A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity

Research into the perception of space, time and quantity has generated three separate literatures. That number can be represented spatially is, of course, well accepted and forms a basis for research into spatial aspects of numerical processing. Links between number and time or between space and time, on the other hand, are rarely discussed and the shared properties of all three systems have not been considered. I propose here that time, space and quantity are part of a generalized magnitude system. I outline A Theory Of Magnitude (ATOM) as a conceptually new framework within which to re-interpret the cortical processing of these elements of the environment.     

Interkulturelle Trainings für die psychosoziale Versorgung

The psychosocial care of patients with a migration background is often related to higher access barriers. Also for professionals in mental health care service the treatment of patients with a migration background often represents a challenge. One way to overcome such barriers is to train care givers in order to enhance cross-cultural competence. In addition to knowledge transfer such training focuses on the process of self-reflection and examination of ones own, as well as the unknown cultural orientation system. Sufficient effectiveness of cross-cultural training has been proven on an international level. However, evaluation studies are lacking in the German speaking region. Additionally, guidelines or quality criteria for providers of training for psychosocial care professionals are lacking. Validated psychometric instruments which assess cross-cultural competence in individuals hardly exist. The present article gives an overview of concepts of cross-cultural competence and the effectiveness of such training. Also an outlook is given on the future prospects of development in the field.     

Guest editors' introduction to the special issue

The background and focus of this special issue are described in this Introduction.     

Mark Graves <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mind,Brain and the Elusive Soul: Human Systems of Cognitive Science and Religion</Emphasis>

This article explores the use of Graves’ theory of the soul as an interdisciplinary tool to facilitate a holistic approach to healing. Graves’ discussion is applied to the use of therapeutic interventions to facilitate the emergent processes of healing and spiritual growth in traumatized persons.     

Becoming a Caregiver: Experiences of Young Adults Moving into Family Caregiving Roles

Journal of Adult Development - While the vast majority of family caregivers struggle to find balance between different roles in their lives, young adult caregivers are faced with the atypical...     

A qualitative study of citizens' experience of participating in health counseling

Individual health counseling is a form of intervention designed to minimize the effects of chronic health disease and to offer a path towards good health practices. The aim of the present study was to explore the experiences of those persons who participated in health counseling in order to assess the psychosocial significance of the counseling upon their health behavior. In addition the study was concerned with the factors which underlay peoples' decision to sign up for health counseling. The research involved 11 semi‐structured interviews with individuals who had participated in a municipality based health counseling program. Data was analyzed using Malterud's systemic text condensation and a theoretical framework around Bandura's social cognitive theory. Analysis revealed that an approach tailored to each individual with minor short‐term goals accompanied by feeling supported by the counselor produced the greatest impact on behavior. Receiving feedback from the counselor and feeling positive about the relationship were seen as essential. These aspects were also crucial in the decision to undertake health counseling. The study indicates that whether individual's sign up on their own initiative or conversely are invited to join the program has no influence upon their motivation to change their behavior. Overall the respondents demonstrated improvement in their behavior and attitudes towards their health. However, the study also indicates that this form of intervention is less or even ineffective without the support of the individual's immediate family.     

Feeling before knowing why: The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in intuitive judgments—an MEG study

In theory, intuitive decisions are made immediately, without conscious, reasoned thought. They are experienced as decisions based on hunches that cannot be explicitly described but, nevertheless, guide subsequent action. Investigating the underlying neural mechanisms, previous research has found the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to be crucial to intuitive processes, but its specific role has remained unclear. On the basis of a two-stage conceptualization of intuition suggested by Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard, and Parker Cognitive Psychology, 22, 72-110 (1990), we attempt to clarify the OFC’s role in intuitive processing. We propose that it functions as an early integrator of incomplete stimulus input guiding subsequent processing by means of a coarse representation of the gist of the information. On the subjective level, this representation would be perceived as a (gut) feeling biasing the decision. Our aim in the present study was to test this neural model and rule out alternative explanations of OFC activation in intuitive judgments. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to record participants' electromagnetic brain responses during a visual coherence judgment task. As in earlier studies, the OFC was found to be activated when participants perceived coherence. Using MEG, it could be shown that this increase in activation began earlier in the OFC than in temporal object recognition areas. Moreover, the present study demonstrated that OFC activation was independent of physical stimulus characteristics, task requirements, and participants’ explicit recognition of the stimuli presented. These results speak to the OFC’s fundamental role in the early steps of intuitive judgments and suggest the proposed neural model as a promising starting point for future investigations.     

Social Comparison as the Thief of Joy: Emotional Consequences of Viewing Strangers’ Instagram Posts

This experiment investigates the emotional consequences of viewing strangers’ positive posts on Instagram. From a social comparison perspective, strangers’ positive posts on social media are expected to negatively affect viewers’ emotions. From an emotional contagion perspective, strangers’ positive posts should positively affect viewers’ emotions. The current lab experiment examines both the social comparison and the emotional contagion perspective while taking individual differences into account. Participants viewed positive, neutral, or no posts of confederates. In support of the social comparison perspective, individuals who tend to compare themselves to others reported lower positive affect if they had viewed positive posts than if they had viewed neutral or no posts. In support of the emotional contagion perspective, individuals who tend not to engage in social comparison reported higher positive affect after viewing positive posts than after viewing neutral or no posts. These findings indicate that individual differences in processing tendencies lead people to respond to social information on social media in opposite ways.