Withdrawal Aversion and the Equivalence Test

If a doctor is trying to decide whether or not to provide a medical treatment, does it matter ethically whether that treatment has already been started? Health professionals sometimes find it harder to stop a treatment (withdraw) than to refrain from starting the treatment (withhold). But does that feeling correspond to an ethical difference? In this article, we defend equivalence—the view that withholding and withdrawal of treatment are ethically equivalent when all other factors are equal. We argue that preference for withholding over withdrawal could represent a form of cognitive bias—withdrawal aversion. Nevertheless, we consider whether there could be circumstances in which there is a moral difference. We identify four examples of conditional nonequivalence. Finally, we reflect on the moral significance of diverging intuitions and the implications for policy. We propose a set of practical strategies for helping to reduce bias in end-of-life decision making, including the equivalence test.     

语音象征的产生机制：基于敏感期的先天后天作用模型

Bouba-Kiki效应(简称BK效应)指语音和形状特征之间的映射关系。针对BK效应的产生机制,先天论和后天论之间争论激烈。先天论的观点认为人们对语音象征的敏感性是出生时便存在的一种语言机制。而后天论的观点则强调语音象征是语言经验的产物。上述理论均获得大量研究证据的支持,且均无法完全否定对方。这表明,上述理论可能均未完整揭示语音象征的产生机制。鉴于此,针对BK效应的产生机制,梳理先天论与后天论的支持证据,并率先提出语言相关的BK效应敏感期假设。同时,梳理了支持BK效应敏感期的初步研究证据及可能的影响因素。进而,以语言相关的BK效应敏感期假设为基础,提出语音象征产生的先天后天相互作用模型,以整合以往研究中的矛盾。最后,展望了语音象征的未来研究进展和方向。     

Motivated but not engaged: The implicit achievement motive requires difficult or unclear task difficulty conditions to exert an impact on effort

Integrating the achievement motive literature and motivational intensity theory, we expected the implicit achievement motive (nAch) to directly determine effort mobilization when task difficulty is unclear. However, nAch should interact with task difficulty in determining effort mobilization when task difficulty is clear. Participants worked on an easy versus difficult memory task (Study 1) or a clear versus unclear arithmetic task (Study 2). We used the Picture-Story-Exercise to assess nAch and pre-ejection period (PEP) to operationalize effort. As predicted, PEP reactivity was strong in the difficult-high-nAch condition and in the unclear-high-nAch condition but low in the other three conditions. Supporting motivational intensity theory, our results showed that nAch requires difficult or unclear task conditions to exert a noticeable impact on effort.     

Embodied Critical Realism

Christian Smith's What Is a Person? provides an account of the person from the perceptive of critical realism. As a fellow critical realist, I support that philosophical position and in this response I seek to support it by connecting it to the embodied realism developed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. In order to bring the two forms of realism together, I critique both the relativism of embodied realism and the idea, found in Smith, that the person's awareness of the world is mediated by her experience. The goal of this paper, then, is an embodied critical realism, a more coherent realist position that combines the best parts of each.     

Cognitive biases in processing infant emotion by women with depression,anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in pregnancy or after birth: A systematic review

Perinatal psychological problems such as post-natal depression are associated with poor mother–baby interaction, but the reason for this is not clear. One explanation is that mothers with negative mood have biased processing of infant emotion. This review aimed to synthesise research on processing of infant emotion by pregnant or post-natal women with anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Systematic searches were carried out on 11 electronic databases using terms related to negative affect, childbirth and perception of emotion. Fourteen studies were identified which looked at the effect of depression, anxiety and PTSD on interpretation of infant emotional expressions (k = 10), or reaction times when asked to ignore emotional expressions (k = 4). Results suggest mothers with depression and anxiety are more likely to identify negative emotions (i.e., sadness) and less accurate at identifying positive emotions (i.e., happiness) in infant faces. Additionally, women with depression may disengage faster from positive and negative infant emotional expressions. Very few studies examined PTSD (k = 2), but results suggest biases towards specific infant emotions may be influenced by characteristics of the traumatic event. The implications of this research for mother–infant interaction are explored.     

On the importance of critical thinking: A response to Wulf's (2015) commentary

In a recent paper (Toner & Moran, 2015), we argued that continued improvement among elite athletes requires alternation between external and internal foci of attention. In her commentary on this paper, Wulf (2015) claims that we have misunderstood the ‘attentional focus’ effect. Our rejoinder has three objectives. Firstly, we critically evaluate Wulf's arguments and counter her false allegations and spurious reasoning. Secondly, we explain our concerns about certain aspects of attentional focusing research. Finally, we propose that in order to explore the dynamic nature of attentional focusing, we need to go beyond restrictive theoretical dichotomies (e.g., “internal” versus “external” processes) using new approaches.     

Response interference under near-concurrent presentation of safety and non-safety information

The growing advent of Connected Vehicle Systems (CVS) is changing the information environment within the vehicle cab. As vehicles add the capability to receive data from the road infrastructure or share data with other vehicles, there is an expanding amount of safety and non-safety information from these systems with which the driver must contend. The information processing demands for the driver may become more complex, especially under conditions that present multiple information signals to the driver at the same time. To manage this complexity, the design of CVS will need to incorporate information management functions to prioritize information so as to be compatible with the processing capacity of the driver. The objective of this research was to examine the potential interference effect of non-safety critical information on driver responses to near concurrent, critical safety warnings. The study design was based on theory and evidence that there is a “bottle neck” in a human’s central processing of information, such that the processing of early signals (S1) in the environment may delay the response to a later signal (S2) until such time as the response to the first stimulus has been initiated. The results of the study suggest that there is the possibility that near concurrent presentation of safety and non-safety critical information may generate interference effects, but the combination of signal parameters (modality, timing) that are most likely to create this interference may be infrequent in most real world conditions. Future research should focus on the specific parameters that increase the probability of such interference. Such research would then provide a better estimate of the potential frequency of this interference and also guide the formulation of design guidelines to minimize this potential.     

马克思的意识形态批判理论

马克思的意识形态批判理论是历史唯物主义的重要组成部分，也是国内外学术界争论的热点问题，本文探讨的是马克思的意识形态概念，意识形态批判理论的内容：哲学向度和政治经济学向度，以及马克思意识形态批判理论的问题领域。