Interaction between locale and taxon strategies in human spatial learning

Three computer-based experiments which tested human participants in a non-immersive virtual watermaze task sought to determine factors which dictate whether the presence of a visual platform disrupts locale learning and taxon learning. In Experiment 1, the visible platform disrupted locale but not taxon learning based on viewpoint-independent and viewpoint-dependent information, respectively. In Experiment 2, taxon learning based on non-geometric cues providing viewpoint-dependent information was disrupted by the visible platform when the cues required relational information to disambiguate them from other cues. Experiment 3 placed participants in an isosceles triangular pool. The presence of the visible platform did not disrupt the encoding of relational information provided by shape of the pool. These results support the notion that geometric cues are encoded in a separate module which is impenetrable to non-geometric cues not creating the shape of the environment.     

Exploring the Cognitive and Emotional Correlates to Proactive and Reactive Aggression in a Sample of Detained Girls

The current study examined the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in a sample of detained girls (N = 58) aged 12 to 18. This study employed a self-report measure of aggression that was designed explicitly to assess both the forms that aggression takes (i.e., relational and overt), as well as the functions that aggression serves (i.e., reactive and proactive). Reactive aggression was uniquely associated with poorly regulated emotion and anger to perceived provocation, whereas proactive aggression was uniquely associated with callous-unemotional (CU) traits and biased outcome expectations for aggression. While overt aggression appeared to largely account for these associations, relational aggression showed strong and unique associations with CU traits. The current findings highlight the importance of assessing reactive and proactive aggression, as well as both overt and relational aggression, in detained girls.     

When I think of you, I feel more confident about me: The relational self and self-confidence

Although much research has demonstrated the existence of relationship specific relational selves, the effects of those selves on feelings about the overall self-concept are unknown. The current research proposed that level of relational interdependent self-construal moderates the relationship between the activation of close relationship partners and self-confidence. The first study examined self-construal as a naturally occurring personality variable, whereas the second study manipulated self-construal. Both studies supported the hypothesis that those greater in relational interdependence experience greater self-confidence when close others are salient whereas those lower in relational interdependence experience lower self-confidence. The implications of the findings and linkages to past research are discussed.     

Nonconscious relationship reactance: When significant others prime opposing goals

Individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally pursue goals they associate with relationship partners ( [Fitzsimons and Bargh, 2003] and [Shah, 2003]). Here, we demonstrate conditions under which individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally reject goals they associate with relationship partners and instead pursue opposing goals. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally primed with the name of a controlling significant other who had a particular goal for them. Without awareness or intent, participants pursued a goal that directly opposed their significant other’s wishes. In Experiment 2, chronic reactance was shown to moderate this effect: Low-reactant individuals adopted a subliminally primed significant other’s goal, whereas high-reactant individuals pursued an opposing goal. This research suggests that in response to controlling significant others and among chronically reactant individuals, the nonconscious activation of relational representations can automatically elicit oppositional goal pursuits, even when pursuit of an oppositional goal results in a personally suboptimal outcome.     

双眼性的深度运动速度与方向知觉研究

研究双眼性的深度运动知觉,结果表明,双眼视网膜象的速度差信息,在深度运动的速度检测中起重要作用;而速度比信息则有助于判断深度运动的方向,人眼感知的深度运动的速度大小正比于双眼网膜象的速度差,感知的运动方向则取决于速度比。提出人类视觉系统具有从二维网膜信息获得三维运动知党的双限性机制,据此解释了双眼视觉的速度检测特性以及所具有的０．２°的方向分辨率,理论模型与实验结果及日常视知觉符合良好。     

概念加工深度影响道德概念水平方位隐喻联结

通过6个实验探究了不同概念加工深度下道德概念与水平方位的隐喻联结。实验1采用迫选任务范式, 实验2、实验3和实验4均采用空间Stroop范式, 实验5和实验6均采用启动范式。结果发现：(1)在思维迫选中存在道德与左、不道德与右的隐喻联结; (2)在较深、中等概念加工深度下发现了隐喻一致性效应, 在较浅概念加工深度下未发现这种效应; (3)在较浅概念加工深度下始源域和目标域之间的映射均不存在, 即未在启动范式中发现隐喻联结。结果表明：道德概念与水平方位存在隐喻联结, 这种隐喻联结中左表征道德、右表征不道德, 并同时受到始源域和目标域加工深度的影响。     

Moving from “I” to “We”: A Grounded Theory Analysis of Couple Therapy with Liver Patients and Their Partners

Prior research indicates that couples who cope with chronic illness from a relational “we” orientation experience more positive outcomes than couples that cope individually; however, little prior research identifies clinical processes that promote reciprocity or how societal gender processes are involved. This grounded theory analysis of 25 videotaped therapy sessions with six heterosexual couples coping with chronic liver disease (LD) used a feminist-informed relational lens to focus on the clinical processes involved in shifting from an individual to a relational orientation. Findings identified three contextual barriers to attaining a “we orientation”: (a) autonomy discourse, (b) illness-related power, and (c) gendered power. Analysis detailed therapist actions that decreased the impact of barriers to reciprocity and fostered relational coping. Clinical implications attend to complex intersections among gender, caregiving, and contextual barriers to reciprocity.     

Generating Relations Elicits a Relational Mindset in Children

Relational reasoning is a hallmark of human higher cognition and creativity, yet it is notoriously difficult to encourage in abstract tasks, even in adults. Generally, young children initially focus more on objects, but with age become more focused on relations. While prerequisite knowledge and cognitive resource maturation partially explains this pattern, here we propose a new facet important for children's relational reasoning development: a general orientation to relational information, or a relational mindset. We demonstrate that a relational mindset can be elicited, even in 4‐year‐old children, yielding greater than expected spontaneous attention to relations. Children either generated or listened to an experimenter state the relationships between objects in a set of formal analogy problems, and then in a second task, selected object or relational matches according to their preference. Children tended to make object mappings, but those who generated relations on the first task selected relational matches more often on the second task, signaling that relational attention is malleable even in young children.     

Relational Diagnosis: A Retrospective Synopsis

This article highlights and summarizes efforts that have been made primarily during the past 20 years to bring the significance of relational diagnosis to the attention of the entire mental health community, and either (1) to have dysfunctional relational interactive patterns classified and codified and accepted for inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or (2) if this is not feasible, to have a nosology of relational diagnoses, which have been clearly defined with accompanying risks specified for mental illnesses that might develop, and criteria sets delineated and adequately field tested to warrant and lead to publication of a separate but equal Diagnostic Manual of Relational Disorders and Dysfunctional Interactional Patterns.