Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Editorial nº 11-2 (2020)

Introducción: El estado de ansiedad es uno de los trastornos más habituales que experimenta un paciente que va a someterse a un acto quirúrgico. La entrevista prequirúrgica se convierte en una herramienta de comunicación útil para controlar la ansiedad a través de una intervención enfermera con el paciente, donde se proporciona información adicional sobre el proceso, con el fin de obtener el bienestar físico y psicológico del paciente. Objetivo: Analizar si la entrevista prequirúrgica es una herramienta útil para disminuir los niveles de ansiedad que experimenta el individuo frente a un acto quirúrgica. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica en diferentes bases de datos. Resultados: La mayoría de los artículos analizados muestran que la entrevista prequirúrgica posee una serie de ventajas frente al nivel de ansiedad del paciente, solo una mínima parte de los artículos no le encuentran un beneficio, pero en ningún caso sería perjudicial. Conclusión: La entrevista prequirúrgica se trata de un instrumento válido, ya que a través de su realización es posible establecer un clima de confianza y tranquilidad reduciendo la ansiedad del paciente, además de aumentar su grado de satisfacción.

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En la literatura experimental se reporta que las ratas pueden ajustar su comportamiento a eventos biológicamente relevantes que ocurren en una secuencia de lugares delimitados por un criterio temporal. Empleando una cámara de desplazamiento libre de 92×92×33 cm con cuatro bebederos de disponibilidad limitada ubicados en el centro de cada una de las paredes de la caja, se realizó un experimento en el que dos grupos de ratas cepa Wistar se expusieron a dos condiciones que variaron entre fases (de 32 sesiones) de forma ascendente y descendente. En la condición ascendente la duración del periodo de disponibilidad de agua en los dispensadores se incrementó entre fases mientras que en la descendente, disminuyó. Se emplearon tres duraciones del periodo de disponibilidad: 1, 2 y 4 minutos. Los bebederos se activaban por un programa no contingente de tiempo fijo 27 segundos y funcionaron siguiendo una secuencia fija en el sentido de las manecillas del reloj por el periodo de disponibilidad descrito. Los resultados indicaron que los sujetos no se ajustaron a la secuencia de lugar ni al criterio temporal por lo que aparentemente no siguieron una estrategia de timing. Los resultados se explican apelando al tamaño del dispositivo experimental, así como al programa periódico de entregas empleado.

Some metacontingency experiments were based on cooperation procedures such as the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game (IPDG), but dismissed earlier results on cooperation as pertaining only to operant (not cultural) selection and did not control verbal interactions among participants. The present study evaluated the effects of verbal interactions on participants’ choices in an IPDG. Three sets of four university students played in four networked computers (screened by panels) and were exposed to conditions with or without permission to use a virtual chat room in a multiple baseline design. Without verbal interaction, choices varied, but tended to be all-defect. Once verbal interaction was allowed, choices quickly shifted and stabilized in all-cooperate on almost all trials. An IPDG can be interpreted as programming a metacontingency in which the higher payoff for the group (a cultural consequence) selects participants’ choices of the cooperative alternative (a culturant). As the cooperation literature had similarly found, verbal interactions among participants even through virtual chat room promotes the selection by the higher payoff. Metacontingency and cooperation procedures such as the IPDG are indistinguishable and their results must be evaluated together.

Three pairs of rats worked in two adjacent operant chambers separated by a Plexiglas wall. In some experimental conditions, lever-presses were independent operants maintained by either a fixed-interval (FI) or variable interval (VI) schedule. In other conditions, each rat lever-press was part of two interlocked behavior contingencies as part of a metacontingency: its aggregate product, a brief flash of light, was maintained either by a FI or a VI schedule of mutual water presentation. The results clearly show that the interlocking of behavioral contingencies in the design of an experimental metacontingency established a pattern of cooperation between the rats.

The primary unit of analysis in metacontingencies are interlocking- behavioral contingencies (IBCs) measured by their aggregate product (AP). The experimental literature has demonstrated selection APs by factors external to the group (also known as “cultural consequences”). By contrast, social interactions occurring inside of IBCs have received little examination, although they constitute a key element to understand different types of social dynamics. In this study interindividual performance and verbal interactions of individuals inside of IBCs were examined. Communication between participants in dyads was experimentally manipulated such that some dyads wore noise-cancelling headphones while working together and other group of dyads used headsets to talk to each other during the experimental session. Verbal interactions were measured using video/audio digital recordings. Three type of rules were presented to dyads to assess their effects on dyads performance under ambiguous circumstances throughout the task. Rules varied in their degree of ambiguity in each condition: high- (A), medium- (B), and low-explicit instructions (C). The order of rule presentation was alternated between groups. Our finding demonstrated significant differences in interpersonal performance between groups (verbal dyads vs nonverbal dyads). Overall, dyads spent more time engaging in cooperative verbal interactions than in any other type of verbal interaction, and similar acquisition patterns of these interactions were observed across dyads. 

The reserve concept was the basis for Skinner considering punishment asymmetrical to reinforcement in the 1930’s. In this paper we explore why he abandoned the reflex reserve concept in the 1950’s, and what the implications of that were for his view on punishment. Skinner continued to claim that punishment was asymmetrical to reinforcement. We conclude that, although the reserve concept was nominally abandoned, its logic remained. We also discuss the terminology and defini- tion of punishment and its explanatory mechanisms.

The experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) serves as a critical activity of ongoing scientific discovery and a means to train future behavior scientists. Despite the importance of EAB, basic research has been under threat for some time. The factors contributing to this deterioration are complicated and related to issues of funding and relevance. The current paper will explore how a shift to mice as subjects may help to ameliorate some of these threats.