A probabilistic contrast model of causal induction

Deviations from the predictions of covariational models of causal attribution have often been reported in the literature. These include a bias against using consensus information, a bias toward attributing effects to a person, and a tendency to make a variety of unpredicted conjunctive attributions. It is contended that these deviations, rather than representing irrational biases, could be due to (a) unspecified information over which causal inferences are computed and (b) the questionable normativeness of the models against which these deviations have been measured. A probabilistic extension of Kelley's analysis-of-variance analogy is proposed. An experiment was performed to assess the above biases and evaluate the proposed model against competing ones. The results indicate that the inference process is unbiased.     

Hypothesis-testing strategies: Why two goals are better than one

An intriguing finding in the hypothesis-testing literature concerns a large increase in the proportion of subjects who discover a rule when they are asked to determine two rules rather than that rule alone. This finding is based on Wason's (1960) “2 4 6” task, in which subjects try to discover a rule (ascending numbers) by generating and testing number triples. They are initially given an example (“2, 4, 6”) of the rule that leads to overly specific hypotheses. With single-goal (SG) instructions, subjects try to discover the correct rule and are told whether each triple proposed fits the rule. With dual-goal (DG) instructions, correct and incorrect categories are labelled, respectively, as DAX and MED. Subjects try to discover both rules and are told whether each proposed triple is DAX or MED. Two explanations of why DG subjects do better at rule discovery than SG subjects are tested: the quantity of information and the testing of complementary rules using the prevalent positive-test strategy. Results support the latter explanation: DG subjects outperform SG subjects only if they know the rules are complementary, and that SG subjects' performance does not improve when required to test more triples before announcing their first rule. A third explanation, the positivity of the linguistic label of the feedback, is ruled out. Understanding the superiority of DG instructions might suggest a general method for enhancing rule discovery.     

Cultural Differences in Psychological Distress Between Asian and Caucasian American College Students

The authors examined possible cultural differences in psychological distress between Asian and Caucasion American college students using the Brief Symptom Inventory.     

学习困难与正常儿童智力结构的稳定性

本文调查学习困难与正常儿童WISC-CR 智商和智力结构的长时稳定性。被试先后参加两次WISC-CR 测试(间隔1.5—2年)。结果表明:学习困难儿童VIQ、PIQ 和FIQ 的重测相关均在0.71以上,高于正常儿童;重测时学习困难儿童有PIQ 升高和VIQ 降低趋势,正常儿童的VIQ 和PIQ 均有升高趋势,两组儿童智力结构的稳定性有明显差异,学习困难儿童不分心因子稳定性最差,正常儿童言语概括因子稳定性最差,其它三个因子相对稳定。这些结果提示学习困难与正常儿童的智商和智力结构具有较好跨时间稳定性。WISC-CR 对学习困难诊断、咨询和教育干预计划的制定有一定的参考价值。     

脑外伤后患者的认知障碍

本文对83例脑外伤患者在智力、记忆、信息处理速度及语言流畅性等方面进行了研究.结果表明:脑外伤损害了患者的高级皮质功能,使其在相当长的时期内,仍遗留有智力、记忆、注意、信息处理速度及语言流畅性等方面的障碍,只是轻、重程度不等而已。从中我们选出相对比较灵敏的测验,做为今后研究脑外伤病人心理功能障碍的方法,并拟定出脑外伤病人心理功能的评定指标。     

Pragmatic reasoning schemas

We propose that people typically reason about realistic situations using neither content-free syntactic inference rules nor representations of specific experiences. Rather, people reason using knowledge structures that we term pragmatic reasoning schemas, which are generalized sets of rules defined in relation to classes of goals. Three experiments examined the impact of a “permission schema” on deductive reasoning. Experiment 1 demonstrated that by evoking the permission schema it is possible to facilitate performance in Wason's selection paradigm for subjects who have had no experience with the specific content of the problems. Experiment 2 showed that a selection problem worded in terms of an abstract permission elicited better performance than one worded in terms of a concrete but arbitrary situation, providing evidence for an abstract permission schema that is free of domain-specific content. Experiment 3 provided evidence that evocation of a permission schema affects not only tasks requiring procedural knowledge, but also a linguistic rephrasing task requiring declarative knowledge. In particular, statements in the form if p then q were rephrased into the form p only if q with greater frequency for permission than for arbitrary statements, and rephrasings of permission statements produced a pattern of introduction of modals (must, can) totally unlike that observed for arbitrary conditional statements. Other pragmatic schemas, such as “causal” and “evidence” schemas can account for both linguistic and reasoning phenomena that alternative hypotheses fail to explain.     

相信智力不变是否也认为个性难改?——个人属性内隐观的普遍性

动机理论的认知心理学派认为 ,学生对智力、个性等个人属性 ,是否先天固有不可改变的主观想法 ,将直接影响他们的学习和行为表现。其影响的范围 ,将取决于这类主观想法是否具有普遍性。比如 ,有些学生认为智力是父母遗传的 ,很难改变 ,这些学生会否同样认为个性、道德等 ,也是父母遗传 ,亦难改变 ?该研究希望了解是否有一主导思想 ,影响学生对智力、个性等不同个人属性 ,是否先天不变的整体看法。被试为中国长春市高中一年级的学生 ,总计 5 5 5人。研究采用问卷调查 ,通过比较多个结构方程模型 ,结果较倾向支持学生对个性、智力等五项个人属性有共通一致的内隐观     

Predicting psychotherapy benefit: a probabilistic and individualized approach

We describe the development of the probability of treatment benefit (PTB) chart that incorporates, integrates, and extends more recent approaches to describing treatment effects, such as the Reliable Change Index (Jacobson & Truax, 1991) and normative comparisons (Kendall, Marrs-Garcia, Nath, & Sheldrick, 1999), by including parameters that are simultaneously probabilistic and individualized. To illustrate the PTB chart, data are taken from an effectiveness trial (N=139) of a modular treatment for disruptive behavior disorders. The results highlight both individual variability and the probabilistic nature of psychotherapy benefit. Finally, we discuss the utility of the PTB chart in terms of research, policy, and practice implications. Probability tables, such as the PTB chart, have the potential to be used as simple clinical tools to supplement traditional effect sizes and help patients make truly informed decisions about treatment participation.     

Understanding Asian parenting from a Rasch perspective

This study examines the factor structure of Asian child‐reported parenting from a Rasch perspective. Participants comprised 291 sixth graders (11 to 13 years) in Singapore. Six different aspects of parenting were measured, namely warmth, rejection, structure, chaos, autonomy support, and coercion. Rasch Analysis was used to transform ordinal data into linear measures; category functioning was examined; residual‐based principal components were analysed; differential item functioning was assessed; and items and subjects that were misfitting were removed. Results showed that parenting comprised six dimensions, namely warmth, autonomy support, structure‐control, structure‐warmth, chaos, and negative parenting. The findings suggest that it is important for Asian parents to provide guidance to their children (in structure‐control and structure‐warmth) and reaffirms the relevance of warmth in Asian parenting.