When is one head better than two? Interdependent information in group decision making

Research on information exchange in group decision making has frequently assumed that information items have independent meanings. Relaxing this assumption raises new issues and presents new possibilities. In the experiment presented here, dyads worked on hidden profile decision tasks in which pairs of unshared information items had interdependent meanings. Dyad decisions were more likely to be accurate when each pair of interdependent items was allocated to a single member (a “connected” hidden profile) than when each pair of interdependent items was separated between the two members (a “disconnected” hidden profile). These information distributions influenced the degree to which dyads considered unshared information. Cognitive load was manipulated, and it impaired decision makers’ ability to identify connections among interdependent information items. The differentiated distribution of information inherent in transactive memory systems moderated the negative effects of cognitive load on dyad decisions.     

Functional role theories of representation and content explanation: with a case study from spatial cognition

The aim of this paper is to show that the widespread opinion, according to which functional role theories of representation fail to account for content explanations of human and animal behaviour, cannot be confirmed with respect to each type of functional role theory. Functional resemblance theories (as referred to by O’Brien and Opie in Representation in mind, Elsevier, 2004) allow for content explanations of successfully performed cognitive abilities as much as for explanations of systematic errors resulting from misrepresentation. How functional roles do their explanatory work in actual scientific research examples is shown by a detailed exploration of model assumptions about homing performances based on path integration mechanisms in humans and animals.

Explanation and categorization: How “why?” informs “what?”

Recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that explanation and categorization are intimately related. This paper explores the hypothesis that explanations can help structure conceptual representations, and thereby influence the relative importance of features in categorization decisions. In particular, features may be differentially important depending on the role they play in explaining other features or aspects of category membership. Two experiments manipulate whether a feature is explained mechanistically, by appeal to proximate causes, or functionally, by appeal to a function or goal. Explanation type has a significant impact on the relative importance of features in subsequent categorization judgments, with functional explanations reversing previously documented effects of ‘causal status’. The findings suggest that a feature’s explanatory importance can impact categorization, and that explanatory relationships, in addition to causal relationships, are critical to understanding conceptual representation.     

CHANGES IN BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE DURING FIXED‐INTERVAL RESPONDING IN SQUIRREL MONKEYS

Episodic and sustained increases in heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure can occur with recurring patterns of schedule‐controlled behavior. Most previous studies were conducted under fixed‐ratio schedules, which maintained a consistent high rate of responding that alternated with periods of no responding during times when the schedule was not in operation. The present study examined changes in heart rate and blood pressure under fixed‐interval schedules which maintained a range of rates that varied from little or no responding at the beginning of the fixed interval to high rates at the end of the interval. The relations of cardiovascular function to rate of responding were examined. Squirrel monkeys prepared with arterial catheters were trained to respond under fixed‐interval schedules of electric‐shock presentation. The duration of the interval was varied across sessions and cardiovascular parameters were examined. Local rates of responding were typically near zero during timeout periods, low at the beginning of each fixed‐interval cycle, and then increased as the fixed interval progressed. At most schedule durations, arterial blood pressure and heart rate levels were lowest at the beginning of the interval cycles, increased as the rate of responding increased, and then decreased during the timeout periods. At all parameters studied, there was a direct relationship between changes in response rate within fixed‐interval cycles and changes in heart rate and blood pressure. The results suggest that a much closer concordance of these cardiovascular parameters and schedule‐controlled responding is obtained by examining ongoing behavior as it occurs within the contingencies by which it is maintained.     

Developmental shifts in fMRI activations during visuospatial relational reasoning

To investigate maturational plasticity of fluid cognition systems, functional brain imaging was undertaken in healthy 8-19 year old participants while completing visuospatial relational reasoning problems similar to Raven's matrices and current elementary grade math textbooks. Analyses revealed that visuospatial relational reasoning across this developmental age range recruited activations in the superior parietal cortices most prominently, the dorsolateral prefrontal, occipital-temporal, and premotor/supplementary cortices, the basal ganglia, and insula. There were comparable activity volumes in left and right hemispheres for nearly all of these regions. Regression analyses indicated increasing activity predominantly in the superior parietal lobes with developmental age. In contrast, multiple anterior neural systems showed significantly less activity with age, including dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal, paracentral, and insula cortices bilaterally, basal ganglia, and particularly large clusters in the midline anterior cingulate/medial frontal cortex, left middle cingulate/supplementary motor cortex, left insula-putamen, and left caudate. Findings suggest that neuromaturational changes associated with visuospatial relational reasoning shift from a more widespread fronto-cingulate-striatal pattern in childhood to predominant parieto-frontal activation pattern in late adolescence.     

Brain mechanisms associated with background monitoring of the environment for potentially significant sensory events

Background monitoring is a necessary prerequisite to detect unexpected changes in the environment, while being involved in a primary task. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the neural mechanisms that underlie adaptive goal-directed behavior in a cued task switching paradigm during real response conflict or, more generally, when expectations on the repetitive features of the environment were violated. Unexpected changes in sensory stimulus attributes in the currently unattended stimulus dimension thereby led to activations in a bilateral network comprising inferior lateral frontal, intraparietal, and posterior medial frontal brain regions, independent of whether these attributes elicited a factual response conflict or not. This fronto-parietal network may thus play an important role in adaptive responding to potentially significant events outside the current focus of attention.     

Associations Among Anxiety Disorders and Non-anxiety Disorders,Functional Impairment and Medication in Children and Adolescents

This is a study of comorbid anxiety disorders and how they affect the clinical picture of comorbid cases. The sample consisted of 576 Spanish children aged 8 to 17 years receiving psychiatric outpatient consultation that were evaluated using a semi-structured diagnostic interview for both parents and children. A specific association of homotypic comorbidity among anxiety disorders that was independent of the presence of other disorders was found. There was heterotypic comorbidity between anxiety and depressive disorders, ADHD, anorexia and tic disorders. Relationships between non-anxiety disorders were, in general, independent of anxiety, but anxiety moderated the relationship between ADHD-Conduct disorder and Conduct disorder-enuresis. Comorbid anxiety increased difficulties in social interaction, was related with higher global impairment and had an impact on consultation and medication. Anxiety disorder comorbidity should be well recognized in order not to disregard the treatment of all present disorders.     

The Multidimensional Media Influence Scale: Confirmatory factor structure and relationship with body dissatisfaction among African American and Anglo American children

The Multidimensional Media Influence Scale (MMIS; Cusumano & Thompson, 2001). Media influence and body image in 8–11-year-old boys and girls: A preliminary report on the multidimensional media influence scale. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 29, 37–44) is a child-appropriate, 3-factor scale designed to assess perceived media influence on body image. It has been used in studies exploring the relationship between the entire scale as well as its subscales (awareness, internalization, and pressure) and variables related to body image. However, the 3-factor structure of the scale has never been confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), nor has the scale been evaluated with a racially diverse sample of children. This paper reports the results of CFAs establishing the multidimensionality of the scale and the unidimensionality of its subscales among a sample of 661 girls and boys aged 7–12 years, primarily African American and Anglo American. The pressure factor of the MMIS predicted the idealization of a thinner current (child) and future (adult) body both cross-sectionally and one year later for girls and for Anglo American children.     

胜任力和应对策略对教师职业压力的影响

采用中学教师胜任力问卷、教师职业压力应对问卷和职业压力量表对262名中学教师进行测查,并通过结构方程模型考察应对策略在胜任力和职业压力之间的中介作用。结果表明:(1)主科教师和理科教师的职业压力显著高于副科教师的职业压力;(2)应对策略是胜任力抑制职业压力的有效中介变量;(3)积极应对和消极应对的完全中介效应是不同的,前者小于后者。