Implicit Valuation of the Near-Miss is Dependent on Outcome Context

Gambling studies have described a “near-miss effect” wherein the experience of almost winning increases gambling persistence. The near-miss has been proposed to inflate the value of preceding actions through its perceptual similarity to wins. We demonstrate here, however, that it acts as a conditioned stimulus to positively or negatively influence valuation, dependent on reward expectation and cognitive engagement. When subjects are asked to choose between two simulated slot machines, near-misses increase valuation of machines with a low payout rate, whereas they decrease valuation of high payout machines. This contextual effect impairs decisions and persists regardless of manipulations to outcome feedback or financial incentive provided for good performance. It is consistent with proposals that near-misses cause frustration when wins are expected, and we propose that it increases choice stochasticity and overrides avoidance of low-valued options. Intriguingly, the near-miss effect disappears when subjects are required to explicitly value machines by placing bets, rather than choosing between them. We propose that this task increases cognitive engagement and recruits participation of brain regions involved in cognitive processing, causing inhibition of otherwise dominant systems of decision-making. Our results reveal that only implicit, rather than explicit strategies of decision-making are affected by near-misses, and that the brain can fluidly shift between these strategies according to task demands.     

Shannon Information In k-records

In this article, we present results on the Shannon information (SI) contained in upper(lower) k-record values and associated k-record times. We then establish an interesting relationship between the SI content of a random sample of fixed size, and the SI in the data consisting of sequential maxima. We also consider the information contained in the k-record data from an inverse sampling plan (ISP).     

Population and family planning in developing countries: the employer's role

The overall population problem of the world is discussed briefly. The author asserts that rapid population growth has serious social and political implications and imposes serious restraints on economic progress. It is also linked to problems of urbanization. Family planning is a way out. The state alone is not enough to make family planning successful, it must be supported by the different segments of society. Employers have a major social responsibility in this respect. After this general introduction, and the assertion of the basic role of the employer in family planning programs, the author deals with the specific situation in India in terms of 1) its population problem, 2) progress and impact of the Indian family planning program, and 3) the role of employers in the promotion of family planning in India; a detailed section is devoted to the family planning centers of the Tata group of companies (Tata textile units, chemicals, iron and steel, engineering and locomotive, etc.). The author enumerates the measures to promote effective participation by employers, which include 1) an organized framework, 2) assistance to employers, and 3) removal of disincentives. The author concludes by saying that the efforts of employers to limit population growth need to be supplemented by international cooperation and action.     

Making visits better: the perspectives of parents,foster parents,and child welfare workers

Mothers of children recently placed in foster care, foster mothers, and child welfare workers participated in semistructured, clinical interviews focusing on the challenges of parent visitation with young children. Mothers described their feelings of grief, trauma, and rage about the forced separation from their children and stressed the importance of emotional expression and communication during visits. Child welfare workers described the complexities of supporting emotionally close parent-child interactions while monitoring and assessing parental behavior during visits. Foster mothers described the importance of preparing children for visits and the difficulties of supporting the children afterward. Implications of understanding mothers', foster mothers', and child welfare workers' perspectives on enhancing the quality of visits with young children are discussed.     

On the exact joint distribution of a linear combination of order statistics and their concomitants in an exchangeable multivariate normal distribution

In this work we prove that for an exchangeable multivariate normal distribution the joint distribution of a linear combination of order statistics and a linear combination of their concomitants together with an auxiliary variable is skew normal. We also investigate some special cases, thus extending the results of Olkin and Viana (J Am Stat Assoc 90:1373–1379, 1995), Loperfido (Test 17:370–380, 2008a) and Sheikhi and Jamalizadeh (Paper 52:885–892, 2011).     

Enhancing parent-child interaction during foster care visits: experimental assessment of an intervention

Mothers of young children recently placed in foster care participated in an intervention to enhance parent-child interaction during visits. The mothers all reported substantial loss and trauma histories. Immediately prior to the visits, the mothers were coached on strategies for separating from their children at the visit's end. The mothers displayed more behavioral strategies for supporting their children when the visit was over, but were less engaged with their children during the leave-taking sequence and displayed fewer ways of maintaining the child's involvement in mother-child interaction during leave-taking than those in a comparison group. This article discusses consideration of parents' trauma history in designing interventions to enhance parent-child interaction.