The Use of Cognitive Mapping in Eliciting and Evaluating Group Cognitions

A holistic method for eliciting and evaluating group cognition was introduced and tested. In the study, 359 undergraduate students were assigned to 72 groups, consisting of 4 to 6 members who worked on research projects lasting for 14 weeks. In order to evaluate the way groups represent the specific knowledge related to their tasks, we used a conceptual mapping technique. Conceptual mapping proved to be a fruitful way to understand the way groups represent their knowledge. The conceptual maps were stable in time and had explanatory power for groups' performance.     

Historiography of psychology in Spain: the last decade

History of psychology has been an extremely active field for many years in Spain. Both the great expansion of psychological studies and the inclusion of history as a compulsory subject in the psychology curriculum are crucial factors helping to understand the current state of affairs. The aim of this paper is to provide a survey of the work done in this area over the last decade, covering research, teaching, and institutional developments. The study includes consideration of aspects such as main research lines, major theoretical and methodological trends, teaching materials, relevant archives and exhibits, and significant websites.     

Psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children in a Spanish sample

The objectives of the present study were to adapt and analyze the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C; Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1995) in a Spanish population. The SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1588 children and adolescents with ages ranging from 10 to 17 years. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed a four-factor structure: Public performance, Assertiveness, Fear and avoidance/escape in social encounters, and Cognitive and psychophysiological interferences. Internal consistency was high (.90) and test-retest reliability was moderate (.56). Significant differences were found in the variables sex and age, although the effect size was small in both variables and their interaction. Overall, the increase of the age value was inversely proportional to that of social anxiety measured with the SPAI-C; in participants of the same age, values were higher for girls than for boys. Results suggest that the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory For Children is a valid and reliable instrument to assess social anxiety in Spanish children and adolescents.     

The effects of counting blessings on subjective well-being: a gratitude intervention in a Spanish sample

This study examined a gratitude intervention repeating Emmons and McCullough study (2003) in a Spanish sample, Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (gratitude, hassles and any event) and kept daily records during 2 weeks of gratitude, affect, quality of relationships, physical and subjective well-being. We added design features to assess the intervention long-term impact (follow-up measures), and to improve the design control (pre-treatment measures). Following the cited authors' analysis, i.e., comparing groups only in the post-test, we replicated their results, finding differences in positive affect and gratitude between the gratitude condition and the hassles condition. However, when including both the pre and the follow-up measures in the analysis, results were replicated only partially, as the difference in gratitude disappeared. Moreover, the difference in positive affect between groups in the post-test seemed to be influenced mainly by a decrease in positive affect in the hassles group. Post-test differences between groups in positive affect disappeared in the follow-up. Gratitude interventions may have an effect on well-being, but we consider other methods to promote gratitude besides gratitude journals should be tested.     

A robust approach for analyzing unbalanced factorial designs with fixed levels

The goal of this study was to investigate the performance of Hall’s transformation of the Brunner-Dette-Munk (BDM) and Welch-James (WJ) test statistics and Box-Cox’s data transformation in factorial designs when normality and variance homogeneity assumptions were violated separately and jointly. On the basis of unweighted marginal means, we performed a simulation study to explore the operating characteristics of the methods proposed for a variety of distributions with small sample sizes. Monte Carlo simulation results showed that when data were sampled from symmetric distributions, the error rates of the original BDM and WJ tests were scarcely affected by the lack of normality and homogeneity of variance. In contrast, when data were sampled from skewed distributions, the original BDM and WJ rates were not well controlled. Under such circumstances, the results clearly revealed that Hall’s transformation of the BDM and WJ tests provided generally better control of Type I error rates than did the same tests based on Box-Cox’s data transformation. Among all the methods considered in this study, we also found that Hall’s transformation of the BDM test yielded the best control of Type I errors, although it was often less powerful than either of the WJ tests when both approaches reasonably controlled the error rates.     

Change in body image and psychological well-being during behavioral obesity treatment: Associations with weight loss and maintenance

This study reports on outcomes from a behavioral obesity treatment program, evaluating if treatment-related changes in body image and psychological well-being are predictors of weight change during treatment and after follow-up. Participants were 142 overweight/obese women (BMI = 30.2 ± 3.7 kg/m²; age = 38.3 ± 5.8 years) participants in a behavioral treatment program consisting of a 4-month treatment period and a 12-month follow-up. Psychosocial variables improved during treatment and these changes were correlated with 4-month weight reduction. Short-term changes in body size dissatisfaction (p = .002) and mood (p = .003) predicted long-term weight loss. Additional results suggest that there might be a predictive role of short-term changes in body size dissatisfaction and self-esteem on long-term weight loss after accounting for initial weight change (p < .028). We conclude that, along with weight changes, cognitive and affect-related processes influenced during obesity treatment may be related long-term success, in some cases independently of initial weight loss.     

COMPATIBILISM EVOLVES?: ON SOME VARIETIES OF DENNETT WORTH WANTING

Abstract: I examine the extent to which Dennett's account in Freedom Evolves might be construed as revisionist about free will or should instead be understood as a more traditional kind of compatibilism. I also consider Dennett's views about philosophical work on free agency and its relationship to scientific inquiry, and I argue that extant philosophical work is more relevant to scientific inquiry than Dennett's remarks may suggest.     

Time's Arrow and Irreversibility in Time‐Asymmetric Quantum Mechanics

The aim of this paper is to analyze time‐asymmetric quantum mechanics with respect to the problems of irreversibility and of time’s arrow. We begin with arguing that both problems are conceptually different. Then, we show that, contrary to a common opinion, the theory’s ability to describe irreversible quantum processes is not a consequence of the semigroup evolution laws expressing the non‐time‐reversal invariance of the theory. Finally, we argue that time‐asymmetric quantum mechanics, either in Prigogine’s version or in Bohm’s version, does not solve the problem of the arrow of time because it does not supply a substantial and theoretically founded criterion for distinguishing between the two directions of time.     

Sufficient conditions for uniqueness in Candecomp/Parafac and Indscal with random component matrices

A key feature of the analysis of three-way arrays by Candecomp/Parafac is the essential uniqueness of the trilinear decomposition. We examine the uniqueness of the Candecomp/Parafac and Indscal decompositions. In the latter, the array to be decomposed has symmetric slices. We consider the case where two component matrices are randomly sampled from a continuous distribution, and the third component matrix has full column rank. In this context, we obtain almost sure sufficient uniqueness conditions for the Candecomp/Parafac and Indscal models separately, involving only the order of the three-way array and the number of components in the decomposition. Both uniqueness conditions are closer to necessity than the classical uniqueness condition by Kruskal. Part of this research was supported by (1) the Flemish Government: (a) Research Council K.U. Leuven: GOA-MEFISTO-666, GOA-Ambiorics, (b) F.W.O. project G.0240.99, (c) F.W.O. Research Communities ICCoS and ANMMM, (d) Tournesol project T2004.13; and (2) the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office: IUAP P5/22. Lieven De Lathauwer holds a permanent research position with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.). He also holds an honorary research position with the K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.