Are seductive details seductive only when you think they are relevant? An experimental test of the moderating role of perceived relevance

We investigated whether seductive details (i.e., interesting but irrelevant adjuncts) are harmful to learning only when students (mistakenly) think that they are relevant. We therefore conducted a study in which participants (N = 86) learned either without seductive details (control condition) or with seductive details—in the latter case with or without being informed about the seductive details' irrelevance. In line with our hypotheses, only participants who were not informed about the irrelevance of seductive details revealed worse learning outcomes than those in the control condition, thereby revealing a seductive details effect. Extraneous cognitive load, but not perceived time pressure, mediated the negative effects of being uninformed about the irrelevance of seductive details on learning outcomes. Taken together, our results suggest that the perceived relevance of seductive details is a boundary condition of the seductive details effect.     

On Complete Representations of Reducts of Polyadic Algebras

Following research initiated by Tarski, Craig and Németi, and futher pursued by Sain and others, we show that for certain subsets G of ^ω ω, atomic countable G polyadic algebras are completely representable. G polyadic algebras are obtained by restricting the similarity type and axiomatization of ω-dimensional polyadic algebras to finite quantifiers and substitutions in G. This contrasts the cases of cylindric and relation algebras. Presented by Robert Goldblatt     

Why Barbie feels heavier than Ken: the influence of size-based expectancies and social cues on the illusory perception of weight

In order to examine the relative influence of size-based expectancies and social cues on the perceived weight of objects, two studies were performed, using equally weighing dolls differing in sex-related and age-related vulnerability or physical strength cues. To increase variation in perceived size, stimulus objects were viewed through optical lenses of varying reducing power. Different groups of participants were required to provide magnitude estimates of perceived size, physical strength, or weight, or of expected weight. A size-weight illusion (SWI) was demonstrated, such that smaller objects felt heavier than larger ones, that was entirely accounted for by the mediating role of expected weight. Yet, perceived physical strength exerted an additional and more reactive influence on perceived weight independently of measured expectancies. Results are used to clarify the nature of "embodied", internal sensory-motor representations of physical and social properties.     

Generalized Pexider equation on a restricted domain

Let X be a normed space and D be a nonempty, open and connected subset of X×X. Inspired by a problem of J. Aczél, we study the functional equation

     

数学学习不良儿童视觉-空间表征与数学问题解决

采用临床访谈的方法,考察了30名数学学习不良(MD)儿童和31名一般儿童的数学问题解决、视觉-空间表征策略和空间视觉化能力。结果发现：图式表征能促进数学问题的解决,图像表征则起妨碍作用;空间视觉化能力与解题正确率及图式表征策略有显著正相关,与图像表征策略有显著负相关。MD儿童的解题正确率以及使用图式表征策略的程度显著低于一般儿童,使用图像表征策略的程度则显著高于一般儿童。在解题正确率和图式表征策略这两个变量上,MD儿童和一般儿童的年级发展趋势相同,都随年级的升高而提高。但在图像表征策略的使用上,一般儿童有随年级的升高而下降的趋势,MD儿童却没有下降的趋势。两类儿童的空间视觉化能力都随年级的升高而提高。     

Secondary Beliefs: A Mediator between Illness Representations and Coping Behavior in Arthritis Sufferers

The aim of the current study was to investigate the factors of secondary beliefs and illness representations, and their relationship with particular coping strategies used in the management of arthritis, and more specifically, if secondary beliefs, as defined in Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), mediated the relationship between illness representations and coping, as outlined by the Self-Regulatory Model (SRM). A sample of 63 arthritis sufferers aged between 32.0 and 100.1 years was recruited. Participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ); revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R); Secondary Beliefs Scale (SBS). Analyses revealed that all eight coping strategies measured were significantly related to one or more illness representation, lending support to the SRM. Furthermore, secondary beliefs were found to mediate the relationship between illness representations and coping for three of the strategies measured: confrontive coping, accepting responsibility and seeking social support, while they also appeared to be directly related to the escape-avoidance strategy. Therefore, support for the REBT model was also evidenced. Overall, these results have highlighted the importance of cognitive factors in influencing coping behavior, a finding that could prove useful when designing interventions aiming to promote beneficial coping in arthritis sufferers.     

Environmental representations of local communities' spokespersons in protected areas

Despite the popularization of the environmental discourse, rural environmental belief‐systems should not be viewed as homogenous. Focusing on the largest protected area in Greece, we examined heterogeneity in local environmental views. Local spokespersons elicited word associations to two stimulus terms, namely, ‘environmentalists’ and ‘protected area’. Based on association categories for both terms, we identified two sample segments. ‘Naturalists’ appealed to a naturalistic image, which shaped the core compartment of their representations. On the other hand, ‘skeptics’ provided both environmentalist claims and critical accounts. Our findings revealed that the environmental discourse was widely diffused among local spokespersons. Issues of power and participation in decision‐making processes within protected areas are discussed. For instance, dimensions of power and legitimacy were reflected in the frequency of association categories and their allocation among sample segments. Specifically, environmentalist accounts were overtly expressed by both ‘naturalists’ and skeptics, while a more socially, politically and critically inclined view was revealed by a small percentage of associations that were all elicited by ‘skeptics’. We conclude that appreciating the heterogeneity of rural environmental views can reinforce the democratic mandate in environmental policy‐making. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geometric analogue of holographic reduced representation

Holographic reduced representations (HRRs) are distributed representations of cognitive structures based on superpositions of convolution-bound n-tuples. Restricting HRRs to n-tuples consisting of ±1, one reinterprets the variable binding as a representation of the additive group of binary n-tuples with addition modulo 2. Since convolutions are not defined for vectors, the HRRs cannot be directly associated with geometric structures. Geometric analogues of HRRs are obtained if one considers a projective representation of the same group in the space of blades (geometric products of basis vectors) associated with an arbitrary n-dimensional Euclidean (or pseudo-Euclidean) space. Switching to matrix representations of Clifford algebras, one can always turn a geometric analogue of an HRR into a form of matrix distributed representation. In typical applications the resulting matrices are sparse, so that the matrix representation is less efficient than the representation directly employing the rules of geometric algebra. A yet more efficient procedure is based on ‘projected products’, a hierarchy of geometrically meaningful n-tuple multiplication rules obtained by combining geometric products with projections on relevant multivector subspaces. In terms of dimensionality the geometric analogues of HRRs are in between holographic and tensor-product representations.     

Human and peoples' rights: social representations among Cameroonian students

Social representations of human and peoples' rights were studied among Cameroonian university students (N = 666) with a questionnaire based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and Duties. The respondents were asked how important and how well realized they regarded the 39 human and peoples' rights to be. A 13-factor model provided the best fit with Cameroonian students' perceptions of human and peoples' rights. Taken as a whole, our results are in line with previous quantitative studies on human rights, confirming structural similarity but also country-specific variation in the aggregation of specific rights. Moreover, our data showed that Cameroonian students value human and peoples' rights highly (M = 6.18), whereas their fulfillment is not regarded as highly (M = 5.09). Same law for all, equality and freedom, and right to work and living were highly appreciated but lowly realized rights. Higher than average in importance and realization were right to education and self-fulfillment, right to marriage and property, peoples' social and political basic rights and right to life and safety. Low in importance and realization were peoples' right to their country's natural resources and independence, right to meetings, and right to express opinion. Women appreciated the rights more than men and thought of their rights as better realized compared to men. We suggest that when women say that their rights are better fulfilled than men do, it is in comparison with the older generation, who are still very dependent on men. Nowadays, thanks to education and urbanization, young women have wider choices or opportunities for marriage and jobs. Men may feel frustrated in the context of political liberalization because the freedoms are more theoretical than fulfilled; the economic crises and cultural changes have hindered their economic domination and their prerogatives.     

Seeing close others as we see ourselves: One’s own self-complexity is reflected in perceptions of meaningful others

Although past research has established a correspondence between the content of knowledge about the self and close others, the current work evaluated the prediction that the self-concept also influences the structure of these perceptions. Specifically, we expected greater correspondence in the complexity of mental representations between the self and others included in the self. In Study 1, we found that self-complexity was related to the perceived complexity of a close other and that this outcome did not reflect a general tendency to perceive the world in a systematically complex or simple fashion (i.e., cognitive complexity). In Study 2, we found that the correspondence between self-complexity and complexity of representations of others increased for individuals more included in the self. Finally in Study 3, we observed that experimentally manipulating inclusion of other in the self resulted in perceived structural similarity between representations of the self and others. Implications of self-concept representation for social relationships are discussed.