Why is conversation so easy?

Traditional accounts of language processing suggest that monologue--presenting and listening to speeches--should be more straightforward than dialogue--holding a conversation. This is clearly not the case. We argue that conversation is easy because of an interactive processing mechanism that leads to the alignment of linguistic representations between partners. Interactive alignment occurs via automatic alignment channels that are functionally similar to the automatic links between perception and behaviour (the so-called perception-behaviour expressway) proposed in recent accounts of social interaction. We conclude that humans are "designed" for dialogue rather than monologue.     

Why a common commemoration of the Reformation?

This article provides information about the fact that today any commemoration of the Reformation can only be celebrated in ecumenical communion. In contrast to earlier Reformation jubilees, the commemoration of the Reformation in 2017 is taking place, for the first time, in an ecumenical era. The year 2017 refers back to the year 1517, that is, to a time when the break with the Catholic Church had not yet happened. Martin Luther himself did not intend the division of the Church, nor did he visualise the founding of a new church, but the renewal of all Christendom. This failed in his time. Therefore one should regard the ecumenical search for the restoration of unity as the – indeed very belated – success of the Reformation. The commemoration of ??a reformation is an ecumenical opportunity, if it is committed to living the triad of gratitude for the reformation’s positive aims, of repentance for the sins of division and subsequent confessional wars, and of hope for a greater unity between Lutherans and Catholics.     

Why is it so hard to change? The role of self-integrity threat and affirmation in weight loss

People are frequently dissatisfied with their body weight. Messages alleging that lower weight is esthetically preferable, healthier, and achievable likely trigger chronic self-integrity threat, the sense that one's personal adequacy is in doubt. We examined whether self-integrity threat, which creates stress and pressure to restore self-integrity, contributes to the challenges of weight and behavior change. Weight-dissatisfied women completed in-lab tasks including a values affirmation manipulation and two-month follow-up. Affirmed women lost weight relative to controls, replicating previous research. Effects were primarily among those with higher initial body masses. Affirmed higher-weighted women also ate more healthful foods compared to unhealthful foods in self-reports and observation. Affirmed participants reported increased exercise, and an exploratory measure showed that their cortisol awakening responses synchronized with their coping needs, suggesting more adaptive physiological function. Results suggest that self-integrity threat is an under-recognized barrier to change, and reducing it can support healthy changes.     

Playing for peanuts: Why is risk seeking more common for low-stakes gambles?

Previous research has found that decision makers are more risk seeking for small-stakes gambles than for large-stakes gambles. This “peanuts effect” is not easily explained by Prospect Theory. Two experiments examined the range of circumstances in which peanuts effects occur and tested the hypothesis that anticipated disappointment or anticipated regret explains the peanuts effect. The results suggest that the peanuts effect is related to disappointment, but do not support a connection between the peanuts effect and regret.     

Why is Cheating Wrong?

Since cheating is obviously wrong, arguments against it (it provides an unfair advantage, it hinders learning) need only be mentioned in passing. But the argument of unfair advantage absurdly takes education to be essentially a race of all against all; moreover, it ignores that many cases of unfair (dis)advantages are widely accepted. On the other hand, the fact that cheating can hamper learning does not mean that punishing cheating will necessarily favour learning, so that this argument does not obviously justify sanctioning cheaters.     

Attributions and depression: why is the literature so inconsistent?

A large body of literature examining the relations between depression and causal attributions has produced inconsistent findings. Many studies have clearly had inadequate statistical power, however, so that negative findings cannot be readily interpreted. In this review, statistical power was computed for all published analyses relating depression to attributions to any of the following: internal, stable, or global causes, or their composite, ability/character, effort/behavior, luck, or task difficulty. On average, the power of these analyses was very poor. For example, only 8 of the 87 analyses had a probability of .80 or better of detecting a small-medium true population effect (e.g., r = .20). Separating studies by levels of power helped to clarify the inconsistencies in the literature. Whereas across all published studies depression was fairly consistently related only to the composite of internal, stable, and global attributions, those few studies with fairly high power all reported significant relations of depression to stable and global attributions as well as to the composite. It is suggested that increased attention be paid to the power of statistical analyses in planning studies and in drawing conclusions from completed studies.     

Daddy,Why are People so Complex?

The implications of Warren McCulloch's 1945 concept of heterarchy are analyzed in terms of human value and motivational systems. The results demonstrate the near-impossibility of predicting behavior on the basis of any hierarchical scheme, or even which among a set of hierarchical schemes will be selected as the basis of a behavioral choice. Thus, for example, people regularly say one thing and do another.     

What is behavior? And so what?

This article addresses a longstanding problem in the field of psychology, that of lacking an adequate explication of what is arguably our central concept as a “science of behavior,” the concept of “behavior” itself. The three sections comprising the paper are devoted, respectively, to (a) presenting a conceptual formulation of behavior; (b) discussing this formulation by, among other things, addressing objections to it and noting its advantages over psychology’s currently preferred definition of behavior as observable activity; and (c) relating why having such a formulation is important. The final section includes several uses to which the present formulation has already been and can in future be put, including a sketch of how it may be used to integrate the various subfields of our currently fragmented science of behavior.     

Where in the brain is the self?

Localizing the self in the brain has been the goal of consciousness research for centuries. Recently, there has been an increase in attention to the localization of the self. Here we present data from patients suffering from a loss of self in an attempt to understand the neural correlates of consciousness. Focusing on delusional misidentification syndrome (DMS), we find that frontal regions, as well as the right hemisphere appear to play a significant role in DMS and DMS related disorders. These data are placed in the context of neuroimaging findings.     

Why is visual search superior in autism spectrum disorder?

This study investigated the possibility that enhanced memory for rejected distractor locations underlies the superior visual search skills exhibited by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We compared the performance of 21 children with ASD and 21 age‐ and IQ‐matched typically developing (TD) children in a standard static search task and a dynamic search task, in which targets and distractors randomly changed locations every 500 ms, precluding the use of memory in search. Children with ASD exhibited overall faster reaction time (RT) relative to TD children, and showed no disruption in search efficiency in the dynamic condition, discounting the possibility that memory for rejected distractors augments their visual search abilities. Analyses of RT x set size functions showed no group differences in slopes but lower intercepts for the ASD group in both static and dynamic search, suggesting that the ASD advantage derived from non‐search processes, such as an enhanced ability to discriminate between targets and distractors at the locus of attention. Eye‐movement analyses revealed that the ASD and TD groups were similar in the number and spatial distribution of fixations across the search array, but that fixation duration was significantly shorter among children with ASD. Lower intercepts in static search were related to increased symptom severity in children with ASD. In summary, ASD search superiority did not derive from differences in the manner in which individuals with ASD deployed their attention while searching, but from anomalously enhanced perception of stimulus features, which was in turn positively associated with autism symptom severity.     

Communication in preterm infants: Why is it different?

The present paper selectively reviews the literature which compares full-term and preterm infants' communication with their mothers in the first year of life. The review is focused not only on what differences are found between full-term and preterm infants, but also why such differences exist. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of interpreting the findings in the light of the developmental phase of the infants, the heterogeneity of the preterm population and the situation in which communication is studied. Most studies were not designed to consider these issues in any detail. Differences with respect to these factors can be found between studies, however, which may have contributed to the often contradictory findings. Consequently, comparisons between these studies provide clues about the effects of these factors on communicative development. The ultimate goal of this review is to point to important directions for future research on early communication in preterm infants.