Contribution of parents' adult attachment and separation attitudes to parent‐adolescent conflict resolution

This study examined the contribution to parent‐adolescent conflict resolution of parental adult attachment styles and attitudes toward adolescent separation. Questionnaires were completed by 295 couples with early to late adolescent children. Structural equation models were used to test self and partner influences on conflict resolution for three attachment orientations: confidence (model A), anxiety (model B) and avoidance (model C). Model A showed self influences between parents' confidence orientation and negotiation and also via positive attitudes towards separation. Also, the fathers' use of negotiation was facilitated by the mothers' confidence orientation and vice versa, indicating partner influences as well. Model B showed self influences between parents' anxiety orientation and the use of dominance and withdrawal and also via negative attitudes towards separation. Model C showed self influences between parents' avoidance orientation and dominance and withdrawal, and a partner influence between fathers' avoidance and mothers' use of dominance. The results indicated that the parents' adult attachment system and the parenting system were related in the area of conflict resolution, and that self influences were stronger than partner influences.     

Understanding Hope. Persons in the Process of Dying

Changes both within the profession of psychoanalysis and in society as a whole have affected our psychoanalytic training programs and presented new ethical challenges. Whereas in earlier decades training programs needed to be concerned primarily about the inviolability of the training analysis and the choice of appropriate analytic candidates, today there is little support for psychoanalysis as a treatment modality. Institutes are experiencing greater competition in attracting quality candidates and in providing them with adequate training experiences. This strain encourages institutes to operate in unethical ways to attract candidates. On the other hand, within the profession itself we are experiencing much theoretical ferment and the increasing feminization of the profession. These changes are affecting our training institutes and our ethical values in both positive and negative ways.     

Peripheral spatial cues modulate spatial congruency effects: Analysing the “locus” of the cueing modulation

The spatial Stroop effect (slower left/right responses to left/right pointing arrows when they appear at spatially incongruent than at congruent locations) has often been used to examine the processing of irrelevant spatial information. We present data from two experiments in which the magnitude of such location-based interference is drastically reduced when the location of the arrow is precued by a spatial noninformative cue. The main aim of the present study was to clarify whether such modulation takes place at perceptual or at response-related stages of processing. First, we manipulated the spatial compatibility between the direction of the arrow and the location of the response so that each subject would respond with spatially compatible vs. incompatible key presses for each half of the experiment. We found that such manipulation did not have any effect on the standard reduction of the congruency effect by peripheral cues. In a second experiment, subjects made left/right key presses to directional arrows pointing bottom/up, which could appear equally often at left/right/bottom/up locations. In cued trials, we found a reduction of the congruency effect on the vertical axis (stimulus location-direction congruency), whereas congruency was unaffected by cueing in targets presented on the horizontal axis (stimulus-response location congruency). According to these results, we conclude that spatial noninformative cues modulate spatial Stroop interference by reducing the conflict between stimulus dimensions at perceptual- rather than motor-related stages of processing.     

Two-and-a-Half-Year-Olds’ Memory for Sources of Actions: Contextual Support Facilitates Recall

This research examines the early emergence of source-monitoring abilities. Previous research has consistently demonstrated that children as young as 3 to 4 years of age do well on simple versions of action-based source-monitoring tasks. Research on even younger children, however, remains lacking. In this study we examined whether 2½-year-olds could accurately recall source on a simplified task. For the procedure, we used an action-based task in which children collaborate with an experimenter to build a model farm. During construction, the child and the experimenter took turns placing items on the farm. After construction, children were administered a source memory test in which they were asked to recall who had placed each item. To more closely examine factors that influence source accuracy in this young population, we included two conditions that varied in terms of contextual support. In the no-context-cues condition, in line with typical source-monitoring tasks, children were asked the source test question while items were presented individually and the farm was not in view. In the context-cues condition, the original spatial array of farm items was left intact to provide additional cues for children's source decisions. The main finding was that children in both conditions showed high levels of source accuracy at test indicating a surprisingly early age of emergence for this ability. Also, as predicted, children in the context-cues condition were the most accurate in attributing source.     

Inhibition: Mental Control Process or Mental Resource?

The current study tested 2 models of inhibition in 45 children with language impairment and 45 children with normally developing language; children were aged 7 to 12 years. Of interest was whether a model of inhibition as a mental-control process (i.e., executive function) or as a mental resource would more accurately reflect the relations among mental-attentional (M) capacity, inhibition, updating, shifting, and language competence. Children completed measures of M-capacity (in the verbal and nonverbal domains), inhibition, updating, shifting, and language. Path analyses showed the data provided a poor fit to the model of inhibition as a mental-control process but a good fit to the model of inhibition as a mental resource. Results are consistent with the theory of constructive operators and suggest inhibition is a mental resource rather than a mental-control process.     

Con D. A. Norman

RESUMEN

J. J. Aparicio presenta a D. A. Norman como uno de los representantes más cualificados de lo que se ha dado en llamar “psicología cognitiva”, siendo uno de los primeros que rompieron con la tradición de Ebbinhaus al incorporar la investigación sobre la memoria. En esta entrevista el autor responde a cuestiones tales como la relación entre sus trabajos y los del resto de psicólogos cognitivos, las limitaciones de la psicología cognitiva en sus comienzos y el papel que ha desempeñado Chomsky y la lingüística en general en el desarrollo de ésta. Seguidamente nos explica qué entiende por esquema -cuestión en la que se ha centrado últimamente- y las diferencias entre la concepción piagetiana y la suya. También comenta el concepto de profundidad de procesamiento, la distinción entre memoria episódica y semántica y el estudio del control consciente e inconsciente. La última parte de la entrevista se centra en las relaciones entre el trabajo teórico y el experimental, finalizando con algunas alusiones al camino que deben seguir los psicólogos españoles para contribuir al desarrollo de su disciplina.     

Limitaciones de procesamiento y selectividad atencional

RESUMEN

José María Ruiz Vargas y Juan Botella introducen este dossier revisando los modelos de atención de los últimos veinte años. Estos autores plantean críticamente las respuestas principales a los dos grandes temas de la psicología de la atención: el de la limitación del sistema de procesamiento -repasando los modelos de limitación estructural y de recursos y abordando la distinción entre procesamiento automático y controlado- y el del lugar y momento de la selección estimular a que esa limitación obliga, comentando las evidencias a favor de una selección temprana, tardía o múltiple. Los autores concluyen su trabajo con algunas precisiones en torno al concepto de atención y sin decantarse definitivamente por ninguna teoría.     

Esfuerzo y decremento de vigilancia en tareas de discriminación sucesiva y simultánea

Resumen

El objetivo del experimento presentado en este artículo fue probar la hipótesis de que el decremento de sensibilidad en tareas de atención sostenida, ocurre porque los recursos atencionales o esfuerzo que demanda la tarea no pueden matenerse durante un tiempo prolongado. Comparamos dos tareas que diferían en carga de memoria y registramos tres grupos de índices de esfuerzo o gasto atencional: rendimiento en una tarea secundaria concurrente, esfuerzo subjetivo y actividad cardiovascular (IBI medio y amplitud espectral del componente 0.10 Hz). En ambas tareas observamos un declive significativo a lo largo del tiempo en eficiencia o ritmo de procesamiento, indicado por la razón entre la precisión y la velocidad. Los datos acerca del esfuerzo subjetivo y el rendimiento en la tarea secundaria no parecen apoyar la hipótesis original. El principal hallazgo fue que la actividad cardiovascular al comienzo de la tarea, medida por la amplitud del componente 0.1 Hz, era un predictor significativo del decremento de eficiencia en ambas tareas de vigilancia. Si esta amplitud es un índice fisiológico fiable de atención, nuestro resultado sugiere que un procesamiento controlado, con esfuerzo, al comienzo de la tarea previene el decremento de vigilancia.     

Factor structure of the Spanish adaptation of Tarrant's Group Identification Scale

In this study, the factor structure of the Spanish version of Tarrant's Group Identification Scale is analyzed. This scale is based on the social identity theory and measures cognitive, evaluative, and affective aspects of group identification. Although this scale has been considered unidimensionally with adolescents, it is based on previous group identification scales considered multidimensionally. From confirmatory analysis, some factor models were tested in two independent samples of adolescents: Spanish (N= 1,795) and Mexican (N= 1,494). The three-factor model (self-categorization, group evaluation, and commitment to the group) produced the best fit in both samples. Results are compatible with the multidimensional structure hypothesis of group identification.     

风险决策过程验证：补偿/非补偿模型之争的新认识与新证据

风险决策是人类赖以生存和发展的重大决策。如何进行风险决策是人类不断认识和改造世界过程中遇到的未解之谜。主流风险理论认为, 风险决策是一个补偿性的、期望值最大化的过程; 而非主流的风险理论则认为, 风险决策是非补偿性的, 并不遵循期望法则所假设的加权求和等过程。这一谜团为何一直没有得以破解, 或许是因为我们未找到揭示其心理过程的令人信服的证据。近10年来, 我们针对风险决策过程, 借助行为实验、眼动记录法、事件相关电位、功能磁共振成像等技术, 系统探索风险决策的心理和神经机制, 为回答“风险决策是否遵循补偿性规则”这一问题提供了汇聚性证据。本文依据期望法则所假设的概率函数推导、加权过程、加权求和过程、总分最大化等步骤, 对这些研究进行梳理与回顾, 以期加深人们对风险决策机制的理解, 并为建立、健全与风险决策相关的政策、法律法规提供理论依据。