Implicit theories and IQ test performance: A sequential mediational analysis

The mediational role of worry and practice time in explaining the relationship between implicit theories of ability and performance was examined in two studies. It was hypothesized that holding an implicit theory of ability as fixed and unchangeable would impair test performance. Worry and time invested in practicing prior to taking a test were predicted to mediate the direct effect of implicit theories on performance. These predictions were supported, using both correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) methods. The results also suggest that entity beliefs lead to decreased practice and performance even when initial failure is not encountered. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

AN ESSAY ON DREAMING,PSYCHICAL WORKING OUT AND WORKING THROUGH2

In this paper the author attempts to expand the idea put forward by Freud who considered dreams as a special form of unconscious thinking. It is the author's contention that the psychical working‐out function performed by dreams is a form of unconscious thinking, which transforms affects into memories and mental structures. He also attempts to clarify the way in which meaning is built and transformed in mental life. In that respect the unconscious internal world is seen as a form of unconscious thinking, a private theatre where meaning is generated and transformed. He focuses on what happens to feelings in dreams in connection with the meanings as a result of and an expression of the several stages of working through. The dream world is described as the setting where the mind gives expressive pictorial representation to the emotions involved in a conflict: a first step towards thinkability. The dreamwork also constitutes a process through which meaning is apprehended, built on and transformed at an expressive non‐discursive level, based on representation through figurative/pictorial images. The author draws on Meltzer's formulation to conjecture that the working‐through function of dreams, mainly in response to interpretations, is performed by a process of progression in formal qualities of the representations made available by dreaming in the form he has called affective pictograms. It is through progression in formal qualities of the representation that the thinking capabilities of the affective life develop and become part of the process of what is called metaphorically the metabolisation of emotional life. This process takes place through migration of meaning across various levels of mental process. In this perspective the analyst'sinterpretations of dreams effect what linguists call transmutation of the symbolic basis, a process that is necessary to help the mind to improve its capacity to think. Something expressed on the evocative plane and condensed into a pictographic image is then transformed into verbal language that expresses meaning. These conceptions are illustrated by a detailed clinical case.     

从白介素—12看肿瘤生物治疗

白介素－１２是一个免疫反应是早期的调控因子,能激发机体强有力的抗肿瘤和抗感染免疫,但它的作用机制十分复杂,不同条件下的作用很不相同,甚至相反,还可能有严重 副作用。通过对其近１０年研究历程的回顾,有助于更加地看待当今的肿瘤生物治疗。     

Microinfusions of flumazenil into the basolateral but not the central nucleus of the amygdala enhance memory consolidation in rats.

Extensive evidence indicates that benzodiazepine receptors in the amygdala are involved in regulating memory consolidation. Recent findings indicate that many other drugs and hormones influence memory through selective activation of the basolateral amygdala nucleus (BLA). This experiment examined whether the memory-modulatory effect of flumazenil, a benzodiazepine receptor antagonist, selectively involves the BLA. Bilateral microinfusions of flumazenil (12 nmol in 0.2 microl) into the BLA of rats administered immediately after training in an inhibitory avoidance task significantly enhanced 48-h retention performance whereas infusions into the central nucleus were ineffective. These findings indicate that the BLA is selectively involved in mediating flumazenil's influence on memory storage and are thus consistent with extensive evidence indicating that the BLA is involved in regulating memory consolidation.     

The social-cognitive model of achievement motivation and the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework

Two studies examined hypotheses drawn from a proposed modification of the social-cognitive model of achievement motivation that centered on the 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Implicit theories of ability were shown to be direct predictors of performance attainment and intrinsic motivation, and the goals of the 2 x 2 framework were shown to account for these direct relations. Perceived competence was shown to be a direct predictor of achievement goals, not a moderator of relations implicit theory or achievement goal effects. The results highlight the utility of attending to the approach-avoidance distinction in conceptual models of achievement motivation and are fully in line with the hierarchical model of achievement motivation.     

Not All Great Minds Think Alike: Systematic and Intuitive Cognitive Styles

Individuals process information and make decisions in different ways. Some plan carefully and analyze information systematically, whereas others follow their instincts and do what “feels right.” We aimed to deepen our understanding of the meaning of the intuitive versus systematic cognitive styles. Study 1 (N = 130, 39% female, M_age = 24) compared cognitive styles of arts, accounting, and mathematics students. Cognitive styles were associated with values (Study 2: N = 154, 123, 78; female = 59%, 49%, 85.9%; M_age = 22, 23, 27) and traits (Study 3: N = 77, 140, 151; female = 59%, 66%, 46%; M_age = 22, 25, 23), and they interacted with experience in predicting performance (Study 4: N = 63, 48% female, M_age = 23; Study 5: N = 44, 39% female, M_age = 23). All participants were Caucasian Israeli students. The systematic style was most frequent among accountants, and the intuitive style was most frequent among artists, validating the meaning of the styles. Systematic style was positively correlated with Conscientiousness and with security values and negatively correlated with stimulation values. The intuitive style had the opposite pattern and was also positively correlated with Extraversion. Experience improved rule‐based performance among systematic individuals but had no effect on intuitive ones. Cognitive style is consistent with other personal attributes (traits and values), with implications for decision making and task performance.     

Reality-Humanity (Self-Liberated from the Stave in the Wheels)

Adi Da argues that no solutions currently proposed are sufficient to righten the present unsustainable trajectory of life on Earth, because there is no integrated approach to the ordering of society and use of the planet. The presumption of separateness—manifesting collectively as separate “tribes” vying for control—characterizes human affairs, rather than the prior (“a priori”) unity of existence. The struggle for dominance is the “stave in the wheels” of the Earth-system's inherent capacity to self-correct. A new institution, “the Global Cooperative Forum,” is proposed—invoked by “everybody-all-at-once” (a global populace awakened as a single force, capable of cooperatively effecting global change).     

Book Reviews

In his famous lecture on Kant's essay 'An Answer to the Question What is Enlightenment' Foucault distinguished between two traditions in modern philosophy coming out of Kant's work: 'an analytic of truth' and 'an ontology of present reality [ actualité ]' or 'a genealogy of ourselves'. The paper presents this distinction as a fruitful displacement of the distinction between 'analytic' and 'continental' philosophy,which gives the latter precise cultural and philosophical meaning. The paper clarifies the distinction and argues that almost without exception, analytic philosophers are not interested -in their capacity as philosophers - in interpreting and understanding their historical present. Some possible reasons and some possible consequences of this lack of interest are examined briefly. Within the continental tradition itself, two major contemporary forms of 'an ontology of present reality' are distinguished, one exemplified by Habermas and the other by Foucault. The difference between these two forms of 'taking aim at the heart of the present' (to use Habermas' phrase) is explicated as a difference between distinct genres of critical discourse, or forms of critique. The difference is presented in respect to two major aspects: historical time and historicity, and critique's mode of engagement with 'an analytic of truth'. The last point, namely the presence of a crucial analytic moment in the philosophical interpretation of present reality, suggests a possible modification of the initial distinction between the two philosophical traditions.     

一些传统药物为何退出“历史舞台”

一个与当前的社会热点问题——药品价格虚高问题同样重要的问题——许多安全有效的传统药物正在退出“历史舞台”的问题,应该引起社会各界的足够重视,传统药物不应被抛弃。因为人们对于传统药物的了解,无论是在药理作用上,还是在不良反应方面,都大大优于新药。