Autonomy supportive fathers beget system-supporting children: The role of autonomy support on protesting behavior

In this paper we examined the influence of father autonomy support on protesting behavior. Drawing from Relational Model Theory and Self-determination Theory, we hypothesized that individuals' perception and interactions with authority figures are shaped by their experiences with their fathers. When people experience their fathers as empathetic and caring, they are more likely to view other authority figures positively and make benevolent interpretations of their actions. We found support for our hypothesis in two studies conducted in Malaysia and Canada with self-reported engagement in political causes. As expected, perceived father autonomy support was related to positive perception of the government and less protesting against the government. Overall, the present paper provides evidence that children's internalized representations of their fathers are related to intentions and behaviors to change the social systems.     

How to never be wrong

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Human beliefs have remarkable robustness in the face of disconfirmation. This robustness is often explained as the product of heuristics or motivated reasoning....     

Development of proportional reasoning: where young children go wrong

Previous studies have found that children have difficulty solving proportional reasoning problems involving discrete units until 10 to 12 years of age, but can solve parallel problems involving continuous quantities by 6 years of age. The present studies examine where children go wrong in processing proportions that involve discrete quantities. A computerized proportional equivalence choice task was administered to kindergartners through 4th-graders in Study 1, and to 1st- and 3rd-graders in Study 2. Both studies involved 4 between-subjects conditions that were formed by pairing continuous and discrete target proportions with continuous and discrete choice alternatives. In Study 1, target and choice alternatives were presented simultaneously; in Study 2, target and choice alternatives were presented sequentially. In both studies, children performed significantly worse when both the target and choice alternatives were represented with discrete quantities than when either or both of the proportions involved continuous quantities. Taken together, these findings indicate that children go astray on proportional reasoning problems involving discrete units only when a numerical match is possible, suggesting that their difficulty is due to an overextension of numerical equivalence concepts to proportional equivalence problems.     

言语行为的关系框架理论视角:孤独症谱系障碍的新探索

语言功能异常是孤独症谱系障碍(ASD)的典型症状之一。1957年,斯金纳从行为学角度提出"言语行为",认为人们获得表达和理解语言的能力与学会走路、跳舞等行为的原理相同。2001年,海斯等人在斯金纳的基础上提出关于人类语言和认知的新视角——关系框架理论(Relational Frame Theory,RFT),澄清了语言的推衍性实质,认为言语行为是将一个刺激与其他刺激建立关系框架的过程。研究表明基于RFT的多范例训练可以提升ASD患者的推衍关系反应水平,且推衍关系反应与语言和认知功能的发展高相关。未来RFT的研究可以探索如何通过推衍关系反应训练修复ASD患者的语言和认知功能缺陷。     

If It's Difficult to Pronounce, It Must Be Risky

ABSTRACT— Low processing fluency fosters the impression that a stimulus is unfamiliar, which in turn results in perceptions of higher risk, independent of whether the risk is desirable or undesirable. In Studies 1 and 2, ostensible food additives were rated as more harmful when their names were difficult to pronounce than when their names were easy to pronounce; mediation analyses indicated that this effect was mediated by the perceived novelty of the substance. In Study 3, amusement-park rides were rated as more likely to make one sick (an undesirable risk) and also as more exciting and adventurous (a desirable risk) when their names were difficult to pronounce than when their names were easy to pronounce.