45 research outputs found
Goal slippage : a mechanism for spontaneous instrumental helping in infancy?
In recent years, developmental psychologists have increasingly been interested in various forms of prosocial behavior observed in infants and young childrenâin particular comforting, sharing, pointing to provide information, and spontaneous instrumental helping. We briefly review several models that have been proposed to explain the psychological mechanisms underpinning these behaviors. Focusing on spontaneous instrumental helping, we home in on models based upon what Paulus (Child Development Perspectives 8(2):77â81, 2014) has dubbed âgoal-alignmentâ, i.e. the idea that the identification of an agentâs goal leads infants to take up that goal as their own. We identify a problem with the most well-known model based upon this idea, namely the âgoal contagionâ model. The problem arises from the way in which the model specifies the content of the goal which is identified and taken up. We then propose an alternative way of specifying the content of the goal, and use this as a starting point for articulating an alternative model based upon the idea of alignment, namely the âgoal slippageâ model. By elucidating the difference between goal contagion and goal slippage, we contribute to the articulation of experimental criteria for assessing whether and when the mechanisms specified by these two models are at work
Investing in commitment : persistence in a joint action is enhanced by the perception of a partner's effort
Can the perception that oneâs partner is investing effort generate a sense of commitment to a joint action? To test this, we developed a 2-player version of the classic snake game which became increasingly boring over the course of each round. This enabled us to operationalize commitment in terms of how long participants persisted before pressing a âfinishâ button to conclude each round. Our results from three experiments reveal that participants persisted longer when they perceived what they believed to be cues of their partnerâs effortful contribution (Experiment 1). Crucially, this effect was not observed when they knew their partner to be an algorithm (Experiment 2), nor when it was their own effort that had been invested (Experiment 3). These results support the hypothesis that the perception of a partnerâs effort elicits a sense of commitment, leading to increased persistence in the face of a temptation to disengage
The developmental origins of commitment
As adults, we are quite proficient in generating commitments, and in identifying, keeping track of, and responding appropriately to our own and othersâ commitments. This proficiency is fundamentally important for uniquely human forms of sociality. By illuminating the cognitive processes underpinning commitments, we may therefore gain insight into the ways in which human cognition is unique, and into the ways in which it is shared with other species. In pursuing this aim, one valuable strategy is to investigate the emergence of an understanding of commitment in ontogeny, i.e. to isolate distinct components of this proficiency as they emerge, and to learn how they relate to each other, which are the most basic, etc. Our aim in this paper is to contribute to this project by articulating a theoretical framework to structure research on the emergence of an understanding of commitment in childhood
Using episodic memory to gauge implicit and/or indeterminate social commitments
In discussing Mahr and Csibraâs observations about the role of episodic memory in grounding social commitments, we propose that episodic memory is especially useful for gauging cases of implicit commitment and cases in which the content of a commitment is indeterminate. We conclude with some thoughts about how commitment may relate to the evolution of episodic memory
MolekulĂĄris faj-diverzitĂĄs vizsgĂĄlĂł mĂłdszerek fajkompozĂciĂł torzĂtĂĄsĂĄnak elemzĂ©se, optimĂĄlis eljĂĄrĂĄs kidolgozĂĄsa Ă©s gyakorlati alkalmazĂĄsa = Analysis of method inherent species composition biases of molecular species diversity analyses, method optimatisation and practical application
A baktĂ©rium közössĂ©gek szerkezetĂ©rĆl molekulĂĄris mĂłdszerekkel levont következtetĂ©sek feltevĂ©se, hogy a vizsgĂĄlati lĂ©pĂ©sek sorĂĄn a minta faj-abundancia viszonyai nem vĂĄltoznak. A kutatĂĄsok ennek ellenkezĆjĂ©t sugalljĂĄk. VizsgĂĄlataink a multitemplĂĄt PCR, ill. a klĂłnkönyvtĂĄr kĂ©szĂtĂ©s közössĂ©gszerkezet-torzĂtĂł hatĂĄsait tĂ©rkĂ©pezte fel. A preferenciĂĄlis amplifikĂĄciĂłt bacteria specifikus primerekkel elemeztĂŒk, az annelĂĄciĂłs hĆmĂ©rsĂ©klet, ill. a ciklusszĂĄm hatĂĄsĂĄra. Ismert genomĂș törzsek DNS keverĂ©kein a PCR termĂ©kek mennyisĂ©gi viszonyait TRFLP-vel vizsgĂĄltuk. 1:1 arĂĄnyĂș templĂĄtkeverĂ©keknĂ©l az illeszkedĂ©si hibĂĄval bĂrĂł a tökĂ©letesen illeszkedĆ templĂĄttal szemben hĂĄtrĂĄnyba kerĂŒlt. Az arĂĄnytorzĂtĂĄs exponenciĂĄlis összefĂŒggĂ©st mutat az annelĂĄciĂłs hĆmĂ©rsĂ©klettel. A PCR ciklusszĂĄmnak elhanyagolhatĂł hatĂĄsa van a PCR termĂ©kek arĂĄnyaira. Környezeti mintĂĄk vizsgĂĄlatai alapjĂĄn javasoljuk a kis annelĂĄciĂłs hĆmĂ©rsĂ©kletek hasznĂĄlatĂĄt a torzulĂĄsok elkerĂŒlĂ©sĂ©re. A klĂłnozĂĄs sorĂĄn fellĂ©pĆ preferenciĂĄlis ligĂĄciĂłt TA vektor segĂtsĂ©gĂ©vel vizsgĂĄltuk. A 16S-23S spacer elemzĂ©snĂ©l jellemzĆ inzertmĂ©ret kĂŒlönbsĂ©gek esetĂ©n a klĂłnkönyvtĂĄrak összetĂ©tele erĆsen eltolĂłdott a rövidebb inzertek felĂ©. Ha az inzertek csak szekvenciĂĄban kĂŒlönböztek, enyhe torzulĂĄst kaptunk. Vagyis a nagy hossz heterogenitĂĄsĂș gĂ©nszakaszokra Ă©pĂŒlĆ klĂłnozĂĄsos vizsgĂĄlatoknĂĄl a rövidebb inzertet adĂł fajok tĂșlreprezentĂĄltak lesznek. A környezeti klĂłnokbĂłl az elsĆ 12 faj izolĂĄlĂĄsa (Bacteria Ă©s Archaea) megtörtĂ©nt. | There are several biasing factors in molecular microbiological community analyses though the quantitative aspect of multitemplate PCR and ligation at clone library construction is poorly investigated. The biases were investigated using bacteria specific primers, focusing on the effect of primer mismatch, annealing temperature and PCR cycle numbers. The distortion of template-to-product ratio was measured using TRFLP analysis. At 1:1 genomic DNA template mixtures, primer mismatches presented serious bias, with preferential amplification of the template with perfectly matching sequence. The extent of preferential amplification showed exponential relation with increasing annealing temperatures. The number of PCR cycles had little influence on template-to-product ratios. Analysing environmental samples, the use of low annealing temperature was recommended to reduce preferential amplification. Blunt-end cloning ligation step was investigated for the insert length heretogeneity. Strong preferential ligation of the shorter PCR amplicon was shown. Slightly skewed ratios were detected at the same insert length and GC content. These findings indicate that members of a diverse microbial sample may be excluded during clone library construction because of preferential ligation, this way biasing the true community picture.Environmental clones detected by the optimised techniques were targeted to culture. 12 new species (Bacteria and Archaea) were isolated and partially characterised
The perception of a robot partnerâs effort elicits a sense of commitment to human-robot interaction
Previous research has shown that the perception that oneâs partner is investing effort in a joint action can generate a sense of commitment, leading participants to persist longer despite increasing boredom. The current research extends this finding to human-robot interaction. We implemented a 2-player version of the classic snake game which became increasingly boring over the course of each round, and operationalized commitment in terms of how long participants persisted before pressing a âfinishâ button to conclude each round. Participants were informed that they would be linked via internet with their partner, a humanoid robot. Our results reveal that participants persisted longer when they perceived what they believed to be cues of their robot partnerâs effortful contribution to the joint action. This provides evidence that the perception of a robot partnerâs effort can elicit a sense of commitment to human-robot interaction
Joint action goals reduce visuomotor interference effects from a partnerâs incongruent actions
Joint actions often require agents to track othersâ actions while planning and executing physically incongruent actions of their own. Previous research has indicated that this can lead to visuomotor interference effects when it occurs outside of joint action. How is this avoided or overcome in joint actions? We hypothesized that when joint action partners represent their actions as interrelated components of a plan to bring about a joint action goal, each partnerâs movements need not be represented in relation to distinct, incongruent proximal goals. Instead they can be represented in relation to a single proximal goal â especially if the movements are, or appear to be, mechanically linked to a more distal joint action goal. To test this, we implemented a paradigm in which participants produced finger movements that were either congruent or incongruent with those of a virtual partner, and either with or without a joint action goal (the joint flipping of a switch, which turned on two light bulbs). Our findings provide partial support for the hypothesis that visuomotor interference effects can be reduced when two physically incongruent actions are represented as mechanically interdependent contributions to a joint action goal
Effort-based decision making in joint action : evidence of a sense of fairness
As humans, we are unique with respect to the flexibility and scope of our cooperative behavior. In recent years, considerable research has been devoted to investigating the psychological mechanisms which support this. One key finding is that people frequently calibrate their effort level to match a cooperation partner's effort costs - although little is known about exactly why they do so. We hypothesized that people calibrate with the ultimate goal of attracting and keeping good collaboration partners, with the proximal psychological motive being a preference for fairness. Across four lab-based, pre-registered experiments (N = 142), we found support for these hypotheses, and distinguished them from plausible alternative explanations, such as the conjecture that people may use their partner's effort costs as information to infer the value of opportunities afforded by their environment, and the conjecture that people may calibrate their effort investment in order to appear competent
Prognostic impact of progesterone receptor expression in HER2-negative luminal B breast cancer
KlinikopatolĂłgiai szemlĂ©letƱ emlĆrĂĄkkutatĂĄsok
In the second half of the 20th century research focusing to breast carcinomas at the Semmelweis University had been mostly linked to the 2nd Department of Pathology. Nowadays, following the rapidly improving treatment modalities in breast cancer there is an increasing need for defining new predictive and prognostic markers. The modern molecular pathological approach helps tremendously in mapping the biological behavior of individual cases of breast cancers and meanwhile, it is one of the prerequisites of a more efficient treatment both in neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings, as well as in metastatic disease. We provide a brief review of the relevant results we have obtained in breast cancer research between 2000 and 2015