Analysis of Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients with Low-Grade Glioma

All living adults with histopatologically proven diagnosis of low-grade glioma in a Swedish county were identified with help of the Regional Cancer Register, half of them (n = 24) participated in a neuropsychological evaluation. A considerable variation was found in cognitive function within this group of patients, ranging from good ability to severe disturbance. Different patterns of cognitive dysfunction emerged resulting in three subgroups; patients with severe, mild, and minimal selective dysfunction. The patients with severe disturbance had a global dysfunction covering most assessed cognitive domains. Slow information-processing speed was obvious in the subgroups with both severe and mild dysfunction. Cognitive problems present in the best performing group seemed related to tumor localization. Cognitive function in the whole sample was related to histopathological diagnosis of the tumor, as well as to educational level of the patients. The nonworking patients had significantly poorer performance than the working patients.     

关于儿童道德情绪判断的研究进展

该阐释了道德情绪的基本概念,论述了关于儿童道德情绪判断的近期研究结论及其影响因素。3～10岁儿童的道德情绪判断经历了一个从不高兴到高兴再到不高兴的发展过程,这一进程受到儿童的内在社会认知能力(儿童能否理解愿望是一种主观的心理特性、考虑道德因素的能力、观点采择能力,对犯过人格特质的理解等)及其所处的外在情境因素(所面临情境或事件的性质、情境的不一致性等)的影响。最后,作对该领域的研究趋向做出了展望。     

心理学视野中的社会排斥

社会排斥是许多社会问题的深层根源,长期为社会学者、政策研究者所关注。近年来,心理学者也将目光转向了社会排斥研究。在心理学者的视野中,社会排斥是指个体被某一社会团体或他人排斥或拒绝,一个人的归属需求和关系需求受到阻碍的现象。文章主要介绍了社会排斥影响个体认知、情绪和行为的研究。文章认为,在我国开展社会排斥的心理学研究,很有现实意义     

具身框架下的社会认知研究述评

具身理论是继计算隐喻、联结主义之后诠释人类是如何获取知识表征世界这样一个本质性问题的新视角, 指出概念系统的建构对真实身体及其身体活动的体验的依赖, 即具身性。随着认知科学的快速发展, 具身理论已从原始阶段的哲学思辨成为认知心理学、社会认知等领域解释各种现象的一种新的研究范式。文章简要回顾了具身理论的起源及发展, 选取了社会认知心理学中主要的研究对象, 即态度、社会知觉、情绪等, 总结具身理论在这些领域的研究范式及最新研究成果。最后, 文章从实证的角度指出在社会认知领域中以具身理论为框架开展实证研究时值得注意的要点, 并提出此类研究结合其他研究视角(例如, 神经科学, 跨文化心理学)的可能性。     

Normative data for eight neuropsychological tests based on a Danish sample

Normative neuropsychological data have been provided using a sample of 101 persons aged 20 to 54 years. Eighty-seven of the subjects were recruited among patients who had undergone minor surgery, and 14 subjects were volunteers from the staff at the hospital laundry. The measures consisted of seven subjects from the WAIS-R, the trail-making test, symbol digit modalities test, auditory-verbal learning test, story recall test, visual gestalt test, recurring figures test, verbal fluency, and Purdue pegboard test. These measures were selected because of suitability in regard to time taken for testing each subject and their sensitivity to subtle changes in neuropsychological functioning. The sample was arbitrarily divided into three age groups, and for each of the three samples, mean, standard deviation, and range were calculated for each test. The results of the Information and Vocabulary subtests from the WAIS-R, education, and social status were applied as independent variables in linear regression analyses where each of the neuropsychological tests, in turn, was the dependent variable. For the oldest age group, age in addition was used as an independent variable. Significant linear relationships, which accounted for an optimal part of the variance, were selected for clinical application.     

Emotional disturbances and their interaction with neuropsychological deficits

The interaction and relationships between neuropsychological tests (which are principally oriented to intellectual and cognitive abilities) and tests of personality and emotional status are complex, but nevertheless important in the clinical assessment of brain-damaged persons. Are indications of emotional disturbances to be expected as a direct consequence of brain damage? If so, how can the indications of emotional disturbances be differentiated from results obtained with psychiatrically disturbed (non-brain-damaged) subjects? Some authors have presumed that emotional disturbances, such as depression, acute anxiety, etc., in their own right cause impaired performances on neuropsychological tests, whereas other authors have proposed that brain damage predisposes the individual to demonstrate evidence of emotional disturbances. If emotional disturbances cause impairment on neuropsychological tests, why is it that so many emotionally disturbed persons without brain damage tend to perform normally on neuropsychological tests? This review of relevant publications considers (1) different general approaches to these questions and their implications for neuropsychology, (2) evidence of differential sensitivity to brain damage of neuropsychological and emotional instruments, (3) the sensitivity and specificity of self-assessments and complaints of head-injured subjects, (4) MMPI findings among head-injured subjects and in interaction with neuropsychological measurements, and (5) principles and guidelines that may be of value in clinical application of findings reported in the literature.     

A Theory of Blame

We introduce a theory of blame in five parts. Part 1 addresses what blame is: a unique moral judgment that is both cognitive and social, regulates social behavior, fundamentally relies on social cognition, and requires warrant. Using these properties, we distinguish blame from such phenomena as anger, event evaluation, and wrongness judgments. Part 2 offers the heart of the theory: the Path Model of Blame, which identifies the conceptual structure in which blame judgments are embedded and the information processing that generates such judgments. After reviewing evidence for the Path Model, we contrast it with alternative models of blame and moral judgment (Part 3) and use it to account for a number of challenging findings in the literature (Part 4). Part 5 moves from blame as a cognitive judgment to blame as a social act. We situate social blame in the larger family of moral criticism, highlight its communicative nature, and discuss the darker sides of moral criticism. Finally, we show how the Path Model of Blame can bring order to numerous tools of blame management, including denial, justification, and excuse.     

Who caused it? Interpersonal causal inferences in young children

Three experiments were designed to test 4- and 6-year-old children's causal inferences in interpersonal settings where emotions (glad, angry, and sad) were effect responses. The results showed that emotion and orientation (towards or away from) were central cues, and that sex and age also were used to some extent. Cues related to regularity philosophic notions (e.g. David Hume), such as contiguity in time and space, and time order of cause and effect were little used by comparison. The results raise questions about the basic role attributed to regularity cues both by philosophers and psychologists, and suggest a multiple cue contribution rather than a basic cue generalization approach to causal cognition development.