Prior exposure to a sensorimotor game in virtual reality does not enhance stress reactivity toward the OpenTSST VR.

Compared to the in-person Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), virtual reality (VR) variants reduce resource-intensity and improve standardization but induce stress with smaller effect sizes. However, higher cortisol reactivity is given for more immersive TSST-VRs. Immersivity depends on the VR-system, but perceived immersion may be targeted by exposure to, or interaction with the VR. We investigated whether stress reactivity towards the openly accessible OpenTSST VR can be enhanced by prior exposure to a sensorimotor game completed in VR as mediated by increased immersion. Therefore, N = 58 healthy participants underwent the OpenTSST VR or its inbuilt control condition (placebo TSST-VR, pTSST-VR). Beforehand, participants completed a sensorimotor game either in VR or in real life. Stress was measured by means of self-reports, salivary cortisol concentrations, and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) activity. Perceived immersion was assessed with the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ). The TSST-VR-group showed higher subjective stress than the pTSST-VR-group. Even though area under the curve measures indicated significant differences in cortisol levels between TSST-VR and pTSST-VR, this effect was not replicated in omnibus-analyses. Likewise, sAA was not responsive to stress. Our data suggests the OpenTSST VR does not reliably trigger physiological stress reactivity. Likewise, participants playing the VR-game before exposure to the TSST-VR did not show enhanced stress reactivity. Importantly, playing the VR-game did not lead to increased immersion (indicated by the IPQ), either. The key question resulting from our study is which manipulation may be fruitful to obtain a comparable stress response toward the TSST-VR compared to the in-person TSST.

Autoshaped impulsivity: Some explorations with a neural network model.

This study evaluated the effect of delay and magnitude of reinforcement in Pavlovian contingencies, extending the understanding of the phenomenon of autoshaped impulsivity as described in Alcalá's thesis (2017) and Burgos and García-Leal (2015). The effects of adding a trace interval were analyzed on the maintained responses of impulsive choice, seen as the preference of a small and immediate reinforcer over a larger and delayed one, and the role of the contextual unit, as well as the inhibitory units according to the Diffuse Discrepancy Model. In the Simulation, the model with inhibitory units was used, trained in two signals with different delays and reinforcement magnitudes, and subsequently presented concurrently in choice tasks without reinforcement nor learning, using an ABA within-subject design. In general, the DD model successfully simulated the phenomenon of autoshaped impulsivity, consistent with studies from Alcalá's thesis (2017), Burgos and García-Leal (2015), and Picker and Poling (1982). It also predicted the elimination of this effect (autoshaped impulsivity) after introducing a trace interval. The observed results and their implications are discussed, as well as possible future studies with animals and humans.

Inverse priority effects: A role for historical contingency during species losses.

Communities worldwide are losing multiple species at an unprecedented rate, but how communities reassemble after these losses is often an open question. It is well established that the order and timing of species arrival during community assembly shapes forthcoming community composition and function. Yet, whether the order and timing of species losses can lead to divergent community trajectories remains largely unexplored. Here, we propose a novel framework that sets testable hypotheses on the effects of the order and timing of species losses-inverse priority effects-and suggests its integration into the study of community assembly. We propose that the order and timing of species losses within a community can generate alternative reassembly trajectories, and suggest mechanisms that may underlie these inverse priority effects. To formalize these concepts quantitatively, we used a three-species Lotka-Volterra competition model, enabling to investigate conditions in which the order of species losses can lead to divergent reassembly trajectories. The inverse priority effects framework proposed here promotes the systematic study of the dynamics of species losses from ecological communities, ultimately aimed to better understand community reassembly and guide management decisions in light of rapid global change.

Do institutional contingencies matter for green investment?-An institution based view of Chinese listed companies.

Current research in the field of environmental management has placed significant emphasis on understanding the reasons behind varying organizational responses to environmental responsibilities. Governance scholars emphasize the central role of institutional factors in shaping environmental responsibilities, primarily due to the substantial influence exerted by regulatory institutions. Drawing on institutional theory, we investigate how sub-national institutional factors impact a firm's green investment intensity and explore their moderating influence on the relationship between green investment and a firm's financial performance. Using a database of Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2019, this study employs fixed effect model as a baseline regression. Our analysis demonstrates that sub-national institutions, such as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), regional development, and cross-listing, have significant and positive impact on corporate green investment. Our study further provide an evidence that green investment significantly improve firms' financial performance. Moreover, the positive effect of green investment on financial performance is stronger in SOEs and in firms of developed regions as compared to their counterparts, and weaker in cross listed firms than those of non-cross listed peers. Our study suggest that subnational institutions play an imperative role in improving environmental quality and financial performance by promoting corporate green investment. To make sure that our findings remain robust to endogeneity, we applied generalized method of moments (GMM) and propensity score matching (PSM) method. Our findings further provide implications for emerging economies with similar shareholding patterns and unbalanced regional development.

Shyness and self-esteem in women. The role of likeability, personal power, lovability, and self-worth conditioned by others' approval.

BACKGROUND: The relation between shyness and self-esteem in women has not been fully elucidated. Shyness is a source of many problems in social interactions, although it may be positively evaluated by women as a stereotypically female trait. The aim of the study was to examine relations between shyness, self-esteem, its dimensions, and contingencies of self-worth in women. It also compared the self-esteem and contingencies of self-worth in shy and bold women. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The study was conducted in a sample of 1020 Polish women, aged 18-73. The Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale, the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory, and the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale were used. RESULTS: The results of linear multiple regression showed that predictors of shyness were dimensions of self-esteem related to likeability, personal power, lovability, body functioning, academic/professional competences, and self-worth conditioned by others' approval and God's love. Shy women had significantly lower global self-esteem in comparison to bold women. Shy women evaluated themselves lower than bold women did, in all the dimensions of self-esteem. Both shy and bold women find family support and academic/professional competencies the main contingencies of self-worth, and God's love was indicated the least. CONCLUSIONS: The results illustrated the importance of shyness for women's self-esteem, and also have implications for understanding how shy and bold women may express themselves in social life.

Giving time a chance in the midsession reversal task.

The midsession reversal task involves a simultaneous discrimination between stimuli S1 and S2. Choice of S1 but not S2 is reinforced during the first 40 trials, and choice of S2 but not S1 is reinforced during the last 40 trials. Trials are separated by a constant intertrial interval (ITI). Pigeons learn the task seemingly by timing the moment of the reversal trial. Hence, most of their errors occur around trial 40 (S2 choices before trial 41 and S1 choices after trial 40). It has been found that when the ITI is doubled on a test session, the reversal trial is halved, a result consistent with timing. However, inconsistent with timing, halving the ITI on a test session did not double the reversal trial. The asymmetry of ITI effects could be due to the intrusion of novel cues during testing, cues that preempt the timing cue. To test this hypothesis, we ran two types of tests after the regular training in the midsession reversal task, one with S1 and S2 choices always reinforced, and another with S1 always reinforced but S2 reinforced only after 20 trials when the ITI doubled or 40 trials when the ITI halved. For most pigeons, performance was consistent with timing both when the ITI doubled and when it was halved, but some pigeons appeared to follow strategies based on counting or on reinforcement contingencies.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Behavior Modification Strategies on Physical Activity Levels Among Incarcerated Youth.

This study examined the impact of prompting only and prompting combined with independent group-oriented contingency on incarcerated adolescent males' physical activity level during a sport-leadership program. An alternating treatment design was employed to allow for the evaluation among multiple treatment conditions. The study occurred during 35 consecutive sport programming lessons at a juvenile correctional facility. Participants were 16 adolescent males (Mage = 18.79). Two behavior modification strategies, prompting only and prompting combined with independent group-oriented contingency, were employed. Data were plotted graphically so visual analysis could be determined in order to explore any functional associations between the treatment conditions (e.g., interventions) and target behavior (e.g., step count). Prompting only slightly increased physical activity, whereas prompting in conjunction with independent group-oriented contingency elevated activity levels by 36%, with a smaller standard deviation indicating that all participants were equivalently physically active. The results of this study underpin the expansive benefits of sport-leadership programming, not just in similar programs' ability to develop life skill integration, positively impact life during incarceration, improve attitudes, and promote physical activity, but also to provide elevated opportunities for youth to be physically active.

Microsocial analysis of dyadic interactions with toddlers and mothers with borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is known for disruptions in mother-child interaction, but possible underlying patterns of micro-behavior are barely understood. This is the first study examining behavioral dyadic synchrony-the coordinated and reciprocal adaptation of behavior-and regulation on a micro-level and relating it to macro-behavior in mothers with BPD and their toddlers. Twenty-five mothers with BPD and 29 healthy mothers participated with their 18- to 36-month-old toddlers in a frustration-inducing paradigm. Mother and toddler behavior was continuously micro-coded for gaze, affect, and vocalization. Synchrony, operationalized as the simultaneous engagement in social gaze and positive affect, and (co-)regulative behaviors and their contingencies were analyzed and associated with borderline symptom severity, the overall quality of interaction, and child internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Dyads with mothers with BPD showed significantly less synchrony compared to dyads with healthy mothers. Low synchrony was associated with high BPD symptom severity and low overall interaction quality. Dyads with BPD used the same amount of regulative behaviors as dyads with healthy mothers. Though both groups equally responded to children's negative emotionality, mothers with BPD were less effective in drawing the dyad back into synchrony. For dyads with BPD, regulative behaviors were negatively associated with child externalizing behaviors. BPD symptomology may reduce the effectiveness of mothers' attempts to attune to their child's needs. An emphasis on synchrony and regulative behaviors may be an important therapeutic target for parenting programs in mothers with BPD.

Three Nordic countries responding to COVID-19 - Eldercare perspectives.

Comparative international studies show that about half of the deceased in the COVID-19 pandemic were persons living in institutional and residential eldercare. As seniors are the most affected age group, we aim to study if and to what extent the eldercare services were included in the National Pandemic Plans, and how they were included in the response during the first phase of the pandemic in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. We use the CRISMART approach to crisis documentation and analysis in comparing national response to the pandemic for the eldercare sector. The method enables comparison of extraordinary crisis situations from the decision-making and policy-making perspective. We found that there were both similarities and differences in the preparedness of the three Nordic countries, as well as in how they responded to the pandemic. In all three countries the focus of the national responses framed the problem as a health and healthcare services' problem. We also found value conflicts in the response between the value of protection versus social contact and self-determination and hence relating to the quality of eldercare. Keeping in mind the proportional increase of elderly people, care challenges, and future crises, we must strengthen the position of local social services within the emergency management systems to enhance disaster resilience and sustainability of our societies.

Effects of individual or common resources availability in choosing individual or shared contingencies.

This study assessed the effects of individual and common resources availability in choosing individual or shared contingencies in a partial altruism situation. The experimental situation consisted in placing blocks on three different boards. Sixteen elementary school children were assigned to eight dyads, divided in two groups of four dyads each. Groups differed in the sequence of exposure to individual or common resources availability. Participants could observe their peers' performance and place blocks in their own board obtaining points only for themselves, could place blocks in the common board obtaining equal points for their peers and themselves, and/or could place blocks in the peers' board providing points only for their peers. Findings suggest that initial exposure to individual or to common resources availability affects the choice for individual or shared contingencies, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of interactions between individuals related to exchange contingencies and reciprocity interactions.

Kick-starting concept formation with intrinsically motivated learning: the grounding by competence acquisition hypothesis.

Although the spontaneous origins of concepts from interaction is often given for granted, how the process can start without a fully developed sensorimotor representation system has not been sufficiently explored. Here, we offer a new hypothesis for a mechanism supporting concept formation while learning to perceive and act intentionally. We specify an architecture in which multi-modal sensory patterns are mapped in the same lower-dimensional representation space. The motor repertoire is also represented in the same space via topological mapping. We posit that the acquisition of these mappings can be mutually constrained by maximizing the convergence between sensory and motor representations during online interaction. This learning signal reflects an intrinsic motivation of competence acquisition. We propose that topological alignment via competence acquisition eventually results in a sensorimotor representation system. To assess the consistency of this hypothesis, we develop a computational model and test it in an object manipulation task. Results show that such an intrinsically motivated learning process can create a cross-modal categorization system with semantic content, which supports perception and intentional action selection, which has the resources to re-enact its own multi-modal experiences, and, on this basis, to kick-start the formation of concepts grounded in the external environment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences'.

Questions worth asking for futures worth making: an effectual approach.

It is not unusual in the psychology and economics of entrepreneurship to focus on decision models based on predictive reasoning that explain outcomes such as venture creation (at the micro level), firm performance (meso level), or job creation (macro level). However, in this article, derived from the literature on entrepreneurial expertise, I argue for an embrace of uncertainty, where outcomes are not only unknown, but unknowable, hence undermining predictive criteria for actions and decisions. By focusing on principles and processes that do not entail predictive reasoning, effectuation offers both practical guidance for acting in the face of multiple uncertainties and novel research questions not yet examined through the lens of the entrepreneurial method. Specifically, I offer five possible new ventures for future research built on the five principles of effectuation. These pertain to new futures worth making, without prescribing or predicting what those would, could, or should be.

How can effectual entrepreneurs not only build valuable ventures, but also take on existential threats and build futures no one has dreamed of yet? Entrepreneurship education is becoming increasingly important and widespread in the twenty-first century. However, the content of most education programs draw rather haphazardly from research pieces in psychology and economics or from popular business books written by entrepreneurs, business gurus, and bloggers. In contrast, a cohesive stream of over a hundred academic articles, under the name "effectuation," has sought to spell out a more rigorous basis for understanding how entrepreneurs act on, react to, and interact with uncertain situations involving everything from the decision to leave a job to start a new venture to building and growing that venture. Effectuation specifies ways of acting that do not require entrepreneurs to predict and place bets on the future. Instead, effectuators work with things within their control and with others who want to work with them, to cocreate new ventures and even new markets and new futures. Effectual action thus makes entrepreneurship a method, not only to create jobs and economic opportunities but also to help tackle large societal problems.

Peripheral vision in matching-to-sample procedures.

Eye-tracking has been used to investigate observing responses in matching-to-sample procedures. However, in visual search, peripheral vision plays an important role. Therefore, three experiments were conducted to investigate the extent to which adult participants can discriminate stimuli that vary in size and position in the periphery. Experiment 1 used arbitrary matching with abstract stimuli, Experiment 2 used identity matching with abstract stimuli, and Experiment 3 used identity matching with simple (familiar) shapes. In all three experiments, participants were taught eight conditional discriminations establishing four 3-member classes of stimuli. Four different stimulus sizes and three different stimulus positions were manipulated in the 12 peripheral test phases. In these test trials, participants had to fixate their gaze on the sample stimulus in the middle of the screen while selecting a comparison stimulus. Eye movements were measured with a head-mounted eye-tracker during both training and testing. Experiment 1 shows that participants can discriminate small abstract stimuli that are arbitrarily related in the periphery. Experiment 2 shows that matching identical stimuli does not affect discrimination in the periphery compared to arbitrarily related stimuli. However, Experiment 3 shows that discrimination increases when stimuli are well-known simple shapes.

Historical contingencies and phage induction diversify bacterioplankton communities at the microscale.

In many natural environments, microorganisms decompose microscale resource patches made of complex organic matter. The growth and collapse of populations on these resource patches unfold within spatial ranges of a few hundred micrometers or less, making such microscale ecosystems hotspots of heterotrophic metabolism. Despite the potential importance of patch-level dynamics for the large-scale functioning of heterotrophic microbial communities, we have not yet been able to delineate the ecological processes that control natural populations at the microscale. Here, we address this challenge by characterizing the natural marine communities that assembled on over 1,000 individual microscale particles of chitin, the most abundant marine polysaccharide. Using low-template shotgun metagenomics and imaging, we find significant variation in microscale community composition despite the similarity in initial species pools across replicates. Chitin-degrading taxa that were rare in seawater established large populations on a subset of particles, resulting in a wide range of predicted chitinolytic abilities and biomass at the level of individual particles. We show, through a mathematical model, that this variability can be attributed to stochastic colonization and historical contingencies affecting the tempo of growth on particles. We find evidence that one biological process leading to such noisy growth across particles is differential predation by temperate bacteriophages of chitin-degrading strains, the keystone members of the community. Thus, initial stochasticity in assembly states on individual particles, amplified through ecological interactions, may have significant consequences for the diversity and functionality of systems of microscale patches.

Validating a Computerized Program for Supporting Visual Analysis During Functional Analysis: The Problem Behavior Multilevel Interpreter (PB.MI).

Computerized programs have been specifically developed in the field of applied behavior analysis for the purpose of automating data collection. Although they can potentially improve practicality of data collection for applied researchers and clinicians, program features of existing computerized programs do not include graphs and data interpretation generated in real time. We developed the Problem Behavior Multilevel Interpreter (PB.MI), which is designed to (a) allow for ongoing visual analysis of data displayed in real time and (b) support visual analysis with a computerized interpretation of functional control. The program was intended to be used during the functional analysis of problem behavior, specifically the single-session, interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis. In this article, we describe the program's functioning abilities and how we validated those abilities. In addition, we discuss the PB.MI program's practical utility. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-021-00656-7.

Qualitative variations in delay discounting: A brief review and future directions.

The discounting paradigm has been challenged by an increasing number of studies presenting qualitative variations in the individual discount function. Particularly, the subjective value of a loss does not necessarily systematically decrease with delay to the outcome. Qualitative variation refers to variations in shape rather than steepness of the discount function, such as positive discounting, zero discounting, unsystematic discounting, and negative discounting. Data from three previous studies were analysed in terms of qualitative variations observed in delay discounting patterns. Attention was also given to methods used and to the relationship between the results from the various levels of investigation. We found qualitative differences between discounting of monetary gains and losses on an individual level. While discounting of gains mainly took the form of conventional positive discounting, discounting of losses often took the form of zero discounting or unsystematic discounting. Further, there were more qualitative variations in discounting of both gains and losses among adolescents compared to adults. By examining verbal reports and single choices, we identified some of the rules and consequences involved in these delay discounting patterns. The different rules and consequences observed for the gain and loss scenarios, support that discounting of gains and losses may involve different combinations of reinforcing contingencies. These results point towards a possible way to explain the influences of qualitative variations in delay discounting.

Goal Oriented Behavior With a Habit-Based Adaptive Sensorimotor Map Network.

We present a description of an ASM-network, a new habit-based robot controller model consisting of a network of adaptive sensorimotor maps. This model draws upon recent theoretical developments in enactive cognition concerning habit and agency at the sensorimotor level. It aims to provide a platform for experimental investigation into the relationship between networked organizations of habits and cognitive behavior. It does this by combining (1) a basic mechanism of generating continuous motor activity as a function of historical sensorimotor trajectories with (2) an evaluative mechanism which reinforces or weakens those historical trajectories as a function of their support of a higher-order structure of higher-order sensorimotor coordinations. After describing the model, we then present the results of applying this model in the context of a well-known minimal cognition task involving object discrimination. In our version of this experiment, an individual robot is able to learn the task through a combination of exploration through random movements and repetition of historic trajectories which support the structure of a pre-given network of sensorimotor coordinations. The experimental results illustrate how, utilizing enactive principles, a robot can display recognizable learning behavior without explicit representational mechanisms or extraneous fitness variables. Instead, our model's behavior adapts according to the internal requirements of the action-generating mechanism itself.

Does Whipping Tournament Incentives Spur CSR Performance? An Empirical Evidence From Chinese Sub-national Institutional Contingencies.

The current study investigates whether tournament incentives motivate chief executive officer(s) (CEOs) to be socially responsible. Furthermore, it explores the role of sub-national institutional contingencies [i.e., state-owned enterprises (SOE) vs. non-SOEs, foreign-owned entities (FOE) vs. non-FOEs, cross-listed vs. non-cross-listed, developed region] in CEO tournament incentives and the corporate social responsibility performance (CSRP) relationship. Data were collected from all A-shared companies listed in the stock exchanges of China from 2014 to 2019. The study uses the baseline methodology of ordinary least squares (OLS) and cluster OLS regression. Moreover, firm-fixed effects regression, two-stage least squares regression, and propensity score matching deal with the endogeneity problem and check the robustness of the results. The results provide reliable evidence that tournament incentives motivate CEOs to be more socially responsible. On the other hand, sub-national institutional contingencies positively affect the association between CEO tournament incentives and CSRP. The findings have important implications for companies and regulators who wish to enhance CSP by providing incentives to top managers.

Further comparison of isolated and synthesized contingencies in functional analyses.

Recent research on functional analyses (FAs) has examined the extent to which problem behavior is maintained by single (isolated) or combined (synthesized) reinforcement contingencies. Outcomes of these analyses might differ depending on the sources of information that are used to inform contingencies included in test conditions. The purpose of the current study was to compare the outcomes of isolated FAs and synthesized contingency analyses (SCAs) with 3 participants. Conditions in both analyses were informed by interviews and both unstructured and structured observations. Problem behavior for all 3 participants was maintained by 1 or 2 isolated reinforcers. Results suggested false-positive SCA results for 2 participants. For 1 participant, a second isolated reinforcer was identified following the SCA, indicating the induction of a novel function. Implications for the use of isolated and synthesized consequences are discussed, as well as the predictive validity of the assessments that are used to inform them.