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At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Search behavior and choice of physician in the market for prenatal care.

The authors examine how 963 expectant mothers in Florida searched for and selected a prenatal care provider. Overall, the results suggest that women search for prenatal care in much the same way as search theory predicts. Nevertheless, the amount of search reported is surprisingly small. Less than a quarter of the women in the survey seriously considered more than one physician, and even among this group, less than 60% actually spoke to or visited a second physician. Because of the timing, importance, and relative frequency of pregnancy, it is probably easier to search for a prenatal care provider than it is to search for most other medical services. Consequently, if search is this uncommon for prenatal care providers, it is probably even less common for other procedures. As they search for and choose a prenatal care provider, pregnant women rely most heavily on information from friends and acquaintances. Women facing high coinsurance rates or whose choices are constrained by HMO or Medicaid coverage rely less on recommendations from friends and acquaintances. These women also appear less satisfied with their choice of prenatal care provider.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Understanding cognition, choice, and behavior.

Bandura (1995) suggests that a "crusade against the causal efficacy of human thought" exists. The present paper disputes that claim, suggesting that the quest which does exist involves an understanding of self-efficacy. Examined are Bandura's shifting definitions of self-efficacy, his misunderstandings of others' work, and implications of some of his attempts to defend the construct. In the remainder of the paper Rotter's Social Learning Theory is discussed as a model of human choice behavior which recognizes the contributions of both cognitive and behavioral traditions within psychology, and has proven to be of great heuristic value.

Attention↗
PubMed1977

Behavior therapy: a promising drug abuse treatment and research approach of choice.

Behavior therapy appears a promising drug abuse treatment and research approach of choice, reporting effective pilot studies utilizing such techniques as token economy, aversive conditioning, relaxation training, contract writing, covert conditioning, and combinative approaches. Behavior therapy appears to merit considerable investment of funds, time, and facilities to design and to execute carefully controlled research studies with systematic follow-up. Behavioral research and treatment is also consistent with presently available diagnostic techniques--the highly structured interview and the Synanon Game--and seems eminently applicable in specific work sites, to problems of staff selection and training, and to patient screening problems.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1977

Binomial assessment of behavioral-phenotypic variations: constancy of choices, trial effects, and social interaction effects in mass-screened color preferences of quail chicks (Coturnix coturnix japonica).

Individual variations in repeated approach choices between colors by quail chicks were efficiently and reliably identified by methods of binary mass screening and binomial assessment. Choices between a pair of identical white stimuli showed only random variations, which indicated that position habit, systematic alternation, and extraneous stimulus factors did not influence performances. Choices between blue and red colors showed significant individual variations, which were free of influences from changes in the probabilities of choices on repeated trials, interdependence between trials, and interdependence between individual performances of mass-screened subjects. Genetic determination of individual variations were shown by strong responses to bidirectional genetic selection of choices between blue and red, which also introduced small social interaction effects in mass-screened performances. Results are discussed in relation to the use of binomial distribution for identifying phenotypic units and variations in choice behaviors.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

The effects of dieldrin and chlordimeform on learning and memory in the cockroach, Periplaneta americana: a study in behavioral toxicology.

A one-session T-maze training procedure for cockroaches in which animals were trained to turn right or left to avoid a shock was utilized to investigate the effects of dieldrin and chlordimeform (two neurotoxic pesticides) on learning and memory. These animals were trained and then tested for retention 5 h later. Three behavioral measures were recorded: choice behavior or direction turned, the time taken to proceed down the runway (runway time), and the time taken to proceed from the runway to either choice arm (choice point time). In control animals the number of correct choices, the runway time, and the choice point time increased with succeeding trials during training. Furthermore, control animals showed retention of correct choice behavior from training to testing. A nontoxic dose (no overt behavioral signs) of dieldrin was injected 2 h before training or 15 min after training. Pretraining injections of dieldrin eliminated correct-choice learning but did not alter the increase with training in runway or choice point times. Posttraining dieldrin administration did not interfere with retention of correct-choice behavior upon testing. These findings indicate that dieldrin induces behavioral alterations in a low acute dose and that detrimental effects are more likely with more complex behavior. Furthermore, behavioral disruption is more likely the closer exposure is to the initial learning of a task. Nontoxic doses of chlordimeform injected 1 h before training eliminated correct-choice learning and facilitated an increase in runway times during training.

Amidines↗
PubMed1992

Does a cognitive map guide choices in the radial-arm maze?

Fifteen rats performed in a standard radial-arm maze task (Experiment 1) and in a modified task with a set of forced choices and a 15-min retention interval prior to completion of the maze (Experiment 2). In addition to the standard measure of choice in the radial-arm maze, orientation toward arms was measured and considered to constitute go-no-go "microchoice" decisions. Rats investigated but rejected many arms. A model of choice was developed in which it was assumed that choice decisions about arms were made independently and that microchoices were not selectively guided toward baited arms. The model performed nearly as well as the rats. These results place important limitations on the theory that choice behavior in the radial-arm maze is guided by a cognitive map.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Decisions, decisions, decisions: choosing a biological science of choice.

Behavioral ecologists argue that evolution drives animal behavior to efficiently solve the problems animals face in their environmental niches. The ultimate evolutionary causes of decision making, they contend, can be found in economic analyses of organisms and their environments. Neurobiologists interested in how animals make decisions have, in contrast, focused their efforts on understanding the neurobiological hardware that serves as a more proximal cause of that same behavior. Describing the flow of information within the nervous system without regard to these larger goals has been their focus. Recent work in a number of laboratories has begun to suggest that these two approaches are beginning to fuse. It may soon be possible to view the nervous system as a representational process that solves the mathematically defined economic problems animals face by making efficient decisions. These developments in the neurobiological theory of choice, and the new schema they imply, form the subject of this article.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

[Factors related to choice of medical facilities by residents].

Using a study of 1,326 residents and 107 clinics in a city in the Tokai area, factors associated with patient selection of medical facilities were examined. Choice behaviors were divided into 2 separate levels: 1) choice behavior for the initial medical examination, 2) choice behavior in the case of treatment for chronic illness. The independent variables were 1) attitudes toward medical care, 2) accessibility to medical facilities, and 3) health status. 1. Those interviewees who were older, who had continuing medical care after the first medical examination, and had strong interest in new treatment technology showed a strong tendency to elect to see physicians in hospitals for the first medical examination. 2. The group that had lower self-rated health, lower accessibility to medical facilities, and who did not work showed a strong tendency to see physicians in hospitals for chronic illnesses. 3. The data from clinics showed that more patients were introduced from clinics to hospitals than were introduced from hospitals to clinics. This result suggested that the one-sided stream of patients from clinics to hospitals was a part of the reason for a strong tendency for patients to elect to see physicians in hospitals.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Quantitative prediction of perceptual decisions during near-threshold fear detection.

A fundamental goal of cognitive neuroscience is to explain how mental decisions originate from basic neural mechanisms. The goal of the present study was to investigate the neural correlates of perceptual decisions in the context of emotional perception. To probe this question, we investigated how fluctuations in functional MRI (fMRI) signals were correlated with behavioral choice during a near-threshold fear detection task. fMRI signals predicted behavioral choice independently of stimulus properties and task accuracy in a network of brain regions linked to emotional processing: posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex, right inferior frontal gyrus, and left insula. We quantified the link between fMRI signals and behavioral choice in a whole-brain analysis by determining choice probabilities by means of signal-detection theory methods. Our results demonstrate that voxel-wise fMRI signals can reliably predict behavioral choice in a quantitative fashion (choice probabilities ranged from 0.63 to 0.78) at levels comparable to neuronal data. We suggest that the conscious decision that a fearful face has been seen is represented across a network of interconnected brain regions that prepare the organism to appropriately handle emotionally challenging stimuli and that regulate the associated emotional response.

Amygdala↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Normal and overweight adults: perceived weight and health behavior characteristics.

Perceived weight, perceived health status, health conception, and health behavior choices were studied in 33 normal weight and 26 overweight adults. Data were collected by interview and by weighting the 59 participants (25 men and 34 women). Results indicated that 92% of the overweight and 36% of the normal weight participants perceived themselves to be overweight. The two groups did not differ significantly in perceived health status, health conception, or health behavior choice. Health conception and health behavior choice were significantly related in both groups. Perceived health status was not related to either health conception or health behavior choice in the overweight group but was significantly related to health conception in the normal weight group. Although the overweight participants were aware that they were overweight, they did not perceive themselves to be less healthy than the normal weight group. Further, their health conceptions were as complex and their behavior choices as health promoting as those of the normal weight group.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Dynamic response-by-response models of matching behavior in rhesus monkeys.

We studied the choice behavior of 2 monkeys in a discrete-trial task with reinforcement contingencies similar to those Herrnstein (1961) used when he described the matching law. In each session, the monkeys experienced blocks of discrete trials at different relative-reinforcer frequencies or magnitudes with unsignalled transitions between the blocks. Steady-state data following adjustment to each transition were well characterized by the generalized matching law; response ratios undermatched reinforcer frequency ratios but matched reinforcer magnitude ratios. We modelled response-by-response behavior with linear models that used past reinforcers as well as past choices to predict the monkeys' choices on each trial. We found that more recently obtained reinforcers more strongly influenced choice behavior. Perhaps surprisingly, we also found that the monkeys' actions were influenced by the pattern of their own past choices. It was necessary to incorporate both past reinforcers and past choices in order to accurately capture steady-state behavior as well as the fluctuations during block transitions and the response-by-response patterns of behavior. Our results suggest that simple reinforcement learning models must account for the effects of past choices to accurately characterize behavior in this task, and that models with these properties provide a conceptual tool for studying how both past reinforcers and past choices are integrated by the neural systems that generate behavior.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mental health correlates of healthy lifestyle attitudes, beliefs, choices, and behaviors in overweight adolescents.

INTRODUCTION: A tripling in the number of overweight adolescents has occurred during the past two decades, with type 2 diabetes reaching epidemic proportions. Although obesity has been identified as a correlate of depression and low self-esteem in adolescents, the relationships among key cognitive/mental health variables and healthy attitudes, beliefs, choices, and behaviors in overweight teens have yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe these relationships so that an effective intervention program to promote and sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors could be implemented. METHODS: A descriptive correlational study was conducted with 23 overweight teens. Key variables measured included depressive symptoms, state and trait anxiety, self-esteem, beliefs/confidence about engaging in a healthy lifestyle, perceived difficulty in leading a healthy lifestyle, and healthy attitudes, choices, and behaviors. FINDINGS: Teens with higher state and trait anxiety as well as depressive symptoms had less healthy lifestyle beliefs, and teens with higher self-esteem had stronger beliefs about their ability to engage in a healthy lifestyle. Stronger beliefs about the ability to engage in healthy lifestyles were related to healthier living attitudes and healthier lifestyle choices. Teens who perceived healthy lifestyles as more difficult had less healthy attitudes and reported less healthier choices and behaviors. DISCUSSION: Including a strong cognitive behavioral skills building component into clinical interventions with overweight teens may be key in boosting their beliefs/confidence about being able to engage in healthy behaviors and lessening their perceived difficulty in performing them, which should result in healthier choices and lifestyle behaviors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2003

Reinforcement expectancies for studying predict drinking problems among college students: approaching problem drinking from an expectancies choice perspective.

Molar behavioral choice theories point to the important role reinforcement for alternative behaviors may play in reducing problem drinking [Psychol. Addict. Behav. 9 (1995) 223.]. A similar molar choice perspective may apply to a cognitive mediational level of analysis: the molecular link between alcohol expectancies and drinking behavior depends on expectancies for alternative behaviors. In this study, 82 college students completed the Alcohol Effects Questionnaire (AEFQ), the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI), a self-report measure of drinking quantity and frequency, and a five-item studying expectancies questionnaire devised for the current study. Analyses indicated that, among students who hold high alcohol expectancies, those who reported high studying expectancies drink less and develop significantly fewer drinking problems than those who hold low studying expectancies. Future research may address the possibility of reducing drinking problems among college students by enhancing studying expectancies.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Neural correlates of decisions.

Once considered the province of philosophy and the behavioral sciences, the process of making decisions has received increasing scrutiny from neurobiologists. Recent research suggests that sensory judgements unfold through the gradual accumulation of neuronal signals in sensory-motor pathways, favoring one alternative over others. Stored representations of the outcome of prior actions activate neurons in many of these same areas during decision-making. The challenge for neurobiologists lies in deciphering how signals from these disparate areas are integrated to form a single behavioral choice and the mechanisms responsible for selecting the appropriate information upon which decisions should be informed in particular contexts.

Animals↗