Previous reward decreases errors of commission on later ‘No‐Go’ trials in children 4 to 12 years of age: evidence for a context monitoring account

Inhibitory control is widely hypothesized to be the cornerstone of executive function in childhood and the central deficit in a number of developmental disorders, including attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, recent evidence from adults indicates that performance on response inhibition tasks may primarily reflect non‐inhibitory attentional control (context monitoring) processes. Yet it may be that inhibition plays a more central role in childhood – a time when the architecture of cognitive processes might be more transparent due to wide variability in skill level. Here we directly test inhibitory and context monitoring explanations of task performance on a Go/No‐Go task in a large group of children 4–12 years of age. We conclude that traditional inhibitory conceptualizations of task performance on the Go/No‐Go task cannot account for our findings, calling into question evidence supporting a central role for inhibitory control in cognitive development or developmental psychopathology.     

Acquisition of a visual discrimination and reversal learning task by Labrador retrievers

Optimal cognitive ability is likely important for military working dogs (MWD) trained to detect explosives. An assessment of a dog’s ability to rapidly learn discriminations might be useful in the MWD selection process. In this study, visual discrimination and reversal tasks were used to assess cognitive performance in Labrador retrievers selected for an explosives detection program using a modified version of the Toronto General Testing Apparatus (TGTA), a system developed for assessing performance in a battery of neuropsychological tests in canines. The results of the current study revealed that, as previously found with beagles tested using the TGTA, Labrador retrievers (N = 16) readily acquired both tasks and learned the discrimination task significantly faster than the reversal task. The present study confirmed that the modified TGTA system is suitable for cognitive evaluations in Labrador retriever MWDs and can be used to further explore effects of sex, phenotype, age, and other factors in relation to canine cognition and learning, and may provide an additional screening tool for MWD selection.     

A model for integrating spiritual education into secular curricula

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how the model proposed initially by De Souza and developed by Buchanan and Hyde for religious education can be applied to secular education. Using the context of an action research project in Mainland China to introduce education in human values to government primary schools, examples are drawn from mathematics topics to show how teachers have been able to integrate cognitive, affective and values messages into their existing subject curricula. Children’s and teachers’ comments suggest that both are aware of the inner transformations that occur over time, and illustrate that it is possible to bring about such transformation in a way that is compatible with the ideology of the system.     

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada—the Immigrants’ Experience

This paper explores the correlates of career satisfaction among Canadian managers, professionals and executives, specifically the career satisfaction experience of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants. Survey data collected from over 13,000 managers, professionals and executives in 43 Canadian organizations were analysed using the ordinary least squares multiple regression technique. Results indicate that immigrants experience lower career satisfaction than native-borns and visible minority immigrants have lower career satisfaction than non-visible minority immigrants. Employee and employer characteristics, objective employment outcomes and subjective perceptual measures were found to be positively associated with career satisfaction for immigrant and native-born respondents.     

Exploring the Evocation of Verbal Perspective Taking Using a Linguistic Relational Triangulation Questionnaire (RTQ-MST9)

The Psychological Record - The present article exhibits the use of a linguistic multiple-choice questionnaire format for evoking relational triangulation performances while examining whether...     

From Social Burden to Support Elicitation: Development and Validation of a New Measure of Workplace Support Elicitation Experiences

Journal of Business and Psychology - Receiving social support is widely considered a positive workplace phenomenon, but what about the employees from whom the support is being sought? Following...     

The Sex-Based Harassment Inventory: A Gender Status Threat Measure of Sex-Based Harassment Intentions

Sex Roles - We introduce a new inventory measuring sex-based harassment intentions and threat perceptions grounded in gender status threat theories (Berdahl, 2007; Stephan et al., 2016). In Study 1...     

Task effects reveal cognitive flexibility responding to frequency and predictability: Evidence from eye movements in reading and proofreading

It is well-known that word frequency and predictability affect processing time. These effects change magnitude across tasks, but studies testing this use tasks with different response types (e.g., lexical decision, naming, and fixation time during reading; Schilling, Rayner, & Chumbley, 1998), preventing direct comparison. Recently, Kaakinen and Hyönä (2010) overcame this problem, comparing fixation times in reading for comprehension and proofreading, showing that the frequency effect was larger in proofreading than in reading. This result could be explained by readers exhibiting substantial cognitive flexibility, and qualitatively changing how they process words in the proofreading task in a way that magnifies effects of word frequency. Alternatively, readers may not change word processing so dramatically, and instead may perform more careful identification generally, increasing the magnitude of many word processing effects (e.g., both frequency and predictability). We tested these possibilities with two experiments: subjects read for comprehension and then proofread for spelling errors (letter transpositions) that produce nonwords (e.g., trcak for track as in Kaakinen & Hyönä) or that produce real but unintended words (e.g., trial for trail) to compare how the task changes these effects. Replicating Kaakinen and Hyönä, frequency effects increased during proofreading. However, predictability effects only increased when integration with the sentence context was necessary to detect errors (i.e., when spelling errors produced words that were inappropriate in the sentence; trial for trail). The results suggest that readers adopt sophisticated word processing strategies to accommodate task demands.     

Aristotle's Cognitive Science: Belief,Affect and Rationality

I offer a novel interpretation of Aristotle's psychology and notion of rationality, which draws the line between animal and specifically human cognition. Aristotle distinguishes belief (doxa), a form of rational cognition, from imagining (phantasia), which is shared with non‐rational animals. We are, he says, “immediately affected” by beliefs, but respond to imagining “as if we were looking at a picture.” Aristotle's argument has been misunderstood; my interpretation explains and motivates it. Rationality includes a filter that interrupts the pathways between cognition and behavior. This prevents the subject from responding to certain representations. Stress and damage compromise the filter, making the subject respond indiscriminately, as non‐rational animals do. Beliefs are representations that have made it past the filter, which is why they can “affect [us] immediately.” Aristotle's claims express ceteris paribus generalizations, subject to exceptions. No list of provisos could turn them into non‐vacuous universal claims, but this does not rob them of their explanatory power. Aristotle's cognitive science resolves a tension we grapple with today: it accounts for the specialness of human action and thinking within a strictly naturalistic framework. The theory is striking in its insight and explanatory power, instructive in its methodological shortcomings.