Expectations,gains, and losses in the anterior cingulate cortex

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) participates in evaluating actions and outcomes. Little is known on how action-reward values are processed in ACC and if the context in which actions are performed influences this processing. In the present article, we report ACC unit activity of monkeys performing two tasks. The first task tested whether the encoding of reward values is context dependent—that is, dependent on the size of the other rewards that are available in the current block of trials. The second task tested whether unexpected events signaling a change in reward are represented. We show that the context created by a block design (i.e., the context of possible alternative rewards) influences the encoding of reward values, even if no decision or choice is required. ACC activity encodes the relative and not absolute expected reward values. Moreover, cingulate activity signals and evaluates when reward expectations are violated by unexpected stimuli, indicating reward gains or losses.     

The interplay between values,acculturation and adaptation: A study on Turkish‐Belgian adolescents

Although there is a bulk of evidence for the relations between values, acculturation, and adaptation, the interrelations between these key concepts of the acculturation literature have not yet been investigated simultaneously. The present study proposes a model connecting value orientations (separatedness and conformity) to adaptation outcomes (sociocultural and psychological). Furthermore, this link was hypothesized to be strengthened by an indirect relationship where acculturation strategies (culture maintenance and culture adoption) would relate certain values to certain aspects of adaptation. The model was tested on 287 Turkish‐Belgian adolescents with an average age of 16.27 years (SD = 1.86 years). SEM analysis confirmed the hypothesized indirect links underlining the crucial role of acculturation strategies as mediators in the adaptation process. Separatedness predicted sociocultural adaptation via culture adoption whereas conformity impacted psychological adaptation via culture maintenance. In addition, separatedness predicted poorer psychological adaptation. Results were discussed with reference to inverse benefits and costs of individualism and collectivism.     

Detecting Deceit in Pairs of Children1

This study examined adults’ ability to distinguish between truthful and deceptive pairs of children. Adult observers (N = 88) judged the veracity of one of 22 truthful or deceptive pairs of children (12–13 years). The children were interviewed separately about their real or imagined encounters with an unknown man. Analyses showed that the overall accuracy was 62.5%; significantly better than chance level of 50%. Deception detection accuracy was higher when watching both pair members than when watching one child. The analysis of self‐reported cues to deception given by observers showed that the consistency between the children's statements was the most frequent cue. An analysis of the actual consistency of children's statements showed significantly more contradictions in the deceptive statements.     

Dimensionality of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and its relationships with the Three-and the Five-factor personality models

We investigated the dimensionality of the French version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) using confirmatory factor analysis. We tested models of 1 or 2 factors. Results suggest the RSES is a 1-dimensional scale with 3 highly correlated items. Comparison with the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa, McCrae, & Rolland, 1998) demonstrated that Neuroticism correlated strongly and Extraversion and Conscientiousness moderately with the RSES. Depression accounted for 47% of the variance of the RSES. Other NEO-PI-R facets were also moderately related with self-esteem.     

A case study on human development and security: Madagascar's mining sector and conservation-induced displacement of populations

This case study introduces the QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) SA mining project at Fort-Dauphin, Madagascar, as a development project that has produced issues concerning justice. Although QMM appears to be a model company with a project that is seen as a success story, its consequent displacement of populations has been problematic in many respects, as have been the social effects that arise due to migration to the area by others who are attracted by the project. We suggest that the root of many of these problems is that the people to be displaced have played an insignificant role in forming the project itself: consultation has instead been centred on corporate, government and environmental NGO concerns and interests. Compensation for losses has been inadequate. As non-mining land has been set aside as an offset for the purpose of conservation, traditional livelihoods have been curtailed. A narrow and Western conception of natural conservation that forbids access by the people has ensued for lands that have been reserved for natural conservation purposes. We conclude that, in this case, an NGO-related policy of ‘neo-liberal conservation’ that is wedded to non-consultative development project design has denied displaced populations a fair share of project benefits and reduced their security.     

The Effects of Psycho-Education on the Health-Related Quality of life on Mastalgia Patients

Mastalgia has been accepted as an issue which highly affects the daily life. Our primary purpose in this study is to research the effects of the pain in a group of women with mastalgia not depending on the organic etiology of the quality of life. The second purpose of ours is to depict whether psycho-education has an effect on the pain and the quality of life in these patients. In order to research the effect of Mastalgia on the quality of life, the data of the whole study group have been compared with the Turkey standard data of SF-36 scale. A randomized pre–post intervention study was conducted in Adana Numune Hospital General Surgical Department. The study consists of 98 mastalgia patients who do not have any organic etiology. Psycho-education was given to randomly allocated 66 patients (Psycho-Education Group: PEG) and not given to the other 32 patients (Non-Psycho-Education Group: Non-PEG). The Visual Analog Skala (VAS) and the quality of life scale (SF-36) were applied to all patients. All invantories were re-applied 2 months later. When compared SF-36 subscale data of the whole patient group with the norm results of SF-36 determined for Turkey, the difference in the quality of life of all subscales except for physical function subscale was found statistically significant. While no difference was found between the PEG and Non-PEG for the whole subscales before psycho-education, the difference in the whole subscales after psycho-education was found statistically significant. After psycho-education the difference in the VAS scores between PEG and Non-PEG was found statistically significant. Our study has shown that mastalgia has a negative effect on the quality of life. This study has also revealed that psycho-education must be considered as an effective alternative to reducing pain and increasing the quality of life on mastalgia patients.     

Why are online games so self‐involving: A social identity analysis of massively multiplayer online role‐playing games

This article investigates the ways in which players of massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPGs) internalize being a player into their self‐concept. In accordance with the social identity framework, we assume that being a player and being a member of a guild within the game can both shape the social identity of members. In two studies, we survey players inside or outside the MMORPG. Players are interviewed either at an interguild comparison level or at the more inclusive level of MMORPG players. Study 1 (n = 84) reveals favoritism for the in‐group guild in a within‐game context, and Study 2 (n = 200) shows that valuation of and identification with the in‐group are moderated by the interview context and the level of category inclusion: Inside the game, the guild is more valued and identification is emphasized. In contrast, valuation of and identification with MMORPG players is not influenced by the interview context. Together, by examining both valuation and identification processes, this research reveals that playing online games may be self‐involving because being a player, but also being a member of a guild, directly contribute to the social identity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Breakup Adjustment in Young Adulthood

The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of young adults to adjust to the breakup of a romantic relationship by examining the possible predictors. The sample comprised 140 women and 143 men. Simultaneous regression analysis indicated that initiator status, existence of a new partner, certainty of the reasons for the breakup, and perceived social support were significant predictors and accounted for 18% of the variance in the measure of adjustment to breakup.     

Thought-Contents and the Formal Ontology of Sense

This paper articulates a formal theory of belief incorporating three key theses: (1) belief is a dyadic relation between an agent and a property; (2) this property is not the belief's truth condition (i.e., the intuitively self-ascribed property which the agent must exemplify for the belief to be true) but is instead a certain abstract property (a rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">thought-contentrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">) which contains a way of thinking of that truth condition; (3) for an agent a to have a belief rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">aboutrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> such-and-such items it is necessary that a possesses a language of thought, M _a , and that a (is disposed as one who) inwardly affirms a sentence of M _a in which there are terms that denote those objects.Employing an extended version of E. Zalta's system ILAO, the proffered theory locates thought-contents within a typed hierarchy of rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">sensesrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> and their rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">modes of presentationrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">, the provisional definitions of which (suppressing complications added later to accommodate the contents of beliefs about beliefs) are as follows. A mode of presentation of e is a ternary relation of the sort [rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge955.gif" alt="lambda" align="BASELINE" BORDER="0">xyz z is a name in M _y that denotes x, and D _e yz] in which D _e is an e-determiner – a relation between agents and their mental expressions imposing a syntactico-semantic condition sufficient for such an expression to denote e therein. A sense of an entity e is an abstract property that rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">containsrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> a mode of presentation R _e of e by dint of encoding its property-reduct [rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge955.gif" alt="lambda" align="BASELINE" BORDER="0">x(rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8707.gif" alt="exist" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">y)(rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8707.gif" alt="exist" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">z)R _e xyz]. In particular, a thought-content is a sense T of an ordinary first-order property P containing a mode of presentation whose P-determiner D _P is such that, for any y and z, D _P yz entails that z is a rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge955.gif" alt="lambda" align="BASELINE" BORDER="0">-abstract [ rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge955.gif" alt="lambda" align="BASELINE" BORDER="0"> v S] of M _y in which S is a sentence whose non-logical parts stand in appropriate semantic relations to the constituents of T's (some of which may themselves be senses).Where I _a is agent a's dedicated self-demonstrative and |T| is the mode of presentation contained in a thought-content T, the belief relation itself is then characterized as obtaining between a and T iff a( is disposed as one who) inwardly affirms the substitution instance S(I _a / v) of a sentence S in M _a such that |T|(P,a,[rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge955.gif" alt="lambda" align="BASELINE" BORDER="0"> v S]). The aforementioned rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">constituentsrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> and rc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8220.gif" alt="ldquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0">appropriate semantic relationsrc="/content/q0m768w18vj1w8r8/xxlarge8221.gif" alt="rdquo" align="MIDDLE" BORDER="0"> are formally characterized so as to permit a system of canonical descriptions for thought-contents of arbitrary complexity. These canonical descriptions are then employed to chart the nature and interrelations of belief de re, de dicto and de se and to identify the source of opacity in belief ascription.