Complex problem solving — More than reasoning?

This study investigates the internal structure and construct validity of Complex Problem Solving (CPS), which is measured by a Multiple-Item-Approach. It is tested, if (a) three facets of CPS - rule identification (adequateness of strategies), rule knowledge (generated knowledge) and rule application (ability to control a system) - can be empirically distinguished, how (b) reasoning is related to these CPS-facets and if (c) CPS shows incremental validity in predicting school grade point average (GPA) beyond reasoning. N = 222 university students completed MicroDYN, a computer-based CPS test and Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. Analysis including structural equation models showed that a 2-dimensionsal model of CPS including rule knowledge and rule application fitted the data best. Furthermore, reasoning predicted performance in rule application only indirectly through its influence on rule knowledge indicating that learning during system exploration is a prerequisite for controlling a system successfully. Finally, CPS explained variance in GPA even beyond reasoning, showing incremental validity of CPS. Thus, CPS measures important aspects of academic performance not assessed by reasoning and should be considered when predicting real life criteria such as GPA.     

Dynamics of identity development and separation–individuation in parent–child relationships during adolescence and emerging adulthood – A conceptual integration

Identity development and separation–individuation in parent–child relationships are widely perceived as related tasks of psychosocial maturation. However, a dynamic, developmental perspective that explains how intra-personal change in identity evolves from transactions between parents and children is not sufficiently represented in the literature. In this article, a selective literature review of psychological approaches to identity development and separation–individuation is presented with a focus on how the role of parents has been covered by approaches to identity development and on how general mechanisms of identity change could be filled with content by processes of separation–individuation. Afterwards, dynamics of identity development and separation–individuation are integrated based on the conceptualization of parents and children as two interrelated identity systems. Specifically, it is illustrated how interpersonal differences in long-term related changes in identity formation, identity evaluation, autonomy, and separateness and attachment between parents and children, could be explained by parent–child transactions in the transition between childhood and adolescence and between adolescence and emerging adulthood. Finally, implications of an integrative perspective for future empirical research are discussed.     

Contributions of dynamic systems theory to cognitive development

We examine the contributions of dynamic systems theory to the field of cognitive development, focusing on modeling using dynamic neural fields. After introducing central concepts of dynamic field theory (DFT), we probe empirical predictions and findings around two examples—the DFT of infant perseverative reaching that explains Piaget's A-not-B error and the DFT of spatial memory that explain changes in spatial cognition in early development. Review of the literature around these examples reveals that computational modeling is having an impact on empirical research in cognitive development; however, this impact does not extend to neural and clinical research. Moreover, there is a tendency for researchers to interpret models narrowly, anchoring them to specific tasks. We conclude on an optimistic note, encouraging both theoreticians and experimentalists to work toward a more theory-driven future.     

Time and again: Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy

Abstract

The author notes that in many of the settings in which Brief Therapy takes place that a client may return after the ending for a further series of sessions. Time-limited therapy has placed an emphasis upon the termination phase of the therapy and linked this to the process of individuation and separation. Such an approach, as articulated by Mann (1973 Mann, J. 1973. Time-limited psychotherapy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  [Google Scholar]), which draws conceptually from the work of Winnicott (1965 Winnicott, D. W. 1965. The maturational processes and the facilitating environment, London: Hogarth Press.  [Google Scholar]) and the notion that the infant achieves unit status from the original undifferentiated merger with the mother, is not easily compatible with Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy. The work of attachment theorists and Stern (1985 Stern, D. N. 1985. The interpersonal world of the infant, New York: Basic Books.  [Google Scholar]) provide an alternative basis upon which to conceive of the development of the infant. While emphasizing the importance of attending to affects at points of separation and ending, as is evidenced in the work of Della Selva (2004 Della, Selva P. C. 2004. Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy, London: Karnac.  [Google Scholar]), such a framework is more readily compatible with the development of Intermittent Therapy, and with the realities of the settings in which much brief work takes place. The author also comments upon the flexibility inherent in Winnicott's own practice of brief consultations, and the implications of this for the development of Intermittent Brief Dynamic Therapy. The paper includes a case study that illustrates this debate and which provides evidence for the therapeutic potency of a form of Brief Dynamic Intermittent Therapy where a dynamic focus maintains a structuring pattern to the narrative over a sequence of several periods of Brief Therapy, spread over a number of years.     

Anger superiority effect: The importance of dynamic emotional facial expressions

A rapid response to a threatening face in a crowd is important to successfully interact in social environments. Visual search tasks have been employed to determine whether there is a processing advantage for detecting an angry face in a crowd, compared to a happy face. The empirical findings supporting the “anger superiority effect” (ASE), however, have been criticized on the basis of possible low-level visual confounds and because of the limited ecological validity of the stimuli. Moreover, a “happiness superiority effect” is usually found with more realistic stimuli. In the present study, we tested the ASE by using dynamic (and static) images of realistic human faces, with validated emotional expressions having similar intensities, after controlling the bottom-up visual saliency and the amount of image motion. In five experiments, we found strong evidence for an ASE when using dynamic displays of facial expressions, but not when the emotions were expressed by static face images.     

When movement patterns turn into events: Implications for the recognition of spatial configurations from different viewpoints

In the present paper, we examine the spatial representation of dynamic scenes. Particularly, we focus on the question whether recognition performance is viewpoint dependent or viewpoint invariant. In two experiments, the processing of events with regard to their spatial dimension was investigated. Dynamic scenes were varied in a manner that either retained or suppressed their event characteristics. It could be shown that the meaningful variant of the scene led to a viewpoint independent recognition performance, whereas the meaningless variant led to a viewpoint dependent recognition performance. Taken together, the experiments demonstrate that the event character of dynamic scenes enables viewers to encode the scene in a highly economic way and, therefore, has profound implications for the quality of spatial representation in terms of its abstract, viewpoint independent character.     

An Investigation of the Dynamic Processes Promoting Citizen Participation

This study expanded the citizen participation literature by examining the dynamic nature of citizen participation and the extent to which the factors associated with citizen participation may be moderated by resident leadership status. Longitudinal survey data collected from 542 residents in one small Midwestern city implementing a community change initiative provide some insight into the challenges surrounding the promotion of an active citizenry. Within this one community, citizenship behaviors of emergent resident leaders and residents uninterested in a leadership role were influenced, to some extent, by different factors and the importance of these factors shifted in only a 2 years time span. Future research is needed to determine if the dynamics uncovered in this study were due to the initiative or to the nature of citizen participation processes.     

Electrophysiological correlates of processes supporting memory for faces

The retrieval processes supporting recognition memory for faces were investigated using event-related potentials (ERPs). The focus for analyses was ERP old/new effects, which are the differences between neural activities associated with correct judgments to old (studied) and new (unstudied) test stimuli. In two experiments it was possible to identify three old/new effects that behaved as neural indices of the process of recollection. In both experiments there was one old/new effect that behaved as an index of the process of familiarity. These outcomes are relevant to the ongoing debate about the functional significance of ERP old/new effects and the implications that scalp-recorded electrophysiological data have for theories of the processes supporting long-term memory judgments.     

A dynamic view of cultural influence: A review

Static models of culture's influence have given way to a dynamic view, which identifies not only differences across cultures in people's judgments and decisions, but also the situations and conditions in which these differences do or do not appear. Theory and evidence developed from a cognitive psychological perspective underlie this dynamic approach, including research emerging from the “dynamic constructivist” and “situated cognition” models. In the present review, we focus on findings that confirm the utility of this cognitively oriented approach, and briefly discuss the advantages and complementary nature of the “social collective” and neuroscience approaches to understanding culture.