Dynamic valuation: Preference changes in the context of face-to-face negotiation

This experiment examines the dynamics of preference change in the context of face-to-face negotiation. Participants playing the role of “student” or “financial aid officer” exchanged proposals regarding the terms of a student loan. Consistent with dissonance theory, participants increased their liking for proposals they offered and/or ultimately accepted. The reactance theory prediction that participants would devalue proposals received from their opponents was confirmed for loan officers, but not for students. A pair of experimental manipulations involving the pre-rating of proposals and/or the opportunity for participants to engage in a brief discussion period prior to the initial exchange of offers mediated these effects, and influenced subsequent rates of agreement. Underlying attributional mechanisms and the implications of these findings for facilitating agreements are discussed.     

汉字阅读的语义神经回路及其与语音回路的协作机制

从神经网络的角度研究词汇阅读的大脑神经机制, 需要揭示语义和语音神经回路的动态协作机制, 而语义加工神经回路是探讨该问题的一个亟待解决的瓶颈问题。利用汉字表义的独特性, 以形旁语义作用的神经机制为切入点, 计划开展的4个fMRI实验拟探讨汉字阅读的语义神经回路及其与语音回路的动态协作机制。实验1利用多参数相关分析技术, 识别与汉字语义和语音属性相关的功能脑区; 实验2和实验3集中考察形旁语义加工的大脑神经机制, 深入探讨形旁语义作用的实质, 揭示汉字阅读中语义加工的神经回路; 实验4通过建构汉字阅读的动态因果模型, 考察在刺激驱动和任务调节下, 阅读相关脑区联结模式的动态变化, 阐明语义和语音神经回路的相互协作机制。研究结果将从跨语言的角度, 阐明阅读神经网络的内部动态机制, 为联结主义理论提供神经生理方面的直接证据; 并为基于脑科学的教育教学和阅读障碍矫治等实践应用提供理论依据。     

Motion planning strategies in human control of non-rigid objects with internal degrees of freedom

The paper deals with modeling of human-like reaching movements in dynamic environments. A simple but not trivial example of reaching in a dynamic environment is the rest-to-rest manipulation of a multi-mass flexible object with the elimination of residual vibrations. Two approaches to the prediction of reaching movements are formulated in position and force actuation settings. In the first approach, either the position of the hand or the hand force is specified by the lowest order polynomial satisfying the boundary conditions of the reaching task. The second approach is based on the minimization of either the hand jerk or the hand force-change, with taking into account the dynamics of the flexible object. To verify the resulting four mathematical models, an experiment on the manipulation of a ten-masses flexible object of low stiffness is conducted. The experimental results show that the second approach gives a significantly better prediction of human movements, with the minimum hand force-change model having a slight but consistent edge over the minimum hand jerk one.     

Using the model statement to elicit verbal differences between truth tellers and liars amongst Arab interviewees: A partial replication of Leal,Vrij, Deeb,and Jupe (2018)

Leal, Vrij, Deeb, and Jupe (2018) found—with British participants—that a model statement elicited (a) more information and (b) a cue to deceit: After exposure to a model statement, liars reported significantly more peripheral information than truth tellers. We sought to replicate these findings with Arabs living in Israel. Truth tellers and liars reported a stand‐out event that they had (truth tellers) or pretended to have (liars) experienced in the last 2 years. Half of the participants were given a model statement in the second phase of the interview. Replicating Leal et al. (2018a), (a) truth tellers reported more core details than liars initially and (b) a model statement resulted in more additional core and peripheral details in the second phase of the interview. Unlike in Leal et al. (2018a), a model statement did not have a differential effect on truth tellers in the current experiment.     

创伤事件的痛苦程度对创伤后成长的影响：核心信念挑战的作用

采用创伤事件终身经历问卷—学生版、核心信念量表、创伤后成长评定量表,对3所大学进行问卷调查,探索具体创伤事件痛苦程度与创伤后成长(PTG)的关系,并检验核心信念挑战在其中的中介作用。结果发现：(1)家人患病或死亡类的创伤事件痛苦程度可负向预测PTG,并以核心信念挑战为中介;(2)目睹他人或自身相关的创伤事件痛苦程度和自身受虐待类的创伤事件痛苦程度可正向预测PTG,并以核心信念挑战为中介;(3)自然灾害类的创伤事件痛苦程度和家庭冲突类的创伤事件痛苦程度与核心信念挑战和PTG都无显著相关。因此不同领域的创伤事件痛苦程度引发创伤后成长的可能性不同。     

Self-organizing individual differences in brain development

Brain development is self-organizing in that the unique structure of each brain evolves in unpredictable ways through recursive modifications of synaptic networks. In this article, I review mechanisms of neural change in real time and over development, and I argue that change at each of these time scales embodies principles of self-organizing systems. I demonstrate how corticolimbic configurations that emerge within occasions lay down synaptic structure across occasions, giving rise to individual trajectories that become entrenched with age. Emotions have a powerful influence on this process.This is because the neural processes mediating emotion consolidate patterns of activation across the brain, through their enhancement of inter-regional coordination in real time and their contribution to synaptic shaping over development. The loss of corticolimbic plasticity with age is an unfortunate fact of development, but it is compensated in part by transitional phases and individual learning experiences through which habits are modified or replaced. I emphasize variations in inter-systemic coupling as a key mediator of developing individual differences, and I discuss the acquisition of anxious/depressive appraisals as an example.     

Cognition as a dynamic system: Principles from embodiment

Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent results concerning the embodiment of cognition to argue for a dynamic systems approach. The embodiment hypothesis is the idea that intelligence emerges in the interaction of an organism with an environment and as a result of sensory-motor activity. The continual coupling of cognition to the world through the body both adapts cognition to the idiosyncrasies of the here and now, makes it relevant, and provides the mechanism for developmental change.     

The Refined Extension Principle for Semantics of Dynamic Logic Programming

Over recent years, various semantics have been proposed for dealing with updates in the setting of logic programs. The availability of different semantics naturally raises the question of which are most adequate to model updates. A systematic approach to face this question is to identify general principles against which such semantics could be evaluated. In this paper we motivate and introduce a new such principle the refined extension principle. Such principle is complied with by the stable model semantics for (single) logic programs. It turns out that none of the existing semantics for logic program updates, even though generalisations of the stable model semantics, comply with this principle. For this reason, we define a refinement of the dynamic stable model semantics for Dynamic Logic Programs that complies with the principle.     

The neuronal basis of bimanual coordination: recent neurophysiological evidence and functional models

Recent physiological studies of the neuronal processes underlying bimanual movements provide new tests for earlier functional models of bimanual coordination. The recently acquired data address three conceptual areas: the generalized motor program (GMP), intermanual crosstalk and dynamic systems models. To varying degrees, each of these concepts has aspects that can be reconciled with experimental evidence. The idea of a GMP is supported by the demonstration of abstract neuronal motor codes, e.g. bimanual-specific activity in motor cortex. The crosstalk model is consistent with the facts that hand-specific coding also exists and that interactions occur between the motor commands for each arm. Uncrossed efferent projections may underlie crosstalk on an executional level. Dynamic interhemispheric interactions through the corpus callosum may provide a high-level link at the parametric programming level, allowing flexible coupling and de-coupling. Flexible neuronal interactions could also underlie adaptive large-scale systems dynamics that can be formalized within the dynamic systems theory approach.

The correspondence of identified neuronal processes with functions of abstract models encourages the development of realistic computational models that can predict bimanual behavior on the basis of neuronal activity.     

Response to commentary on the multimodal treatment study of ADHD (MTA): mining the meaning of the MTA

In the December 2000 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, we published a set of papers presenting secondary analyses of the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), and R. A. Barkley (2000) provided a commentary. A critique of the design of the study (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999) was presented based on a theoretical perspective of a behavioral inhibition deficit that has been hypothesized as the core deficit of ADHD (R. A. Barkley, 1997). The commentary questioned the design and analysis of the MTA in terms of (1) the empirical criteria for selection of components of behavioral (Beh) intervention, (2) the effectiveness of the Beh intervention, (3) the methods for analyses at the group and individual level, (4) implications of the MTA findings for clinical practice, (5) the role of genetics in response to treatment, and (6) the lack of a nontreatment control group. In this response, we relate the content of the papers to the commentary, (1) by reviewing the selection criteria for the Beh treatment, as outlined by K. C. Wells, W. E. Pelham, et al. (2000), (2) by addressing the myth that the MTA Beh treatment was ineffective (Pelham, 1999), (3) by describing the use of analyses at the level of the individual participant, as presented by J. S. March et al. (2000) and W. E. Pelham et al. (2000) as well as elsewhere by J. M. Swanson et al. (2001) and C. K. Conners et al. (2001), (4) by relating some of the suggestions from the secondary analyses about clinically relevant factors such as comorbidity (as presented by J. S. March et al., 2000) and family and parental characteristics (as presented by B. Hoza et al., 2000, S. P. Hinshaw et al., 2000, and K. C. Wells, J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), (5) by discussing the statistical concept of heritability and the lack of a significant difference in the presence of ADHD symptoms in parents of the MTA families compared to parents in the classmate-control families (as presented by J. N. Epstein, et al., 2000), and (6) by acknowledging that an ethically necessary weakness of the MTA design is that it did not include a no-treatment control group. We discuss the use of secondary analyses to suggest how, when, and for what subgroups effectiveness of the Beh treatment may have been manifested. Finally, we invite others to use the large and rich data set that will soon be available in the public domain, to perform secondary analyses to mine the meaning of the MTA and to evaluate theories of ADHD and response to treatments.