为什么会出现“舌尖现象”?——TOT现象发生机制之争

舌尖现象(tip-of-the-tongue,TOT)是一种普遍发生的现象,但是发生TOT的对象、情景、机制等却是特殊和复杂的。因此,它引起了研究者的关注,尤其是在其产生机制上更是存在着很多争论。国外研究者提出了部分激活理论、传递缺陷理论、障碍物假说、神经网络模型、元认知理论等。但研究者大多都基于单一条件或情景来探讨TOT的产生,因此提出的理论的使用范围,解释广度等均有局限。关于TOT依然有许多疑惑,同时也存在值得探讨的课题。     

Further evidence for the efficacy of a metacognitive group training in schizophrenia

Metacognitive training (MCT) for patients with schizophrenia is a novel psychological group treatment targeting cognitive biases putatively involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia (e.g. jumping to conclusions, overconfidence in errors). Its eight modules are available cost-free online in many languages. In the present study, 36 subacute or remitted patients were randomly allocated to either the MCT or a wait-list group who received treatment-as-usual (TAU). Baseline and post assessments were 8 weeks apart and were performed blind to group status. MCT showed significantly greater improvement on the following parameters relative to the TAU group: delusion distress (PSYRATS), memory and social quality of life. In the MCT group, the rate of jumping to conclusions bias was reduced after training. No differences occurred on the PANSS. The present study confirms prior reports that MCT exerts beneficial effects on some cognitive and symptomatic parameters.     

Forever is Always Finite: Reflections on Radical Life Extension

This essay reflects on the Radical Life Extension movement from six critical perspectives: RLE (1) ignores the benefits of finitude; (2) perpetuates the denial of death by seeking to vanquish it; (3) disregards the paradoxical nature of death as problem and mystery; (4) turns death and the Bronze Dream into idols; (5) overlooks a plethora of ethical dilemmas; and (6) fails to ask the central life question: “how well can we live?.” RLE is not only problematic: it is redundant. Being kept in the love of God forever is a different kind of ‘radical life extension’ that includes finitude and death.     

The role of metacognitive beliefs in auditory hallucinations

The mechanisms contributing to the occurrence of auditory hallucinations have not been fully described, although many researchers agree that they may result from some type of misattributed cognitive event. A number of authors have shown that this misattribution may be influenced by ‘top down' processes such as beliefs and expectations. This type of cognitive bias has also been implicated in other psychological disorders. One area of focus, particularly within the anxiety disorders, has been on metacognitive beliefs and their role in the occurrence and maintenance of symptoms. Metacognitive beliefs have not been widely investigated in psychosis and tools to investigate them have not been developed. In this study, a metacognitions questionnaire [MCQ; Cartwright-Hatton, S., & Wells, A. (1997). Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 11(3),279–296.] (previously used with anxiety disorders) was modified and used to assess metacognitive beliefs with schizophrenic patients. Metacognitive beliefs were compared between schizophrenic patients who were currently experiencing auditory hallucinations and schizophrenic patients who had never had hallucinations. A group of patients with anxiety disorders and a group of non-patients were used as controls. Hallucinating and non-hallucinating schizophrenics scored significantly higher than both the non-patient group and the anxiety patient group on the amount to which they believed their thoughts should be consistent with each other. Hallucinators and anxiety controls had significantly lower confidence in their cognitive processes than non-hallucinating schizophrenics and normal controls. The significance of these findings are discussed in relation to the literature on cognitive processes in hallucinations.     

The monologue of the double: Allocentric reduplication of the own voice alters bodily self-perception

During autoscopic phenomena, people perceive a double of themselves in extrapersonal space. Such clinical allocentric self-experiences sometimes co-occur with auditory hallucinations, yet experimental setups to induce similar illusions in healthy participants have generally neglected acoustic cues. We investigated whether feeling the presence of an auditory double could be provoked experimentally by recording healthy participants’ own versus another person’s voice and movements using binaural headphones from an egocentric (the participants' own) and an allocentric (a dummy head located elsewhere) perspective. When hearing themselves allocentrically, participants reported feeling a self-identified presence extracorporeally, an arguably distinct quality of autoscopy. Our results suggest that participants without hallucinatory experiences localized their own voice closer to themselves compared to that of another person. Explorative findings suggest that distinct patterns for hallucinators should be further investigated. This study suggests a successful induction of the feeling of an acoustic doppelganger, bridging clinical phenomena and experimental work.     

Age differences in suggestibility to contradictions of demonstrated knowledge: the influence of prior knowledge

People maintain intact general knowledge into very old age and use it to support remembering. Interestingly, when older and younger adults encounter errors that contradict general knowledge, older adults suffer fewer memorial consequences: Older adults use fewer recently-encountered errors as answers for later knowledge questions. Why do older adults show this reduced suggestibility, and what role does their intact knowledge play? In three experiments, I examined suggestibility following exposure to errors in fictional stories that contradict general knowledge. Older adults consistently demonstrated more prior knowledge than younger adults but also gained access to even more across time. Additionally, they did not show a reduction in new learning from the stories, indicating lesser involvement of episodic memory failures. Critically, when knowledge was stably accessible, older adults relied more heavily on that knowledge compared to younger adults, resulting in reduced suggestibility. Implications for the broader role of knowledge in aging are discussed.     

Mortality Salience Decreases Social Exploration When People Experience Metacognitive Ease Generating Examples of Cultural Value Adherence

In the present research, we integrated terror management theory with work on metacognitive fluency to examine how mortality concerns affect social exploration motives. We hypothesized that mortality salience would decrease desire to explore novel social interactions only when the feeling of being valued by culturally relevant others was secure. Participants (N = 328) reflected on death or physical pain, then generated 3 (metacognitive-ease) or 12 (metacognitive-difficulty) examples of past behaviors that their peers valued (vs. neutral behaviors). Metacognitive fluency was expected to enhance feelings that existing social bonds were secure. Finally, we assessed participants’ desire to explore novel social interactions. Death thoughts decreased participants’ desire to explore novel social interactions when they experienced “ease” generating examples of culturally valued behavior.     

Social comparison and confidence: When thinking you’re better than average predicts overconfidence (and when it does not)

A common social comparison bias—the better-than-average-effect—is frequently described as psychologically equivalent to the individual-level judgment bias known as overconfidence. However, research has found “Hard–easy” effects for each bias that yield a seemingly paradoxical reversal: Hard tasks tend to produce overconfidence but worse-than-average perceptions, whereas easy tasks tend to produce underconfidence and better-than-average effects. We argue that the two biases are in fact positively related because they share a common psychological basis in subjective feelings of competence, but that the “hard–easy” reversal is both empirically possible and logically necessary under specifiable conditions. Two studies are presented to support these arguments. We find little support for personality differences in these biases, and conclude that domain-specific feelings of competence account best for their relationship to each other.     

The developmental change of young pupils’ metacognitive ability in mathematics in relation to their cognitive abilities

Metacognition is a multidimensional construct with two main dimensions: knowledge about cognition and regulation of cognition. The present study aimed to model the development of young pupils’ metacognitive abilities in mathematics in relation to processing efficiency, working memory and mathematical performance. We developed instruments measuring pupils’ metacognitive ability, mathematical ability, working memory capacity, and processing efficiency, and administered them to 126 pupils (8–11 years old) three times, with breaks of 3–4 months between them. Dynamic modeling indicated that growth in each of the abilities is affected by the state of the others, especially the state of processing efficiency. Growth modeling was used to specify the nature of change in the main aspects of mind and the possible interrelations in the patterns of change in these aspects. The initial mathematical self-image was found to depend on the corresponding processing efficiency and its advancement to rely on the development of mathematical performance and the previous working memory ability.