On a Neglected Aspect of Agentive Experience

Philosophia - There is an argument for incompatibilism that is based on the experience of agency. Authors who endorse this argument place pro tanto evidential weight on one or more of two putative...     

Mental animation in the visuospatial sketchpad: Evidence from dual-task studies

We used the dual-task paradigm to provide evidence that inferring the motion of a component of a mechanical system (mental animation) is a spatial visualization process. In two experiments, participants were asked to solve mental animation problems while simultaneously retaining either a visuospatial working memory load (a configuration of dots in a grid) or a verbal memory load (a list of letters). Both experiments showed that mental animation interferes more with memory for a concurrent visuospatial load than with memory for a verbal load. Experiment 1 also showed that a visuospatial working memory load interferes more with mental animation than does a verbal memory load. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed that mental animation interferes more with a visuospatial memory load than does a verbal reasoning task that takes approximately the same amount of time.     

Assessment as Intervention: A Pilot Study of Short-Term Dyadic Treatment

Assessment, as an intervention, is a hallmark of infant mental health that has not been evaluated for treatment effectiveness. A comprehensive assessment framework was standardized as a short-term intervention model and evaluated for treatment effects based on dynamic systems theory of change. The transdisciplinary interaction-based assessment model embeds nondidactic developmental guidance interpretations in the context of eliciting child functional capacities while engaging the caregiver in direct co-observation and reflection to challenge inflexibility in parents’ representations. The findings of this pilot project, with a community sample of Spanish- and English-speaking families, suggest this assessment as intervention model has the potential to promote an active process of change in parents’ representations toward a “disorderly,” or unstable state, possibly both in perceptions of self as caregiver and in representations of the child. Clinically, this disorderly state would be seen as an opportunity that could perpetuate the change process, recognizing disorderliness of representation as an opening, as emerging permeability of representations. Results indicate that this caregiver-clinician collaborative process is associated with caregiver reports of decreased distress, increased empathy for child’s difficulties, and changes in caregiver representations. A subset of families, caregivers who hold immutable views of their children, are less responsive to the developmental guidance approach and may require different or more long-term treatment.     

The relationship between employee attitudes and conflicting expectations for lying behavior

In this study, the author explores the relationship between conflicting ethical expectations for lying behavior and employee attitudes. In a sample of 140 full-time employees, the findings indicated that as the difference between formal codes of ethics and supervisor expectations for lying behavior increases, intentions to turnover and expressed feelings of intrapersonal role conflict increase, and job and organizational satisfaction and affective commitment decrease. However, conflicting ethical expectations were not significantly associated with a commitment to continue in the job.     

Examining the Relationship Between Conspiracy Theories,Paranormal Beliefs,and Pseudoscience Acceptance Among a University Population

Very little research has investigated whether believing in paranormal, conspiracy, and pseudoscientific claims are related, even though they share the property of having no epistemic warrant. The present study investigated the association between these categories of epistemically unwarranted beliefs. Results revealed moderate to strong positive correlations between the three categories of epistemically unwarranted beliefs, suggesting that believers in one type tended to also endorse other types. In addition, one individual difference measure, looking at differences in endorsing ontological confusions, was found to be predictive of both paranormal and conspiracy beliefs. Understanding the relationship between peoples' beliefs in these types of claims has theoretical implications for research into why individuals believe empirically unsubstantiated claims. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.