I Think,Therefore I Persist

Suppose that you're lying in bed. You just woke up. But you're alert. Your mind is clear and you have no distractions. As you lie there, you think to yourself, ‘2?+?2 = 4.’ The thought just pops into your head. But, wanting to be sure of your mathematical insight, you once again think ‘2?+?2 = 4’, this time really meditating on your thought. Now suppose that you're sitting in an empty movie theatre. The lighting is normal and the screen in front of you is blank. Then at some point an image of a peach is flashed on the screen. The image isn't up there for long. In fact, it's only on the screen for what seems like an instant—just long enough for you to see it. These two scenarios are a bit mundane. But, as I will show, reflection on them can yield significant results concerning the nature of persons and their persistence through time. First I will show that thought and perception have temporal constraints whereby your thinking or perceiving in the above scenarios implies that you exist through a temporally extended interval. Then I will argue that this allows us to rule out several prominent theories of personal identity.     

Effects of signaled and unsignaled alternative reinforcement on persistence and relapse in children and pigeons

Three experiments explored the impact of different reinforcer rates for alternative behavior (DRA) on the suppression and post‐DRA relapse of target behavior, and the persistence of alternative behavior. All experiments arranged baseline, intervention with extinction of target behavior concurrently with DRA, and post‐treatment tests of resurgence or reinstatement, in two‐ or three‐component multiple schedules. Experiment 1, with pigeons, arranged high or low baseline reinforcer rates; both rich and lean DRA schedules reduced target behavior to low levels. When DRA was discontinued, the magnitude of relapse depended on both baseline reinforcer rate and the rate of DRA. Experiment 2, with children exhibiting problem behaviors, arranged an intermediate baseline reinforcer rate and rich or lean signaled DRA. During treatment, both rich and lean DRA rapidly reduced problem behavior to low levels, but post‐treatment relapse was generally greater in the DRA‐rich than the DRA‐lean component. Experiment 3, with pigeons, repeated the low‐baseline condition of Experiment 1 with signaled DRA as in Experiment 2. Target behavior decreased to intermediate levels in both DRA‐rich and DRA‐lean components. Relapse, when it occurred, was directly related to DRA reinforcer rate as in Experiment 2. The post‐treatment persistence of alternative behavior was greater in the DRA‐rich component in Experiment 1, whereas it was the same or greater in the signaled‐DRA‐lean component in Experiments 2 and 3. Thus, infrequent signaled DRA may be optimal for effective clinical treatment.     

Are objects required for object-files? Roles of segmentation and spatiotemporal continuity in computing object persistence

Two central tasks of visual processing are (1) to segment undifferentiated retinal images into discrete objects, and (2) to represent those objects as the same persisting individuals over time and motion. Here we explore the interaction of these two types of processing in the context of object files—mid-level visual representations that “stick” to moving objects on the basis of spatiotemporal properties. Object files can be revealed by object-specific preview benefits (OSPBs), wherein a “preview” of information on a moving object speeds the recognition of that information at a later point when it appears again on the same object (compared to when it reappears on a different moving object), beyond display-wide priming. Here we explore the degree of segmentation required to establish object files in the first place. Surprisingly, we find that no explicit segmentation is required until after the previews disappear, when using purely motion-defined objects (consisting of random elements on a random background). Moreover, OSPBs are observed in such displays even after moderate (but not long) delays between the offset of the preview information and the onset of the motion. These effects indicate that object files can be established without initial static segmentation cues, so long as there is spatiotemporal continuity between the previews and the eventual appearance of the objects. We also find that top-down strategies can sometimes mimic OSPBs, but that these strategies can be eliminated by novel manipulations. We discuss how these results alter our understanding of the nature of object files, and also why researchers must take care to distinguish “true OSPBs” from “illusory OSPBs”.     

Memory for Brand-Product Information in Pictorial Advertising

In two experiments, we investigated whether the type of picture that accompanies a brand-product pair has an effect on memory in an advertising context. Subjects were students in introductory psychology classes who received course credit for participation. We formed 24 fictitious brand-product pairs and illustrated them using pictorial presentation and letter accentuation in both interactive and noninter-active relationships. In Experiment 1, subjects in the interactive pictorial presentation group recalled more brands in a paired-associate task than did the interactive letter accentuation group or the control group. In a paired-associate task in Experiment 2, we examined relative effectiveness of interactive and noninteractive presentation relationships and revealed two main effects: (a) Interactive was superior to noninteractive, and (b) pictorial presentation was superior to letter accentuation in aiding recall. Results are discussed in terms of implications for advertising.     

Attentional resources in visual tracking through occlusion: the high-beams effect

A considerable amount of research has uncovered heuristics that the visual system employs to keep track of objects through periods of occlusion. Relatively little work, by comparison, has investigated the online resources that support this processing. We explored how attention is distributed when featurally identical objects become occluded during multiple object tracking. During tracking, observers had to detect small probes that appeared sporadically on targets, distracters, occluders, or empty space. Probe detection rates for these categories were taken as indexes of the distribution of attention throughout the display and revealed two novel effects. First, probe detection on an occluder’s surface was better when either a target or distractor was currently occluded in that location, compared to when no object was behind that occluder. Thus even occluded (and therefore invisible) objects recruit object-based attention. Second, and more surprising, probe detection for both targets and distractors was always better when they were occluded, compared to when they were visible. This new attentional high-beams effect indicates that the ability to track through occlusion, though seemingly effortless, in fact requires the active allocation of special attentional resources.     

教师态度与指导方式对幼儿坚持性影响的实验研究

本研究采用3×2×2(年龄×教师态度×言语指导方式)三因素完全随机实验设计,考察了教师态度和言语指导对3~6岁幼儿坚持性的影响。其中幼儿年龄、教师态度及言语指导方式为实验的自变量,幼儿坚持完成任务的时间为实验因变量,设计4种实验情境,并随机选择沈阳市两所幼儿园,分层选取小、中、大班的幼儿作为实验研究的被试,年龄分布在3~6岁之间,每种情境下每个年龄段的有效被试各为30人,男女各半,共360人。研究结果表明:(1)3~6岁幼儿的坚持性随着年龄的增长而逐渐发展,且4~5岁是幼儿坚持性发展的转折期;(2)不同的教师态度对幼儿的坚持性影响显著;(3)不同的言语指导方式对幼儿坚持性影响显著;(4)教师积极态度下,多次言语指导对幼儿的坚持性会产生最积极的影响。     

The influence of experiences of discrimination on psychological stress: a comparison of seven immigrant groups

The aim of this study was to compare experiences of discrimination and their influence on trust in authorities and psychological distress among immigrants in Finland. A sample of 1146 immigrants, aged between 20 and 36 and representing seven immigrant groups (Russians, Ingrian/Finnish returnees, Estonians, Somalis, Arabs, Vietnamese and Turks), answered a mailed questionnaire based on traditional acculturation research as well as victim research. In accordance with our expectations, discrimination experiences in various realms of life were highly predictive of the psychological well‐being of all immigrants, as well as of lack of trust in the Finnish authorities. However, contrary to our hypotheses regarding the effects of visibility and cultural proximity, group differences in psychological distress did not correspond to the group differences observed in perceived discrimination. These results are discussed in the light of the opposing predictions concerning self‐damage effects of discrimination, made by social identity theory on the one hand and the theory on self‐protecting functions of external attributions (Crocker and Major, 1989) on the other. It is concluded that the low level of stress observed in the most visible and most culturally distant group, despite high levels of perceived discrimination, is better explained by the latter than the former. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge on Treelike Spaces

This paper presents a bimodal logic for reasoning about knowledge during knowledge acquisitions. One of the modalities represents (effort during) non-deterministic time and the other represents knowledge. The semantics of this logic are tree-like spaces which are a generalization of semantics used for modeling branching time and historical necessity. A finite system of axiom schemes is shown to be canonically complete for the formentioned spaces. A characterization of the satisfaction relation implies the small model property and decidability for this system.     

Negative automaintenance omission training is effective

Twelve pigeons were exposed to negative automaintenance contingencies for 17-27 sessions immediately after brief (14-16 sessions) or extended (168-237 sessions) exposure to positive automaintenance contingencies, or after 4-10 sessions of instrumental training. In all conditions, negative automaintenance contingencies virtually eliminated responding, reducing response rates to an average 1.3 responses per min. This reduction in response rate was validated by a model of transition between early and late response rates that assumed exponential transition of rates from one set of contingencies to the next. The model faithfully reproduced cumulative records, and yielded estimates of terminal rates under negative automaintenance that were close to operant level.