The Interactive Origin of Iconicity

We investigate the emergence of iconicity, specifically a bouba‐kiki effect in miniature artificial languages under different functional constraints: when the languages are reproduced and when they are used communicatively. We ran transmission chains of (a) participant dyads who played an interactive communicative game and (b) individual participants who played a matched learning game. An analysis of the languages over six generations in an iterated learning experiment revealed that in the Communication condition, but not in the Reproduction condition, words for spiky shapes tend to be rated by naive judges as more spiky than the words for round shapes. This suggests that iconicity may not only be the outcome of innovations introduced by individuals, but, crucially, the result of interlocutor negotiation of new communicative conventions. We interpret our results as an illustration of cultural evolution by random mutation and selection (as opposed to by guided variation).     

A multisensory interaction effect in the conceptual realm of time

Recent studies on the conceptualization of abstract concepts suggest that the concept of time is represented along a left-right horizontal axis, such that left-to-right readers represent past on the left and future on the right. Although it has been demonstrated with strong consistency that the localization (left or right) of visual stimuli could modulate temporal judgments, results obtained with auditory stimuli are more puzzling, with both failures and successes at finding the effect in the literature. The present study supports an account based on the relative relevance of visual versus auditory-spatial information in the creation of a frame of reference to map time: The auditory location of words interacted with their temporal meaning only when auditory information was made more relevant than visual spatial information by blindfolding participants.     

The distance effect in numerical memory-updating tasks

Two experiments examined the role of numerical distance in updating numerical information in working memory. In the first experiment, participants had to memorize a new number only when it was smaller than a previously memorized number. In the second experiment, updating was based on an external signal, which removed the need to perform any numerical comparison. In both experiments, distance between the memorized number and the new one was manipulated. The results showed that smaller distances between the new and the old information led to shorter updating times. This graded facilitation suggests that the process by which information is substituted in the focus of attention involves maintaining the shared features between the new and the old number activated and selecting other new features to be activated. Thus, the updating cost may be related to amount of new features to be activated in the focus of attention.     

Mind-Wandering and Childhood ADHD: Experimental Manipulations across Laboratory and Naturalistic Settings

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The conceptual overlap between mind-wandering and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related impairments is considerable, yet little...     

Goal complexes: Integrating achievement goals as standards and self-attributed motives as reasons underlying goal pursuit

Goal complexes, which are formed by pairing standards of competence strivings with their underlying reasons, are essential to an understanding of achievement goal regulation. This paper examines goal complexes that cross other-approach and other-avoidance goals with the approach-avoidance dimensions of Big Three motives as underlying reasons. 220 undergraduates participated in Study 1 which developed and validated the Self-Attributed Motive Scale to measure hope of success, fear of failure, hope of affiliation, fear of rejection, hope of power, and fear of loss of power. Additionally, 235 undergraduates participated in Study 2 where goal complexes were created by crossing the motive items developed in Study 1 with other-approach and other-avoidance goals. The predictive utility of the resultant goal complexes was examined in relation to positive well-being (positive learning-related emotions and engagement), negative well-being (negative learning-related emotions and burnout), and academic buoyancy. The contributions of the studies to the self-attributed motive and goal complex literatures are discussed.

     

Language Matters: Competent Mental Health Treatment for Latina/Latino/Latinx Undocumented Immigrants—A Comment on Alfaro and Bui

Commenting on Alfaro and Bui’s article “Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes, Perceptions, and Stereotypes Toward Latino Undocumented Immigrants,” this article explores and confirms the importance of continued and increased attention to language and word choice regarding Latina/Latino/Latinx immigrants as well a multicultural awareness and competence training for mental health professionals. Mental health professionals must be aware of connections between social determinants of health and well-being, as well as the impact of their own cultural awareness and language use, on their implicit bias and capacity for empathy with clients who they may perceive to be different than themselves. Ethical guidelines require mental health professionals to consistently seek learning opportunities to increase their cultural awareness in order to provide competent mental health services to Latina/Latino/Latinx undocumented immigrant clients that ameliorate suffering and facilitate flourishing.     

Observed actions affect body-specific associations between space and valence

Right-handers tend to associate “good” with the right side of space and “bad” with the left. This implicit association appears to arise from the way people perform actions, more or less fluently, with their right and left hands. Here we tested whether observing manual actions performed with greater or lesser fluency can affect observers' space–valence associations. In two experiments, we assigned one participant (the actor) to perform a bimanual fine motor task while another participant (the observer) watched. Actors were assigned to wear a ski glove on either the right or left hand, which made performing the actions on this side of space disfluent. In Experiment 1, observers stood behind the actors, sharing their spatial perspective. After motor training, both actors and observers tended to associate “good” with the side of the actors' free hand and “bad” with the side of the gloved hand. To determine whether observers' space–valence associations were computed from their own perspectives or the actors', in Experiment 2 we asked the observer to stand face-to-face with the actor, reversing their spatial perspectives. After motor training, both actors and observers associated “good” with the side of space where disfluent actions had occurred from their own egocentric spatial perspectives; if “good” was associated with the actor's right-hand side it was likely to be associated with the observer's left-hand side. Results show that vicarious experiences of motor fluency can shape valence judgments, and that observers spontaneously encode the locations of fluent and disfluent actions in egocentric spatial coordinates.     

Keys to the development of the role of grandparents in current Spanish society / Claves para el desarrollo del rol de abuelo y abuela en la sociedad española actual

Abstract

Current demographic changes and work-family reconciliation difficulties in Spain have resulted in an increase in the arrangement of grandparents caring for their grandchildren. However, in order to ensure that the relationship between both generations is a privileged interaction that promotes successful ageing, furthering our knowledge of the challenges that this field of study faces is necessary. On this basis, the purpose of this article is to review the theories regarding this family relationship, which, together with the empirical research into this area, comprise the basis of a three-pronged proposal that includes the keys or challenges to studying the role of grandparents: (1) the heterogeneity and multidimensionality in the study of this role; (2) the complex interaction of positive and negative aspects that produce significant ambivalence in grandparents as a reaction to their experiences in this role; and (3) the influence of the baby boom generation grandparents’ new characteristics.