Grouping and gambling: A Gestalt approach to understanding the gambler's fallacy.

The gambler's fallacy was examined in terms of grouping processes. The gambler's fallacy is the tendency to erroneously believe that for independent events, recent or repeated instances of an outcome (e.g., a series of "heads" when flipping a coin) will make that outcome less likely on an upcoming trial. Grouping was manipulated such that a critical trial following a run of heads or tails was grouped together with previous trials (i.e., the last trial of "Block 1") or was the first trial of another group (the first trial of "Block 2"). As predicted, the gambler's fallacy was evident when the critical trial was grouped with the previous trials, but not when it was arbitrarily grouped with the next block of trials. Discussion centres on the processes underlying the gambler's fallacy and practical implications of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing self-discrepancies or maintaining self-congruence? Uncertainty orientation, self-regulation, and performance.

Reducing discrepancies between performance and goals was predicted to motivate uncertainty-oriented people, but maintaining congruence was predicted to be more motivating for certainty-oriented people. Being motivated should lead to better performance when a person is focused on positive outcomes, or to worse performance if he or she is focused on negative outcomes (success-oriented vs. failure-threatened in Studies 1 and 2, ideal vs. ought discrepancy in Study 3). Three studies tested these hypotheses: an experiment that used bogus performance feedback, a field study of examination performance as a function of prior discrepancies from desired grades, and an experimental priming of standards associated with a discrepancy or with no discrepancy. All 3 studies revealed the predicted interaction, supporting the hypothesis that there are individual differences in motivation as a function of goal discrepancy or congruence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction and audience reaction to programming on an educational television station.

"The achievement of students enrolled in elementary psychology and biology television instruction and non-television instruction was compared. No significant differences were found. An audience-reaction survey of Houston televiewers revealed that 75% of the audience watched the station from as often as three times a week to at least once in two weeks. Highly preferred programs included sports, a psychology course, and an international affairs discussion panel. Suggested programs ranked most highly were sports programs, educational films, panel discussion, and children's programs. Least preferred programs were of the classical music type." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detector Identification with Four BGO Crystals on a Dual PMT

The current trend towards higher resolution positron emission tomography (PET) requires the development of small but efficient detectors. This paper presents the initial characterization of a detector composed of four equally spaced, 4.5mm wide bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals coupled to the face of a Hamamatsu R1548 dual photomultiplier tube (PMT). The intrinsic optical cross talk between the two segments of the dual PMT exhibits a spatial dependence that has been exploited for crystal identification. Misidentification of crystals due to the combined effects of compton scattering of gamma rays between crystals, crystal penetration of gamma rays, and the imperfection of the optical cross talk identification scheme has been studied under various conditions. The detector pair spatial resolution on axis was measured to be 2.9mm full width at half maximum (FWHM), and the intrinsic peak efficiency was found to be higher than that of the larger detectors currently in use in the Montreal Neurological Institute's (MNI) Positome III camera.     

Ideal versus ought predilections for approach and avoidance distinct self-regulatory systems.

Two studies using different paradigms activated either ideal self-guides (a person's hopes or wishes) or ought self-guides (a person's sense of duty and responsibility) and measured Ss' concern with different forms of self-regulation: approaching matches to desired end states or mismatches to undesired end states and avoiding mismatches to desired end states or matches to undesired end states. A 3rd study asked ideal vs ought discrepant Ss to select among alternative strategies for friendship. The results suggest that a concern with approach is greater for ideal than ought self-regulation, whereas a concern with avoidance is greater for ought than ideal self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A unique approach persuades physicians. Interview by Carolyn Dunbar and Michael L. Laughlin

By combining a unique 'sales' approach with a system truly designed to meet users' needs, a Denver physician and medical affairs vice president is convincing healthcare providers that computers are not the way of the future, but of today. During an on-site visit with Computers in Healthcare Editor Carolyn Dunbar and Michael L. Laughlin, industry editor, Patrick Roney, M.D., explained how Denver's Swedish Medical Center is plunging into the Computer Age.     

Development of whey protein isolate/polyaniline smart packaging: Morphological,structural, thermal,and electrical properties

Development of smart packaging from biodegradable polymers that allow monitoring food exposure conditions is important to reduce food and material packaging waste. The objective of this article is to evaluate the conductivity of polyaniline (PANI) in its doped form with dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid on morphological, structure, thermal, and electrical (Hall effect) properties of whey protein isolate (films. Films show immiscible with 10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ conductivity and semiconductor behavior due to a phase separation that is observed (scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis). Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectra do not present changes in relation to control samples, suggesting no chemical interaction with polymers. This result is probably due to deprotonation of PANI. No significant differences are observed for conductivity of film made above 60 mg mL⁻¹ of PANI. Films showed semiconducting properties that allow a new application on smart packaging to help monitor electrical properties of foods in processes of degradable. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47316.