EFFECTS OF PREFERENCE AND REINFORCER VARIATION ON WITHIN-SESSION PATTERNS OF RESPONDING

We examined correspondence between preference assessment outcome and within‐session patterns of responding in one subject with autism. Responding maintained by a single highly preferred item resulted in a greater total number of responses, a slower decline in within‐session response rates, and a greater proportion of short interresponse times compared to responding maintained by varied moderately preferred (MP) stimuli. Presenting varied MP stimuli within the same session produced greater levels and more sustained responding than presenting those same stimuli individually.     

未来时间洞察力的目标作用

未来时间洞察力是个体对未来时间的认知、体验和行动（或行动倾向）的一种人格特质,其目标不仅架起了现在与未来的桥梁,也影响个体的认知与行为,并且不同目标还具有不同的动力作用。但个体如何建构未来目标、确立优势目标等,需做进一步研究。     

Translational research in behavior analysis: historical traditions and imperative for the future

"Pure basic" science can become detached from the natural world that it is supposed to explain. "Pure applied" work can become detached from fundamental processes that shape the world it is supposed to improve. Neither demands the intellectual support of a broad scholarly community or the material support of society. Translational research can do better by seeking innovation in theory or practice through the synthesis of basic and applied questions, literatures, and methods. Although translational thinking has always occurred in behavior analysis, progress often has been constrained by a functional separation of basic and applied communities. A review of translational traditions in behavior analysis suggests that innovation is most likely when individuals with basic and applied expertise collaborate. Such innovation may have to accelerate for behavior analysis to be taken seriously as a general-purpose science of behavior. We discuss the need for better coordination between the basic and applied sectors, and argue that such coordination compromises neither while benefiting both.     

ORDER FROM VIRTUAL STATES: A DIALOGUE ON THE RELEVANCE OF QUANTUM THEORY TO RELIGION

Abstract. Lothar Schäfer has written a poetic tribute pointing out the relevance of quantum theory to religious beliefs. Two items in his article trouble me greatly. First are the excessive claims about the relevance of quantum mechanisms for the creation and evolution of life. Schäfer's claim that “everything that can happen must happen” can be dangerously misleading. The quantum rules predict that most outcomes have a near‐zero chance of occurring. Although “anything can happen” can be a wonderful metaphor for living life, it can be dangerous if taken literally. It can also be misleading when applied to Darwinian mechanisms. My second trouble was with Schäfer's desire to extract moral values from quantum principles in a literalist manner. Extracting ethics from science has always been problematic. Luckily, Schäfer provides balance to these objections by including many wonderful passages that in my opinion correctly point out how quantum theory should change the way we conceive of our place in the universe. I list twelve points in which the quantum ontology differs from our normal Newtonian ontology. Awareness of these aspects is typically missing from our usual appreciation of nature, so Schäfer's poetry on a number of these points is well appreciated.     

退休规划的研究现状和本土化发展

退休规划是个体在退休前为保障将来的退休生活做出的长期准备。退休规划不仅有利于退休人员生活幸福, 还有助于缓解社会保障体系的压力, 在较早进入老龄化的国家已经得到重视。通过回顾国外相关研究, 本文归纳出退休规划的六个具体领域(财务、健康、社交休闲、工作、心理、居住), 总结并评价了过去研究应用的主要理论基础(角色理论、计划过程理论、资源视角、生态系统理论)和有代表性的测量工具。汇总分析了退休规划在人口学、环境和心理三层面上的影响因素以及对过渡型就业和退休适应两阶段的影响。基于研究概念的发展以及中国国情, 未来研究应该首先开发本土化工具, 合理选择理论视角并系统研究规划的各个领域, 验证并创新退休规划的影响因素研究, 注重中国国情问题并加强干预研究。     

心理治疗中的同化模型

同化模型是一个有关心理治疗改变过程的理论构想。它融合了多家理论观点, 形成一个用于解释心理治疗一般改变过程的整合性框架。依据此模型, 针对治疗改变过程提出八个可以预期的发展阶段。一系列有关同化模型的研究已经对模型及其发展序列进行了验证, 并提供了实证性的支持。同时发现不同疗法的同化过程模式存在差异; 不同疗法对处于不同同化阶段的当事人具有不同的效果。在研究主题的细化方面, 已有研究开展了同化阶段的标识研究、同化阶段的子阶段研究; 并拓展向不同障碍类型、不同治疗方法的当事人, 以及新的研究领域(如药物治疗, 移民丧失)。在未来的研究中, 可以进行跨文化的研究来对此模型进行验证, 也可以对模型有关治疗改变线性过程的潜在假设进行验证, 或针对声音方面展开深入研究。     

ROBERT J. RUSSELL'S ESCHATOLOGICAL THEOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF COSMOLOGY

The main title of Robert J. Russell's Cosmology from Alpha to Omega: The Creative Mutual Interaction of Theology and Science catches the substance of the essays; the subtitle his methodological vision. The mutualis modest as far as the influence from theology on science goes; in no way is Russell curtailing the pursuit of science. Driven by intellectual honesty, he holds that in the end religious convictions will have to stand the test of compatibility with scientific knowledge. And as a Christian he believes core beliefs of Christianity, reformulated as needed, will be able to stand this test. The essays address the origin and contingency of our universe in relation to belief in creation, and his proposal for noninterventionist objective divine action. For him a stumbling block is natural evil; the evolutionary intelligibility of evil falls short of what would be desirable theologically. As steps toward an adequate eschatology Russell seeks to develop a more complex understanding of temporality, and proposes to understand the resurrection of Jesus as the First Instantiation of a New Law of the New Creation. This area is more in tension with current science, but that could be expected when one moves from creation to redemption. Within his self-imposed boundaries, these essays are well informed and well argued, and together they provide a sincere and sustained research program.     

Mental architectures with selectively influenced but stochastically interdependent components

The way external factors influence distribution functions for the overall time required to perform a mental task (such as responding to a stimulus, or solving a problem) may be informative as to the underlying mental architecture, the hypothetical network of interconnected processes some of which are selectively influenced by some of the external factors. Under the assumption that all processes contributing to the overall performance time are stochastically independent, several basic results have been previously established. These results relate patterns of response time distribution functions produced by manipulating external factors to such questions as whether the hypothetical constituent processes in the mental architecture enter AND gates or OR gates, and whether pairs of processes are sequential or concurrent. The present study shows that all these results are also valid for stochastically interdependent component times, provided the selective dependence of these components upon external factors is understood within the framework of a recently proposed theory of selective influence. According to this theory each component is representable as a function of three arguments: the factor set selectively influencing it, a component-specific source of randomness, and a source of randomness shared by all the components.     

Science and the Future of Theology: Critical Issues

The ambivalent reputation of theology as an academic discipline is attributed to the often circular character of its procedures based on presumed authoritative sources. Recently, science too has come under the shadow of "postmodernist" critiques but, it is argued, has been able to withstand them successfully and make epistemologically warrantedclaims to be depicting reality—thereby vindicating human rationality. Evolutionary epistemological considerations also reinforce confidence in the more general deliverances of the human exploration of reasonableness through inference to the best explanation (IBE). The consequences of applying IBE, with its associated criteria, in theological investigation are considered in relation to theology as it is and as it might be. A number of issues critical for thedevelopment of a credible theology are identified. In spite of the challenging and somewhat negative view of contemporary theology to which this leads, hope is expressed that a genuinely credible "evangelical,""catholic," and liberal theology may yet emerge for the new millennium.     

Longitudinal Study on the Relationships between Organizational Factors and Autonomous and Controlled Motivation among Older Japanese Bridge Employees1

Longitudinal relationships between organizational factors and autonomous and controlled motivation among older Japanese bridge employees were investigated. The study sample consisted of 331 older people working in bridge employment at the same organizations where they worked before retirement (M_age = 63.45 years, SD = 3.28 years). Data were taken at two time points 10 months apart. Multiple regression analysis indicated that organizational justice predicted autonomous motivation at Time 2, after controlling for demographic variables and autonomous motivation at Time 1, whereas organizational justice did not predict controlled motivation. Moreover, support from coworkers positively predicted autonomous motivation and negatively predicted controlled motivation at Time 2. These results indicate that optimal organizational environments might promote autonomous motivation and reduce controlled motivation among older workers. It is suggested that organizations develop environments where older workers can receive fair evaluations from their superiors and close relationships with their coworkers.