Effectance and control as determinants of video game enjoyment.

This article explores video game enjoyment originated by games' key characteristic, interactivity. An online experiment (N=500) tested experiences of effectance (perceived influence on the game world) and of being in control as mechanisms that link interactivity to enjoyment. A video game was manipulated to either allow normal play, reduce perceived effectance, or reduce perceived control. Enjoyment ratings suggest that effectance is an important factor in video game enjoyment but that the relationship between control of the game situation and enjoyment is more complex.     

Cross-modal attention capture by affective stimuli: Evidence from event-related potentials

The P3 component of the event-related potential (ERP) to an acoustic startle probe is modulated during picture viewing, with reduced P3 amplitude when participants view either pleasant or unpleasant, as opposed to neutral, pictures. We have interpreted this as reflecting capture of attentional resources by affective pictures, with fewer resources available for processing the secondary startle probe. In the present study, we tested this resource allocation hypothesis by presenting either pictures or sounds as foreground stimuli, with the prediction that P3 amplitude in response to secondary startle probes would be reduced for affectively engaging foregrounds regardless of modality. Using dense-array electroencephalography and a source estimation procedure, we observed that P3 amplitude was indeed smaller when startle probes were presented during emotional, as opposed to neutral, stimuli for both sound and picture foregrounds. Source modeling indicated a common frontocentral maximum of P3 modulation by affect. The data support the notion that emotionally arousing stimuli transmodally attract resources, leading to optimized processing of the affective stimuli at the cost of the processing of concurrent stimuli.     

Post-traumatic growth and optimism as outcomes of an internet-based intervention for complicated grief

This explorative study examines the effects of an internet-based cognitive-behavioural therapy for complicated grief on post-traumatic growth and optimism. The study is part of a larger randomized controlled trial described in Wagner, Knaevelsrud, and Maercker (2006). The patients were randomly assigned to either a treatment group (n = 26) or a waiting list control condition (n = 25). The internet-based intervention consisted of exposure to bereavement cues, cognitive reappraisal exercises, and a module on integration and restoration. A short form of the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), and measures of complicated grief and psychopathological outcomes were administered. Results indicate that post-traumatic growth increased in the treatment group. No treatment effect was found for optimism. These findings contribute to the growing literature on personal growth in psychotherapy.     

Pattern stability and error correction during in-phase and antiphase four-ball juggling

The authors studied pattern stability and error correction during in-phase and antiphase 4-ball fountain juggling. To obtain ball trajectories, they made and digitized high-speed film recordings of 4 highly skilled participants juggling at 3 different heights (and thus different frequencies). From those ball trajectories, the authors determined and analyzed critical events (i.e., toss, zenith, catch, and toss onset) in terms of variability of point estimates of relative phase and temporal correlations. Contrary to common findings on basic instances of rhythmic interlimb coordination, in-phase and antiphase patterns were equally variable (i.e., stable). Consistent with previous findings, however, pattern stability decreased with increasing frequency. In contrast to previous results for 3-ball cascade juggling, negative lag-one correlations for catch-catch intervals were absent, but the authors obtained evidence for error corrections between catches and toss onsets. That finding may have reflected participants' high skill level, which yielded smaller errors that allowed for corrections later in the hand cycle.     

Process components of the Implicit Association Test: a diffusion-model analysis

The authors present a diffusion-model analysis of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In Study 1, the IAT effect was decomposed into 3 dissociable components: Relative to the compatible phase, (a) ease and speed of information accumulation are lowered in the incompatible phase, (b) more cautious speed-accuracy settings are adopted, and (c) nondecision components of processing require more time. Studies 2 and 3 assessed the nature of interindividual differences in these components. Construct-specific variance in the IAT relating to the construct to be measured (such as implicit attitudes) was concentrated in the compatibility effect on information accumulation (Studies 2 and 3), whereas systematic method variance in the IAT was mapped on differential speed-accuracy settings (Study 3). Implications of these dissociations for process theories of the IAT and for applications are discussed.     

创业者差错取向的绩效作用及其跨文化比较

创业企业是创业者的延伸,但创业者对创业企业的影响究竟是怎样的,当前的研究进展还不能很好的解释这点。研究采用跨文化比较的方法,首先分析中国和德国的创业者差错取向对创业企业差错气氛的影响模式,然后检验中国样本和德国样本的跨文化测量等同性,之后对比并综合分析两组样本模型的异同。研究发现在中国样本模型中,创业企业差错气氛在创业者差错取向的绩效影响中不起中介作用,而在德国样本模型中正相反。此外,研究还发现创业者个性特质对企业组织气氛存在一种“投影”影响     

Anti-intuitionism and paraconsistency

This paper aims to help to elucidate some questions on the duality between the intuitionistic and the paraconsistent paradigms of thought, proposing some new classes of anti-intuitionistic propositional logics and investigating their relationships with the original intuitionistic logics. It is shown here that anti-intuitionistic logics are paraconsistent, and in particular we develop a first anti-intuitionistic hierarchy starting with Johansson's dual calculus and ending up with Gödel's three-valued dual calculus, showing that no calculus of this hierarchy allows the introduction of an internal implication symbol. Comparing these anti-intuitionistic logics with well-known paraconsistent calculi, we prove that they do not coincide with any of these. On the other hand, by dualizing the hierarchy of the paracomplete (or maximal weakly intuitionistic) many-valued logics (Iⁿ)_nω we show that the anti-intuitionistic hierarchy (I^n*)_nω obtained from (Iⁿ)_nω does coincide with the hierarchy of the many-valued paraconsistent logics (Pⁿ)_nω. Fundamental properties of our method are investigated, and we also discuss some questions on the duality between the intuitionistic and the paraconsistent paradigms, including the problem of self-duality. We argue that questions of duality quite naturally require refutative systems (which we call elenctic systems) as well as the usual demonstrative systems (which we call deictic systems), and multiple-conclusion logics are used as an appropriate environment to deal with them.