Enhancing social relationships through positive psychology activities: a randomised controlled trial

Despite the robust relationship between well-being and social relationships, the latter has received little examination within positive psychology activities (PPAs). This study aimed to test whether kindness- and gratitude-based PPAs, through positive social interaction with peers, enhanced relationship satisfaction. Using a longitudinal randomised controlled design, 225 participants were assigned to one of three conditions (relationship-focused, self-focused or control) and completed measures of relationship satisfaction, social support and happiness on three occasions (baseline, post-intervention and six weeks). The experimental PPAs were relationship-focused (involving social interaction) or self-focused (no social interaction). Those who completed relationship-focused PPAs had greater increases in relationship satisfaction than the self-focused and active control activities at six-week follow-up. Additionally, only those in the relationship-focused condition felt their existing friendships had improved at intervention cessation. Regardless of participants’ initial levels of social support, the intervention effects remained. In conclusion, PPAs fostering social kindness and gratitude significantly strengthened relationship satisfaction.     

The role of procedural memory in grammar and numeracy skills

The objective of this study was to examine the contribution of procedural memory to grammar and numeracy skills, which both involve the manipulation of abstract patterns. Seventy-six typically developing children between 5 and 7 years of age were assessed on grammar with a past tense production task and a sentence comprehension task, on numeracy with a counting task and a calculation task, and on procedural memory with a serial reaction time task. Moderate correlations were found between the measures of grammar and numeracy. Moreover, 4 hierarchical linear regressions indicated that procedural memory was associated with calculation but not with counting or grammar skills when age and working memory were taken into account. These novel findings suggest that procedural memory may have a role to play in the development of some numeracy skills. Several possible explanations for the absence of contribution to grammar are considered.     

The effect of study modality on false recognition

A number of previous studies have shown that false recognition of critical items in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm is reduced when study items are presented visually rather than auditorily; however, this effect has not been uniformly demonstrated. We investigated three potential boundary conditions of the effect of study modality in false recognition. Experiments 1 and 2 showed no reduction in false recognition following visual study presentation when the yes-no recognition test was not preceded by a recall test. Experiment 3 showed that visual study presentation can reduce false recognition without a preceding recall test, if the recognition test uses remember-know instructions. The order of the recognition test items did not influence the effect of visual study presentation on false recognition in Experiment 1. In general, the data imply that distinctive processing at study can reduce false memory in recognition if the test demands draw attention to the dimension of distinctive processing.     

Direct perception in the intersubjective context

This paper, in opposition to the standard theories of social cognition found in psychology and cognitive science, defends the idea that direct perception plays an important role in social cognition. The two dominant theories, theory theory (TT) and simulation theory (ST), both posit something more than a perceptual element as necessary for our ability to understand others, i.e., to “mindread” or “mentalize.” In contrast, certain phenomenological approaches depend heavily on the concept of perception and the idea that we have a direct perceptual grasp of the other person’s intentions, feelings, etc. This paper explains precisely what the notion of direct perception means, offers evidence from developmental studies, and proposes a non-simulationist interpretation of the neuroscience of mirror systems.     

Examining cultural socialization within African American and European American households

This preliminary study explored the cultural socialization processes of 227 African American and European American parents of elementary schoolchildren. The Cultural Value Socialization Scales (K. M. Tyler, A. W. Boykin, C. M. Boelter, & M. L. Dillihunt, 2005) were used to garner parents' reports of their cultural value socialization activities at home. The scales contained written vignettes depicting persons involved in activity that reflected a specific cultural value. Ethnocultural values examined were communalism, verve, movement, and affect, and mainstream cultural values included individualism, competition, bureaucracy, and materialism. Regression analyses reveal that being an African American parent was predictive of competition and materialism scores. Race was not a significant predictor of the remaining cultural value socialization scores. Limitations to the study are discussed.     

On agency and body-ownership: phenomenological and neurocognitive reflections

The recent distinction between sense of agency and sense of body-ownership has attracted considerable empirical and theoretical interest. The respective contributions of central motor signals and peripheral afferent signals to these two varieties of body experience remain unknown. In the present review, we consider the methodological problems encountered in the empirical study of agency and body-ownership, and we then present a series of experiments that study the interplay between motor and sensory information. In particular, we focus on how multisensory signals interact with body representations to generate the sense of body-ownership, and how the sense of agency modulates the sense of body-ownership. Finally, we consider the respective roles of efferent and afferent signals for the experience of one's own body and actions, in relation to self-recognition and the recognition of other people's actions. We suggest that the coherent experience of the body depends on the integration of efferent information with afferent information in action contexts. Overall, whereas afferent signals provide the distinctive content of one's own body experience, efferent signals seem to structure the experience of one's own body in an integrative and coherent way.