Reactions of third-graders to recognition allocation after being peer-imitated

Being imitated has generally been regarded as a positive experience conducive to reciprocal imitation of and increased attraction to one’s imitator. An experiment on 3rd-graders, in an adaptation of a Thelen-Kirkland paradigm, investigates whether the receipt of public recognition for a good product would simply amplify those positive effects, or would tend to reverse them, and explores whether gender would moderate models, reactions under such conditions. Recognition allocation was manipulated by having an “authority” award a symbolic star solely to the model, to the confederate imitator alone, to the confederate nonimitator alone, or to no one. The results suggested that the boys rather than girls showed amplification effects of receiving sole recognition: they reciprocally imitated more, and expressed greater attraction to, their same-sex imitator than did the girls. Overall, models expressed relatively less attraction to the imitator than to the nonimitator. When interviewed, the models were equally divided as to which of the two deserved the recognition when they themselves or their imitator received it, but they stated unequivocally that the nonimitator who received the recognition deserved it. They also clearly stated a preference for those tasks on which they themselves had been imitated—given that they themselves or their imitator had received recognition credit, compared to models in the nonimitator-recognition and control conditions. It is clear that recognition allocation is an important construct that should be considered in investigating models, reactions to being imitated, particularly in the light of its significance in the adult world, at least of this culture. Several directions are proposed for pursuing this construct further.     

Make up your mind: octopus cognition and hybrid explanations

In order to argue that cognitive science should be more accepting of explanatory plurality, this paper presents the control of fetching movements in the octopus as an exemplar of a cognitive process that comprises distinct and non-redundant representation-using and non-representational elements. Fetching is a type of movement that representational analyses can normally account for completely—but not in the case of the octopus. Instead, a comprehensive account of octopus fetching requires the non-overlapping use of both representational and non-representational explanatory frameworks. What this need for a pluralistic or hybrid explanation implies is that cognitive science should be more open to using both representational and non-representational accounts of cognition, depending on their respective appropriateness to the type of cognition in question.

     

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and Louis Massignon in Pursuit of God's Word: A Muslim and a Christian on the Straight Path

Said Nursi (1876–1960) and Louis Massignon (1883–1962) were contemporaries. Both of them were men of God in whose lives dramatic turning points changed the direction of their thinking and led them to devote themselves to the cause of re-awakening the religious consciousness of the people of their time. This article explores the striking parallels in their personal journeys, offers a comparison of their leading ideas and describes the far-reaching effects their lives and works have had in their respective faith communities. The biographies of faithful witnesses in modern times in both Islam and Christianity have much to teach those of us in the twenty-first century who seek to find the way to a harmonious convivencia for our two, global faith communities.     

The half-life of cognitive-affective states during complex learning

We investigated the temporal dynamics of students’ cognitive-affective states (confusion, frustration, boredom, engagement/flow, delight, and surprise) during deep learning activities. After a learning session with an intelligent tutoring system with conversational dialogue, the cognitive-affective states of the learner were classified by the learner, a peer, and two trained judges at approximately 100 points in the tutorial session. Decay rates for the cognitive-affective states were estimated by fitting exponential curves to time series of affect responses. The results partially confirmed predictions of goal-appraisal theories of emotion by supporting a tripartite classification of the states along a temporal dimension: persistent states (boredom, engagement/flow, and confusion), transitory states (delight and surprise), and an intermediate state (frustration). Patterns of decay rates were generally consistent across affect judges, except that a reversed actor–observer effect was discovered for engagement/flow and frustration. Correlations between decay rates of the cognitive-affective states and several learning measures confirmed the major predictions and uncovered some novel findings that have implications for theories of pedagogy that integrate cognition and affect during deep learning.     

Psychodynamic Measures of Therapeutic Change

After a brief critique of the current emphasis on symptom reduction as a criterion of therapeutic change, this paper presents several methods for assessing changes in the developmental organization and thematic content of mental representations (concepts of self and significant others). These methods constitute psychodynamically oriented ways of assessing therapeutic change in psychological structures in both long-term, intensive and brief treatment. We also consider how differences in pretreatment characteristics among patients have an important impact on the therapeutic process and on the nature of therapeutic change.     

Affect Regulation During Learning: The Enhancing Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal

Affective experiences routinely occur during learning and need to be successfully regulated. In two experiments, we used an intervention that combined elements of utility value and cognitive reappraisal to gauge its effects on engagement and performance. We predicted that participants using the reappraisal strategy would experience more engagement and higher learning outcomes than controls. Ethnically diverse adult learners ranging from 18 to 58 years of age (Experiment 1, N = 93; Experiment 2: N = 138) used affect regulation strategies or no strategy (control) in an online learning environment. Engagement and learning outcomes were measured throughout the experiment. Participants who used reappraisal generally reported more engagement and achieved higher learning outcomes than controls. A mediation analysis revealed evidence of a partial mediation effect of affective engagement between reappraisal and learning outcomes in Study 2. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the role of affect regulation during learning. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confusion and its dynamics during device comprehension with breakdown scenarios

The incidence and dynamics of confusion during complex learning and problem solving were investigated in an experiment where participants first read illustrated texts on everyday devices (e.g., an electric bell) followed by breakdown scenarios reflecting device malfunctions (e.g., “When a person rang the bell there was a short ding and then no sound was heard”). The breakdown scenarios were expected to trigger impasses and put participants in a state of cognitive disequilibrium where they would experience confusion and engage in effortful confusion resolution activities in order to restore equilibrium. The results confirmed that participants reported more confusion when presented with the breakdown scenarios compared to control scenarios that involved focusing on important device components in the absence of malfunctions. A second-by-second analysis of the dynamics of confusion yielded two characteristic trajectories that distinguished participants who partially resolved their confusion from those who remained confused. Participants who were successful in partial confusion resolution while processing the breakdowns outperformed their counterparts on knowledge assessments after controlling for scholastic aptitude, engagement, and frustration. This effect was amplified for those who were highly confused by the breakdowns. There was no direct breakdown vs. control effect on learning, but being actively engaged and partially resolving confusion during breakdown processing were positive predictors of increased learning with the breakdown compared to control scenarios. Implications of our findings for theories that highlight the role of impasses, cognitive disequilibrium, and confusion to learning are discussed.     

Expression of nonconscious knowledge via ideomotor actions

Ideomotor actions are behaviours that are unconsciously initiated and express a thought rather than a response to a sensory stimulus. The question examined here is whether ideomotor actions can also express nonconscious knowledge. We investigated this via the use of implicit long-term semantic memory, which is not available to conscious recall. We compared accuracy of answers to yes/no questions using both volitional report and ideomotor response (Ouija board response). Results show that when participants believed they knew the answer, responses in the two modalities were similar. But when they believed they were guessing, accuracy was at chance for volitional report (50%), but significantly higher for Ouija response (65%). These results indicate that implicit semantic memory can be expressed through ideomotor actions. They also suggest that this approach can provide an interesting new methodology for studying implicit processes in cognition.