Development of behavioral compensation to the effects of scopolamine during fixed-interval reinforcement

Rats were injected with scopolamine before every daily session of water reinforcement on a fixed-interval (FI) schedule. Initially the drug decreased the rate of responding. Control injections of scopolamine following each session did not. Over 119 sessions, the typical FI performance developed more slowly in the animals drugged before the sessions. Their rates of responding increased from session to session, to a level slightly greater than that of the animals drugged after the sessions. Their rates did not increase. The effects of injections before the session were not duplicated by increasing the deprivation of animals drugged after the session.     

“亚当·斯密问题”的逻辑张力

“亚当·斯密问题”是指斯密的《国富论》与《道德情操论》之间存在着对立或不一致的问题,最初由十九世纪中叶的德国历史学派所提出。此后,随着现实与理论的发展,出现了不同的看法。学者们普遍认为,斯密的两大著作之间、经济学与伦理学之间存在着对立或者不存在对立,而是相互一致的。这些看法都具有各自的积极合理的内容,但缺乏辩证的观点,而没有看到“斯密问题”自身的逻辑张力,也就是说,“斯密问题”所指涉的是现实的经济与伦理之间及作为其理论表现的经济学与伦理学之间的关系。“斯密问题”所含的这些关系呈现出了一个动态的、由肯定到否定再到否定之否定的辩证过程。     

Presence and television.

Film and a number of emerging entertainment technologies offer media consumers an illusion of nonmediation known as presence. To investigate the possibility that television can evoke presence, 65 undergraduate students were shown brief examples of rapid point‐of‐view movement from commercially available videotapes on a television with either a small screen (12 inches [30.5 cm], measured diagonally) or a large screen (46 inches [116.8 cm]). Participants' responses were measured via a questionnaire and a computer‐based recording of arousal (electrodermal activity). Viewers of both televisions reported an enjoyable sense of physical movement, excitement, involvement, and a sense of participation. Furthermore, as predicted, participants who watched the large screen television thought the movement in the scenes was faster, experienced a greater sense of physical movement, enjoyed the movement to a greater extent, found the viewing experience more exciting, and were more physiologically aroused. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Cognitive dysfunction in depression: neurocircuitry and new therapeutic strategies

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a disabling medical condition associated with significant morbidity, mortality and public health costs. However, neurocircuitry abnormalities underlying depression remain incompletely understood and consequently current treatment options are unfortunately limited in efficacy. Recent research has begun to focus specifically on cognitive aspects of depression and potential neurobiological correlates. Two fundamental types of cognitive dysfunction observed in MDD are cognitive biases, which include distorted information processing or attentional allocation toward negative stimuli, and cognitive deficits, which include impairments in attention, short-term memory and executive functioning. In this article, we present a selective review of current research findings in these domains and examine neuroimaging research that is beginning to characterize the neurocircuitry underlying these biases and deficits. We propose that deficient cognitive functioning, attention biases and the sustained negative affect characteristic of MDD can be understood as arising in part from dysfunctional prefrontal-subcortical circuitry and related disturbances in the cognitive control of emotion. Finally, we highlight potential new pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutic strategies for MDD based on an evolving mechanistic understanding of the disorder.     

Mentors Enhance Resilience in At-Risk Children and Adolescents

Mentors can play an important role in promoting resilience among at-risk children and adolescents. Nonparental adults who serve as mentors can provide reliable support, communicate moral values, teach information and skills, inspire, motivate, enhance interpersonal relatedness, and foster self-esteem. A number of researchers have reported that at-risk children who have mentors, especially nonparental kin, exhibit fewer problem behaviors, more positive attitudes towards school, greater school efficacy, less marijuana use, less nonviolent delinquency, and lower levels of anxiety and depression. The most successful mentors are those who invest time and energy and have frequent and prolonged contact with the children they guide. The relationship between mentoring and resilience in at-risk children and adolescents may best be understood from psychological, social, and neurobiological perspectives. As described and recommended by Allen and Hauser, the in-depth analysis of narratives provided by at-risk children and adolescents, particularly over the course of their development into young adulthood, will undoubtedly help researchers to isolate specific features of mentoring that are critical for fostering resilience.     

Age,Emotion Regulation Strategies,Temperament, Creative Drama,and Preschoolers' Creativity

Based on Yeh's (2004) Ecological Systems Model of Creativity Development, this study investigated the effects that age, the use of emotion regulation strategies, temperament, and exposure to creative drama instruction have on the development of creativity among preschool children. Participants were 1164‐ to 6‐year‐old preschool children. This study categorized the emotion regulation strategies used by preschool children and developed a creativity test which includes the measurement of usefulness, an indicator of creativity that has, until now, been ignored. The main findings are that (a) 6‐year‐olds outperform 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds in terms of creativity; (b) emotion regulation strategies as well as a positive temperament have positive effects on children's creativity; (c) creative drama instruction contributes to children's creativity; and (d) age group, emotion regulation strategies, temperament, and creative drama instruction can collectively predict children's creativity.     

The relationship of sexual adjustment and related sexual behaviors and attitudes to marital adjustment

Abstract

This paper examines the extent of relationship between sexual adjustment and marital adjustment for 30 married couples followed for 3–6 months. Sexual adjustment was assessed by means of the LoPiccolo-Steger Sexual Interaction Inventory, and two other measures termed a Couple Interaction Scale (CI) and a Couple Compatibility Ratio (CCR). Marital adjustment was assessed by means of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Scale (L-W MAS) and a clinically-devised instrument based on the extent of support between the marital partners. The two marital adjustment instruments agreed closely. A high degree of association was obtained between most of the sexual adjustment measures and the two marital adjustment measures; using the most reliable of these measures, it is estimated that sexual adjustment contributed between 40 % and 55 % of the variance in marital adjustment. This association was not due to a specific stage of. the human sexual response cycle of desire, excitement, orgasm and gratification. Intercorrelation of measures of each of these stages with the marital adjustment measures generally yielded significant relationships.     

Psychometric analyses of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS)--Bosnian translation

Methods for assessing psychological distress in culturally diverse populations are not firmly established. This study was designed to examine the psychometric properties of the Bosnian translation of the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS; D. D. Blake, F. W. Weathers, L. M. Nagy, D. Kaloupek, G. Klauminzer, D. Charney, et al., 1995) in a Bosnian refugee sample. The authors interviewed 115 help-seeking Bosnian refugees with the CAPS-Bosnian translation to examine its internal consistency and convergent validity, and to provide an assessment of its factor structure. This study demonstrated optimal fit with a 2-factor model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); the authors also found high reliability with a coefficient alpha of 0.92 and strong convergent validity with instruments measuring depression, anxiety, and levels of psychosocial functioning. Future directions for the assessment of PTSD in cross-cultural populations are discussed.     

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

In these studies, we examined the role of elaborations for subjects learning a procedural skill (viz., using a personal computer) from an instructional text. In Experiment 1, we compared two sources of elaborations: those provided by the author and those generated by learners while reading. In the latter condition, subjects were given advance information about the tasks they were to perform so that they would generate more specific task-related elaborations while reading. Each source of elaborations facilitated skill performance. This result contrasts with results of the past experiments testing declarative knowledge in which author-provided elaborations were found to hurt performance. In Experiment 2, the author-provided elaborations were classified into those illustrating the syntax of the operating system commands and those explaining basic concepts and their applicability. Syntax elaborations produced significant facilitation for experienced and novice computer users. Concept elaborations produced no reliable improvement.