Measuring Television Message Complexity as Available Processing Resources: Dimensions of Information and Cognitive Load

This article further tests the theoretical hypotheses supporting the use of number of camera changes (cc) and information introduced (ii) as indicators of resources allocated and resources required to process television messages. These two measures, combined, yield an indicator of available resources and can, therefore, be used as an indicator of television message complexity. Previous research has validated their use, averaged over time, as a global measure of message complexity. The two studies reported here test the underlying local complexity predictions and present support from two studies for the ii, cc combination as a valid indicator of local message complexity. Study 1 demonstrates that when a camera change has an increasing number of ii dimensions available resources become scarcer, eventually reaching cognitive overload. Study 2 examines the relative level of resources required for each of the seven dimensions, and demonstrates that specific theoretical groupings of dimensions (novelty, motivational, and cognitive) show differential impact on available resources. Results show that the individual dimensions increase required resources as predicted and that emotion change is the most cognitively taxing dimension. Together, the two studies increase our understanding of how the number of dimensions each individual dimension of ii increases cognitive load and provide strong support for the measure as an indicator of local message complexity.     

How Linearity and Structural Complexity Interact and Affect the Recognition of Italian Derived Words

The majority of words in most languages consist of derived poly-morphemic words but a cross-linguistic review of the literature (Amenta and Crepaldi in Front Psychol 3:232–243, 2012) shows a contradictory picture with respect to how such words are represented and processed. The current study examined the effects of linearity and structural complexity on the processing of Italian derived words. Participants performed a lexical decision task on three types of prefixed and suffixed words and nonwords differing in the complexity of their internal structure. The processing of these words was indeed found to vary according to the nature of the affixes, the order in which they appear, and the type of information the affix encodes. The results thus indicate that derived words are not a uniform class and the best account of these findings appears to be a constraint-based or probabilistic multi-route processing model (e.g., Kuperman et al. in Lang Cogn Process 23:1089–1132, 2008; J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 35:876–895, 2009; J Mem Lang 62:83–97, 2010).     

The Cognitive Dynamics of Beliefs: The Effect of Information on Message Processing

This study investigated the time course of belief change from univalent versus mixed‐valence messages, both while the message was being received and after receipt while it was being considered. Hypotheses about the temporal patterns of belief change were tested with belief trajectories from S. E. McGreevy (1996) , valid N= 78, with an average number of time points per person = 5,267 (126.41 seconds) for the message‐receipt phase and 2,467 (59.22 seconds) for the postmessage phase. Results showed that while receiving a message, beliefs changed according to the value and the order of presentation of information in the message. A greater number of positive belief changes were generated in response to a positive univalent message than to a mixed‐valence message. In the postmessage phase, a greater oscillatory pattern of belief change was found for a mixed‐valence message than for a univalent message. Theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

Age,Emotion Regulation,and Affect in Adulthood: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal

Evidence indicates that older adults experience high levels of emotional well‐being. However, little is known empirically about the underlying mechanism of this state. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether emotion regulation mediates the link between age and affect in adulthood. The sample consisted of 516 Japanese participants aged 30 (±1), 50 (±1), and 70 (±1) years, who were registered with an Internet survey company. Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were measured as emotion regulation strategies. Positive and negative affect were assessed. Older participants reported lower negative affect than younger participants, while positive affect was not correlated with age. Cognitive reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between age and affect, whereas expressive suppression did not. The results suggested that age‐related increase in cognitive reappraisal could contribute to improvements in affect, but that another adaptive form of emotion regulation may mediate the relationship between age and affect. Our study thus indicates that developments in emotion regulation could explain the mechanism of stable everyday affect throughout adulthood, and that researchers should further explore another form of adaptive emotion regulation.     

儿童社会信息加工的情绪－认知整合模型

回顾与总结了社会认知中情绪过程对儿童社会能力发展作用的研究成果,探讨了社会信息加工过程中情绪过程和认知的关系问题。发现就个人--社会决策活动而言,情绪过程具有核心作用。并且由此介绍了社会情绪--认知整合模型及其对情绪过程的理解。在此基础上,重点综述了情绪过程在社会情境中对儿童社会信息的线索编码与解释、目标分类、反应提取与决定及行为实施的影响。     

Affect,Behaviour, Cognition and Desire in the Big Five: An Analysis of Item Content and Structure

Personality psychology is concerned with affect (A), behaviour (B), cognition (C) and desire (D), and personality traits have been defined conceptually as abstractions used to either explain or summarise coherent ABC (and sometimes D) patterns over time and space. However, this conceptual definition of traits has not been reflected in their operationalisation, possibly resulting in theoretical and practical limitations to current trait inventories. Thus, the goal of this project was to determine the affective, behavioural, cognitive and desire (ABCD) components of Big‐Five personality traits. The first study assessed the ABCD content of items measuring Big‐Five traits in order to determine the ABCD composition of traits and identify items measuring relatively high amounts of only one ABCD content. The second study examined the correlational structure of scales constructed from items assessing ABCD content via a large, web‐based study. An assessment of Big‐Five traits that delineates ABCD components of each trait is presented, and the discussion focuses on how this assessment builds upon current approaches of assessing personality. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Embodied Information in Cognitive Tasks: Haptic Weight Sensations Affect Task Performance and Processing Style

Research in the field of embodied cognition showed that incidental weight sensations influence peoples’ judgments about a variety of issues and objects. Most studies found that heaviness compared to lightness increases the perception of importance, seriousness, and potency. In two experiments, we broadened this scope by investigating the impact of weight sensations on cognitive performance. In Experiment 1, we found that the performance in an anagram task was reduced when participants held a heavy versus a light clipboard in their hands. Reduced performance was accompanied by an increase in the perceived effort. In Experiment 2, a heavy clipboard elicited a specific response heuristic in a two-alternative forced-choice task. Participants showed a significant right side bias when holding a heavy clipboard in their hands. After the task, participants in the heavy clipboard condition reported to be more frustrated than participants in the light clipboard condition. In both experiments, we did not find evidence for mediated effects that had been proposed by previous literature. Overall, the results indicate that weight effects go beyond judgment formation and highlight new avenues for future research.     

Behavioral Complexity Is in the Eye of the Beholder Effects of Cognitive Complexity and Message Complexity on Impressions of the Source of Comforting Messages

Recent theorizing suggests that exposure to sophisticated or behaviorally complex messages (i.e., messages that reflect a concern with multiple goals) may enhance the cognitiue development of message recipients. Reasoning that persons attempt to accommodate their cognitive structuring of an environment to the level of complexity in that environment, it was hypothesized that persons exposed to behaviorally complex messages would form more differentiated impressions of the message source than would persons exposed to less complex messages. It was also hypothesized that persons with complex systems of interpersonal constructs would form more differentiated impressions of the message source. Further, because persons with complex systems of interpersonal constructs should better appreciate the richness of behaviorally complex messages, it was hypothesized that message complexity would exert the strongest effect on impression differentiation for those with high levels of cognitive complexity. Participants in the study (410 college students) read a conversation containing comforting messages representing one of three levels of behavioral complexity; they subsequently wrote impressions of the source of these messages and these impressions were scored for the number of attributes they contained. Interpersonal cognitive complexity was assessed with Crockett's (1965) Role Category Questionnaire. Consistent with hypotheses, main effects for behavioral complexity and cognitive complexity were observed on impression differentiation; in addition, the anticipated interaction between message complexity and cognitive complexity was observed.     

Affective Processing and Emotion Regulation in Dysphoria and Depression: Cognitive Biases and Deficits in Cognitive Control

In this article, we take a closer look at the cognitive processing of emotional material in dysphoria and depression and link cognitive biases and deficits to individual differences in emotion regulation, an important risk factor for depression. Specifically, we propose that cognitive biases are associated with individual differences in the initial appraisal and reappraisal of emotion‐eliciting events. In addition, deficits in cognitive control result in prolonged processing of negative, goal‐irrelevant aspects of information as well as in decreased accessibility of mood‐incongruent material. These deficits further affect people’s ability to regulate negative affect by setting the stage for ruminative responses and by interfering with the use of reappraisal after the onset of an emotional response. This article provides a brief summary of findings that support these propositions and outlines implications for future research on the relation among affective processing, cognitive control, and emotion regulation in dysphoria and depression.     

Prime, Frame, and Source Factors: Semantic Valence in Message Judgment

Healthcare communication is an area that offers great benefits in the promotion of preventive health behavior. Given that physical activity can significantly reduce risk factors that are associated with major chronic diseases, it is paramount to examine the promotion of physical activity through appropriate message designs. This study employs priming theory, the framing postulate of prospect theory, and the source factor to examine effective message design in the promotion of exercise. Overall, it shows that semantic consistencies between prime and frame, as well as frame and source, are more conducive to message persuasion. Hence, the contention of framing by the type of health behavior ( Rothman & Salovey, 1997 ) is moderated by prime and source factors.     

"Fixed Pie" a la Mode: Information Availability,Information Processing,and the Negotiation of Suboptimal Agreements

Negotiators often make errors in judgment that lead to suboptimal negotiated agreements. Although researchers agree that these errors result from "fixed pie" expectations, there is disagreement regarding how "fixed pie" expectations lead to poor outcomes. One view suggests that suboptimal agreements result when negotiators accurately process faulty and incomplete information (information availability errors); a second view holds that poorly negotiated agreements result when negotiators inaccurately process valid or complete information (information processing errors). The two experiments described in this paper confirmed that negotiators′ "fixed pie" expectations lead to suboptimal agreements via both information availability and information processing errors.     

Authoritarianism,Cognitive Rigidity,and the Processing of Ambiguous Visual Information

Intolerance of ambiguity and cognitive rigidity are unifying aspects of authoritarianism as defined by Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford (1982/1950), who hypothesized that authoritarians view the world in absolute terms (e.g., good or evil). Past studies have documented the relationship between authoritarianism and intolerance of ambiguity and rigidity. Frenkel-Brunswik (1949) hypothesized that this desire for absolutism was rooted in perceptual processes. We present a study with three samples that directly tests the relationship between right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and the processing of ideologically neutral but ambiguous visual stimuli. As hypothesized, in all three samples we found that RWA was related to the slower processing of visual information that required participants to recategorize objects. In a fourth sample, RWA was unrelated to speed of processing visual information that did not require recategorization. Overall, results suggest a relationship between RWA and rigidity in categorization.     

The Practice of Mathematics: Cognitive Resources and Conceptual Content

Topoi - In the past 10 years, contemporary philosophy of mathematics has seen the development of a trend that conceives mathematics as first and foremost a human activity and in...     

Introduction: Social Cognition, Psychodynamic Psychology, and the Representation and Processing of Emotionally Significant Information

ABSTRACT This special issue examines two perspectives on how people comprehend and respond to significant features of their lives: psychoanalytic psychology and social cognition. The articles included present new empirical findings relevant to die overlap of psychoanalysis and social-cognitive psychology, as well as commentaries from each perspective. This introduction summarizes important conceptual and methodological challenges in the integration of two such distinct approaches to emotionally significant information.     

认知与动机因素对品牌信息处理的影响

品牌,是一个名称、术语、标志、符号或图形,或这些元素的组合,被用来象征一个或一组销售者提供的产品及服务,以区别于竞争者的产品及服务。它通过消费者的相关信息处理的过程影响消费行为。认知因素对与品牌相关信息处理的影响,一直以来是相关研究的主流。近年,动机因素,由于它对信息处理的控制与引导作用,开始受到越来越多研究者的重视。为此,作者从社会认知的角度,分别以认知、动机因素的影响为着眼点,介绍品牌相关研究十年来的进展与成果,并在此基础上对未来研究的方向进行了探讨     

Disturbance of Emotion Processing in Frontotemporal Dementia: A Synthesis of Cognitive and Neuroimaging Findings

Accurate processing of emotional information is a critical component of appropriate social interactions and interpersonal relationships. Disturbance of emotion processing is present in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and is a clinical feature in two of the three subtypes: behavioural-variant FTD and semantic dementia. Emotion processing in progressive nonfluent aphasia, the third FTD subtype, is thought to be mostly preserved, although current evidence is scant. This paper reviews the literature on emotion recognition, reactivity and expression in FTD subtypes, although most studies focus on emotion recognition. The relationship between patterns of emotion processing deficits and patterns of neural atrophy are considered, by integrating evidence from recent neuroimaging studies. The review findings are discussed in the context of three contemporary theories of emotion processing: the limbic system model, the right hemisphere model and a multimodal system of emotion. Results across subtypes of FTD are most consistent with the multimodal system model, and support the presence of somewhat dissociable neural correlates for basic emotions, with strongest evidence for the emotions anger and sadness. Poor emotion processing is evident in all three subtypes, although deficits are more widespread than what would be predicted based on studies in healthy cohorts. Studies that include behavioural and imaging data are limited. Future investigations combining these approaches will help improve the understanding of the neural network underlying emotion processing. Presently, longitudinal investigations of emotion processing in FTD are lacking, and studies investigating emotion processing over time are critical to understand the clinical manifestations of disease progression in FTD.     

Linguistic Complexity,Information Processing,and Public Acceptance of Supreme Court Decisions

Scholars suggest that judges have an incentive to use complex language to increase support for their decisions. Research on the effects of processing fluency, however, points towards a different set of expectations. Using a survey experiment, we manipulate the complexity of the language conveying two Court decisions and two types of source cue. For the less polarizing of the two decisions, we find that by decreasing processing fluency, complex decision language can both decrease acceptance of the decision and diminish the importance of source cues in arriving at this judgment. Legalistic terminology, however, increases acceptance.     

学习障碍儿童的社会信息处理、依恋及情绪调节特点

SIP是儿童社交能力的一个重要组成部分,它给儿童提供一个如何处理及解读社会情境中发生的社会线索的模型,并且根据这些线索作出行为和情绪上的决定。作为一个社会认知能力,SIP被认为是学习障碍儿童中最具有挑战性的领域之一。潜在的认知加工过程和情绪处理过程对SIP六阶段步骤起重要作用。过去的研究注重儿童认知能力对SIP能力的作用。在此研究中,我们新增了儿童的情感纽带如(安全依恋)以及强调儿童管理情绪的能力对儿童SIP能力的作用。本文通过对学习障碍儿童的情绪管理、依恋质量及社会信息加工特点的研究,希望提供关于安全依恋和情绪管理在学习障碍儿童中社会信息加工的作用一些理论参考。     

Cognitive Processing and the Functional Matching Effect in Persuasion: The Mediating Role of Subjective Perceptions of Message Quality

In two experiments, we examined the hypothesis that subjective perceptions of message quality mediate the functional matching effect in persuasion. In Experiment 1, participants whose attitudes and behaviors serve primarily a value-expressive function (i.e., low self-monitors) or a social-adjustive function (i.e., high self-monitors) were exposed to persuasive messages that contained value-expressive, social-adjustive, or both types of arguments in favor of voting. Functionally-relevant messages (i.e., the social-adjustive message for high self-monitors and the value-expressive message for low self-monitors) produced enhanced perceptions of message quality and persuasiveness, more positive attitudes, and more message-related behavior than functionally nonrelevant messages. Functionally mixed messages were generally more effective than messages containing only functionally nonrelevant arguments, but less effective than messages containing only functionally relevant arguments. Path analyses indicated that the influence of functional relevance on attitudes and behavior was significantly mediated by subjective perceptions of the quality of the message. In Experiment 2, we exposed participants to a functionally relevant or nonrelevant voting appeal five days before a presidential election. Results replicated those of Experiment 1; functionally relevant messages produced more favorable attitudes, and this effect was mediated by enhanced perceptions of message quality. Finally, postmessage attitudes exerted a significant influence on whether participants voted in the election, and this effect was mediated by voting intentions. Discussion focuses on the subjective nature of message evaluation and on the cognitive processes underlying the functional matching effect in persuasion.