Mental Representations in Stressful Situations: The Calming and Distressing Effects of Significant Others

According to attachment theory, attachment figures serve a safe haven function in stressful situations by reducing anxiety through physical proximity. The current study tested the effects of cognitive safe haven in adulthood. Thoughts of a significant other who was not physically present were hypothesized to reduce feelings of anxiety in a stressful situation. Participants imagined and described either a significant other or an acquaintance while waiting to take part in a potentially stressful task. An interaction between working models of attachment and experimental condition was found for distress scores. Thinking about a significant other led to lower levels of distress for individuals with a positive model of self, but higher levels of distress for individuals with a negative model of self.     

小学生视觉-空间表征类型和数学问题解决的研究

本研究考察并比较了四至六年级儿童的视觉－空间表征策略、数学问题解决和空间视觉化能力。结果表明：五、六年级儿童的解题正确率、使用图式表征策略的程度显著高于四年级儿童;使用图像表征策略的程度各年级无显著差异。将数学问题分成三个难度等级,发现年级差异主要表现在难度等级1的题目上。另外,六年级儿童的空间视觉化能力显著高于四年级儿童。     

Cognitive Task Analysis for Implicit Knowledge About Visual Representations With Similarity Learning Methods

Visual representations are prevalent in STEM instruction. To benefit from visuals, students need representational competencies that enable them to see meaningful information. Most research has focused on explicit conceptual representational competencies, but implicit perceptual competencies might also allow students to efficiently see meaningful information in visuals. Most common methods to assess students’ representational competencies rely on verbal explanations or assume explicit attention. However, because perceptual competencies are implicit and not necessarily verbally accessible, these methods are ill‐equipped to assess them. We address these shortcomings with a method that draws on similarity learning, a machine learning technique that detects visual features that account for participants’ responses to triplet comparisons of visuals. In Experiment 1, 614 chemistry students judged the similarity of Lewis structures and in Experiment 2, 489 students judged the similarity of ball‐and‐stick models. Our results showed that our method can detect visual features that drive students’ perception and suggested that students’ conceptual knowledge about molecules informed perceptual competencies through top‐down processes. Furthermore, Experiment 2 tested whether we can improve the efficiency of the method with active sampling. Results showed that random sampling yielded higher accuracy than active sampling for small sample sizes. Together, the experiments provide the first method to assess students’ perceptual competencies implicitly, without requiring verbalization or assuming explicit visual attention. These findings have implications for the design of instructional interventions that help students acquire perceptual representational competencies.     

Online measurement of mental representations of complex spatial decision problems: Comparison of CNET and hard laddering

This paper introduces the online Causal Network Elicitation Technique (CNET), as a technique for measuring components of mental representations of choice tasks and compares it with the more common technique of online ‘hard’ laddering (HL). While CNET works in basically two phases, one in open question format and one as guided linking of attributes and benefits, HL works completely structured with revealed attributes and benefits. Mental representations of two activity travel tasks were collected with both techniques among members of a nationwide Dutch household panel. The results confirm the hypothesis that the revealed format of variables in HL has an effect on the indication of variables as the elicited mental representations are almost twice as big for HL than for CNET. Furthermore, it turned out that CNET is more sensitive in measuring shifts among attributes in the mental representations for situational changes of the activity-travel task.     

Construct validity of the pictorial scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence

ObjectivesThe Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence (PMSC) assesses young children's perceptions of movement skill competence: 12 perceived Fundamental Movement skills (FMS; based on the Test of Gross Motor Development 2nd edition TGMD-2) and six Active Play activities (e.g. cycling). The main study purpose was to assess whether children's movement perception scores fit within the imposed constructs of Active Play and FMS by testing the latent structure and construct validity of the PMSC.DesignConstruct validation study.MethodsParticipants were part of the Melbourne Infant Feeding, Activity and Nutrition Trial (InFANT). The latent structure of the PMSC responses was tested through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling (BSEM). Internal consistency was conducted using polychoric correlation-based alphas.ResultsThe 303 children (boys 53.1%, n = 161) were aged 4–5 years (M = 4.7, SD = 0.46). The final model had an 18 item 3-factor solution with good fit indices (using CFA and BSEM). Factors were: Active Play (Bike, Board Paddle, Climb, Skate/Blade, Scooter, and Swim), Object Control – Hand Skills (Bounce, Catch, Hit, Throw), and FMS skills with a leg action (Gallop, Hop, Jump, Leap, Run, Step Slide, Kick, Roll). Alpha reliability values were: Active Play (0.78), Object Control-Hand Skills (0.76) and FMS-Dynamic Leg (0.84).ConclusionYoung children can distinguish between movement perceptions. The factors reflect the hypothesized structure in terms of FMS being distinguished from Active Play. Further research should investigate how and if these constructs change in children over time.     

Ontology of early visual content

The main goal of the paper is to sketch an ontological model of visual content at the low- and medium-level of visual processing, relying on psychological conceptions of vision. It is argued that influential cognitive models contain assumptions concerning “objects of content,” that is, objects whose presence is a necessary condition of the adequacy of visual representations. Subsequently, the structure of considered objects of content is presented, and its development through the perceptual process is described. In addition, during the course of the article I present some connections between analytic metaphysics and the ontology of visual content.     

From marginal to mainstream: The role of perceived social norms in the rise of a far‐right movement

The present research intends to shed light on the processes enabling political minorities to transition into normatively acceptable groups, by investigating how a previously marginalised far‐right movement (the French National Front) is progressively becoming mainstream. Drawing on the social representations approach, we argue that perceived social norms play a pivotal role in this process. Using a longitudinal and experimental design, the study (N = 233) was implemented in the ecological context of the 2012 French presidential election at a Parisian university campus, a traditional anti‐far‐right bastion. We tested whether the electoral campaign altered the perceptions of social norms, whether the perceived social norms were easily malleable in this specific context and, most important, whether they influenced people's willingness to speak out in public against the far‐right movement. The findings support affirmative answers to all three questions. We conclude that, in periods of collective uncertainty, changing perceptions of social norms might play an important role in the weakening of public opposition to far‐right movements. This, in turn, helps to explain the recent transition to mainstream recognition of a number of previously marginalised political movements in Europe and around the globe.     

Encouraging prediction during production facilitates subsequent comprehension: Evidence from interleaved object naming in sentence context and sentence reading

Many studies have shown that a supportive context facilitates language comprehension. A currently influential view is that language production may support prediction in language comprehension. Experimental evidence for this, however, is relatively sparse. Here we explored whether encouraging prediction in a language production task encourages the use of predictive contexts in an interleaved comprehension task. In Experiment 1a, participants listened to the first part of a sentence and provided the final word by naming aloud a picture. The picture name was predictable or not predictable from the sentence context. Pictures were named faster when they could be predicted than when this was not the case. In Experiment 1b the same sentences, augmented by a final spill-over region, were presented in a self-paced reading task. No difference in reading times for predictive versus non-predictive sentences was found. In Experiment 2, reading and naming trials were intermixed. In the naming task, the advantage for predictable picture names was replicated. More importantly, now reading times for the spill-over region were considerable faster for predictive than for non-predictive sentences. We conjecture that these findings fit best with the notion that prediction in the service of language production encourages the use of predictive contexts in comprehension. Further research is required to identify the exact mechanisms by which production exerts its influence on comprehension.     

Maternal mind-mindedness: stability over time and consistency across relationships

Maternal mind-mindedness has been described both as a cognitive-behavioural trait and as a relational construct. This study assessed stability over time and consistency across relationships of maternal mind-mindedness in relation to preschool and primary school siblings and compared representational and interactional mind-mindedness. Mothers with two children between 2½ and 10 years were assessed twice, nine months apart (N = 32 at Time 1; N = 30 at Time 2). Representational mind-mindedness for a partner/friend was also assessed twice. Mothers’ representational mind-mindedness showed temporal stability but was inconsistent across relationships with two children and a partner/friend. Conversely, mothers’ interactional mind-mindedness was stable and highly consistent across relationships with two children. This supports the possibility that mothers’ interactional mind-mindedness is trait-like, while findings are equivocal for representational mind-mindedness. Representational mind-mindedness and interactional mind-mindedness were unrelated in this preliminary study, suggesting that these measures of maternal mind-mindedness were not equivalent for this age group.     

孔子的忠德观探析

“忠”是孔子道德学说的一个重要范畴。孔子对“忠”的论述非常全面和系统,其中既包括对“忠”的学理性探讨,也包括对忠德的培育、践行等的方法论指导,构成了一个理论性与实践性兼备的完整体系。孔子的“忠”具有泛伦理特征,在他看来,“忠”是一切人都应具备的道德品格,不存在主体上的选择性;“忠”的美德不仅应当施于主体以外的所有人,而且应当施于主体所从事的工作和事业,施于自己的祖国。