Effects of strategic versus tactical instructions on adaptation to changing contingencies in children with adhd.
(9/399)
This study examined the effects of two types of instructions on the academic responding of 4 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Tactical instructions specified how to distribute responding between two concurrently available sets of math problems associated with different variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. Strategic instructions provided a strategy to determine the best way to distribute responding. Instruction conditions were counterbalanced in an ABAB/BABA reversal design nested within a multiple baseline across participants design. Experimental sessions consisted of a learning session in which participants were provided with one type of instruction, followed by a test session in which no instruction was provided. The schedules of reinforcement were subsequently reversed during test sessions. When learning and test schedules were identical, the responding of all 4 participants closely matched the reinforcement schedules. When tactical instructions were provided and schedules were subsequently changed, responding often remained under the control of the instructions. When strategic instructions were provided, responding more quickly adapted to the changed contingencies. Analysis of postsession verbal reports indicated correspondence between the participants' verbal descriptions (whether accurate or inaccurate) and their nonverbal patterns of responding. (+info)
Dressing the mind properly for the game.
(10/399)
Game theory as a theoretical and empirical approach to interaction has spread from economics to psychology, political science, sociology and biology. Numerous social interactions-foraging, talking, trusting, coordinating, competing-can be formally represented in a game with specific rules and strategies. These same interactions seem to rely on an interweaving of mental selves, but an effective strategy need not depend on explicit strategizing and higher mental capabilities, as less sentient creatures or even lines of software can play similar games. Human players are distinct because we are less consistent and our choices respond to elements of the setting that appear to be strategically insignificant. Recent analyses of this variable response have yielded a number of insights into the mental approach of human players: we often mentalize, but not always; we are endowed with social preferences; we distinguish among various types of opponents; we manifest different personalities; we are often guided by security concerns; and our strategic sophistication is usually modest. (+info)
Human theta oscillations related to sensorimotor integration and spatial learning.
(11/399)
oscillations in the rat hippocampus have been implicated in sensorimotor integration (Bland, 1986), especially during exploratory and wayfinding behavior. We propose that human cortical activity coordinates sensory information with a motor plan to guide wayfinding behavior to known goal locations. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed invasive recordings from epileptic patients while they performed a spatially immersive, virtual taxi driver task. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found oscillations during both exploratory search and goal-seeking behavior and, in particular, during virtual movement, when sensory information and motor planning were both in flux, compared with periods of self-initiated stillness. oscillations had different topographic and spectral characteristics during searching than during goal-seeking, suggesting that different cortical networks exhibit depending on which cognitive functions are driving behavior (spatial learning during exploration vs orienting to a learned representation during goal-seeking). In contrast, oscillations in the beta band appeared to be related to simple motor planning, likely a variant of the Rolandic mu rhythm. These findings suggest that human cortical oscillations act to coordinate sensory and motor brain activity in various brain regions to facilitate exploratory learning and navigational planning. (+info)
The association of subjective stress, urinary catecholamine concentrations and PC game room use and musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limbs in young male Koreans.
(12/399)
The use of PCs can cause health problems, including musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of the upper limbs. This study was performed to investigate whether using PCs in PC game rooms may induce MSDs of the upper limbs. 284 young male Koreans were included. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to gather information about game room use, perceived subjective stress, and the symptoms related to MSDs. Urinary concentrations of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine were measured in spot urine. The symptom prevalence of MSDs of the upper limbs increased according to the increase of the duration of game room use. The intensity of perceived subjective stress showed a significant dose-response relationship with the frequency of MSDs symptoms in neck and shoulder areas. However, the urinary level of catecholamines was not significantly correlated with the symptom prevalence of MSDs in the upper limbs. These findings suggest that using PCs in game rooms produce physical stress on the upper limbs, strong enough to induce MSDs. (+info)
Cognitive strategies dependent on the hippocampus and caudate nucleus in human navigation: variability and change with practice.
(13/399)
The human brain activity related to strategies for navigating in space and how it changes with practice was investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects used two different strategies to solve a place-learning task in a computer-generated virtual environment. One-half of the subjects used spatial landmarks to navigate in the early phase of training, and these subjects showed increased activation of the right hippocampus. The other half used a nonspatial strategy and showed, with practice, sustained increased activity within the caudate nucleus during navigation. Activation common to both groups was observed in the posterior parietal and frontal cortex. These results provide the first evidence for spontaneous variability and shift in neural mechanisms during navigation in humans. (+info)
Impaired binaural hearing in children produced by a threshold level of middle ear disease.
(14/399)
Otitis media with effusion (OME), a form of middle ear disease, is the most common reason for young children both to visit their family doctor and to have surgery. Almost all children have at least a single episode of OME before their first birthday and annual incidence rates exceed 50% in each of the first five years. For most children, OME occurs infrequently, but about 10-15% of children have OME during more than half of their first six years. Middle ear effusions attenuate and delay sound, causing conductive sound distortion during the crucial years for language acquisition. The many studies of OME effects on language and other indices of development have produced mixed results. However, a consensus is emerging of mild language impairment in the preschool years, with subsequent performance, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. In addition to the peripheral hearing loss produced directly by the disease, binaural and other central auditory deficits can outlive the OME. It has been unclear which children are at risk of central impairment following OME, since the children studied have generally been recruited from otolaryngology clinics. Consequently, a detailed prospective history of the middle ear status of participants has not been available. By studying six-year-old children with a lifetime known history of OME, we show in this study that only those children with a cumulative OME experience of more than about half the time during the first five years consistently have residual impaired binaural hearing. (+info)
Endothelin-1 gene Lys198Asn polymorphism and blood pressure reactivity.
(15/399)
The Lys198Asn polymorphism of the endothelin-1 gene has been associated with increased blood pressure levels in several studies involving European and Australian adults. The purpose of the present study was to examine the potential moderating influence of ethnicity, obesity, and socioeconomic status on associations between the ET-1/Lys198Asn polymorphism and hemodynamic function at rest and during two laboratory stressors (video game, forehead cold) in a sample of 161 black and 213 white American normotensive young adults (mean age, 18.5+/-2.7 years). Carrier status of the T allele was not associated with resting blood pressure or total peripheral resistance index. However, carriers of the T allele showed greater diastolic blood pressure increases to the video game (P<0.04), particularly among those who were obese (P<0.02). Carrier status also interacted with socioeconomic status such that T allele carriers who came from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds exhibited the greatest increases in systolic blood pressure to the video game challenge (P<0.05). In conclusion, the findings point out the importance of examining the impact of genetic polymorphisms on blood pressure control phenotypes within the context of potentiating environmental factors. (+info)
Computer games may be good for your health: shifting healthcare behavior via interactive drama videogames.
(16/399)
There is increasing evidence that interactive learning systems have an important role in reducing health risks and improving general health status. This theater style demonstration is aimed at harnessing people's passions for videogames and the movies, and a major purpose of this research is to explore alternative ways for a game generator to help authors to introduce entertainment and free play as well as learning by teaching into role playing games and interactive dramas that are behavioral interventions in disguise. (+info)