The role of the oath in credibility assessment

Based on the adaptive lie detector theory, this study is an examination of whether taking an oath, as context‐general information, increases the credibility of a suspect. The consistency of the testimonies of 6 eyewitnesses was manipulated so that it could be used as individuating information. There were 2 sets of testimonies: one that was consistent and one that was inconsistent. The results supported the adaptive lie detector theory. The participants judged those persons who took an oath to be more credible than those who did not, but this only happened in situations where the testimonies of the eyewitnesses were inconsistent. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings and future directions are then discussed.     

The selective directed forgetting effect: Can people forget only part of a text?

Participants studied sentences describing two different characters and then were told to forget the sentences about only one of the characters. A second list contained sentences attributed to a third character. Subsequently, they received a recall test on the sentences about the original two characters. When the sentences could be thematically integrated, participants showed no directed forgetting relative to a control group that was never told to forget. However, with unrelated sentences, participants selectively forgot the target character's sentences without forgetting the other character's sentences. This selective directed forgetting effect is a novel empirical result. We interpret the results as consistent with Radvansky's (1999) ideas about inhibition with textual materials.     

Pupillometry reveals processing load during spoken language comprehension

This study investigated processing effort by measuring peoples’ pupil diameter as they listened to sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity. In the first experiment, we manipulated prosody. The results showed that when prosodic structure conflicted with syntactic structure, pupil diameter reliably increased. In the second experiment, we manipulated both prosody and visual context. The results showed that when visual context was consistent with the correct interpretation, prosody had very little effect on processing effort. However, when visual context was inconsistent with the correct interpretation, prosody had a large effect on processing effort. The interaction between visual context and prosody shows that visual context has an effect on online processing and that it can modulate the influence of linguistic sources of information, such as prosody. Pupillometry is a sensitive measure of processing effort during spoken language comprehension.     

Pre-K attendance and social development: The moderating role of kindergarten classroom experiences

Many studies have established that there are important life-long benefits of attending pre-K. At the same time, recent research suggests that pre-K attenders may enter and exit kindergarten exhibiting less optimal social and learning behaviours than their non-attending peers, and little attention has been paid to what factors may contribute to these patterns of development after children enter kindergarten. The current study will address these gaps in knowledge using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 to examine the social and learning behaviours of pre-K attenders and nonattenders at kindergarten entry and exit. Moreover, we will determine the extent to which children's social and behavioural skills change at differential rates across the kindergarten year as a function of pre-K attendance and their kindergarten classroom experiences, with a focus on the academic rigour, activity settings and teacher-student relationships.     

Continuities across continents: Assessing African American cultural themes among Black and Coloured South Africans

Much of the scholarship concerning African American culture is premised on the notion that it is a legacy of African origins but there has been essentially no attempt to document that relationship empirically. This paper briefly reviews existing evidence for cultural continuity in the Diaspora and then compares the responses of Black and Coloured South African and African Americans on measures of culture emic to African American populations. The observed patterns of psychometric performance, participants' responses, and the predictive utility of the measures employed were consistent with the thesis that despite inevitable variation, these three groups of the African Diaspora share similar orientations on the cultural themes assessed. This research hopes to initiate empirical work on the continuity thesis as it applies to connecting African American culture with a legacy of Africa and as related more broadly to the study of global Diasporas.     

Organisational interventions to improve employees' health and wellbeing: A realist synthesis

Although organisational interventions have shown promising results in improving employees' health and wellbeing, reviews of the effectiveness of such interventions conclude results are inconsistent. Realist synthesis is considered an appropriate method of literature review to improve the consistency of empirical evidence by developing generalisable statements of ‘what works for whom in which circumstances’. In this article, to identify and synthesise existing evidence from the empirical studies of organisational interventions, we conducted a realist synthesis according to the RAMESES publication standards. We reviewed 28 articles. Six realist programme theories were developed that explain how different mechanisms of organisational interventions may bring about different outcomes in different contexts. These realist programme theories are based on the process mechanisms of implementation adherence, communication, employees' participation, senior management support, middle management support and external consultants/researchers support. This realist synthesis enhances the understanding of how organisational interventions may improve employees' health and wellbeing, in which contexts, and for which group of employees. As such, it makes an important potential contribution to designing, implementing and evaluating future organisational interventions.     

不公平感及相关决策的认知神经机制

公平是人类社会生活的基本规范之一,不公平感及其相关决策则是研究者们关注的重要课题。长期以来,该领域的研究一般采用最后通牒博弈或其变式展开。大量脑成像研究探查了关于不公平感及相关决策的认知神经机制,尤其集中探讨了最后通牒博弈的回应者对不公平提议进行反应的脑区及其对应功能。经常得到关注的脑区包括了前脑岛、前扣带皮层、背外侧前额叶、内侧前额叶、杏仁核和颞顶交界等。对特殊人群的不公平感及相关决策进行研究可以帮助检验或澄清上述重要脑区及脑网络在不公平感及相关决策中扮演的角色,同时也阐释特殊人群的社会认知功能的特点。近年来,相当数量的研究关注了不同情境因素(包括分配方案相关因素和社会情境相关因素)调制不公平感及相关决策的过程,并讨论其背后的认知神经机制。未来的研究更应利用多模态数据分析方法,同时结合基因和激素层面的研究,以期深入对不公平感及相关决策的心理和生理机制的理解。     

Inverse relations between preference and contrast

Pigeons were trained on a multiple schedule in which two target components with identical reinforcement schedules were followed by either the same-valued schedule or by extinction. Response rate increased in both target components but was higher in the target component followed by extinction, replicating previous findings of positive anticipatory contrast. A similar design was used to study negative contrast, in that the two target components were followed either by the same-valued schedule or by a higher valued schedule. Negative contrast occurred equally, on average, in both target components, thus failing to demonstrate negative contrast that is specifically anticipatory in nature. When the stimuli correlated with the two target components were paired in choice tests, the pattern of preference was in the opposite direction. For the positive contrast procedure, no significant preference between the two target stimuli was evident. But for the negative contrast procedure, preference favored the stimulus followed by the higher valued schedule. The results demonstrate a functional dissociation between positive and negative contrast in relation to stimulus value. More generally, the results demonstrate an inverse relation between response rate and preference and challenge existing accounts of contrast in terms of the concept of relative value.     

目标或背景:联合搜索知觉学习的内容

采用颜色-形状联合搜索任务探讨短期特征联结知觉学习的效果和机制。训练被试在由不同颜色和形状组合的字母干扰子中搜索具有特定颜色和形状的目标字母,训练时间约为40分钟。通过训练,被试搜索特定的颜色-形状联结的目标字母的能力有所提升,并且学习效应能够迁移至背景改变目标不变的条件中,但是不能迁移至背景不变目标改变的条件中。这一结果提示,被试在进行短期联合搜索知觉学习时,学习到的是目标,而并非背景或目标与背景的联系。     

Shavinina的智能测评观述评

近来Shavinina等人通过一系列研究,提出了一种新的智能结构观,认为智能主要包含两个部分：认知经验和智能表现。在此基础上,他们分析了未来智能测验应遵循的一系列原则,并进行了初步的测验编制尝试,提出了一些富有创意的测验方法,如“完美计算机”、“概念整合”以及“问题建构”等测验。Shavinina等人所提出的新智能观以及关于智能测验的新技术具有很强的启发性,代表了智能研究的又一新方向。