Eye movements reduce vividness and emotionality of “flashforwards”

Earlier studies have shown that eye movements during retrieval of disturbing images about past events reduce their vividness and emotionality, which may be due to both tasks competing for working memory resources. This study examined whether eye movements reduce vividness and emotionality of visual distressing images about feared future events: “flashforwards”. A non-clinical sample was asked to select two images of feared future events, which were self-rated for vividness and emotionality. These images were retrieved while making eye movements or without a concurrent secondary task, and then vividness and emotionality were rated again. Relative to the no-dual task condition, eye movements while thinking of future-oriented images resulted in decreased ratings of image vividness and emotional intensity. Apparently, eye movements reduce vividness and emotionality of visual images about past and future feared events. This is in line with a working memory account of the beneficial effects of eye movements, which predicts that any task that taxes working memory during retrieval of disturbing mental images will be beneficial.     

天人合一心理研究范式发微

从学科本体对心理学做重新审视。在方法论上,把意识和物质等同犯了“范畴错误”; 在科学性上,心理学不该用证实主义而应用证伪主义的标准,且心理学难以成为自然科学意义的科学却有望成为胡塞尔“严格意义的科学”; 在认识论上,主客二分研究范式具有“‘主-客-间'双重障碍”。天人合一范式可解决双重障碍,并以直观内省体察普遍性定理。故汲取中国哲学中的观物取象法、虚壹而静原则、中国式内省并结合西方现象学提出天人合一研究范式的初步构想。     

家庭社会经济地位对幼儿词汇理解的影响：多重中介效应分析

摘 要 目的：探讨家庭阅读环境（HLE）和电子媒介暴露在家庭社会经济地位（SES）和幼儿词汇理解间的中介作用。 方法：使用家庭基本信息调查表、家庭阅读环境问卷、皮博迪图片词汇测验对278名幼儿及其父母进行调查。 结果：（1）SES、HLE各维度（除hle5）与词汇理解呈显著正相关;电子屏幕使用时间与SES、HLE各维度和词汇理解呈显著负相关;（2）HLE和电子屏幕使用时间分别在SES和母亲受教育水平与幼儿词汇理解间起链式中介作用。 结论：HLE和电子屏幕使用时间在SES和幼儿词汇理解间起中介作用。     

The Editing Density of Moving Images Influences Viewers’ Time Perception: The Mediating Role of Eye Movements

The present study examined whether cinematographic editing density affects viewers’ perception of time. As a second aim, based on embodied models that conceive time perception as strictly connected to the movement, we tested the hypothesis that the editing density of moving images also affects viewers’ eye movements and that these later mediate the effect of editing density on viewers’ temporal judgments. Seventy participants watched nine video clips edited by manipulating the number of cuts (slow- and fast-paced editing against a master shot, unedited condition). For each editing density, multiple video clips were created, representing three different kinds of routine actions. The participants’ eye movements were recorded while watching the video, and the participants were asked to report duration judgments and subjective passage of time judgments after watching each clip. The results showed that participants subjectively perceived that time flew more while watching fast-paced edited videos than slow-paced or unedited videos; by contrast, concerning duration judgments, participants overestimated the duration of fast-paced videos compared to the master-shot videos. Both the slow- and the fast-paced editing generated shorter fixations than the master shot, and the fast-paced editing led to shorter fixations than the slow-paced editing. Finally, compared to the unedited condition, editing led to an overestimation of durations through increased eye mobility. These findings suggest that the editing density of moving images by increasing the number of cuts effectively altered viewers’ experience of time and add further evidence to prior research showing that performed eye movement is associated with temporal judgments.     

Who Is This God of Whom You Speak? Counseling Students' Concept of God

Many clients bring a belief in God or a Higher Power into counseling sessions. What is less clear, however, is how counselors conceptualize “god,” which may affect how spirituality is integrated in the counseling process. To explore this question, the authors conducted a concept map study of god images among counseling students. Results suggest that students harbor broad and diverse conceptualizations of god, which may affect the counseling process.     

The Role of Psychology in Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-National Study

Dealing with COVID-19 and with the preventative measures that have been taken to mitigate the transmission of the virus causing the pandemic has posed a great challenge to the population. While psychologists have expertise with regard to preventive behavior change and to dealing with the mental health impact of measures, their expertise needs to be effectively communicated to the public. Mass media play a critical role in times of crisis, in many cases being the only source of information. While most research focuses on the importance of information content as a factor affecting psychological responses to a collective traumatic event, the way information is framed in the media is likely to influence the way health professionals are perceived as trustworthy. This study aimed to analyze the media framing of information from psychology during the COVID-19 pandemic in six countries from America and Europe, identifying the most recurrent topics in the news (n news items = 541) related to psychology and mental health. In all six countries the media address the psychological needs of the population, which vary depending on the imposed restrictions. The news content is influenced by the scientific sources used by the media. While the most prevalent topics focus on psychological risk and the need to seek mental health care, the least prevalent topics relate to counseling and behavioral guidelines for managing the psychological consequences of the pandemic. The study findings provide insight into how psychological knowledge contributes to the understanding and mitigation of COVID-19 consequences in different countries and identified fields where psychologists were consulted to respond to a health emergency. They also show a preference to consult other experts when searching for contextual or more macro-social explanations of critical situation.     

Concept learning by monkeys with video picture images and a touch screen.

Two rhesus monkeys were trained in a same/different task to discriminate digitized computer-stored picture stimuli. The pictures were digitized from 35-mm slides and presented in pairs on a computer monitor. The monkeys were required to touch the pictures and then make a choice response to indicate whether the pictures were identical or nonidentical. The response areas and stimuli were located to the sides of the picture stimuli. Responses were defined and monitored by an infrared matrix touch screen. After learning the same/different task, both monkeys showed performance accuracy with novel picture stimuli similar to that with training picture stimuli. This accurate novel-picture transfer indicates that a same/different concept had been learned, a concept similar to the one they had previously demonstrated in a different apparatus with rear-projected slide stimuli and a response lever.     

The Sexuality of Elderly People on Film—Visual Limitations

During the last decade there has been a growing interest in images of aging in gerontology, but representations of elderly people's sexual lives still remain largely unexplored. This article attempts to elucidate the image of elderly people's sexuality in popular culture by analyzing representations of elderly people in mainstream feature films. Between 1990 and 1995, only 9 films out of a sample of 2000 in Swedish theatres cast elderly people as leading characters. In this article, these 9 films have been deconstructed in order to identify the rules of representation that guide and limit the depiction of elderly people's sexuality on film. One specific film is then analyzed in more detail to show how the rules were used to create a credible image of an elderly couple's sexuality, and a frame analysis is used to identify how elderly people's sexuality can be packaged on film to produce a slightly bolder representation of their sexuality.     

Constructing content and delimiting choice: International coverage of KAL Flight 007

For more than two decades, international debate over a New World Communication and Information Order has called attention to the question of whether or not newspapers around the world are limited by the alleged dominance of the international news flow by the Western media. Looking at how six newspapers from around the world covered the 1983 downing of KAL Flight 007 by the Soviet Union, we find that papers are in fact able to shape their coverage of major international events through their choice of providers, their selection and interpretation of subjects and facts, and their use of headlines to emphasize and frame information. Thus, newspapers can delimit choice to suit their own needs and goals.