Switching between environmental representations in memory

In everyday life we accomplish tasks that require the storage and access of mental representations of different environments that we are not currently perceiving. Past research has suggested that environments are encoded by a series of independent representations that are organized in memory. Three experiments tested this idea further by asking whether multiple representations of environments can be accessed simultaneously. Using a cued task-set switching paradigm, subjects judged spatial relationships between target locations in two familiar environments. Response times were longer when successive trials probed different environments, an effect not due to switching between semantic categories or semantic priming, suggesting that representations of environments are accessed sequentially. Implications for various hypotheses concerning the properties of environmental representations are discussed.     

Objects are individuals but stuff doesn't count: perceived rigidity and cohesiveness influence infants' representations of small groups of discrete entities

Young infants construct models of the world composed of objects tracked through time and occlusion. To date little is known about the degree to which these models are sensitive to the material make-up of the represented individuals. Two experiments probed 8-month-olds' ability to represent different kinds of entities: rigid, cohesive objects, flexible, cohesive objects, and non-rigid, non-cohesive portions of sand. In Experiment 1, infants represented an array of two rigid, cohesive objects hidden behind a single screen, but failed to represent hidden arrays of two flexible objects or two portions of sand. In Experiment 2, entities were hidden behind two screens instead of one, thereby reducing the information processing demands of the task. In that case, infants succeeded in representing arrays of both types of object stimuli, but again failed to represent the portions of sand. It is argued that (1) the processes by which infants individuate and track entities are sensitive to material kind, (2) rigid cohesive objects occupy a privileged status in this system, and (3) early knowledge about objects and substances has a quantificational aspect.     

Monarchism,national identity and social representations of history in Indonesia: Intersections of the local and national in the sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta

In the young state of Indonesia, old local authorities like sultanates have reasserted themselves. This reemergence of localized authority does not necessarily conflict with nation building. Survey research among adult samples (N = 399) in the neighbouring sultanates of Yogyakarta and Surakarta found that social representations of history were implicated in the relationship between monarchism and national identity. In Yogyakarta (but not Surakarta), a positive intersection between local and national representations of history was found: events and people associated with the sultanate were also regarded as instrumental to the birth of the nation. In Yogyakarta, support for the sultanate was higher than in Surakarta: respondents argued that Yogyakarta had the culture and history required to justify status as a special autonomous region. In Yogyakarta but not Surakarta, monarchism was positively related to national identity and trust in national democratic political institutions. The intersection between local and national representations of history, especially concerning the instrumentality of the local monarchy in giving birth to the nation in Yogyakarta, created historical continuity/positive intersectionality where the superordinate nation and the local monarchy are networked in a system of power and meaning that lends trust in democratic institutions from monarchism, and strengthens national identity.     

Evidence for the effectiveness of holistic process goals for learning and performance under pressure

ObjectivesResearch has suggested that holistic process goals might help avoid the effects associated with conscious processing of task relevant information by skilled but anxious athletes. This experiment compared the efficacy of holistic and part process goal strategies for novices using a learning paradigm.DesignLaboratory-based experimental design incorporating practice, retention and transfer phases.MethodTwenty-four males were randomly assigned to a part process goal, holistic process goal or control condition and performed a simulated race-driving task in practice, retention and transfer tests.ResultsAnalyses of variance revealed that performance during practice was similar in all conditions but that the holistic process goal group outperformed the part process goal group at both retention and transfer.ConclusionsCompared to part process goals, holistic process goals result in more effective motor learning and performance that appears to be more robust under pressure.     

Goal engagement in coping with occupational uncertainty predicts favorable career-related outcomes

We investigated whether goal engagement and disengagement in coping with occupational uncertainty (e.g., perceptions of growing difficulties in career planning and lacking job opportunities) predicts three objective career-related outcomes: job loss, job finding, and income change. We also tested for the buffering effects of these coping strategies on the association between objectively unfavorable labor market conditions (as indicated by regional unemployment rates) and these outcomes. We used four-wave survey data from a longitudinal sample of 620 German adults aged 16–43 years at the first wave and analyzed changes in the three career-related outcomes across 1294 pairs of successive annual waves. Analyses revealed that goal engagement predicted a higher chance of job finding over one year. Moreover, goal engagement buffered the association between higher regional unemployment rates and a higher likelihood of job loss, as well as a lower income, over one year. Goal disengagement predicted a lower income but had no other statistically significant effects. Thus, even in a relatively highly regulated labor market like the German one, goal engagement in coping with occupational uncertainty can contribute to objective career success.     

Getting going and letting go: Religiosity fosters opportunity‐congruent coping with work‐related uncertainties

This study investigated how religiosity relates to goal engagement (i.e., investing time and effort; overcoming obstacles) and goal disengagement (i.e., protecting self‐esteem and motivational resources against failure experiences; distancing from unattainable goals) in coping with perceived work‐related uncertainties (e.g., growing risk of job loss) that arise from current social change. We hypothesised that religiosity not only expands individuals' capacities for both engagement and disengagement but also fosters an opportunity‐congruent pattern of engagement and disengagement, promoting engagement especially under favourable opportunities for goal‐striving in the social ecology and facilitating disengagement especially under unfavourable opportunities. Multilevel analyses in a sample of N = 2089 Polish adults aged 20–46 years partly supported these predictions. Religiosity was associated with higher goal engagement, especially under favourable economic opportunities for goal‐striving in the social ecology (as measured by the regional net migration rate). For disengagement, the results were more mixed; religiosity was related to higher self‐protection independently of the economic opportunity structure and predicted higher goal‐distancing only under the most unfavourable opportunities. These results suggest that religiosity can promote different coping strategies under different conditions, fostering a pattern of opportunity‐congruent engagement and, to some extent, disengagement that is likely to be adaptive.     

Building Cognition: The Construction of Computational Representations for Scientific Discovery

Novel computational representations, such as simulation models of complex systems and video games for scientific discovery (Foldit, EteRNA etc.), are dramatically changing the way discoveries emerge in science and engineering. The cognitive roles played by such computational representations in discovery are not well understood. We present a theoretical analysis of the cognitive roles such representations play, based on an ethnographic study of the building of computational models in a systems biology laboratory. Specifically, we focus on a case of model‐building by an engineer that led to a remarkable discovery in basic bioscience. Accounting for such discoveries requires a distributed cognition (DC) analysis, as DC focuses on the roles played by external representations in cognitive processes. However, DC analyses by and large have not examined scientific discovery, and they mostly focus on memory offloading, particularly how the use of existing external representations changes the nature of cognitive tasks. In contrast, we study discovery processes and argue that discoveries emerge from the processes of building the computational representation. The building process integrates manipulations in imagination and in the representation, creating a coupled cognitive system of model and modeler, where the model is incorporated into the modeler's imagination. This account extends DC significantly, and we present some of the theoretical and application implications of this extended account.     

Objects,pictures and words. Effects of representational format on four-year-olds’ quantity knowledge / Objetos,imágenes y palabras. Efectos del formato representacional en el conocimiento de la cantidad a los cuatro años

Abstract

This study explores whether and how different external representations of quantity influence the performance of four-year-old children when constructing sets of a given cardinal number. Three representations of quantity were presented (objects, pictures and number words) in an adaptation of the ‘Give-a-number’ task, in sets that contained 2–6 items. The results show that the use of pictures facilitated children’s performance with quantities of three and four. These results are discussed by analysing the cognitive demands of representational formats, in terms of dual representation and iconicity, and according to the magnitude of the quantities involved.     

Angel or demon? Self-monitoring differences in the mental representations of current versus former romantic partners

We investigated whether high and low self-monitors had (a) segregated/integrated and (b) uniformly favorable (angelic)/uniformly unfavorable (demonic) mental representations of actual romantic partners. Self-monitoring was assessed using the 25-item Self-Monitoring Scale and the structure of mental representations was calculated using a modified segregation/integration measure. In Study 1, low self-monitors were more likely than high self-monitors to have (a) segregated and (b) disproportionally favorable mental representations of their current romantic partners. In Study 2, low self-monitors were more likely than high self-monitors to have (a) segregated and (b) generally unfavorable mental representations of their former romantic partners. Self-monitoring differences were not moderated in either study by relationship longevity or conflict.