Staying grounded? Applying the theory of planned behaviour to explore motivations to reduce air travel

Air travel has been highlighted as a key environmental behaviour contributing to climate change. Given this, there is a surprising lack of theory-based research aimed at identifying factors that underpin motivation to reduce the number of flights taken. This study explored whether an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model could be usefully applied to identify significant predictors of intentions to reduce the number of flights taken for leisure, holidays or to visit family or friends. Results supported the predictive utility of the TPB; the extended model was able to account for 52% of the variance in intentions over and above past behaviour and socio-demographic variables. Attitudes, subjective norms and behaviour-specific self-identity emerged as significant linear predictors. Findings support the utility of applying the TPB to air travel and suggest key variables which could be targeted in interventions to promote motivation to reduce the number of flights taken.     

Predicting intentions to text and call while driving using the theory of planned behaviour

There is extensive evidence that using a mobile phone while driving causes degradation in driving performance, and thereby results in reduced safety on the road. The present study examined intentions to use mobile phones while driving using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A total of 212 Ukrainian drivers (mean age = 35 years SD = 10 years; males = 82%) completed a survey that included measures of the TPB components related to intentions to send or read text messages or to make or receive handheld phone calls across two different scenarios; one where they were running late, and the other when they were not in a hurry. Measures of the frequency of mobile phone use were also collected. The results showed that 63% of the sample reported using a mobile phone while driving at least daily, with the most frequent types of usage being making and answering a phone call with a handheld device. The most consistent predictor of intentions to interact with a mobile phone while driving was having a positive attitude towards doing so. Perceived behavioural control was also significantly and positively associated with mobile phone use while driving, but only a small number of associations were found with subjective norms. Our results suggest that intentions to interact with mobile phones while driving may be context specific.     

Theory of mind: The state of the art*

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on theory of mind as a field (ToM), how it has developed over the years, and focally on the state of current research and theory. Having begun with preschoolers’ understanding of beliefs and desires, the field now includes research from infancy through late life, contributions and contributors from around the world, research on behavior, conversation, neural correlates, gene-environment contributions, evolution, and the social-behavioral antecedents and consequences of the unfolding trajectories of ToM understanding. Several topics in particular portray the current state of the art and my sense of where theory-of-mind research is likely to head in the near future: progressions of theory of mind achievement; cultural experiences plus experiential influences that shape developmental trajectories; developmental cognitive neuroscience; infant ToM insights; research on ToM developments beyond preschool, including children’s increasing interest in and wrestling with extraordinary minds, such as those of God and super-heroes.     

Effects of action planning and coping planning within the theory of planned behaviour: A physical activity study of patients undergoing haemodialysis

Objective

Patients on dialysis have low physical activity levels. The aim of the study was to examine the validity of action planning and coping planning within the theory of planned behaviour framework, for predicting physical activity behaviour of patients on haemodialysis.

Design

This is a prospective study design.

Methods

One hundred and forty-four patients who were undergoing haemodialysis were selected from dialysis centres. The mean age of the patients was 56.61 (SD = 11.38) years. The patients completed a questionnaire including variables from the theory of planned behaviour, action planning and coping planning. Physical activity was prospectively assessed at 4-weeks with the validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire self-report measure. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the effects of action planning and coping planning on physical activity behaviour.

Results

There was a main effect for coping planning but not for action planning. Moreover, the analyses resulted in a significant amount of incremental variance accounted for by the interaction of coping planning and intention.

Conclusion

Results suggest the combination of high levels of coping planning and intention is associated with increases in physical activity.     

3-9年级儿童能力观干预比较研究

摘要：Dweck研究提出,通过蕴含特定能力观的故事和表扬可以形成儿童相应的能力和目标取向。作者认为,随着儿童能力的自我意识发展,干预会产生不同的效果。本研究以3-9年级885名学生为被试,采取“天分”、“努力”、“无关”三组故事和“聪明”、“努力”、“潜能”、“不表扬”四种评价方式进行能力观干预,将目标得分变化作为干预效果的指标。实验结果显示了年龄和干预方式的交互作用效应,在一定程度上支持了Dweck的研究结论,验证并丰富了作者关于能力观干预发展性效应的设想。     

Why are there limits on theory of mind use? Evidence from adults' ability to follow instructions from an ignorant speaker

Keysar et al. (Keysar, Barr, Balin, & Brauner, 2000 Keysar, B., Barr, D. J., Balin, J. A. and Brauner, J. S. 2000. Taking perspective in conversation: The role of mutual knowledge in comprehension. Psychological Sciences, 11: 32–38. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Keysar, Lin, & Barr, 2003 Keysar, B., Lin, S. H. and Barr, D. J. 2003. Limits on theory of mind use in adults. Cognition, 89(1): 25–41. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) report that adults frequently failed to use their conceptual competence for theory of mind (ToM) in an online communication game where they needed to take account of a speaker's perspective. The current research reports 3 experiments investigating the cognitive processes contributing to adults' errors. In Experiments 1 and 2 the frequency of adults' failure to use ToM was unaffected by perspective switching. In Experiment 3 adults made more errors when interpreting instructions according to the speaker's perspective than according to an arbitrary rule. We suggest that adults are efficient at switching perspectives, but that actually using what another person knows to interpret what they say is relatively inefficient, giving rise to egocentric errors during communication.     

Belief attribution despite verbal interference

False-belief (FB) tasks have been widely used to study the ability of individuals to represent the content of their conspecifics' mental states (theory of mind). However, the cognitive processes involved are still poorly understood, and it remains particularly debated whether language and inner speech are necessary for the attribution of beliefs to other agents. We present a completely nonverbal paradigm consisting of silent animated cartoons in five closely related conditions, systematically teasing apart different aspects of scene analysis and allowing the assessment of the attribution of beliefs, goals, and physical causation. In order to test the role of language in belief attribution, we used verbal shadowing as a dual task to inhibit inner speech. Data on 58 healthy adults indicate that verbal interference decreases overall performance, but has no specific effect on belief attribution. Participants remained able to attribute beliefs despite heavy concurrent demands on their verbal abilities. Our results are most consistent with the hypothesis that belief attribution is independent from inner speech.     

What is “theory of mind”? Concepts,cognitive processes and individual differences

Research on “theory of mind” has traditionally focused on a narrow participant group (preschool children) using a narrow range of experimental tasks (most notably, false-belief tasks). Recent work has greatly expanded the age range of human participants tested to include human infants, older children, and adults, has devised new tasks, and has adopted methods from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. However, theoretical work has not kept pace with these changes, with the result that studies using one kind of method or participant group often inherit assumptions about the nature of theory of mind from other research, with little regard for whether these assumptions are appropriate. I argue that three distinct approaches to thinking about theory of mind are already implicit in research practice, and that future work, whether with infants, children, or adults, will benefit from articulating these approaches more clearly and following their different implications for what theory of mind is and how it should be studied.     

Social event segmentation

Humans are experts in understanding social environments. What perceptual and cognitive processes enable such competent evaluation of social information? Here we show that environmental content is grouped into units of “social perception”, which are formed automatically based on the attentional priority given to social information conveyed by eyes and faces. When asked to segment a clip showing a typical daily scenario, participants were remarkably consistent in identifying the boundaries of social events. Moreover, at those social event boundaries, participants' eye movements were reliably directed to actors' eyes and faces. Participants' indices of attention measured during the initial passive viewing, reflecting natural social behaviour, also showed a remarkable correspondence with overt social segmentation behaviour, reflecting the underlying perceptual organization. Together, these data show that dynamic information is automatically organized into meaningful social events on an ongoing basis, strongly suggesting that the natural comprehension of social content in daily life might fundamentally depend on this underlying grouping process.