrast, high EC levels worsened the damaging effect of NA on depression. Resilience and depression were bidirectionally associated and mediated the effects of temperament traits. Findings highlight the need to consider the effect of the complex interplays between temperament traits on resilience and depression improvement.