When you fail to see what you were told to look for: Inattentional blindness and task instructions

Inattentional blindness studies have shown that an unexpected object may go unnoticed if it does not share the property specified in the task instructions. Our aim was to demonstrate that observers develop an attentional set for a property not specified in the task instructions if it allows easier performance of the primary task. Three experiments were conducted using a dynamic selective-looking paradigm. Stimuli comprised four black squares and four white diamonds, so that shape and colour varied together. Task instructions specified shape but observers developed an attentional set for colour, because we made the black–white discrimination easier than the square–diamond discrimination. None of the observers instructed to count bounces by squares reported an unexpected white square, whereas two-thirds of observers instructed to count bounces by diamonds did report the white square. When attentional set departs from task instructions, you may fail to see what you were told to look for.     

Barriers and Supports to Substance Abuse Service Use Among Homeless Adults

Although there is a great need for substance abuse services among the homeless, many homeless individuals do not use those services. This study examined barriers and supports related to service use. Participants recognized a need for treatment and significant barriers to accessing care.     

The concept of ‘mine‘ 1

Misunderstanding of the word mine and its shifting relations to ‘pro‐attitudes’ inspired much of Aristotle's attack on collectivism at Politics 1261B 15ff. Similar misunderstandings contribute to certain criticisms leveled by modern conservatives like Goldwater against ‘welfarism’, they presuppose confused psychological and ethical doctrines. Thus semantically necessary truths may be misconstrued as entailing contingent propositions about political and economic arrangements. Different confusions about mine and ‘pro‐attitudes’ lend a correspondingly specious aura of certainty to some Platonic and Marxist claims. The ownership model of mine impedes our understanding of men.     

Chinese philosophy: A characterization

This article offers a synthetic characterization of Chinese philosophy based on an analytical reconstruction of its main traditions and thinking. Three main traditions in Chinese philosophy, Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, are depicted and discussed, together with some comments on Chinese Marxism in the contemporary scene. Four characteristics of Chinese philosophy are presented: intrinsic humanism, concrete rationalism, organic naturalism, and a pragmatism of self‐cultivation. It is clear from the discussion that these four characteristics are interrelated and mutually supporting and thus should be better understood in the context of one another. Many open problems of philosophy, such as transcendence, evil, logic, and theoretical knowledge, are raised by an inquiry into Chinese philosophy. If Chinese philosophy serves to make us critically aware of these problems and to provide alternative ways of thinking, we are more than justified in presenting Chinese philosophy as a philosophy of universal concern and universal significance.     

Oxytocin increases willingness to socially share one's emotions

Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide that is attracting growing attention from researchers interested in human emotional and social behavior. There is indeed increasing evidence that OT has a calming effect and that it facilitates pair‐bonding and social interactions. Some of OT's effects are thought to be direct, but it has been suggested that OT also may have indirect effects, mediated by changes in behavior. One potentially relevant behavioral change is an increased propensity for “emotional sharing” as this behavior, like OT, is known to have both calming and bonding effects. In this study, 60 healthy young adult men were randomly assigned to receive either intranasal placebo (PL; n = 30) or oxytocin (OT; n = 30). Participants were then instructed to retrieve a painful memory. Subsequently, OT and placebo participants’ willingness to disclose to another person event‐related facts (factual sharing) vs. event‐related emotions (emotional sharing) was evaluated. Whereas the two groups were equally willing to disclose event‐related facts, oxytocin was found to specifically increase the willingness to share event‐related emotions. This study provides the first evidence that OT increases people's willingness to share their emotions. Importantly, OT did not make people more talkative (word counts were comparable across the two groups) but instead increased the willingness to share the specific component that is responsible for the calming and bonding effects of social sharing: emotions. Findings suggest that OT may shape the form of social sharing so as to maximize its benefits. This might help explain the calming and bonding effects of OT.     

Worry about terror among young adults living in ongoing security uncertainty

The aim of the current study was to investigate worry about terror as a mediating variable, with the exogenous variables being media viewing, differentiation of self, and trait anxiety, and the endogenous variables being somatic symptoms and perceptions of security‐related stress. Participants were divided into two groups by age/academic level: 248 high school students and 191 university students. A pathway correlation model was used to investigate worry about terror as a mediating variable. The central finding was that worry about terror was a significant mediating variable in the relationship between the extent of media viewing following terror events and the level of perception of security‐related stress. That is, young people who said they worried a lot reported a high level of stress relating to the terror events they saw covered in the media. In addition, trait anxiety was found to have an effect on stress perception only via the level of worry about terror. This means that high levels of stress are not experienced by all highly trait‐anxious people, but only by those who suffer from higher levels of worry about terror.     

The effect of a multicomponent literacy instruction model on literacy growth for kindergartners and first‐grade students in Chile

In the present study we examined the impact of a comprehensive literacy instruction model called Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction Project (CLLIP) on language and literacy achievement over the course of a year by Spanish‐speaking children in Chile. Participants included kindergartners (N = 312) from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds and first‐grade students (N = 305) from high SES families. The CLLIP model targeted phonological awareness, alphabetics and phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing, and included coaching and sustained follow‐up as key elements for teacher professional development. The results showed promise for the CLLIP model in the Chilean context. Kindergartners in CLLIP classrooms had faster growth rates in letter naming, word reading, vocabulary, and phonemic segmentation fluency than those in control classrooms, and had higher scores at the end of the year in phonemic segmentation fluency, letter naming, and word reading. In addition, kindergartners from high SES families had faster growth rates than kindergartners from low SES families in letter naming and word reading. Effect sizes ranged from small (d = .18 in word reading) to fairly large (d = .70 in letter‐naming fluency). First‐grade students in CLLIP classrooms had faster growth rates than students in control classrooms in vocabulary, nonword reading fluency, word reading, and reading comprehension. Effect sizes were small in vocabulary, nonword reading fluency, and reading comprehension (.23 ≤ d ≤ .28) and medium in word reading (d = .50). These results suggest that the present multicomponent literacy instructional model had a positive impact on Chilean children's literacy acquisition.     

Boys’ and girls’ involvement in science learning and their self‐efficacy in Taiwan

This cross‐sectional study investigated the significant differences in students’ self‐efficacy and their involvement in learning science. Nine hundred and twenty‐two elementary school fifth graders, 499 junior high school eighth graders, and 1455 senior or vocational high school eleventh graders completed the students’ questionnaire. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and independent t‐tests compared the significant similarities and differences across school levels and genders. The initial findings were as follows: A sharp decline in boys’ and girls’ self‐efficacy scores from elementary to secondary school levels; boys have significantly higher self‐efficacy scores than girls at vocational and senior high school levels; students with more involvement in science learning presented significantly higher self‐efficacy scores than those with less involvement. The significant discrepancies in terms of gender and age in students’ self‐efficacy and involvement in learning science need to be addressed. Implications and limitations are provided.