Computer-mediated communication and time pressure induce higher cardiovascular responses in the preparatory and execution phases of cooperative tasks

The cardiovascular (CV) response to social challenge and stress is associated with the etiology of cardiovascular diseases. New ways of communication, time pressure and different types of information are common in our society. In this study, the cardiovascular response to two different tasks (open vs. closed information) was examined employing different communication channels (computer-mediated vs. face-to-face) and with different pace control (self vs. external). Our results indicate that there was a higher CV response in the computer-mediated condition, on the closed information task and in the externally paced condition. These role of these factors should be considered when studying the consequences of social stress and their underlying mechanisms.     

Fortune and reversals of fortune in visual search: Reward contingencies for pop-out targets affect search efficiency and target repetition effects

Rewards have long been known to modulate overt behavior. But their possible impact on attentional and perceptual processes is less well documented. Here, we study whether the (changeable) reward level associated with two different pop-out targets might affect visual search and trial-to-trial target repetition effects (see Maljkovic & Nakayama, 1994). Observers searched for a target diamond shape with a singleton color among distractor diamond shapes of another color (e.g., green among red or vice versa) and then judged whether the target had a notch at its top or bottom. Correct judgments led to reward, with symbolic feedback indicating this immediately; actual rewards accumulated for receipt at study end. One particular target color led to a higher (10:1) reward for 75% of its correct judgments, whereas the other singleton target color (counterbalanced over participants) yielded the higher reward on only 25% of the trials. We measured search performance in terms of inverse efficiency (response time/proportion correct). The reward schedules not only led to better performance overall for the more rewarding target color, but also increased trial-to-trial priming for successively repeated targets in that color. The actual level of reward received on the preceding trial affected this, as did (orthogonally) the likely level. When reward schedules were reversed within blocks, without explicit instruction, corresponding reversal of the impact on search performance emerged within around 6 trials, asymptoting at around 15 trials, apparently without the observers’ explicit knowledge of the contingency. These results establish that pop-out search and target repetition effects can be influenced by target reward levels, with search performance and repetition effects dynamically tracking changes in reward contingency.     

Searching where the treasure is: on the emergence of human companion animal partnership (HCAP)

Animal Cognition - In our view, the discipline, often referred to as human–animal interaction (HAI), lacks a well-defined conceptual framework. It is too narrow both with respect to the...     

Religion,Education, and Religious Education in Irish Schools

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.     

The Development of Co-Occurrent Anxiety and Externalizing Problems from Early Childhood: a Latent Transition Analysis Approach

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Research into co-occurrent internalizing and externalizing problems during childhood is flourishing. In particular, investigation on the...     

Gratitude,Emotional Intelligence,and Life Satisfaction Among Older Adults: Evidence for a Broaden-and-Build Model or an Amplification Model?

Journal of Happiness Studies - The present study was concerned with how gratitude and facets of emotional intelligence (i.e., self-emotions appraisal, others-emotions appraisal, use of emotion,...     

Epistemic bootstrapping as a failure to use an independent source

The problem of epistemic bootstrapping requires explaining, in a principled manner, why a subject who engages in bootstrapping fails to know the conclusion of her reasoning. Existing proposed solutions to the problem provide unsatisfactory explanations regarding the bootstrapper's ignorance. This paper puts forward a novel solution and argues that it satisfactorily explains the ignorance of the bootstrapper, while avoiding the difficulties that other proposals face. Section 1 explains what epistemic bootstrapping is, defines the problem it poses for a theory of knowledge, and outlines the basic desiderata demanded of any acceptable solution to the problem. Section 2 explicates the proposal I defend throughout the rest of the paper. Here, I contend that the wrong−making feature of bootstrapping which ultimately explains the bootstrapper's ignorance is a failure to use an independent source in checking the accuracy of the reports of a given source. I call this explanation the “Independence proposal.” Section 2 also argues that the phenomenon of bootstrapping is broader than is usually assumed; there are cases of bootstrapping that do not fit the superficial structure of the prototypical cases discussed in the literature, and any good proposal should apply to these as well. Section 3 argues that the independence proposal does better than other current proposals in fulfilling the desiderata identified in Section 1. Section 4 sums up the central contributions of the paper.     

Analysis of apparent demonstrations of responding in accordance with relational frames of sameness and opposition

We evaluated whether contextual control over equivalence and nonequivalence and responding by exclusion can explain the outcomes of relational frame theory (RFT) studies on sameness and opposition relations. We trained nine college students to maintain and reverse conditional discriminations with X1 and X2 as contextual stimuli. In Experiment 1, X1 and X2 controlled derived stimulus relations (DSR) analogous to those controlled by Same and Opposite in RFT studies. These results can be explained by at least two hypotheses: X1 and X2 were cues for equivalence and nonequivalence and responding by exclusion, or for sameness and opposition. In Experiment 2, X1 and X2 controlled DSR predicted by the hypothesis that they were cues for equivalence and nonequivalence and responding by exclusion, and not predicted by the hypothesis that they were cues for sameness and opposition. The results of Experiment 2 and the functional equivalence of X1 and X2 with Same and Opposite in Experiment 1 suggest that Same and Opposite were cues for equivalence and nonequivalence and responding by exclusion in RFT studies.     

Frontal theta activation associated with error detection in toddlers: influence of familial socioeconomic status

Error detection is one of the functions of the executive attention network, a brain system involved in executive control that includes the anterior cingulate cortex and other prefrontal regions. Despite the key role of this function in a wide range of life outcomes, very limited research has examined the early development of the network and whether its functional efficacy is related to environmental factors. Electrophysiological studies with adults have shown oscillatory activity in theta (4–7 Hz) range arising from medial frontal cortex that follows the detection of self‐committed or observed errors. In the current study, we designed a novel experimental procedure that involved a familiarization phase with simple three‐pieces puzzles followed by an experimental phase in which toddlers observed the puzzles being formed either correctly or incorrectly. Observation of incorrect configurations produced increased potentials in midline channels and greater power theta activity for both toddlers (n = 56) and adults (n = 14). In addition, socioeconomic status of the family in general, and parental education in particular, contributed to individual differences in the amplitude of the error‐related signal and associated theta power in toddlers, indicating that children raised in lower SES families show poorer activation of the executive attention network. These data demonstrate the influence of environmental factors at the earliest stages of development of the executive attention network. Importantly, the results show that error‐detection EEG signals can be used as neural markers of the initial development of executive attention, which can be of great help for the early detection of risk for developmental disorders involving deficits in this function.     

Psychology as a Science of Subject and Comportment,beyond the Mind and Behavior

The turn of qualitative inquiry suggests a more open, plural conception of psychology than just the science of the mind and behavior as it is most commonly defined. Historical, ontological and epistemological binding of this conception of psychology to the positivist method of natural science may have exhausted its possibilities, and after having contributed to its prestige as a science, has now become an obstacle. It is proposed that psychology be reconceived as a science of subject and comportment in the framework of a contextual hermeneutic, social, human behavioral science. Thus, without rejecting quantitative inquiry, psychology recovers territory left aside like introspection and pre-reflective self-awareness, and reconnects with traditions marginalized from the main stream. From this perspective psychology might also recover its credibility as a human science in view of current skepticism.