Women and the Art of Peacemaking: Data from Israeli-Palestinian Interactive Problem-Solving Workshops

Are women “natural” peacemakers? If so, is this because of natural inclinations to avoid conflict or to engage in tough discussions? Are there particular skills in which women excel that make them more likely than their male counterparts to be able to build relational bridges, to facilitate negotiations, and to reduce tensions? After a review of the literature on gender differences in such skills, a systematic comparison of interaction quality is made between two Israeli-Palestinian interactive problem-solving workshops that differed only in gender composition. A third Israeli-Palestinian workshop that involved female political elites is also examined for subsequent changes in the conflict relationship or for changes in political activity. The implications of different repertoires of skills for altering political processes are discussed.     

Developmental changes in associations between auditory-visual events

The goal of the present study was twofold: to examine the influence of two amodal properties, co-location and temporal synchrony, on infants' associating a sight with a sound, and to determine if the relative influence of these properties on crossmodal learning changes with age. During familiarization 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-month-olds were presented two toys and a sound, with sights and sounds varying with respect to co-location and temporal synchrony. Following each familiarization phase infants were given a paired preference test to assess their learning of sight-sound associations. Measures of preferential looking revealed age-related changes in the influence of co-location and temporal synchrony on infants' learning sight-sound associations. At all ages, infants could use temporal synchrony and co-location as a basis for associating an auditory with a visual event and, in the absence of temporal synchrony, co-location was sufficient to support crossmodal learning. However, when these cues conflicted there were developmental changes in the influence of these cues on infants' learning auditory-visual associations. At 2 and 4 months infants associated the sounds with the toy that moved in synchrony with the sound's rhythm despite extreme violation of co-location of this sight and sound. In contrast, 6- and 8-month-olds did not associate a specific toy with the sound when co-location and synchrony information conflicted. The findings highlight the unique and interactive effects of distinct amodal properties on infants' learning arbitrary crossmodal relations. Possible explanations for the age shift in performance are discussed.     

Ratio versus difference comparators in choice.

Several theories in the learning literature describe decision rules for performance utilizing ratios and differences. The present paper analyzes rules for choice based on either delays to food, immediacies (the inverse of delays), or rates of food, combined factorially with a ratio or difference comparator. An experiment using the time-left procedure (Gibbon & Church, 1981) is reported with motivational differentials induced by unequal reinforcement durations. The preference results were compatible with a ratio-comparator decision rule, but not with decision rules based on differences. Differential reinforcement amounts were functionally equivalent to changes in delays to food. Under biased reinforcement, overall food rate was increased, but variance in preference was increased or decreased depending on which alternative was favored. This is a Weber law finding that is compatible with multiplicative, scalar sources of variance but incompatible with pacemaker rate changes proportional to food presentation rate.     

Automaintenance without stimulus-change reinforcement: Temporal control of key pecks

Yoked pairs of experimentally naive pigeons were exposed to a modified autoshaping procedure in which key pecking by the leader birds postponed both keylight termination and access to grain for the leader and the follower bird. Key pecking developed and was maintained in all birds and continued through two reversals of roles in the yoked procedure. Although temporal control developed more slowly in follower birds, asymptotic temporal distributions of key pecking were similar for all birds in both leader and follower roles; maximum responding occurred soon after keylight onset and decreased to a minimum prior to reinforcement. Response distributions for both leader and follower birds were described by Killeen's (1975) mathematical model of temporal control. Follower birds received response-independent reinforcement, and the development by these birds of temporal distributions which are minimal immediately prior to reinforcement is without precedent in Pavlovian appetitive conditioning. However, maintenance of key pecking by the leader birds, whose responses postponed both stimulus-change and food reinforcement, supports an interpretation of autoshaped and automaintained key pecking as responding elicited by signaled grain presentation.     

Second-order schedules with paired auditory brief stimuli

Pigeons were exposed to multiple second-order schedules of paired and unpaired brief stimuli in which responding on the main key was reinforced according to a fixed-interval thirty-second schedule by a brief stimulus (a tone in the paired schedule) and advancement to the next segment of the second-order schedule. In Experiment 1, a response on the second key was required during the tone in its fourth and final presentation to produce food. Responses during earlier brief stimuli indicated the extent to which the final brief stimulus was discriminated from preceding ones. Responding was comparable during all tones, extending prior findings with visual paired brief stimuli and weakening explanations of subjects' failure to discriminate between brief-stimulus presentations in terms of elicited responding. In Experiment 2 the number of fixed-interval segments comprising the second-order schedules varied from one through eight. Although main-key response rates increased across segments in both experiments, they increased much less sharply with a variable number of segments. These results suggest that the increase in main-key response rates across segments is due primarily to a degree of temporal discrimination not reflected on the second key. Main-key response rates were higher on paired auditory brief-stimulus schedules than on unpaired visual brief-stimulus schedules, especially in Experiment 2, thus further extending findings with visual brief stimuli to second-order schedules with auditory brief stimuli.     

情绪效价可预测性对时间捆绑效应的影响

时间捆绑效应指的是主观上主动动作和动作结果的时间点相互靠近的现象。其中, 时间捆绑效应可分为动作捆绑和结果捆绑, 分别对应主动动作和动作结果的时间点变化。本研究通过一个混合设计实验考察了情绪效价可预测性对时间捆绑效应的影响。情绪效价可预测性(可预测、不可预测)为被试内因素, 刺激模态(听觉刺激、视觉刺激)为被试间因素。结果发现, 情绪效价为可预测时, 结果捆绑在主动按键后产生听觉刺激或视觉刺激都出现了增强, 而动作捆绑仅在产生视觉刺激时才出现增强。结果表明, 情绪效价为可预测时会增强时间捆绑效应, 但该作用在动作捆绑和结果捆绑中存在差异。由于时间捆绑效应是反映主动控制感的主要指标, 本研究结果对先进驾驶辅助系统的交互设计具有一定的参考意义。     

感知社会善念对信任修复的促进：社会距离与时间距离的调节作用

从信任修复的时间阶段模型来看,以往研究主要探讨了信任违背发生后的修复策略及效果,而鲜有研究从违背前的视角对此展开探索。为检验社会善念能否作为信任修复的‘事前’策略及其修复效果的边界条件,本研究采用Somi范式操纵违背方的社会善念,通过让信任方完成信任博弈游戏来考察其感知到的社会善念对信任修复的效果及社会距离与时间距离在其中发挥的调节作用。实验1结果表明,感知社会善念有助于促进受损信任的修复,感知高(vs.低)社会善念的被试修复效果更好;实验2发现社会距离调节了感知社会善念对信任修复的影响,面对社会距离远(vs.近)者的信任违背,感知到高社会善念的被试有更好的修复效果;实验3不仅再次验证了前两个实验的发现,还进一步发现时间距离调节了社会距离与感知社会善念对信任修复的影响,即当社会距离远的违背方回应时间距离短时,感知高社会善念的被试修复效果更好,当社会距离近的违背方回应时间距离长时,感知高社会善念的被试修复效果更好。由此可见,违背发生前信任方感知到违背方的社会善念能在一定程度上修复受损信任,但其效果受到社会距离与时间距离的制约。这些发现对未来探讨信任修复的事前策略及社会善念理论的应用均有一定启示意义。     

How Exceptional Is the West? An Investigation of Worldwide Trends in Societal-Average Levels of Religiosity, 1981–2020

Research shows most Western societies became less religious over recent decades. But we know much less about the rest of the world. Is the non-Western world also becoming less religious, as some varieties of secularization theory would lead us to expect? Using 1981-to-2020 World/European Values Survey data from 103 countries, this study describes, and uses mixed-effects models to rigorously estimate, religious trends in eight world regions and five former Soviet and Eastern Bloc (FSEB) subregions. Results indicate that religious decline occurred in Latin America, Central and Baltic Europe, and (recently) in the Mideast and North Africa. But there is little evidence of such decline elsewhere in Asia, Africa, or the FSEB—despite the broad reach of many modernizing social trends. These findings do not lend support to a strong version of secularization theory but may be consistent with some versions of the idea that modernization can make people less religious.     

Emotional,cognitive, and social functioning in children and early adolescents living in post-armed conflict: Testing mediating mechanisms

This study examined whether, and to which extent, the associations between conflict intensity and children's and early adolescents' functioning problems were mediated through parental harsh discipline in a post-armed conflict setting. Data from 9623 Iraqi mothers and their children who participated in UNICEF MICS showed that the associations between conflict intensity, parental discipline and child functioning were similar for children and early adolescents. Higher conflict intensity was indirectly associated with increased anxiety and depression, greater learning and cognitive difficulties, and greater social and behavioural problems through parental harsh discipline. The proportion mediated effect sizes emphasised the importance of parent-focused interventions in improving child and adolescent functioning outcomes in conflict-affected populations.     

The educational pyramid: A model for community intervention

Urban adolescents represent a group who are at special risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems. A life skills program was implemented with middle and high school students, using an educational pyramid approach to maximize the ecological appropriateness of the intervention and to increase the likelihood that the program will be continued with progressively lessened university facilitation. Additionally, the educational pyramid offers the opportunity for all participants—university faculty, graduate students, collaborating professionals in the community, and high school leaders—to be both teachers and learners.