Psychological individual differences as predictors of refugees’ local language proficiency

Learning the local language is important for the successful integration of immigrants. Previous research has identified a number of sociodemographic factors that are associated with the effectiveness of local language acquisition among immigrants, but little is known about the influence of psychological differences on immigrants’ local language acquisition. In the present research, individual differences in general mental ability (GMA), work search intention, and personality traits Conscientiousness and Openness were studied among recently arrived Syrian (n = 1054) and Eritrean (n = 500) refugees in the Netherlands. The results revealed that in addition to the effects of age of arrival, local length of stay, premigration educational attainment, and psychological distress, GMA and work search intention were positively associated with refugees’ local language proficiency. Additionally, work search intention was found to strengthen the effect of GMA on local language proficiency. No positive linear effects were observed for Conscientiousness and Openness. Some evidence was found for curvilinear relationships between psychological predictors and local language proficiency. Implications are discussed.     

Leibniz Filters Revisited

Leibniz filters play a prominent role in the theory of protoalgebraic logics. In [3] the problem of the definability of Leibniz filters is considered. Here we study the definability of Leibniz filters with parameters. The main result of the paper says that a protoalgebraic logic S has its strong version weakly algebraizable iff it has its Leibniz filters explicitly definable with parameters.     

语篇阅读理解中人物性格模型的建构

采用实时窗口阅读技术,通过操纵特征段落性质和屏蔽段落长度两个变量,探讨人物性格模型在语篇阅读中的建构和影响因素。在研究所用材料中,特征段落描述能反映主人公性格的典型行为或不能反映其性格的一般行为,使其与目标句分别形成冲突或无关关系,考察读者能否利用这些内隐式的行为描述建构人物的性格模型。同时,改变屏蔽段落长度,形成局部或整体联贯两种条件,考察不同联贯类型的影响作用。结果发现：在不论整体还是局部联贯条件下,读者均能利用内隐的行为描述建构人物性格模型,并能应用该模型预期人物的后续行为。     

Resting EEG in alpha and beta bands predicts individual differences in attentional breadth

Whether individuals focus their attention on the global level (the forest), or local elements that make up the stimulus (the trees) remains relatively stable over a period of at least 10 days in multiple global/local measures. Greater attentional approach tendencies and vigilance, which are likely reflected by lower alpha and higher beta power, are associated with narrowed attentional breadth. The current study investigated whether individual differences in the propensity for individuals to focus on the global or local levels (attentional breadth) can be predicted based on EEG power in alpha and its neighbouring frequency bands during a preceding rest period. Greater levels of posterior alpha and preponderance of alpha-to-beta power at rest were associated with greater attentional breadth during the subsequent Navon letters task. These results suggest that neural indices of attentional approach when not engaged in a goal-orientated task are associated with individual differences in attentional breadth.     

Which Time for Eschatology? Relativity Theory,Local and Cosmic Times,and the End of the Universe

The aim of this article is to formulate the theological notions of the end and fulfilment of the universe before the background of relativity theory and cosmology, in particular the lack of a global passage of time. It argues that the “arrow” of time is a local phenomenon, linked essentially to recording objects. On this basis, it makes the case that the notions of a common end of all local times and of a final, timeless state of the universe are viable independently of a global direction of time.     

多目标追踪中基于运动信息的分组效应

本研究旨在探讨运动信息对多目标追踪的影响, 具体为考察多目标追踪中是否存在基于运动信息的分组效应, 以及不同类型表面特征(颜色和形状)对这一效应的影响。实验1发现多目标追踪中存在基于运动信息的分组效应, 并且这一分组效应是自动化的。实验2和实验3分别在不同颜色和不同形状组合条件下考察了基于运动信息的分组效应的稳定性, 结果都表明不同表面特征的组合不会干扰基于运动信息的分组效应的形成, 但其效应量都因表面特征的出现而缩减。整体而言, 多目标追踪中存在基于运动信息的自动化分组效应, 并且这一效应是格式塔法则中共同命运律的具体表现, 能稳定存在于不同表面特征组合之间。     

Open and closed cortico-subcortical loops: A neuro-computational account of access to consciousness in the distractor-induced blindness paradigm

How the brain decides which information to process ‘consciously’ has been debated over for decades without a simple explanation at hand. While most experiments manipulate the perceptual energy of presented stimuli, the distractor-induced blindness task is a prototypical paradigm to investigate gating of information into consciousness without or with only minor visual manipulation. In this paradigm, subjects are asked to report intervals of coherent dot motion in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream, whenever these are preceded by a particular color stimulus in a different RSVP stream. If distractors (i.e., intervals of coherent dot motion prior to the color stimulus) are shown, subjects’ abilities to perceive and report intervals of target dot motion decrease, particularly with short delays between intervals of target color and target motion.We propose a biologically plausible neuro-computational model of how the brain controls access to consciousness to explain how distractor-induced blindness originates from information processing in the cortex and basal ganglia. The model suggests that conscious perception requires reverberation of activity in cortico-subcortical loops and that basal-ganglia pathways can either allow or inhibit this reverberation. In the distractor-induced blindness paradigm, inadequate distractor-induced response tendencies are suppressed by the inhibitory ‘hyperdirect’ pathway of the basal ganglia. If a target follows such a distractor closely, temporal aftereffects of distractor suppression prevent target identification. The model reproduces experimental data on how delays between target color and target motion affect the probability of target detection.     

A new framework for modeling decisions about changing information: The Piecewise Linear Ballistic Accumulator model

In the real world, decision making processes must be able to integrate non-stationary information that changes systematically while the decision is in progress. Although theories of decision making have traditionally been applied to paradigms with stationary information, non-stationary stimuli are now of increasing theoretical interest. We use a random-dot motion paradigm along with cognitive modeling to investigate how the decision process is updated when a stimulus changes. Participants viewed a cloud of moving dots, where the motion switched directions midway through some trials, and were asked to determine the direction of motion. Behavioral results revealed a strong delay effect: after presentation of the initial motion direction there is a substantial time delay before the changed motion information is integrated into the decision process. To further investigate the underlying changes in the decision process, we developed a Piecewise Linear Ballistic Accumulator model (PLBA). The PLBA is efficient to simulate, enabling it to be fit to participant choice and response-time distribution data in a hierarchal modeling framework using a non-parametric approximate Bayesian algorithm. Consistent with behavioral results, PLBA fits confirmed the presence of a long delay between presentation and integration of new stimulus information, but did not support increased response caution in reaction to the change. We also found the decision process was not veridical, as symmetric stimulus change had an asymmetric effect on the rate of evidence accumulation. Thus, the perceptual decision process was slow to react to, and underestimated, new contrary motion information.     

A Peaceful Clash: The U.S. And China: Which Model Holds Out Promise For The Future?

This article analyzes some prospects for the economic and political development of the United States and China. The first part of the article is devoted to the consideration of strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. model and of the Chinese one. The second part of the article considers the most probable scenarios of the future struggle for world leadership. The first scenario suggests that China will continue developing at a faster rate in the several coming decades and will be gradually catching up with the United States in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) production. However, after several crises in 2008–2020 the United States will likely regain a number of advantages over China as a result of assimilation of the newest technologies. The second scenario suggests that the United States will come across a whole range of internal social and political problems related to internal political splits. In this case, the United States will have to share its global leadership with China. The article attempts to answer the following questions: What scenario is more probable? Will the old world order change? What are the main conclusions for the European Union and for Russia?     

Manipulating the temporal locus and content of mind-wandering

The human brain has a tendency to drift into the realm of internally-generated thoughts that are unbound by space and time. The term mind-wandering (MW) is often used describe such thoughts when they are perceptually decoupled. Evidence suggests that exposure to forward and backward illusory motion skews the temporal orientation of MW thoughts to either the future or past respectively. However, little is known about the impact of this manipulation on other features of MW. Here, using a novel experimental paradigm, we first confirmed that our illusory motion method facilitated the generation of MW thoughts congruent with the direction of motion. We then conducted content analyses which revealed that goal orientation and temporal distance were also significantly affected by the direction of illusory motion. We conclude that illusory motion may be an effective means of assaying MW and could help to elucidate this ubiquitous, and likely critical, component of cognition.