The cognitive tenacity of self-directed ageism

Ageism refers to prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s age. When ageism is directed at older people, it is unique in two ways: it is socially condoned in a manner that other types of prejudice are not, and the animus is eventually self-directed. Of central interest here is why ageism becomes self-directed in late adulthood, despite its potentially harmful personal costs. We present a cognitive model in which negative ageist beliefs become increasingly accessible and difficult to eliminate owing to broader developmental shifts in mentation. Given that these effects are contingent on our social environment, systemic changes in societal conceptions of age and aging are needed if we are to reduce vulnerability to self-directed ageism.     

The interaction of temporal generalization gradients predicts the context effect

In a temporal double bisection task, animals learn two discriminations. In the presence of Red and Green keys, responses to Red are reinforced after 1-s samples and responses to Green are reinforced after 4-s samples; in the presence of Blue and Yellow keys, responses to Blue are reinforced after 4-s samples and responses to Yellow are reinforced after 16-s samples. Subsequently, given a choice between Green and Blue, the probability of choosing Green increases with the sample duration-the context effect. In the present study we asked whether this effect could be predicted from the stimulus generalization gradients induced by the two basic discriminations. Six pigeons learned to peck Green following 4-s samples (S(+)) but not following 1-s samples (S(-)) and to peck Red following 4-s samples (S(+)) but not following 16-s samples (S(-)). Temporal generalization gradients for Green and Red were then obtained. Finally, the pigeons were given a choice between Green and Red following sample durations ranging from 1 to 16 s. Results showed that a) the two generalization gradients had the minimum at the S(-) duration, an intermediate value between the S(-) and the S(+) durations, and the maximum at the S(+) as well as more extreme durations; b) on choice trials, preference for Green over Red increased with sample duration, the context effect; and c) the two generalization gradients predicted the average context effect well. The Learning-to-Time model accounts for the major trends in the data.     

The role of individual difference variables in ageism

The aim of this study was to examine the role that personality traits, empathy traits, and gratitude have on ageist attitudes and aging anxiety. Consistent with previous research, participants who exhibited greater aging anxiety were more prone to ageist attitudes. Participants with greater dispositional gratitude exhibited significantly less aging anxiety and less ageist attitudes. All of the Big Five personality traits, with the exception of extraversion, were found to be significant determinants of ageist attitudes, aging anxiety, or both. With the exception of personal distress, none of the empathy dimensions predicted either aging anxiety or ageist attitudes.     

The place of annihilation anxieties in psychoanalytic theory

Survival-related clinical reports are abundantly found in the works of classical, object-relational, and self psychological writers, but are underrepresented in major theoretical formulations on anxiety. Fears of being overwhelmed, merged, penetrated, fragmented, and destroyed, as contents of unconscious and conscious fantasies, are regularly interrelated with the typical dangers. Fifteen preliminary propositions invite closer study of such apprehensions and provide definitional components. Annihilation anxieties are triggered by survival threat; are found early but can be engendered throughout the life cycle; constitute a basic danger; are residuals of psychic trauma; have specifiable subdimensions; may occur in presymbolic form or be associated with fantasies in conflict/compromise formation; may arise with or without anticipation; may be accompanied by controlled or uncontrolled anxiety; are motives for defense; and may be associated with particularly recalcitrant resistances. The study of annihilation anxieties in relation to the basic danger series has both theoretical and clinical advantages, especially for understanding traumatic, anxiety, phobic, psychosomatic, addictive, narcissistic, borderline, and psychotic manifestations, as well as sexual problems (including perversions), nightmares, dissociative and panic states, and especially difficult resistances.     

The relation between source memory and aging.

Previous research has shown that elderly adults have difficulty recalling the source of recently acquired facts but does not indicate whether source memory is more impaired than fact memory. This study examined old and young subjects' memory for novel facts that had been read to them by 1 of 2 experimental sources either in a random order or in a blocked order. When fact memory was equated in young and old at different levels of performance, the elderly exhibited disproportionate source memory deficits in the blocked condition but not in the random condition. Results suggest that the relation between fact and source memory in the elderly varies across experimental conditions.     

The multidimensional nature of ageism: construct validity and group differences

The authors investigated the factor structure and construct validity of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism and the age and gender differences in ageism scores. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the multidimensional nature of FSA scores and generally corroborated the initial factor structure reported by M. Fraboni, with some notable exceptions. Essentially, the present findings were aligned with theoretical models of ageism that emphasize both cognitive facets and affective facets. That is, on the basis of their factor analytic findings, the authors redefined Fraboni's original factors of Antilocution, Avoidance, and Discrimination as Stereotypes, Separation, and Affective Attitudes, respectively, because of the clustering of items within factors. The revised 3-factor structure accounted for 36.4% of the variance in FSA scores. FSA factor scores significantly related to other scores from other measures of age-related attitudes, with higher correlations among factors that were similar in terms of their cognitive nature versus their affective nature. Finally, younger individuals and men had significantly higher ageism scores on the FSA than older individuals and women. The authors discussed the importance of adequately assessing ageism, with particular emphasis devoted to the understanding of age bias.     

The relationship between aging expectations and various modes of physical activity among aging adults

ObjectivePrevious research has indicated that older adults who expect decline and disease with age are less likely to engage in aerobic exercise. This study explores the influence that different types of aging expectations have on various modes of physical activity (PA) among aging adults.Design & methodsCommunity-dwelling adults aged 41–97 years (M = 70.8, SD = 12.8, n = 247) completed a questionnaire including the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly, the Expectations Regarding Aging (ERA) Survey, and a number of demographic, socio-economic, and medical covariates.ResultsBivariate analyses revealed significant relationships between overall ERA scores and multiple modes of PA, but not at multivariate levels. Bivariate analyses of the ERA sub-scales revealed significant associations among PA and the physical health ERA sub-scale but not mental health or cognitive function ERA sub-scales. In the multivariate analyses, higher physical health ERA was correlated with strenuous sport and recreational physical activities after adjusting for all covariates among aging adults without restrictions of daily activity (OR = 1.01, CI = 1.00–1.02, n = 194).ConclusionsThe association between aging expectations and PA appears to be dependent on the type of aging expectation (i.e., physical health), the mode or intensity of PA, and the functional abilities of the aging adult.     

镜文化与道教之互动

在我国,萨满教、苯教、道教、佛教等各形态宗教都对镜有极广泛的运用,其中以道教表现得最为突出.道教在科仪法术中、自身修炼中以及道教玄理的阐发中对镜展开了全方位的运用,这对镜本身的形制、纹饰、铭文以及功用的扩展产生了巨大的影响,由此道教与镜文化之间形成了一种强烈的、积极的互动关系.     

Anxieties about aging and death and psychological distress: The protective role of emotional complexity

Death and aging anxieties are related to higher psychological distress, but no study has examined whether these relationships are moderated by emotional complexity, an important indicator of adaptive emotional regulation among older adults. Participants (N = 188; mean age = 57; range = 29–100) rated their death and aging anxieties, general psychological distress, and reported their emotions on a daily basis over 14 days. Results showed that emotional complexity moderated the relationship between each of the two anxieties and psychological distress (i.e., the positive relationship between the two anxieties and psychological distress existed only among subjects with low emotional complexity). The findings suggest that emotional complexity buffers against psychological distress, and can be further explored as a facilitating mechanism in protecting against the negative mental health effects of aging and death anxieties.     

外源性注意与多感觉整合的交互关系

外源性注意与多感觉整合的交互关系是一个复杂且具有争议的研究领域, 一直以来备受研究者们关注。为了解释两者间的交互作用机制, 本文基于已有研究成果从两方面综述了外源性注意与多感觉整合的交互关系：(1)外源性注意可以通过自下而上的方式调节多感觉整合, 包括空间不确定性、感知觉敏感度和感觉通道间信号强度差异三种理论假说; (2)多感觉整合可以调节外源性注意。一方面, 来自多感觉通道的刺激能够以自下而上的方式自动整合, 整合后的多感觉通道刺激比单通道刺激具有更大的凸显性从而有效地吸引注意。另一方面, 整合后的多感觉通道刺激能够作为多感觉信号模板存储于大脑之中, 从而在任务中实现自上而下地调节注意捕获。     

The interaction between reading skills and reading instruction

Research on the underlying nature of reading disability, exemplified in the present papers, is essentially correlational. Differences in acoustic memory skills, partial cue utilization, or symbol-sound knowledge may be a result rather than a cause of reading skill differences. Suggestions are made on how to untangle the cause-effect problem through longitudinal investigation and careful analysis of some possible interactions between cognitive skills and reading ability.     

The proposed interaction between working memory and inhibition

Two experiments investigated the determinants of performance on a go/no-go task by studying the interplay of two executive function components, working memory (WM) and inhibition. Systematically varied task demands on WM and inhibition were used in the analysis of performance together with individual capacity measures of both functions, thereby investigating an interactive view of WM and inhibition. Further analyses were conducted with individual differences in general fluid intelligence (gF), in an attempt to study the role of higher order cognition in handling task demands. The results are new in presenting empirical evidence for interactive effects of the task demand variables in concert with individual WM capacity as well as with gF, suggesting that executive processes common to WM and gF are involved in inhibitory performance, whereas gF appears to reflect a broader function in controlling behaviour in relation to task goals, whether it involves active responding or not.     

镜文化与佛教文化之互动

四千年的中国镜文化蕴涵着浓郁的民族特色,昭示着中华民族的心灵历程.此间,佛教文化东传入华,对我国镜文化产生了巨大影响.季羡林先生说过"如果没有佛教的传入,从汉代、或者从魏晋开始,我们的历史、哲学、文学艺术就会是另一个样子,宗教就更不一样了."①的确,镜文化与佛教文化系统,一个基于物质载体而沿续并不断充入新的文化内涵,一个本于纯粹思想理念,需要通过物质生活中的事物强化其传播接受,二者因惊人相似的同构关系而形成互动.     

The interaction between social saliency and perceptual saliency

The ability to select visual targets in hierarchical stimuli can be affected by both perceptual saliency and social saliency. However, the functional relations between the effects are not understood. Here we examined whether these two factors interact or combine in an additive way. Participants first learnt to associate geometric shapes with three people (e.g., triangle–self, square–stranger). After learning the associations, participants were presented with compound stimuli (e.g., a global triangle formed by a set of local squares) and had to select a target at the global or local level. In Experiment 1 the task was to identify the person associated with the local or global shape. In Experiment 2 the task was simply to identify the shape. We manipulated perceptual saliency by blurring local elements to form perceptually global salient stimuli or by contrasting the colours of neighbouring local elements (red vs. white) to form perceptually local salient stimuli. In Experiment 1 (person discrimination) there was a strong effect of saliency on local targets (there were faster and more accurate responses to high than to low saliency targets) when social and perceptual saliency occurred at same level. However, both perceptual and social saliency effects were eliminated when the effect of saliency at one level competed with that at the other level. In Experiment 2 (shape discrimination), there were only effects of perceptual saliency. The data indicate that social saliency interacts with perceptual saliency when explicit social categorizations are made, consistent with both factors modulating a common process of visual selection.     

The association between vivid thoughts of death and authenticity

Many theoretical perspectives link death-related thoughts to authenticity; however, there is little empirical research directly examining this association. The current studies examined how recalling a vivid experience associated with mortality relates to outcomes indicative of authentic engagement. In Study 1, participants described an experience that made them think about their mortality, indicated how vivid their recollection was, and completed measures of authenticity and goal-pursuit. Results indicated that how vividly a mortality experience was recalled predicted greater authenticity and more important goal-pursuits. Study 2 replicated many of the findings and found a similar pattern when individuals vividly recalled a mortality experience of a close other. Study 3 again replicated these results after controlling for a host of death-related variables. Exploratory analyses further revealed that ruminating about death was often negatively associated with authenticity. Implications for the role of death-related thoughts in authentic and alienated becoming are discussed.