Voluntary Goals Research Articles

Spontaneous path tracing in task-irrelevant mazes: Spatial affordances trigger dynamic visual routines.

Given a maze (e.g., in a book of puzzles), you might solve it by drawing out paths with your pencil. But even without a pencil, you might naturally find yourself mentally tracing along various paths. This "mental path tracing" may intuitively seem to depend on your (overt, conscious, voluntary) goal of wanting to get out of the maze, but might it also occur spontaneously-as a result of simply seeing the maze, via a kind of dynamic visual routine? Here, observers simply had to compare the visual properties of two probes presented in a maze. The maze itself was entirely task irrelevant, but we predicted that simply seeing the maze's visual structure would "afford" incidental mental path tracing (à la Gibson). Across four experiments, observers were slower to compare probes that were further from each other along the paths, even when controlling for lower level properties (such as the probes' brute linear separation, ignoring the maze "walls"). These results also generalized beyond mazes to other unfamiliar displays with task-irrelevant circular obstacles. This novel combination of two prominent themes from our field-affordances and visual routines-suggests that at least some visual routines may not require voluntary goals; instead, they may operate in an automatic (incidental, stimulus-driven) fashion, as a part of visual processing itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?

AbstractThis research investigates whether an obligation to meet a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) target in U.S. states affects the policy effectiveness, which is defined as the RPS‐related renewable electricity capacity additions. A voluntary RPS target can serve as a political device for signaling commitment to certain goals, though there is no penalty if the goal is not met. Alternatively, mandatory RPS targets have varying stringency and uneven enforcement. Our results indicate that the compulsoriness of a state RPS is an insignificant determinant of RPS‐related renewable electricity capacity additions. Factors other than whether an RPS target or goal is compulsory are more important in influencing renewable electricity development, including policy stringency. If a state seeks a modest level of renewable electricity development, setting a voluntary goal can sometimes be effective and more efficient. Nonetheless, a mandatory RPS may be required to accomplish a more significant level of renewable electricity deployment.

Peculiarities of Intersystemic Correlation Relationships of M-Response and F-Wave Characteristics in the Forearms Symmetric Muscles Which Participate in the Implementation of Multiple Coordinated Bimanual Movements

The organization of combined voluntary goal directed movements of hands has remained a serious scientific problem with a pronounced applicable nature. Insufficiency of a procedural framework and clear quantitative and qualitative criteria causes gaps and difficulties in professional selection, the effectiveness diagnosis of work-out session in sports and rehabilitation within remedial treatment. The aim of the investigation is to study the adjustment and co-adjustment of the effector apparatus elements, which are the basis of bimanual coordination, in the groups of male and female trial subjects. In the following study, based on informed consent in accordance with the ethics committee requirements, 75 subjects (39 men and 36 women) at the age of 18-20 took part. F-wave and M-response parameters registration was carried out by means of NMA-4-01 “NEUROMIAN” neuromyoanalyzer (Taganrog, Russia) according to the standard method. It has been established that the nerve centers responsible for the work of homonymous muscles in the right and left forearms, innervating synergists and antagonists, are to a certain extent in the initial adjustment and co-adjustment according to the level of activity, which determines not only the moment of the excitement onset, but also the speed of its irradiation. The revealed manifestations of adjustment and co-adjustment have pronounced sex differences. Proceeding from the fact that female trial subjects have a lower level of bimanual movements if compared with men, it can be assumed that the revealed features of correlational relationships determine, to a certain extent, coordination abilities of men and women.

Testing a goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat.

Attention has long been characterized within prominent models as reflecting a competition between goal-driven and stimulus-driven processes. It remains unclear, however, how involuntary attentional capture by affective stimuli, such as threat-laden content, fits into such models. Although such effects were traditionally thought to reflect stimulus-driven processes, recent research has increasingly implicated a critical role of goal-driven processes. Here we test an alternative goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat using an experimental manipulation of goal-driven attention. To this end we combined the classic contingent capture and emotion-induced blink paradigms in an RSVP task with both positive or threatening target search goals. Across 6 experiments, positive and threat distractors were presented in peripheral, parafoveal, and central locations. Across all distractor locations we found that involuntary attentional capture by irrelevant threat distractors could be induced via the adoption of a search goal for a threatening category; adopting a goal for a positive category conversely led to capture only by positive stimuli. Our findings provide direct experimental evidence for a causal role of voluntary goals in involuntary capture by irrelevant threat stimuli, and hence demonstrate the plausibility of a top-down account of this phenomenon. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to current cognitive models of attention and clinical disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Oculomotor inhibition of salient distractors: Voluntary inhibition cannot override selection history

ABSTRACTSeveral studies have demonstrated that salient distractors can be proactively inhibited to prevent attentional capture. Traditional theories frame attentional guidance effects such as this in terms of explicit goals. However, several researchers have recently argued that that unconscious factors – such as the features of attended and ignored items on previous trials (called selection history) – play a stronger role in guiding attention and can overpower explicit goals. The current study assessed whether voluntary inhibition can overpower selection history. We directly compared both forms of top-down control by measuring overt eye movements, which offer an unambiguous measure of which location has won the competition for attention. We repeatedly found that selection history overpowered any effects of voluntary goals, such that observers were unable to avoid fixating a salient distractor of a known color if the target had been presented in that color on the previous trial. Moreover, a salient distractor of a particular color captured gaze even when the observer had voluntarily chosen this color to be the distractor color just moments before. Taken together, these experiments suggest that the ability to inhibit a salient color singleton is primarily a result of recent experience and not a result of explicit goals.

Avaliação do monitoramento do teor de sódio em alimentos: uma análise comparativa com as metas de redução voluntárias no Brasil

Objective: To analyze the monitoring of sodium content in processed foods conducted by the National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (ANVISA) and to compare the results with the goals of sodium reduction of the voluntary agreements signed between the Brazilian government and representatives of the food industry. Methods: We used data from 4 technical reports (TR) on sodium content in processed foods by ANVISA published between 2010 and 2014. We characterized the TR according to the year of data collection, state, method of analysis, and number of samples collected by food category. We described the sodium content of the categories that were monitored at least twice and compared the results with the voluntary goals. Results and Discussion: Of the monitored categories of food, only 39.6% were assessed at least twice. Among the 34 categories included in voluntary agreements, 53% were monitored at least once. Even before the voluntary agreement, 7 food categories had mean sodium content below the targets. We observed that there was a lack of standardization and that the scope of the monitoring of sodium content in foods, and consequently of the voluntary agreements, was limited. Conclusions: Several weaknesses in the monitoring of sodium content in foods in Brazil were detected, which could compromise the effectiveness of the regulatory strategy on health.

Reward associations and spatial probabilities produce additive effects on attentional selection.

Recent studies have shown that reward history acts as a powerful attentional bias, even overcoming top-down goals. This has led to the suggestion that rewards belong to a class of attentional cues based on selection history, which are defined by past outcomes with a stimulus feature. Selection history is thought to be separate from traditional attentional cues based on physical salience and voluntary goals, but there is relatively little understanding of how selection history operates as a mechanism of attentional selection. Critically, it has yet to be understood how multiple sources of selection history interact when presented simultaneously. For example, it may be easier to find something we like if it also appears in a predictable location. We therefore pitted spatial probabilities against reward associations and found that the two sources of information had independent and additive effects. Additionally, the strength of the two sources in biasing attentional selection could be equated. In contrast, while a nonpredictive but perceptually salient cue also exhibited independent and additive effects with reward, reward associations dominated the perceptually salient cue at all levels. Our data indicate that reward associations are part of a class of particularly potent attentional cues that guide behavior through learned expectations. However, selection history should not be thought of as a unitary concept but should be understood as a collection of independent sources of information that bias attention in a similar fashion.

Optimal carbon taxes in carbon-constrained China: A logistic-induced energy economic hybrid model

Carbon tax is an effective option for internalizing climate change and correcting market failure, an optimal set of carbon taxes can result in superior carbon mitigation. Then what is the optimal trajectory of carbon tax under various carbon-constrained scenarios, and what are the impacts of carbon controls on the economy and performance of carbon-free technologies are important questions to be addressed. We construct an energy–economy–environment aggregated model of China, combining top–down and bottom–up modeling and introducing revised logistic curves for enriching technical details. We also propose four carbon-constrained scenarios based on representative international carbon allocation plans. Our analysis shows that the optimal carbon tax in China is a monotonically increasing one, following a classical, S-shaped pattern. Carbon space constraints play an important role in promoting development of carbon-free technologies, while the substantial transition from fossil fuels to non-carbon energy would not happen before 2040, making clear that it will take at least 30 years to promote the development of carbon-free technologies. However, present energy-saving and efficiency-improving measures ensure that China is capable of achieving the voluntary goal of reducing carbon intensity in 2020 by 40–45% of what they were in 2005; nevertheless, introducing some carbon controls is necessary to fulfill the task of carbon emissions reduction in the Chinese Twelfth Five-Year Plan.

Brazil beyond 2020: from deforestation to the energy challenge

The main assumptions and findings are presented on a comparative analysis of three GHG long-term emissions scenarios for Brazil. Since 1990, land-use change has been the most important source of GHG emissions in the country. The voluntary goals to limit Brazilian GHG emissions pledged a reduction in between 36.1% and 38.9% of GHG emissions projected to 2020, to be 6–10% lower than in 2005. Brazil is in a good position to meet the voluntary mitigation goals pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) up to 2020: recent efforts to reduce deforestation have been successful and avoided deforestation will form the bulk of the emissions reduction commitment. In 2020, if governmental mitigation goals are met, then GHG emissions from the energy system would become the largest in the country. After 2020, if no additional mitigation actions are implemented, GHG emissions will increase again in the period 2020–2030, due to population and economic growth driving energy demand, supply and GHG emissions. However, Brazil is in a strong position to take a lead in low-carbon economic and social development due to its huge endowment of renewable energy resources allowing for additional mitigation actions to be adopted after 2020. Policy relevance The period beyond 2020 is now relevant in climate policy due to the Durban Platform agreeing a ‘protocol, legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force’ that will have effect from 2020. After 2020, Brazil will be in a situation more similar to other industrialized countries, faced with a new challenge of economic development with low GHG energy-related emissions, requiring the adoption of mitigation policies and measures targeted at the energy system. Unlike the mitigation actions in the land-use change sector, where most of the funding will come from the national budgets due to sovereignty concerns, the huge financial resources needed to develop low-carbon transport and energy infrastructure could benefit from soft loans channelled to the country through nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs).

Keeping your balance while balancing a cylinder: interaction between postural and voluntary goals

The present study investigated whether postural responses are influenced by the stability constraint of a voluntary, manual task. We also examined how task constraint and first experience (the condition with which the participants started the experiment) influence the kinematic strategies used to simultaneously accomplish a postural response and a voluntary task. Twelve healthy, older adults were perturbed during standing, while holding a tray with a cylinder placed with the flat side down (low constraint, LC) or with the rolling, round side down (high constraint, HC). Central set changed according to the task constraint, as shown by a higher magnitude of both the gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior muscle activation bursts in the HC than in the LC condition. This increase in muscle activation was not reflected, however, in changes in the center of pressure or center of mass displacement. Task constraint influenced the peak shoulder flexion for the voluntary tray task but not the peak hip flexion for the postural task. In contrast, first experience influenced the peak hip flexion but not the peak shoulder flexion. These results suggest an interaction between two separate control mechanisms for automatic postural responses and voluntary stabilization tasks.

Rapid Motor Responses Are Appropriately Tuned to the Metrics of a Visuospatial Task

Considerable research has established that rapid motor responses (traditionally called reflexes), can be modified by a subject's voluntary goals. Here, we expand on past observations using verbal instructions by defining the voluntary goal via visual target position. This approach allowed us to objectively enforce task adherence and explore a richer set of variables, such as target direction and distance, metrics that modify voluntary control and that--according to our hypothesis--will influence rapid motor responses. Our first experiment tested whether upper-limb responses are categorically modulated by target direction by placing targets such that the same perturbation could push the hand into one target and out of the other, a spatial analogue to "resist/yield" verbal instructions. Consistent with these classical results, we found that the short-latency rapid response (R1, 20-45 ms) was not modulated by target direction, whereas long-latency rapid responses (R2/R3, 45-105 ms) were modified in a manner approaching the voluntary response (VOL, 120-180 ms). Our second experiment tested whether upper-limb responses are continuously modulated by target distance by distributing five targets along one axis centered on the hand. Here, the long-latency and voluntary response mirrored the task demands by increasing activity in a graded fashion with increasing target distance. Our final experiment explored how upper-limb responses incorporate two-dimensional spatial information by placing targets radially around the hand. Notably, long-latency responses exhibited smooth tuning functions to target direction that were similar to those observed for the voluntary response. Taken together, these results illustrate the flexibility of long-latency rapid responses and emphasize their similarity to later voluntary responses.

News Briefs: Voluntary goals set

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVNewsNEXTNews Briefs: Voluntary goals setCite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2004, 38, 7, 121APublication Date (Web):April 1, 2004Publication History Published online1 April 2004Published inissue 1 April 2004https://doi.org/10.1021/es040430fRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views73Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (62 KB) Get e-Alerts Get e-Alerts

Motor recovery after cross-reinnervation of a forelimb nerve by the phrenic nerve in cats

Electromyographic (EMG) activities of forelimb muscles and the diaphragm following cross-reinnervation of the elbow flexor nerve by the phrenic nerve were sampled simultaneously with cinematographicrecording of forelimb movements, in order to examine whether the respiratory nervous system in adult cats is capable of compensation for movement disorders. The right phrenic and musculocutaneous nerves were cut preparatory to cross-union, the proximal stump of the phrenic nerve being joined to the peripheral stump of the musculocutaneous nerve. Reinnervation of the elbow flexor muscles (m. biceps brachii and m. brachialis) was confirmed in terminal experiments by observing muscular contractions induced by nerve stimulations and/or retrogradely labeled motoneurons in cervical (C 5-C 7) segments following treatment for horseradish peroxidase (HRP) which had been injected previously into the m. biceps brachii of both sides. Behavioral observations were made in the chronically cross-reinnervated cats. Bipolar EMG recording electrodes were implanted chronically in the right m. biceps brachii, m. triceps brachii and in the left intact diaphragm. In freely moving cats 3–22 months after cross-union surgery, EMG activities in the elbow flexor usually were synchronized with those of the left diaphragm. However, occasionally, in cats cross-reinnervated more than 6 months previously, EMG activities in the right biceps muscle were dissociated from those of the left diaphragm during voluntary movements. During walking, EMG activities in the cross-reinnervated biceps muscle were not well coordinated with the walking cycle. By contrast, during voluntary goal directed movements, the cats were capable of reaching their right forepaws to the target in a smooth manner using elbow flexion that was associated with EMG activity of the biceps muscles. These results show that the respiratory nervous system in cats has the adaptability for compensation for disorders of forelimb movement following cross-reinnervation of forelimb muscles by the phrenic nerve.