Developmental changes in children's understanding of future likelihood and uncertainty

Two measures assessed 4-10-year-olds’ and adults’ (N = 201) understanding of future likelihood and uncertainty. In one task, participants sequenced sets of event pictures varying by one physical dimension according to increasing future likelihood. In a separate task, participants rated characters’ thoughts about the likelihood of future events, their emotions, and their decisions in indeterminate social situations. Results showed significant development between ages 4 and 10 in seriating events according to future likelihood and in selecting thought and emotion ratings indicative of future uncertainty. Higher performance on the future likelihood ordering task correlated with greater understanding of future uncertainty in thought, emotion, and decision judgments. Females judged future events to be more uncertain than males.     

Personal attitudes toward time: The relationship between temporal focus,space‐time mappings and real life experiences

What influences how people implicitly associate “past” and “future” with “front” and “back?” Whereas previous research has shown that cultural attitudes toward time play a role in modulating space‐time mappings in people's mental models (de la Fuente, Santiago, Román, Dumitrache & Casasanto, 2014), we investigated real life experiences as potential additional influences on these implicit associations. Participants within the same single culture, who are engaged in different intermediate‐term educational experiences (Study 1), long‐term living experiences (Study 2), and short‐term visiting experiences (Study 3), showed their distinct differences in temporal focus, thereby influencing their implicit spatializations of time. Results across samples suggest that personal attitudes toward time related to real life experiences may influence people's space‐time mappings. The findings we report on shed further light on the high flexibility of human conceptualization system. While culture may exert an important influence on temporal focus, a person's conceptualization of time may be attributed to a culmination of factors.     

小学生调节聚焦对生活满意度的影响:压力应对方式的中介作用

采用调节聚焦问卷、压力应对方式问卷和生活满意度问卷对北京市五所学校1174名小学生进行调查, 考察调节聚焦对小学生压力应对方式、生活满意度的影响, 并检验应对方式在调节聚焦和生活满意度之间的中介作用。结果发现:(1)促进定向对小学生生活满意度有显著正向预测作用, 预防定向对生活满意度有显著负向预测作用;(2)积极应对和促进定向更相关, 消极应对和预防定向更相关;(3)积极应对在促进定向和生活满意度之间起着完全中介的作用, 积极应对、消极应对均在预防定向和生活满意度之间起着部分中介的作用。     

Motivations for promotion and prevention and the role of trust and commitment in interpersonal forgiveness

Granting forgiveness demands self-regulation. Distinct modes of self-regulation might therefore produce distinct routes to forgiveness. Self-regulation focused on advancement (or promotion) could motivate forgiveness through the perceived benefits to be attained by repairing a relationship, i.e., one’s trust that a partner will provide such benefits rather than further betrayal. In contrast, self-regulation focused on security (or prevention) could motivate forgiveness through the perceived costs of further relationship deterioration, i.e., one’s commitment to maintain a relationship upon which one depends and protect against the loss of this relationship. These hypotheses were supported across two studies that: (a) measured and manipulated promotion-focused versus prevention-focused self-regulation, (b) included real and imagined offenses in casual and close relationships, and (c) assessed forgiveness immediately following an offense and after a two-week delay. Trust in a relationship partner more strongly predicted forgiveness among promotion-focused individuals, whereas commitment to this partner more strongly predicted forgiveness among prevention-focused individuals.     

控制幻觉的研究方法、形成机制和影响因素

控制幻觉是指在完全不可控或部分不可控的情境下, 个体由于不合理地高估自己对环境或事件结果的控制力而产生的一种判断偏差。控制幻觉普遍存在于博彩游戏、医疗保健、心理健康、投资决策等实践领域。控制幻觉的研究方法主要包括间接测量方法、自我报告方法和实验室任务方法。控制启发式理论和调节定向理论则对控制幻觉的产生原因进行了解释。控制幻觉的影响因素包括人格因素、动机、权力、反馈、事件与个体的关联性、指导语等。未来的研究可从控制幻觉的多变量及交互作用研究、跨文化研究、调控策略研究等方面做进一步探讨。     

重读与信息结构对语篇理解加工的影响

该研究利用口语动窗技术和双重任务范式,探索了重读与信息结构的匹配关系对语篇理解加工的影响、以及其发挥作用的内部机制。结果表明：与控制条件相比,不一致性重读阻碍语篇的理解加工,而一致性重读对语篇理解的促进作用相对不明显;重读促进焦点词汇的加工,而不重读促进非焦点词汇的加工,从而说明重读影响语篇理解不仅仅是由于它能调控听者的注意力分配,更重要的是重读的有无传达着不同的信息加工方式。     

修饰语的焦点和重音对话语理解的影响

本研究分别采用韵律合适度判断和理解任务,通过两个实验探讨修饰语的焦点和重音之间的关系对话语理解的影响。实验通过操纵答句中的论元是否出现在问句中,变化问句的信息状态;通过操纵答句的不同句子成份重读,变化答句的重读位置。实验结果发现：新的修饰语重读,旧的修饰语不重读;修饰语不投射焦点,即修饰语重读不将焦点投射到修饰语的中心语上。     

What's to Fear from Immigrants? Creating an Assimilationist Threat Scale

We argue that cultural threat, stressed in recent studies of anti-immigrant sentiment, is properly measured in the U.S. case as "assimilationist threat": a resentful perception that immigrants are failing to adopt the cultural norms and lifestyle of their new homeland. We explore the meaning and form of assimilationist threat in the minds of Americans through an analysis of four focus groups, two in Los Angeles, CA, and two in Columbus, OH. Using information from the focus groups, we develop and test a set of survey questions covering three dimensions of immigrants' commitment to their new country: language, productivity, and citizenship. We produce a summary scale of assimilationist threat that can be used by other researchers seeking to understand the causes and consequences of anti-immigrant sentiment.     

长时记忆中目标信息的即时性通达

采用移动窗口技术和探测词再认技术,探讨文本阅读过程中长时记忆中目标信息的即时性通达。实验1探讨当原目标尚未实现,新目标处于活跃状态,进入长时记忆的未实现的原目标是否对当前阅读产生影响。实验2探讨当原目标已经实现,新目标处于活跃状态,进入长时记忆的已实现的原目标是否对当前阅读产生影响。本实验结果初步证明,在含有目标信息的文本阅读中,未实现的原目标信息和已实现的目标信息都处于活跃状态,一旦出现与原目标焦点有关的信息,就会被通达与当前的信息进行整合,只是已实现的目标信息比未实现的目标信息通达的程度低。     

Attention,mindwandering, and mood

We tested the hypothesis that mindwandering and external distraction are both manifestations of a common state of reduced attention focus, and examined how both relate to reported level of happiness. We conducted real-time sampling of people’s experience of mindwandering, irrelevant distraction (e.g. by music, phone, etc.), and happiness levels, in two studies with 524 people undertaking common daily-life activities. All irrelevant external distractions were positively correlated with mindwandering. Indeed mindwandering duration could be predicted from the reported duration of external distraction, when controlling for a range of background variables. An exploratory factor analysis of mindwandering and distraction reports suggested a single underlying construct. In addition, duration of irrelevant distraction by both mobile phones and mindwandering was significantly associated with reduced reported levels of happiness. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that that a state of reduced attention focus underlies both mindwandering and distractibility and clarify the link with happiness.