阅读改变人生吗?阅读文学小说提升社会认知的争议

阅读文学小说曾经被认为只是大众消遣娱乐的方式,但最近的研究表明,阅读文学小说能够提升个体的社会认知。然而,有些研究并未发现阅读文学小说能够提升社会认知。本文首先批判性地分析支持和质疑“阅读文学小说提升社会认知”的相关证据,随后提出未来的研究将如何解决这一争论,包括开发新的研究工具和技术、明确文学与小说的操作性定义、确定读者的关键特征、创新研究设计等多个方面。     

文学阅读如何影响读者的心理理论

文学阅读不但能提高读者的文学修养, 还能影响其心理状态。然而, 文学阅读经验是否一定能提高读者的心理理论仍然存有争议。近年来有关文学阅读与心理理论关系的实验性探讨不断增加。鉴于此, 作者从文本体裁、测量手段和个体差异角度分析了争议产生的原因。在此基础之上, 归纳了文学阅读影响心理理论的潜在机制, 即镜像神经系统和默认网络很可能是文学阅读促进心理理论提高的重要神经基础。     

疾病叙事阅读：医学叙事能力培养

在叙事医学和医学人文的情感转向这两大理念基础上,提出将医学叙事文本按照创作方式分为虚构疾病叙事和非虚构疾病叙事两大类型,按照作者身份分为文学疾病叙事、自我病情书写和医生病理书写（平行病历故事）等,并提出将元病历叙事作为医学院校叙事医学能力培养的重要阅读材料,在此基础上,增加阅读与某种具体疾病相关的叙事作品,如神经叙事,癌症叙事等。同时探讨如何将叙事学基本知识融入疾病叙事阅读中,切实引导医学生提高医学叙事能力,达到医患视域融合和医患沟通效果最佳化。     

主人公的动机水平对句子理解中心理模拟的影响

通过两个实验, 考察了主人公的动机水平对句子理解中读者的心理模拟的影响。实验1采用移动窗口技术, 记录读者阅读句子中目的地词语的时间; 实验2采用视觉情景眼动范式, 主试播放描述运动的句子, 同时呈现相应的情境图片, 记录读者扫描图片中主人公、路径和目的地的时间。实验结果表明：(1)主人公的动机水平影响读者对目的地词语的阅读时间, 主人公的动机水平越高, 读者的阅读时间就越短; (2)读者对情景图片的扫描受主人公的动机水平影响, 主人公的动机水平越高, 读者对路径区域的扫描时间就越短, 对目的地区域的扫描时间就越长。两个实验均表明, 在句子的实时加工中, 读者可以通过再入情境, 遵循先内后外的顺序, 先模拟主人公的动机水平, 继而模拟主人公的动作, 从而影响对句子的注视和理解。研究结果支持语言加工的具身认知观。     

心理距离对风险决策框架效应的影响

解释水平理论是一种解释心理距离怎样影响个体的思维决策的社会认知理论。研究基于解释水平理论,探查了心理距离对风险决策框架效应的影响。实验从心理距离的四个维度入手,每个维度均采用2（解释水平高、低）×2（正框架、负框架）的被试间设计,用于检验解释水平是否调节框架对被试决策任务的选择。结果表明,当心理距离越远,解释水平越高时,被试产生明显的框架效应;而当心理距离越近,解释水平越低时,框架效应明显减弱。除了大概率情况下的框架效应削弱至不显著,其余维度的高、低解释水平下的框架效应均显著。     

社会观点采择与故事阅读的关系——字词认知的调节作用

以161名小学四年级（10岁）儿童为对象,探讨社会观点采择与故事阅读理解之间的关系。要求被试完成故事阅读理解测验,社会观点采择测验和字词认知测验。采用分层回归进行数据分析,结果发现：（1）被试的社会观点采择能力对阅读理解总分、直接理解、直接推论、诠释整合具有显著的预测作用,对检视评价的预测作用不显著;（2）字词认知调节社会观点采择对故事阅读理解成绩的预测作用。社会观点采择对故事阅读理解成绩的影响随着字词认知能力的减弱而增高。对于字词认知能力较低的儿童,社会观点采择在故事阅读理解中发挥更强的预测作用。     

第二语言阅读“熔断”假说的认知心理证据:在线篇章处理的范式

本研究以认知心理学的结构建造理论为实验框架,模拟学习者母语及外语在线篇章处理的过程,从而获取第二语言阅读"熔断"假说以及"门槛"效应的认知心理证据。英语水平差别显著的高低两组共60名被试参加了英、汉语故事理解加工实验,考察他们如何对故事的人物角色进行持续跟踪,以厘清故事内的"因果链"。结果发现:(1)高水平组成功地把他们的母语故事理解加工能力迁移到第二语言的故事理解加工,而低水平组则迁移失败;(2)理解加工能力的迁移与被试心理表征建构能力以及抑制机制的效率紧密关联,高水平组被试能有效地利用抑制机制来管理他们第二语言的结构建造过程,从而建立对故事的连贯心理表征,而低水平组则不能。在分析上述结果的基础上,文章提出第二语言阅读"熔断"假说的认知心理证据就是第二语言心理表征建构与抑制机制的作用问题;要成功地进行第二语言篇章理解,读者必须要使其二语潜在的能力(如词汇效率等)发展到某个点上,使得与抑制(结构建造的关键)相关的许多无意识的决定过程能够高度自动化。     

认知、动机、情感因素对谈判行为的影响

谈判,指两方或多方就利益不同而进行的协商,是解决选择冲突最常见的方式之一。认知、动机及情感因素,影响谈判者的信息处理与判断推理过程。谈判中它们既可能导致决策偏差,也可能促进决策质量。长期以来着眼于认知过程的谈判研究在社会心理学中占主流地位。近年,动机与情感因素对谈判行为的影响受到越来越多的关注。从社会认知的冷（cold：认知）、热（hot：动机、情感）两个角度,系统解析相关研究近年来的进展与成果,可以为揭示认知、动机、情感间的互动如何影响谈判行为打下基础     

风险决策心理因素的理论综述

风险决策理论对于人们是否作出冒险行为的选择提出了两种比较典型的解释:一种解释把风险决策归因于人们共有的基本过程,即“较冷”的心理和认知过程。这些理论认为风险选择是由人类基本的心理和感觉机制引起的。而另一种解释则把风险决策归因于“较热”的情感和动机过程。这些理论认为,情境和人格因素会增强风险决策的动机并导致风险决策个体差异的存在。本文对这两种解释的不同理论作了较为系统的论述。     

初中生的自尊、受益者特征与亲社会行为的关系

以初中一至三年级学生为对象,采用自尊量表（SES）和帮助行为调查问卷进行测查,以探讨自尊、受助者特征对其亲社会行为的影响。结果表明：（1）在社会道德认知和自我意愿层面上,大多数初中生能表现出积极的亲社会性助人趋向,部分学生的行为决策判定具有不一致性;（2）初中生的自尊程度不影响对他人需要的注意、归因以及行为方式的选择,但与帮助行为的价值取向、行为意愿等认知、情感因素有关,能直接影响自主性的亲社会行为;（3）初中生有关潜在受益者特征的某种认知结果及其相应的情感体验,对帮助型亲社会行为趋向有重要影响;（4）初中生的自尊及其所知觉的潜在量益者特征在亲社会行为趋向中交互作用不显著。     

Mind Reading Skills and Empathy: Evidence for Nice and Nasty ToM Behaviours in School-Aged Children

We investigated the social use of theory of mind in school-aged children. The expressions Nice Theory of Mind and Nasty Theory of Mind are used to differentiate behaviours requiring a prosocial use and an antisocial use of ToM abilities respectively. Our goals was to investigate whether and how mind reading abilities and empathy affect nice and nasty ToM behaviours. One hundred and ninety-seven children who were fourth and fifth graders took part in this study. Participants were administered stories that assessed cognitive, affective or moral mental state reasoning abilities and they also completed a self-report measure of empathy. Teachers’ rating on children’s prosocial and antisocial behaviours that underpin ToM abilities led us to identify nice and nasty ToM behaviours. We found that children who engage in nasty ToM behaviour showed good abilities to understand others’ thoughts and beliefs. However, children with nice ToM behaviour showed more moral and emotional sensitivity as compared to children who engage in nasty ToM behaviour. Furthermore, the hot component of empathy is stronger in fostering prosocial behaviours and inhibiting antisocial acts than cognitive component.     

Theory of mind and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions: A preliminary study

Ribeiro, L. A. & Fearon, P. (2010). Theory of mind and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions: A preliminary study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Theory of mind ability has been associated with performance in interpersonal interactions and has been found to influence aspects such as emotion recognition, social competence, and social anxiety. Being able to attribute mental states to others requires attention to subtle communication cues such as facial emotional expressions. Decoding and interpreting emotions expressed by the face, especially those with negative valence, are essential skills to successful social interaction. The current study explored the association between theory of mind skills and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions. According to the study hypothesis, individuals with poor theory of mind skills showed preferential attention to negative faces over both non‐negative faces and neutral objects. Tentative explanations for the findings are offered emphasizing the potential adaptive role of vigilance for threat as a way of allocating a limited capacity to interpret others’ mental states to obtain as much information as possible about potential danger in the social environment.     

Cognitive contributions to theory of mind ability in children with a traumatic head injury

The objective of the current study is to examine the contribution of intellectual abilities, executive functions (EF), and facial emotion recognition to difficulties in Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in children with a traumatic head injury. Israeli children with a traumatic head injury were compared with their non-injured counterparts. Each group included 18 children (12 males) ages 7–13. Measurements included reading the mind in the eyes, facial emotion recognition, reasoning the other’s characteristics based on motive and outcome, Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices, similarities and digit span (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised 95 subscales), verbal fluency, and the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Functions. Non-injured children performed significantly better on ToM, abstract reasoning, and EF measures compared with children with a traumatic head injury. However, differences in ToM abilities between the groups were no longer significant after controlling for abstract reasoning, working memory, verbal fluency, or facial emotion recognition. Impaired ToM recognition and reasoning abilities after a head injury may result from other cognitive impairments. In children with mild and moderate head injury, poorer performance on ToM tasks may reflect poorer abstract reasoning, a general tendency to concretize stimuli, working memory and verbal fluency deficits, and difficulties in facial emotion recognition, rather than deficits in the ability to understand the other’s thoughts and emotions. ToM impairments may be secondary to a range of cognitive deficits in determining social outcomes in this population.     

Does a single session of reading literary fiction prime enhanced mentalising performance? Four replication experiments of Kidd and Castano (2013)

Prior experiments indicated that reading literary fiction improves mentalising performance relative to reading popular fiction, non-fiction, or not reading. However, the experiments had relatively small sample sizes and hence low statistical power. To address this limitation, the present authors conducted four high-powered replication experiments (combined N?=?1006) testing the causal impact of reading literary fiction on mentalising. Relative to the original research, the present experiments used the same literary texts in the reading manipulation; the same mentalising task; and the same kind of participant samples. Moreover, one experiment was pre-registered as a direct replication. In none of the experiments did reading literary fiction have any effect on mentalising relative to control conditions. The results replicate earlier findings that familiarity with fiction is positively correlated with mentalising. Taken together, the present findings call into question whether a single session of reading fiction leads to immediate improvements in mentalising.     

Socially Valued Roles,Self‐Determination,and Community Participation among Individuals Living with Serious Mental Illnesses

Decades after deinstitutionalization, individuals living with serious mental illnesses remain isolated, socially disengaged, and devalued members of communities. Burgeoning research and services need conceptual clarity to improve such social conditions. This qualitative inquiry used grounded theory and participatory approaches to conduct an in‐depth exploration of community participation for individuals living with serious mental illnesses based on key stakeholder perspectives (n = 45). Results revealed that community participation is a multifaceted construct with layers of meaning for individuals living with serious mental illnesses. Overarching themes are contextualized in Self‐Determination Theory and presented with deidentified illustrations. Implications for services, research, and policy are discussed.     

Pathways to Reading Competence: Emotional Self-regulation,Literacy Contexts,and Embodied Learning Processes

Abstract

Reading competence is one of the main gateways to learning and serves as the foundation for nearly all academic subjects, but reading is not a natural skill. For beginning and struggling readers, the process of learning to read is often fraught with frustration. Thus, abilities to manage affect or emotions and maintain attention or focus (i.e. emotional self-regulation processes) are critical for literacy development and reading competence. Building on bio-social-ecological systems and contextual-developmental frameworks, we present a model of reading competence to integrate multidisciplinary empirical research on the fit between children’s emotional self-regulation processes and their literacy contexts and how these person-in-context dynamics influence reading competence through reading motivation and engagement. We present empirical research in support of the pathways in this model of reading competence, and call for increased multidisciplinary research that takes into consideration children’s literacy contexts and their neurobiological and behavioral assets as well as vulnerabilities in order to better understand the dynamical cognitive-emotional-motivational processes that underlie the development of reading competence from early childhood through young adulthood, including the timing and mechanisms of change to target for reading interventions to have optimal impact.     

Involvement with Local Television News Cognitive and Emotional Dimensions

This study considered involvement as audience activity, as an indication that audience members are participating in mass media content. On the basis of previous communication research, involvement is viewed as audience activity with both cognitive and affective dimensions. Cognitive involvement reflects attention to, recognition of, and elaboration on media content. Emotional involvement reflects internal feelings. The purpose of this study was to check the validity of this view of involvement in the context of local television news by (a) testing the relationship between the strength of news viewing motivation and involvement intensity, (b) testing the relationship between the type of news viewing motivation and involvement orientation, and (c) testing the relationship between cognitive and emotional involvement. Adult local news viewers (N = 305) completed pertinent questionnaires. Pearson and canonical correlation partly supported the proposed view of media involvement. Utilitarian viewing motivation was associated with higher cognitive involvement and feelings of anger while watching local news. Diversionary motivation was associated with feeling happy while watching news. There were links between cognitive and emotional involvement with news. The discussion focuses on the importance of involvement and motivation in media effects research.