A critique of the neuroecology of learning and memory

Recent years have seen the emergence of neuroecology, the study of the neural mechanisms of behaviour guided by functional and evolutionary principles. This research has been of enormous value for our understanding of the evolution of brain- and species-specific behaviour. However, we question the validity of the neuroecological approach when applied to the analysis of learning and memory, given its arbitrary assumption that different ‘problems’ engage different memory mechanisms. Differences in memory-based performance in ‘natural’ tasks do not prove differences in memory capacity; similarly, differences in the use of memory in the natural environment do not provide a sound basis for expecting differences in anatomical structures that subserve learning and memory. This critique is illustrated with examples taken from the study of the neurobiology of food storing and song learning in birds.     

Field dependency and the sense of object-presence in haptic virtual environments.

Virtual environment (VE) users often report having a sense of being present in the virtual place or a sense that the virtual object is present in their environment. This sense of presence depends on both the technological fidelity (e.g., in graphics, haptics) and the users' cognitive/ personality characteristics. This study examined the correlation between user's cognitive style on the field-dependency dimension and the level of object-presence they reported in a haptic VE. Results indicated that field-independent individuals reported higher presence ratings compared to field-dependent participants. We hypothesize that field-independents' advantage in reorganizing the perceptual field and constructing it according to their previously acquired internal knowledge enables them to cognitively reconstruct the VE experience more efficiently by selectively attending only to the relevant cues and by filling in the gap of missing information with their previous knowledge and creative imagination. This active and creative cognitive process may be behind the enhanced sense of presence. In addition, we raise a possible linkage between field dependency, the sense of presence, and simulator sickness phenomenon.     

Inferring sense of agency from the quantitative aspect of action outcome

The sense of agency refers to an experience in which one’s own action causes a change in environment. It is strongly modulated by both the contingency between action and its outcome and the consistency between predicted and actual action outcomes. Recent studies have suggested that the action outcome can retrospectively modulate action awareness. We suspect that the sense of agency can also be retrospectively modulated. This study examined whether the quantity of action outcome could influence the sense of agency. The participants’ task was to trigger dot motion in a display and rate the extent to which they could control the initiation of dot motion. Independently of both the temporal contiguity between action and its outcome and the consistency between predicted and actual action outcomes, the speed of dot motion as an action’s outcome strongly influenced the sense of agency rating. The present study suggests that the sense of agency stems partly from the inference of action efficiency based on the quantitative aspect of action outcome.     

Immersion and emotion: their impact on the sense of presence.

The present study is designed to test the role of immersion and media content in the sense of presence. Specifically, we are interested in the affective valence of the virtual environments. This paper describes an experiment that compares three immersive systems (a PC monitor, a rear projected video wall, and a head-mounted display) and two virtual environments, one involving emotional content and the other not. The purpose of the experiment was to test the interactive role of these two media characteristics (form and content). Scores on two self-report presence measurements were compared among six groups of 10 people each. The results suggest that both immersion and affective content have an impact on presence. However, immersion was more relevant for non-emotional environments than for emotional ones.     

Everything you need to know to understand the current controversies you learned from psychological research. A comment on the Rind and Lilienfeld controversies

Psychological theory and research can help explain some of the aspects of the controversies that arose over articles written by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman (1998) and by S. O. Lilienfeld (2002). In particular, one needs to distinguish between rational and intuitive thinking, to recognize the power of context, to be reflective in one's own thinking, and to realize the costs of defying the crowd. There are steps one can take to be wiser and more balanced in one's own thinking than one may have been in the past. One such step is to resolve conflicts among psychologists by attempting to defuse rather than to exacerbate or avoid them.     

医患关系的本质:医生的专业视角及其伦理意蕴

力图从为西方医学领域已完善发展及广为接受的专业(Professional)视角对医患关系(Patient-professional Relationship,以下及正文中皆简称为PPR)的伦理意蕴做探讨.简要追溯了现代医护专业精神的起源,说明了道德责任之所以是专业这一概念的重要组成部分的原因,并且指出为病人最大利益着想是医护专业最根本的道德规范与责任,亦是医患关系不可缺少的伦理基石.     

Common sense epidemiology: self-based judgments from laypersons and physicians

This article reports two studies on a neglected aspect of common sense epidemiology: subjective estimates of the prevalence of symptoms and diseases. Based on social-psychological research on the false-consensus effect, it was hypothesized that subjects who had a history of a condition would estimate its prevalence to be greater than would subjects who did not have a history of that condition. This hypothesis was supported across several different symptoms and diseases. Expertise did not confer protection from the effect. It occurred among 110 college students in Study 1 as well as among 65 practicing physicians in Study 2. In addition, college students who estimated the prevalence of a condition as relatively high rated that condition as less life-threatening than did other students, and students who had a history of a condition rated it as less life-threatening than did their counterparts without such a history. The discussion focuses on (a) explanations of differences in prevalence estimates as a function of personal health history, (b) implications for laypersons' judgments of seriousness, their emotional reactions to illness threats, and their illness behavior, and (c) implications for physicians' diagnostic behavior.     

Children's sense of belonging and parental social capital derived from school

Parents' chance to seek help from other parents of schoolchildren attending the same school is an aspect of parental social capital. This social capital is supposed to contribute to schoolchildren's present sense of belonging to their school, society, and country. The relationship between social capital and a child's sense of belonging may vary as a function of the child's prior sense of belonging. Social capital may give a deeper encouragement or positive effect to children with higher prior sense of belonging (the strength building perspective) or to children with lower prior sense of belonging (the need fulfillment perspective). The author surveyed 289 parents and their schoolchildren in Grades 4-9 in Hong Kong, China, to ascertain which of the two perspectives holds. The results indicated that parental social capital was more highly associated with a child's present belongingness if his or her prior belongingness was high rather than low. This interaction effect is supportive of the strength building perspective.