Young Children Selectively Hide the Truth About Sensitive Topics

Starting in early childhood, children are socialized to be honest. However, they are also expected to avoid telling the truth in sensitive situations if doing so could be seen as inappropriate or impolite. Across two studies (total N = 358), the reasoning of 3- to 5-year-old children in such a scenario was investigated by manipulating whether the information in question would be helpful to the recipient. The studies used a reverse rouge paradigm, in which a confederate with a highly salient red mark on her nose asked children whether she looked okay prior to having her picture taken. In Study 1, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark was temporary and the confederate did not know it was there. In Study 2, children tended to tell the truth only if they were able to observe that the mark could be concealed with makeup. These findings show that for children as young as age 3, decisions about whether to tell the truth are influenced by the likelihood that the information would be helpful to the recipient.     

Character Strengths – Stability,Change, and Relationships with Well-Being Changes

Character strengths are positively valued personality traits that are assumed to be stable across time and situations, but also malleable due to cultivation or deliberate intervention. Also, studies showed that character strengths are robustly related to well-being. Consequently, character strengths have often been used in interventions aimed at increasing well-being. However, the stability of character strengths and the longitudinal relationships with well-being are widely unexplored: First, previous reports on the stability of character strengths have mainly focused on one assessment instrument only and second, they did not consider other indicators of stability (and malleability) besides rank-order stability, (i.e., mean-level stability). In this longitudinal study, we assessed character strengths and well-being at two time points and examined the stability and malleability of character strengths and the convergence of changes in character strengths and well-being by means of correlation analyses. Two samples (n₁ = 601, n₂ = 1162) completed different measures of character strengths and instruments for the assessment of well-being, ill-being, and health within up to three and a half years. Results showed that character strengths are stable over longer time periods (test-retest reliabilities ranging from r_tt = .60–.83) and that relationships between changes in strengths and well-being are highly parallel to what has been reported in cross-sectional studies (strongest relationships for zest, hope, curiosity, and love). Furthermore, results suggest that some strengths, most predominantly humor, but also spirituality and prudence might be more amenable for change than others. These results might bear important information for selecting character strengths in interventions.

     

5～6岁幼儿加法策略选择及执行特点

以220名5～6岁幼儿为被试,采用个别测查法,考察了幼儿策略选择和策略执行的发展特点.结果表明: (1)5～6岁幼儿能运用多种策略解决加法算术题,包括5种基本加法类型与3种数数亚类型. (2)幼儿主要选择支持性策略. (3)5～6岁幼儿策略执行呈多样性特点,各策略的执行正确率与速度不相同. (4)题目难度对幼儿的策略选择与执行存在影响.     

初中生的自尊、受益者特征与亲社会行为的关系

以初中一至三年级学生为对象,采用自尊量表（SES）和帮助行为调查问卷进行测查,以探讨自尊、受助者特征对其亲社会行为的影响。结果表明：（1）在社会道德认知和自我意愿层面上,大多数初中生能表现出积极的亲社会性助人趋向,部分学生的行为决策判定具有不一致性;（2）初中生的自尊程度不影响对他人需要的注意、归因以及行为方式的选择,但与帮助行为的价值取向、行为意愿等认知、情感因素有关,能直接影响自主性的亲社会行为;（3）初中生有关潜在受益者特征的某种认知结果及其相应的情感体验,对帮助型亲社会行为趋向有重要影响;（4）初中生的自尊及其所知觉的潜在量益者特征在亲社会行为趋向中交互作用不显著。     

Dual-task interference in visual working memory: A limitation in storage capacity but not in encoding or retrieval

The concurrent maintenance of two visual working memory (VWM) arrays can lead to profound interference. It is unclear, however, whether these costs arise from limitations in VWM storage capacity (Fougnie & Maro is, 2006) or from interference between the storage of one visual array and encoding or retrieval of another visual array (Cowan & Morey, 2007). Here, we show that encoding a VWM array does not interfere with maintenance of another VWM array unless the two displays exceed maintenance capacity (Experiments 1 and 2). Moreover, manipulating the extent to which encoding and maintenance can interfere with one another had no discernable effect on dual-task performance (Experiment 2). Finally, maintenance of a VWM array was not affected by retrieval of information from another VWM array (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings demonstrate that dual-task interference between two concurrent VWM tasks is due to a capacity-limited store that is independent from encoding and retrieval processes.     

Does a pear growl? Interference from semantic properties of orthographic neighbors

In this study, we investigated whether semantic properties of a word’s orthographic neighbors are activated during visual word recognition. In two experiments, words were presented with a property that was not true for the word itself. We manipulated whether the property was true for an orthographic neighbor of the word. Our results showed that rejection of the property was slower and less accurate when the property was true for a neighbor than when the property was not true for a neighbor. These findings indicate that semantic information is activated before orthographic processing is finished. The present results are problematic for the links model (Forster, 2006; Forster & Hector, 2002) that was recently proposed in order to bring form-first models of visual word recognition into line with previously reported findings (Forster & Hector, 2002; Pecher, Zeelenberg, & Wagenmakers, 2005; Rodd, 2004).     

Visual exploration pattern in hemineglect

The analysis of eye movement parameters in visual neglect such as cumulative fixation duration, saccade amplitude, or the numbers of saccades has been used to probe attention deficits in neglect patients, since the pattern of exploratory eye movements has been taken as a strong index of attention distribution. The current overview of the literature of visual neglect has its emphasis on studies dealing with eye movement and exploration analysis. We present our own results in 15 neglect patients. The free exploration behavior was analyzed in these patients presenting 32 naturalistic color photographs of everyday scenes. Cumulative fixation duration, spatial distribution of fixations in the horizontal and vertical plane, the number and amplitude of exploratory saccades was analyzed and compared with the results of an age-matched control group. A main result of our study was that in neglect patients, fixation distribution of free exploration of natural scenes is not only influenced by the left–right bias in the horizontal direction but also by the vertical direction.     

Attention and cognitive control: unfolding the dichotic listening story

In this article we present a theoretical approach to cognitive control and attention modulation, as well as review studies related to such a view, using an auditory task based on dichotic presentations of simple consonant-vowel syllables. The reviewed work comes out of joint research efforts by the 'Attention-node' at the 'Nordic Center of Excellence in Cognitive Control'. We suggest a new way of defining degrees of cognitive control based on systematically varying the stimulus intensity of the right or left ear dichotic stimulus, thus parametrically varying the degree of stimulus interference and conflict when assessing the amount of cognitive control necessary to resolve the interference. We first present an overview and review of previous studies using the so-called "forced-attention" dichotic listening paradigm. We then present behavioral and neuroimaging data to explore the suggested cognitive control model, with examples from normal adults, clinical and special ability groups.