初中生核心自我评价在班级环境和学业压力之间的中介作用——性别的调节作用

为考察初中生的核心自我评价在班级环境和学业压力之间的中介作用及此作用在不同性别群体中的差异性,对北京市四所初中697名初一到初三的学生进行了班级地图量表、中学生学习压力问卷、核心自我评价量表的测查。结果表明：（1）总体班级环境不存在显著性别差异,但女生在学业自我决定上具有小效应量的显著优势,男生的学业压力显著高于女生,核心自我评价不存在显著性别差异;（2）班级环境中的师生关系和班级行为自控可以显著预测学业压力,两者共同解释学业压力12%的变异;（3）男生和女生的核心自我评价在班级环境和学业压力间均起完全中介作用;（4）女生群体中核心自我评价的中介作用显著高于男生群体,说明性别对此中介效应存在调节作用。最后对核心自我评价在班级环境和学业压力之间的中介机制及其对女生群体的重要意义等进行了讨论。     

高中生羞怯与学校适应:一个有调节的中介模型

目的:探讨羞怯对高中生学校适应的影响机制。方法:采用中学生羞怯量表、学校适应问卷、核心自我评价量表、自我关注量表对山东省1770名高中生进行调查。结果:①羞怯不仅能直接负向预测高中生的学校适应,还能通过核心自我评价进而影响其学校适应; ②自我关注在中介模型的后半路径起到调节作用。     

Consciousness in a multilevel architecture: What causes the lateralization of effective connectivity under resting state?

Here we present our answers to a critical commentary by Elkhonon Goldberg on our recent publication (Velichkovsky et al., 2018). To avoid discussions about novelty effects in the human brain activity and memory processes, we narrowed down this response to a reanalysis of our data along the lines proposed in the commentary, namely to comparing the effective links between symmetrical brain structures during the first and the last parts of a prolonged resting-state fMRI experiment. We also tested for sex differences in our results and checked for a stability of top-down interactions during the course of experiment because learning is often expressed in the weakening of upper level control over low-level mechanisms. Our attempts to test the predictions based on the novelty hypothesis has led to mixed results suggesting that the discovered right-to-left dominance of causal connections at rest may have a deeper origin than supposed in the Goldberg’s commentary.     

Mimic automata: A novel formal model for mimic computing

In this paper, we aim to establish a mathematical model for mimic computing. To this end, we present a novel automaton called a mimic automaton. First, a one-dimensional cellular automaton is used for expressing some dynamic changes in the structure of a computing unit, a sequential automaton is employed to describe some state transitions, a hierarchical automaton is employed to express the different granularities of some computing units, and a probabilistic automaton is used to depict some random changes of a computing unit. Second, a mimic automaton is obtained by combining the various types of automata mentioned above in a certain logical relationship. Compared with the existing models of mimic computing, the new model portrays the operational semantics for a mimic computing system, and it can directly describe the behaviors of a system. Furthermore, the new model possesses a stronger generality.     

Old Foundations for the Logic of Agency and Action

The paper presents an infinite hierarchy of sound and complete axiomatic systems for Two-Dimensional Modal Tense Logic with Historical Necessity, Agents and Acts. A main novelty of these logics is their capacity to represent formally (i) basic action-sentences asserting that such and such an act is performed/omitted by an agent, as well as (ii) causative action-sentences asserting that by performing/omitting a certain act, an agent causes that such and such a state-of-affairs is realized (e.g. comes about/ceases/remains/remains absent). We illustrate how the formal machinery of our systems can be used to reconstruct a number of interesting ideas in the Logic of Agency and Action that have been proposed by authors like von Wright, von Kutschera, Belnap and Segerberg.     

The dynamic framework of mind wandering revisited: How mindful meta-awareness affects mental states’ constraints

The dynamic framework of mind wandering (Christoff, Irving, Fox, Spreng, & Andrews-Hanna, 2016) is reviewed and modified through integrating the construct of mindful meta-awareness. The dynamic framework maintains that mind wandering belongs to a family of spontaneous thought phenomena. The key defining feature of mind wandering is ‘spontaneity’ which characterizes the dynamic nature of thoughts in the framework. The argument is made that incorporating the mindful meta-awareness construct modifies the dynamic framework as follows: (1) the framework’s criteria for mind wandering do not hold anymore as meta-awareness changes the relationship between thoughts and constraints, and (2) lucid dreaming can be categorized as unguided thought while at the same time being dependent on deliberate constraints. Finally, the application of this modified framework will be discussed in terms of the treatment of mental disorders related to spontaneous thought alterations, in particular depression and nightmares.     

Against the odds: human values arising in unfavourable circumstances elicit the feeling of being moved

People sometimes say they are “moved” or “touched” by something. Although the experience is familiar to most, systematic research on being moved has just begun. The current research aims to advance our understanding of the prototypical elicitors of being moved. We tested the hypothesis that being moved is elicited by core values (i.e. values that are particularly central to being human) that manifest themselves in circumstances that are unfavourable to their emergence. In three experiments, two with text stimuli and one with pictorial stimuli, we found compelling evidence that the same core value (e.g. love, willpower, beauty) is perceived as more moving when it emerges in unfavourable than in favourable circumstances. The effect was found in both males and females, although stronger in the latter group, and across all investigated core values, although love was generally more moving than other core values. The theoretical and practical significance of these findings is discussed.     

Dynamic traffic management on a familiar road: Failing to detect changes in variable speed limits

Variable speed limits (VSL) are used more commonly around the globe lately. Although on a macroscopic level positive effects of VSLs have been reported, the caveat is that the impact of VSLs is very sensitive to the level of driver compliance. Thus far it is unknown whether all individual drivers are actually able to notice when a speed limit changes into another speed limit; a prerequisite for purposeful speed limit compliance in the first place. To simulate regular driving conditions, twenty-four participants were familiarised with a particular route by driving the same route in a driving simulator nineteen times on five separate days. Part of the route consisted of a motorway where VSL signs were regularly displayed above every driving lane. At drive nineteen, speed limits changed from 80 km/h to 100 km/h on four out of eight consecutive signs. After passing all signs, one expects 6.25% of the participants still to be unaware that the speed limit had increased (based on chance), while the results showed most participants had failed to notice the speed limit change (58.3%). Instead, they saw what they expected to see: a speed limit of 80 km/h. If the speed change had been vice versa, in other words from 100 km/h to 80 km/h, this would immediately result in speed offences, though not deliberately at all.