The Effect of High-Anxiety Situations on Conspiracy Thinking

The aim of the present studies was to examine a possible relationship between anxiety and conspiracy thinking about ethnic and national groups. Two hundred university student volunteers participated in 3 studies. Study One (N?=?87; mixed male and female sample) found that state-anxiety and trait-anxiety, measured with the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), were positively correlated with conspiracy thinking about Jewish people, Germans and Arabs. Study Two (N?=?46; male sample) and Study Three (N?=?67; female sample) were designed to check whether a high-anxiety situation (connected with waiting for an examination) would increase conspiracy thinking. Findings from Studies Two and Three showed that the pre-exam (high-anxiety) situation increased conspiracy thinking about Jewish people. This effect was not mediated by state-anxiety. Hence, further research should focus on searching for possible mediators of the relationship between a pre-exam situation and conspiracy thinking. The obtained results are consistent with previous findings showing that conspiracy thinking about Jewish people is sensitive to situational factors and with findings on links between anxiety and processing information about threat-related stimuli.     

Being tolerated: Implications for well-being among ethnic minorities

Tolerating or condoning practices that one finds objectionable is typically considered a positive way to negotiate intergroup differences. However, being the target of tolerance might harm well-being, which we examined in three studies (a survey and two experiments) among a total of 1,054 members of various racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States. In Study 1, we found that perceiving oneself to be tolerated on the basis of one’s ethnic group membership was associated with more negative well-being. In Study 2, we found that bringing to mind experiences of being tolerated results in less positive and more negative affect than thinking about experiences of acceptance, but more positive and less negative outcomes than thinking about overt discrimination experiences. In Study 3, we replicated the results of Study 2 while demonstrating that threat to social identity needs mediates the tolerance–well-being link. These results suggest that being tolerated is related to minority targets’ well-being in ways that are intermediate between being treated with outright discrimination and full acceptance, but that being tolerated follows a pattern closer to discrimination.     

Talk about preschool: Patterns of topic discussion and elaboration related to gender and ethnicity

Sixty-six mothers and their 4-year-old children recorded conversations about the children's experiences during a typical preschool day. Each dyad's ethnic background was either Hispanic or Anglo, with similar numbers of mother—daughter and mother—son pairs represented in each ethnic group. Both low- and middle-income dyads participated. The mother—child conversations were analyzed in order to identify the dyads' tendencies to elaborate on discussions of aspects of the school day related to learning, other individuals, and behavioral conduct as a function of the ethnicity of the dyad and the gender of the child. Gender of child was associated with dyads' propensities to devote differing percentages of their total conversational utterances to the discussion of other individuals and behavioral conduct, and interacted with ethnicity to produce different patterns of discussion related to the topic of learning. Mothers of boys used more elaborative utterances in their discussion of learning-related topics than did mothers of girls. Possible implications of these results for children's subsequent school-related attitudes and performance are discussed.     

Plasticity of brain and cognition in older adults

Aging is typically related to changes in brain and cognition, but the aging process is heterogeneous and differs between individuals. Recent research has started investigating the influence of cognitive and physical training on cognitive performance, functional brain activity, and brain structure in old age. The functional relevance of neural changes and the interactions among these changes following interventions is still a matter of debate. Here we selectively review research on structural and functional brain correlates of training-induced performance changes in healthy older adults and present exemplary longitudinal intervention studies sorted by the type of training applied (i.e., strategy-based training, process-specific training, and physical exercise). Although many training studies have been conducted recently, within each task domain, the number of studies that used comparable methods and techniques to assess behavioral and neural changes is limited. We suggest that future studies should include a multimodal approach to enhance the understanding of the relation between different levels of brain changes in aging and those changes that result from training. Investigating inter-individual differences in intervention-induced behavioral and neuronal changes would provide more information about who would benefit from a specific intervention and why. In addition, a more systematic examination of the time course of training-related structural and functional changes would improve the current level of knowledge about how learning is implemented in the brain and facilitate our understanding of contradictory results.     

Complexity Training and Prejudice Reduction

It was argued that prejudicc is a likely outcome of simple cognitive structures, and that if a training procedure could be devised which would increase conccptual complexity in the xea of interracial affairs, thcn prejudice would be reduced. Accordingly, a complexity training task was developed which required Ss to engage in uniconceptual or multiconceptual thinking about videotaped stimulus persons who varied in race (black and white) and competence. Ss were 64 paid, white, high school students. Results showed that both complexity training procedures were effective in reducing prejudice and increasing complexity of thinking, but the multiconceptual training group failcd to signiticantly outpcrform the uniconceptual group. This latter result was interprctcd in tcrins of cognitive matching model.     

Ethnic identity and racial attitudes in a minority group of mixed racial origin

Limited information exists on the racial attitudes and ethnic identities of groups of mixed racial origin. The present research tested the hypotheses that the construct of ethnic identity is valid among such groups and that ethnic identity is related to out-group prejudice, as predicted by social identity theory. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, the Anti-White Scale, and the Subtle Racism Scale were administered to 70 South Africans of mixed racial descent, the so-called Coloureds. A factor analysis supported the structural validity of the 12-item measure of ethnic identity with this sample, but correlations between scales did not support the prediction that group identity would be positively associated with out-group prejudice. Group identity was positively related .27 to positive attitudes toward Whites consistent with the tenets of social dominance theory.     

个人目标相关性对非临床抑郁者未来想象的影响

通过两个实验考查了非临床抑郁者未来想象的异常是否受到个人目标相关性的调节。实验1采用未来想象任务, 实验2采用可能性评估范式, 两个实验一致发现, 抑郁倾向者想象未来积极事件的异常, 受到了与个人目标相关性的调节：相对于非抑郁倾向者, 抑郁倾向者对未来与个人目标相关的积极事件的预期减弱, 而对未来与个人目标无关的积极事件的预期则没有表现出异常; 同时还发现, 抑郁倾向者表现出了对未来消极预期的普遍增强, 不受与个人目标相关性的影响。     

The Effect of Episodic Future Thinking on Learning Intention: Focusing on English Learning Goal-Relevant Future Thinking in University Students1,2

We examined the effects of episodic future thinking related to achieving important learning goals on university students' learning intentions. Japanese university students (N = 70) participated in this experiment. Participants in the episodic future thinking condition were asked to imagine and describe events they would experience if they achieved their goals. In the semantic future thinking condition, we asked participants to describe their future selves after university graduation and rate the relevance of their future selves to their learning goals. Participants were then asked to respond to the learning intentions measures. Participants in the control condition responded to the measures of learning intentions after completing a questionnaire unrelated to future thinking. When the importance of goal attainment was high, participants in the episodic future thinking condition planned to study for significantly longer than those in the other conditions. Episodic future thinking related to achieving important learning goals strengthens learning intentions more than simple awareness of the future self and learning goals.     

College students' role models, learning style preferences, and academic achievement in collaborative teaching: absolute versus relativistic thinking

Based on the perspective of postformal operations, this study investigated whether college students' role models (technical teachers vs. lecturing teachers) and preferred learning styles (experience-driven mode vs. theory-driven mode) in collaborative teaching courses would be moderated by their cognitive development (absolute thinking vs. relativistic thinking) and examine whether academic achievement of students would be contingent upon their preferred learning styles. Two hundred forty-four college students who have taken the technical courses with collaborative teaching participated in this study. The results showed that those participants with absolute thinking perceived the modeling advantage of technical teachers was greater than that of lecturing teachers, preferred the experience-driven mode over the theory-driven mode, and displayed differential academic achievement between technical courses and general courses. On the other hand, the students with relativistic thinking revealed no difference in perceived modeling advantage of role models, learning styles preferences, and academic achievement between two categories of courses. In addition, this research indicates that college students' preferred learning styles would interact with course category (technical courses vs. general courses) to display differential academic achievement. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Toward the bigger picture: Concrete and abstract thinking about a transgression,and the role of time in interpersonal forgiveness

Rumination is commonly considered detrimental to forgiveness. In contrast, we propose that different forms of post-transgression thinking are differentially effective for forgiveness, depending on their timing. Concrete thinking focuses on event details, whereas abstract thinking abstracts from details and views the event in a broader context. Following construal level theory, we propose that concrete thinking is increasingly ill-matched, and abstract thinking better matched, to the construal abilities and motivation afforded by psychological distance. Hence, over time, concrete thinking would be negatively, and abstract thinking positively, associated with forgiveness. Two correlational recall studies, with time since transgression measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2), demonstrated that with greater temporal distance concrete thinking was more negatively, and abstract thinking more positively, related to forgiveness. Study 3 employed a prospective-longitudinal methodology over five time-points; intra-individual decrease in concrete thinking and increase in abstract thinking over time were related to higher levels of forgiveness.     

Morphological changes in dendritic spines of Purkinje cells associated with motor learning

Experience-dependent changes of spine structure and number may contribute to long-term memory storage. Although several studies demonstrated structural spine plasticity following associative learning, there is limited evidence associating motor learning with alteration of spine morphology. Here, we investigated this issue in the cerebellar Purkinje cells using high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). Adult rats were trained in an obstacle course, demanding significant motor coordination to complete. Control animals either traversed an obstacle-free runway or remained sedentary. Quantitative analysis of spine morphology showed that the density and length of dendritic spines along the distal dendrites of Purkinje cells were significantly increased in the rats that learned complex motor skills compared to active or inactive controls. Classification of spines into shape categories indicated that the increased spine density and length after motor learning was mainly attributable to an increase in thin spines. These findings suggest that motor learning induces structural spine plasticity in the cerebellar Purkinje neurons, which may play a crucial role in acquiring complex motor skills.     

Multiple-choice testing as a desirable difficulty in the classroom

We examined whether the power of tests as learning events, frequently demonstrated in the laboratory, would also occur in a large undergraduate course. Our goals were to determine: if learning of information tested on multiple-choice quizzes administered across the course would be enhanced compared to non-tested control information; and what the effects of quizzing would be for the learning of information conceptually related to the tested information but not itself tested on the quizzes. Given that retrieval practice can have positive (testing effect) and negative consequences (retrieval-induced forgetting), our concern was that the learning and later retention of non-tested conceptually related information might be impaired by the multiple-choice quizzes. Importantly, learning benefits were found for both types of information on the final exam, indicating that quizzing within a course can enhance not only the learning of specifically tested information, but the learning of non-tested conceptually related information as well.     

Teacher,I had a dream: a glimpse of the spiritual domain of children using project-based learning

Children’s dreams have the potential to awaken feelings, question attitudes and inspire new learning experiences to deepen awareness of spiritual development. Both guidance and spiritual environments created by nurturing educators and parents foster dreams that captivate and motivate children to increase their spiritual self-awareness, leading them to ask open-ended questions about what is real and what is make-believe. This paper offers a discussion of the importance of children’s dreams accompanied by teaching opportunities using project-based learning to channel creative thinking and interconnecting within a child’s culture and community, promoting balance, integrity and reciprocal relationships. Project-based learning has the capability to offer responsive and holistic support of the spiritual domain of children within a caring, welcoming community. Using project-based learning in classrooms shapes the agenda to stimulate wonder, ask inquiring questions and promotes creativity and encourages multiple ways to represent thinking in graphic, written and oral language.     

Essentialist Beliefs About Bodily Transplants in the United States and India

Psychological essentialism is the belief that some internal, unseen essence or force determines the common outward appearances and behaviors of category members. We investigated whether reasoning about transplants of bodily elements showed evidence of essentialist thinking. Both Americans and Indians endorsed the possibility of transplants conferring donors' personality, behavior, and luck on recipients, consistent with essentialism. Respondents also endorsed essentialist effects even when denying that transplants would change a recipient's category membership (e.g., predicting that a recipient of a pig's heart would act more pig‐like but denying that the recipient would become a pig). This finding runs counter to predictions from the strongest version of the “minimalist” position (Strevens,2000), an alternative to essentialism. Finally, studies asking about a broader range of donor‐to‐recipient transfers indicated that Indians essentialized more types of transfers than Americans, but neither sample essentialized monetary transfer. This suggests that results from bodily transplant conditions reflect genuine essentialism rather than broader magical thinking.     

Fostering Marginalized Youths’ Political Participation: Longitudinal Roles of Parental Political Socialization and Youth Sociopolitical Development

This study examines the roles of parental political socialization and the moral commitment to change social inequalities in predicting marginalized youths' (defined here as lower-SES youth of color) political participation. These issues are examined by applying structural equation modeling to a longitudinal panel of youth. Because tests of measurement invariance suggested racial/ethnic heterogeneity, the structural model was fit separately for three racial/ethnic groups. For each group, parental political socialization: discussion predicted youths' commitment to produce social change and for two groups, longitudinally predicted political participation. This study contributes to the literature by examining civic/political participation among disparate racial/ethnic groups, addresses an open scholarly question (whether youths' commitment to create social change predicts their "traditional" participation), and emphasizes parents' role in fostering marginalized youths' civic and political participation.     

Informal Home Education: Philosophical Aspirations put into Practice

Informal home education occurs without much that is generally considered essential for formal education—including curriculum, learning plans, assessments, age related targets or planned and deliberate teaching. Our research into families conducting this kind of education enables us to consider learning away from such imposed structures and to explore how children go about learning for themselves within the context of their own socio-cultural setting. In this paper we consider what and how children learn when no educational agenda is arranged for them and we link this manner of learning to the Deweyan ideas of learning as transactional and learning-in-context. We also use our empirical evidence to explore the notion of ZPD with regard to informal learning and to consider how children, without specific guidance, go about charting a course of learning through the ZPD. We consider the quality of informal learning particularly with regard to the educational aim of developing reflective and critical thinking, showing how these are integral to informal learning. We suggest that a much wider conception of what learning is and how it happens is needed, away from the confines of formal educational structures.     

Perceptions of ethnic discrimination by minority and majority early adolescents in the Netherlands

This research investigates perceptions of discrimination among ethnic majority and minority group early adolescents (aged between 10 and 12 years) living in the multi‐ethnic context of the Netherlands. In two studies (N = 679 and N = 2630), personal and group discrimination was examined in terms of name‐calling and social exclusion, and in relation to ethnic identity and family allocentrism. All early adolescents reported more group than personal discrimination. The personal‐group discrimination discrepancy (PGDD) was found independently of ethnic group, gender, allocentrism, and ethnic identity. Hence, the PGDD seems a more general phenomenon that already exists among early adolescents and across different domains. However, minority group participants perceived far more discrimination overall than majority group early adolescents, and the Turkish participants reported more discrimination than the Moroccan and Surinamese early adolescents. Furthermore, family allocentrism was positively related to perceived discrimination among all ethnic groups in Study 2 and among the Dutch in Study 1. In agreement with ethnic identity development models, strength of ethnic identity was not related to perceived discrimination. Ethnic identity was, however, positively related to allocentrism. In both studies, ethnic minority group participants had higher scores for allocentrism and for ethnic identity than majority group participants. In addition, boys had stronger ethnic identity than girls and ethnic identity was negatively associated with perceived discrimination for the boys but not for the girls. It is concluded that in order to understand early adolescents' perception of discrimination it is necessary to pay attention to basic (cognitive) tendencies that cross ethnic lines, to cultural and status differences between the majority group and ethnic minorities as a category and between ethnic minority groups, and to within‐group differences or individual level variables.     

The suppression of exciting thoughts

We examined how the suppression of an exciting thought influences sympathetic arousal as indexed by skin conductance level (SCL). Subjects were asked to think aloud as they followed instructions to think about or not to think about various topics. Experiment 1 showed that trying not to think about sex, like thinking about sex, elevates SCL in comparison to thinking about or not thinking about less exciting topics (e.g., dancing). Experiment 2 revealed that the suppression of the thought of sex yielded SCL elevation whether or not subjects believed their think-aloud reports would be private or public, and it also revealed that the effect dissipated over the course of a few minutes. Experiment 3 found such dissipation again but showed that subsequent intrusions of the suppressed exciting thought are associated with further elevations in SCL over 30 min. Because such an association was not found when subjects were trying to think about the exciting thought, it was suggested that the suppression of exciting thoughts might be involved in the production of chronic emotional responses such as phobias and obsessive preoccupations.     

Value-Focused Thinking versus Alternative-Focused Thinking: Effects on Generation of Objectives

Within the context of decision analysis, the aim of this work is to discover whether the structure of objectives generated with value-focused thinking (VFT) is different from the structure generated with alternative-focused thinking (AFT). In the first of two studies, two different groups of subjects created a structure of objectives for the same decision problem. Fourteen independent assessments were made for each group. After the terms used by the two groups, were standardized, it was found that the group using VFT generated a more extensive and hierarchical structure than the AFT group. With regard to the content of the objectives, it can be stated that the VFT structure covered aspects of the problem not covered by AFT. In the second study, structures representative of the two approaches were judged by a group of decision-makers—actually involved in the problem—with respect to several qualities. It was found that the structure generated by VFT was equal or superior to that generated by AFT in all qualities judged.