工作记忆的保持与操控：腹侧和背侧额叶皮层的特异性功能磁共振成像活动

为了进行大样本的老化与记忆的功能磁共振成像(fMRI)研究, 研究者设计了言语工作记忆的方案, 并且对一组健康青年人进行了施测。字母的呈现方式主要为两种条件: (i) 保持, 要求被试记住呈现的字母并且能够在4秒的间隔后保持; (ii) 操控, 被试需要将呈现的字母按字母表的顺序进行转换, 并且记住新的顺序。不管是用全脑分析, 还是用预先定义的感兴趣区域的分析方法, 对fMRI数据的分析表明本方案诱发了可靠的额叶皮层的激活, 且操控条件则引发了更为广泛的激活。背外侧和腹内侧前额叶的激活也表现出了不同特点, 操控引发了更多的背外侧前额叶激活。一些皮下区域也得到了激活, 特别是以前发现与工作记忆任务相关的一些区域。这说明该工作记忆研究方案适合探索额叶功能的与年龄相关的改变。     

The role of motivation and volition in economic decisions: Evidence from eye movements and pupillometry

Economic decisions usually involve high stakes, real consequences, and some degree of personal risk. This article explores the impact of motivational and volitional states on economic decision processes in an incentivized lottery choice task. We investigated the patterns of decision time, choice, information search, and pupil dilation dependent on an experimental manipulation of motivation and volition, that is, the deliberative and the implemental mindset. The results indicated that choice preferences in economic decisions were robust and remained unaffected by motivational and volitional states, but decision processes were notably impacted. Decision makers in a deliberative state of mind searched for information more extensively and made slower decisions than the baseline. The implemental mindset was associated with more attention paid to the probability attributes of the gambles relative to the deliberative mindset. Furthermore, we observed that gamble outcomes that entailed no win at all (i.e., zero outcomes) played an important role for information search. These outcomes were largely disregarded in terms of predecisional information search but elicited pupillary responses similar to very high outcome lotteries. These results inform the current debate about the zero effect in risky choice. We also discuss the potential of eye-tracking studies of risky choice to dissolve ambiguities concerning the contributions of effort and arousal to modulating pupillary response. Implications for theoretical advances in decision research are discussed.     

Comparative Mental Development

To reconstruct the evolution of human cognitive development we are studying its comparative ontogeny in primate phylogeny (i.e., two monkey species, two chimpanzee species, and humans). The research has discovered primate conceptual universals including logical (e.g., classifying), arithmetic (e.g., quantitative substituting), and physical (e.g., causal) cognitions. But the ontogenetic covariation between these conceptual universals is progressively displaced or heterochronic in primate phylogeny. Heterochronic evolution produced the most synchronic and widest ontogenetic window for progressive cognitive development in humans.     

Prioritarianism and Welfare Reductions

Derek Parfit has argued that egalitarianism is exposed to a levelling down objection because it implies, implausibly, that a change, which consists only in the better‐off sinking to the level of the worse‐off, is in one respect better, though it is better for nobody. He claims that, in contrast, the prioritarian view that benefits to the worse‐off have greater moral weight escapes this objection. This article contends, first, that prioritarianism is equally affected by the levelling down objection as is egalitarianism, but that this objection lacks force. Secondly, prioritarianism is less plausible than egalitarianism because it implies that lowering the level of equality by diffusing a quantity of welfare equally over as many recipients as possible is for the better all things considered, and that the outcome of such welfare diffusion would still be better in one respect, even if the quantity of welfare was radically reduced.     

Communication and indexical reference

In the debate over what determines the reference of an indexical expression on a given occasion of use, we can distinguish between two generic positions. According to the first, the reference is determined by internal factors, such as the speaker’s intentions. According to the second, the reference is determined by external factors, like conventions or what a competent and attentive audience would take the reference to be. It has recently been argued that the first position is untenable, since there are cases of mismatch where the intuitively correct reference differs from the one that would be determined by the relevant internal factors. The aim of this paper is to show that, contrary to this line of argument, it is the proponent of the second position that should be worried, since this position yields counterintuitive consequences regarding communicative success in cases of mismatch.     

Range Shrinkage of Cognitive Ability Test Scores in Applicant Pools for German Governmental Jobs: Implications for range restriction corrections

Range restriction corrections require the predictor standard deviation in the applicant pool of interest. Unfortunately, this information is frequently not available in applied contexts. The common strategy in this type of situations is to use national‐norm standard deviation estimates. This study used data from 8,276 applicants applying to nine jobs in German governmental organizations to compare applicant pool standard deviations for two cognitive ability tests with national‐norm standard deviation estimates, and standard deviations for the total group of governmental applicants. Results revealed that job‐ and organizational context‐specific applicant pool standard deviations were on average about 10–12% smaller than estimates from national norms, and about 4–6% smaller than standard deviations for the total group of governmental applicants.