Motor imagery in typing: effects of typing style and action familiarity

The influences of typing style and action familiarity on executed and imagined typing were investigated. A group of touch typists and a group of hunt-and-peck typists were asked to imagine and execute typing texts of different lengths in two different styles: with ten fingers (familiar for touch typists, unfamiliar for hunt-and-peck typists) and with two fingers (unfamiliar for touch typists, familiar for hunt-and-peck typists). The imagination (but not the execution) of familiar and unfamiliar typing was correlated in both groups, indicating that participants used skill knowledge from the familiar action to imagine the unfamiliar action. Only when touch typists imagined familiar typing accurate motor imagery was observed (similar durations of and positive correlations between imagination and execution). When touch typists imagined unfamiliar typing, the average imagination durations resembled the execution durations, but correlations indicated individual differences in the processes of imagination and execution. Hunt-and-peck typists showed shorter imagination than execution durations with both familiar and unfamiliar typing, indicating that in both styles they did not imagine all details of typing. Also, they did not imagine some details specifically related to unfamiliar typing (reflected in particularly high percentages of absolute error). However, correlations indicated that individual difficulties in executing the unfamiliar action were reflected in the imagination durations. In conclusion, skill knowledge from familiar actions is used to imagine unfamiliar actions. Familiarity with actions promotes accurate motor imagery, but only if stable internal action representations have been acquired, and not if action control relies on online, step-by-step control. However, stable internal action representations of familiar actions may be detrimental for imagery of unfamiliar actions.     

The effects of source trustworthiness and inference type on human belief revision

We investigated whether people revise their beliefs as a function of inference type or source trustworthiness. By doing so we aimed to find out if belief revision is better explained by mental model theory (Johnson-Laird & Byrne, 2002 Johnson-Laird, P. N. and Byrne, R. M. J. 2002. Conditionals: A theory of meaning, pragmatics, and inference. Psychological Review, 109: 211–228. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) or by a conditional probability view (Evans, Handley, & Over, 2003 Over, D. E. and Evans, J. St. B. T. 2003. The probability of conditionals: The psychological evidence. Mind & Language, 18: 340–358. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Oaksford & Chater, 2001 Oaksford, M. and Chater, N. 2001. The probabilistic approach to human reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Science, 5: 349–357. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We used modified modes ponens (MP) and modus tollens (MT) problems in which the first two premises were uttered by persons with varying degrees of trustworthiness. A third statement was presented as a fact and established inconsistency in the set of propositions. The participants' task was to indicate which of the first two premises they believed more after receiving the fact. We found that the belief in the conditional premise dropped significantly when this premise was stated by a low- rather than a high-trustworthy source. Moreover we found that the conditional premise was believed more in MT than in MP problems. Both findings are best explained by the conditional probability hypothesis (e.g., Evans et al., 2003 Evans, J. St. B. T., Handley, S. J. and Over, D. E. 2003. Conditionals and conditional probability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29, : 321–335. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).     

婴儿心理理论的发展:表现和机制

婴儿心理理论发展研究是探索人类社会认知起源、发生和发展的重要领域.从联合注意、情绪理解、意图理解、愿望理解和错误信念理解等方面分析了几个月至3岁左右的婴儿心理理论发生和发展的研究现状.为了探讨3岁以下婴儿心理理论的发展过程,研究者发展了一些适合婴儿语言和行为发展特征的非言语和言语测试任务,包括非言语自发—反应错误信念任务、言语自发—反应错误信念任务,同时也采用眼动技术和事件相关电位技术来考察心理理论发展水平和发展机制.婴儿心理理论的发生和发展在不同测试任务上表现出一定的年龄特征.这与认知功能(如语言、执行功能)的发展、环境因素(如家庭、同伴、文化)以及神经系统发育有关.也有一些最新研究从心理理论发生和发展的基因、激素水平进行了探讨.最后提出了该领域未来研究可以进一步探讨的问题.     

空间转换在记叙文阅读情境模型建构中的作用

采用探测词和事件分割范式探讨了空间转换与事件转换分离的情况下, 空间转换在记叙文情境模型建构中的作用。实验1a重复前人研究, 探讨空间转换对阅读时间和情境模型更新的影响, 并验证在空间转换对情境模型的影响的研究中, 采用多指标探测范式的合理性。实验1b探讨在空间转换与事件转换相分离的条件下, 空间转换对情境模型更新的影响; 实验2a探讨空间转换对事件分割的影响, 并验证在空间转换对情境模型的影响的研究中, 采用事件分割范式的合理性; 实验2b探讨空间转换与事件转换相分离的条件下, 空间转换对事件分割的影响, 从而验证空间转换对情境模型更新的影响。结果表明, 当空间转换与事件转换相分离时, 不引起情境模型的更新, 事件单元是建构记叙文心理表征的核心单元, 空间转换只有在标识事件转换的情况下, 才能引发读者更新情境模型。     

The Turning of the Tide: Theology,Religion, and Economics1

Abstract : Although capitalist free market economics is in crisis, its assumptions continue to shape not only how we do business or politics but also how we think and feel, and even what we believe. For theologians and scholars of religion this means that we can no longer do our work without taking into consideration what is happening in the economy and how it affects us; before religion can become part of the solution we need to understand how it has become part of the problem. This article investigates how economics has shaped religion and theology and develops alternative perspectives.     

自我损耗下积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响

基于自我控制资源理论,本研究通过2个递进实验探究自我损耗下积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响。实验1采用“非利手写作”任务操纵被试的自我损耗,并诱发积极情绪,以被试在独裁者任务中分配的代币数为亲社会行为的衡量指标。结果发现：相比于低损耗组,高损耗组亲社会行为水平更低;诱发积极情绪能够补偿自我控制资源。实验2在此基础上,诱发高、低趋近动机积极情绪,考察自我损耗状态下不同强度趋近动机积极情绪对亲社会行为的影响。结果表明,低趋近动机积极情绪能缓解自我损耗后效。本研究证实了提高自我损耗将降低个体亲社会行为水平,诱发低趋近动机积极情绪可以缓解该效应。     

Limitations of distal effect anticipation when using tools

Modern technologies progressively create workplaces in which the execution of movements and the observation of their consequences are spatially separated. Challenging workplaces in which users act via technical equipment in a distant space include aviation, applied medical engineering and virtual reality. When using a tool, proprioceptive/tactile feedback from the moving hand (proximal action effect) and visual feedback from the moving effect point of the tool, such as the moving cursor on a display (the distal action effect) often do not correspond or are even in conflict. If proximal and distal feedback were equally important for controlling actions with tools, this discrepancy would be a constant source of interference. The human information processing system solves this problem by favoring the intended distal action effects while attenuating or ignoring proximal action effects. The study presents an overview of experiments aiming at the underlying motor and cognitive processes and the limitations of visual predominance in tool actions. The main findings are, that when transformations are in effect the awareness of one's own actions is quite low. This seems to be advantageous when using tools, as it allows for wide range of flexible sensorimotor adaptations and – may be more important – it evokes the feeling of being in control. Thus, the attenuation of perceiving one's own proximal action effects is an important precondition for using tools successfully. However, the ability to integrate discordant perception-action feedback has limits, especially, but not only, with complex transformations. When feature overlap between vision and proprioception is low, and when the existence of a transformation is obvious proximal action effects come to the fore and dominate action control in tool actions. In conclusion action–effect control plays an important role in understanding the constraints of the acquisition and application of tool transformations.     

Imagery of errors in typing

Using a typing task we investigated whether insufficient imagination of errors and error corrections is related to duration differences between execution and imagination. In Experiment 1 spontaneous error imagination was investigated, whereas in Experiment 2 participants were specifically instructed to imagine errors. Further, in Experiment 2 we manipulated correction instructions (whether or not to correct errors) and controlled for visual feedback in executed typing (letters appearing on the screen or not). Participants executed and imagined typing proverbs of different lengths. Errors and error corrections explained a significant amount of variance of execution minus imagination differences in Experiment 1, and in Experiment 2 when participants were instructed to correct errors, but not when participants were instructed not to correct errors. In Experiment 2 participants corrected and reported more errors with than without visual feedback. However, the relation between execution − imagination duration differences and errors and error corrections was unaffected by visual feedback. The types of errors reported less often in imagination than in execution were related to processes in typing execution. We conclude that errors and error corrections are not spontaneously imagined during motor imagery, and that even when attention is drawn to their occurrence only some are imagined. This may be due to forward models not predicting all aspects of an action, imprecise forward models, or a neglect of monitoring error signals during motor imagery.     

大学生心理控制源与抑郁倾向的关系:自我效能感的中介效应

目的:探讨大学生心理控制源和自我效能感与抑郁倾向的关系,并检验自我效能感在心理控制源对抑郁倾向关系上的中介效应。方法:随机选取350名大学生接受内控性、有势力的他人及机遇量表、一般自我效能量表和自评抑郁量表测量。结果:(1)相关分析表明,抑郁与心理控制源中的内控性呈显著负相关,与机遇和有势力的他人呈显著正相关,与自我效能感呈显著负相关。内控性和自我效能感存在显著正相关。心理控制源中的内控性和机遇、自我效能感能够显著预测抑郁倾向。(2)中介效应检验表明,自我效能感在内控性对抑郁倾向的作用中起完全中介作用。自我效能感和机遇各自可以独立预测抑郁倾向。结论:自我效能感是内控性预测抑郁倾向的完全中介因素,自我效能感是机遇预测抑郁倾向的部分中介因素。