Current research in behavioral sciences最新文献

Human gambling almost always results in a loss. Thus, it is generally assumed that humans gamble for enjoyment and the enticement of winning. Although animals are purported to engage in optimal foraging behavior and should be sensitive to the probability of reinforcement, similar suboptimal behavior can be found in pigeons and other animals. They show a preference for an alternative that is associated with a signal for a low probability of a large reward (e.g., 20% probability of 10 pellets – a mean of 2 pellets) over an alternative that is associated with a signal for a high probability of a smaller reward (100% probability of 3 pellets). This effect may result from the strong conditioned reinforcement associated with a stimulus that is always followed by a reinforcer, but surprisingly, little conditioned inhibition associated with the signal for the absence of a reinforcer. A similar mechanism appears to be responsible for human gambling (gamblers tend to overvalue wins and undervalue losses). We have also found that for pigeons (and perhaps humans as well), the probability of the conditioned reinforcer is relatively unimportant, it is primarily the value of the reinforcer when it does occur (e.g., 10 pellets vs. 3 pellets) that is important. Interestingly, pigeons show several other parallels to human gambling behavior. For example, hungrier pigeons show a greater tendency to choose suboptimally. Also, pigeons that have had enrichment in the form of social experience in a larger cage show a reduced tendency to choose suboptimally. This animal model may provide a useful analog to human gambling behavior, one that is free from the influence of human culture, language, social reinforcement, and other experiential biases that may encourage human gambling.

Children today spend an unprecedented amount of their time watching or interacting with screens. In this research, we examined the use of screen time (both television and electronic media use) in relation to preschoolers’ language development and the parent-child relationship. Participants were 84 parents and their preschoolers. Children ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old. Parents provided survey data and children were assessed on language ability and comprehension. Results show that preschool children who spent more time on screens, both television viewing and electronic media use, scored lower on language production, language comprehension, and parent-child closeness. Further, we found support for the displacement hypothesis, with significant indirect effects of screen time on language and parent-child closeness through reductions in shared reading and quality parent-child interactions.

A prior study showed that popular names are given less frequently to babies in individualistic countries in European, Anglo-American (North American), and Oceanian cultures. However, the samples of the previous study were limited, and it did not examine other cultures, leaving it unclear whether the relationship is still found even when other cultures are included. It is important to confirm validity of indices cross-culturally. Thus, the present study included two unexamined cultures in the analyses: East Asian culture and Latin American culture. Following the previous study, I calculated the rates of popular baby names in Japan and Puerto Rico, and examined how the addition of these two regions affected the results. Analyses showed that the negative relationships between the rates of popular names and individualism scores were still salient. Therefore, this study further confirmed the validity of unique names as an indicator of individualism in more diverse cultural contexts.

Previous research has investigated characteristics of individuating information, stereotypes, and evaluative circumstances that moderate reliance on social category information and individuating information in implicit person perception. However, possibly no research has examined characteristics of perceivers that may be involved in these processes. In four studies (N = 1545), the present research tested the effects of six individual differences on application of race and gender stereotypes in implicit perceptions of individuals and the potential moderating effects of diagnosticity of individuating information. We found that individuating information affected implicit person similarly regardless of the diagnosticity of the individuating information, the target group, and—largely—individual differences. Although these findings involved several null results, these results are nonetheless informative because they provide evidence that individuating information is a promising means of bias reduction given its consistent effects.

Perceptually rich visualizations can overburden learners with too many details. As some learning tasks depend on realism and details, techniques that facilitate the cognitive processing of such visualizations are sought after. Concreteness fading has been proposed as an instructional method in which learners are first presented with a detailed visualization that is later replaced with a schematic version. A second technique that is thought to help learners is guidance fading, in which tasks get successively more difficult. In the first experiment (n = 125), fading the concreteness of an anatomical visualization, however, had a negative effect on learning, while using guidance fading during testing (realized by increasing the difficulty of the tests over time) had no effect. The second experiment (n = 107) was conducted to assess whether guidance fading implemented by first showing a complex model with color cues and later removing these hints can foster learning. The study revealed that this form of guidance fading had no effect on learning. The results have implications for the design of instructional visualizations and animations as they outline how changing the style of a visualization can interfere with building mental models. Based on the findings, educators should carefully consider whether they need to show visualizations that differ in their visual style in quick succession during a lecture or in an animation.

Previous studies have found that loneliness of one person can be judged quite accurately by a close friend or partner. Yet, it is unclear whether there are specific behavioral cues the other-ratings are based on. In the present study, 54 female friendship dyads were videotaped during a guided conversation and behavioral cuesl were coded using the SPAFF coding system. The results indicated that loneliness was negatively associated with one's own and the friend's overall friendship satisfaction and their satisfaction with the interaction. However, with the exception of an inconsistent mediation effect found for sadness, none of the coded behavioral cues were found to mediate the association between loneliness and interaction quality. Nevertheless, the results of the present study may help to understand why it is so difficult to identify people at risk for experiencing loneliness and draws attention to other processes through which loneliness may become visible to others.

In an fMRI passive viewing task made in a 7T scanner, Harvey et al (2013) asked adult participants to passively view dots on a screen and reported a topographical map of quantities in the human intraparietal sulcus (IPS), suggesting that quantities are directly perceived, and their cortical organization may be fundamental to human abilities in mathematics. This paper, which was published in Science, got lots of attention and was cited 469 times since. In a later Neuroimage paper (2017), the authors analyzed the response to the visual features of the stimuli and suggested that the neural responses do not reflect the processing of visual features. I raise several reasons to restrict these conclusions. (1) the study design emphasized quantity over continuous magnitudes such as density and area. This may be problematic since neural activity can be influenced by attending to a specific dimension. (2) Poor control over continuous magnitudes. (3) The conclusions should be restricted to small quantities. (4) Task context influences neural activity, and (5) When the analysis is restricted to a specific cortical area, the conclusion should be restricted as well.

UK-based national surveys and international longitudinal studies have shown that around a third of parents experience chronic or persistent loneliness. There is limited research about the experience of loneliness in parenthood, however blogs authored by parents, sharing their personal experiences about loneliness offer a potential rich data source. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyse blog narratives written by parents who had experienced loneliness to increase understanding of their experiences. One hundred and ninety-six relevant blog posts were identified, of which 157 had contact details to request permission to use the blog post in the study. Twenty-two parent bloggers gave their permission. Thematic network analysis was used to open code the blogs and 4 organising themes and subthemes emerged, which centred on a global theme of disconnection. Disconnection underpinned themes relating to a sense that being a parent was overwhelming, changes in identity linked to becoming a parent, difficulties in sharing feelings of loneliness with others, and a need for social connection. Findings point to parents being unprepared for the transition to parenthood, with implications for perinatal education and support, including further opportunities for parents to connect to reduce social isolation.

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a trait associated with enhanced responsivity to environmental stimuli and the tendency to pause before acting. However, qualitative data suggest that some who are high in SPS may also be high in sensation seeking (SS), a trait characterized by the seeking of novel and intense experiences. Thus, this online study examined SPS and SS among 214 individuals (mean age, 30), using the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (the standard SPS measure), a standard measure of sensation seeking (ZKA-PQ); and the newly developed Sensation-Seeking Scale for Highly Sensitive Persons (SSS/HSP). We also measured risk-taking, impulsivity, and neuroticism, as control variables. Results showed that SPS (controlling or not controlling for neuroticism) was moderately negatively correlated with the ZKA-PQ, risk-taking and impulsivity; but positively associated with negative urgency—the tendency to act impulsively due to negative affect. Also, the validity of the SSS/HSP was supported, as it showed a strong positive correlation with standard measures of SS and risk-taking, a moderate association with impulsivity, and (as it was designed to do) a near zero correlation with SPS. In conclusion, although some individuals with SPS may express high SS, the two traits are largely separate; and the SSS/HSP is a reliable measure of SS, having items better-suited for the highly sensitive.