路径知识习得的认知老化效应

年龄与路径知识习得的关系是空间与认知老化两大领域研究的重要议题。老年人在面对不同的路径学习环境时呈现出不同的认知老化表现。以往与年龄相关的路径知识习得能力变化的研究, 主要支持了认知老化衰退理论。然而近来发现随着年龄增长, 老年人保留了一种空间认知补偿能力。由此, 在对前人文献进行回顾和反思的基础上, 整合路径知识习得的认知老化表现及机制以探究缓解空间认知老化可能的内部因素和外部有效措施。     

A reflection on learning crafts as a practice for self-development

This paper represents a reflection on craft as a process that stimulates self-development. Central to this approach is the perception of craft, not as a means of production, but as an exercise of relating to the world. The paper suggests that through the dialogue between the mind, body and environment craft practitioners experience a particular form of connection with the world that reshapes their perceptual and conceptual understanding of it. Rather than following an ego-driven tendency to control, a craftsperson is exposed to modes of ‘knowing’ and ‘being’ that embrace the inherent uncertainty of a complex world. The learning experience of a novice (lead author) demonstrates such a course of development in this paper. In particular, the liminal space that needs to be created for the dialogue between the self and the non-self is explored. This personal narrative is woven together with the experience of craft masters within different social contexts and value systems (from traditional to modern to postmodern) and their views on the process of being and becoming a craftsperson.     

Epistemic Contextualism: An Idle Hypothesis

Epistemic contextualism is one of the most hotly debated topics in contemporary epistemology. Contextualists claim that ‘know’ is a context-sensitive verb associated with different evidential standards in different contexts. Contextualists motivate their view based on a set of behavioural claims. In this paper, I show that several of these behavioural claims are false. I also show that contextualist test cases suffer from a critical confound, which derives from people's tendency to defer to speakers’ statements about their own mental states. My evidence consists in results from several behavioural experiments. I conclude that contextualism is an idle hypothesis and I propose some general methodological lessons.     

The assessment of knowledge and learning in competence spaces: The gain–loss model for dependent skills

The gain–loss model (GaLoM) is a formal model for assessing knowledge and learning. In its original formulation, the GaLoM assumes independence among the skills. Such an assumption is not reasonable in several domains, in which some preliminary knowledge is the foundation for other knowledge. This paper presents an extension of the GaLoM to the case in which the skills are not independent, and the dependence relation among them is described by a well‐graded competence space. The probability of mastering skill s at the pretest is conditional on the presence of all skills on which s depends. The probabilities of gaining or losing skill s when moving from pretest to posttest are conditional on the mastery of s at the pretest, and on the presence at the posttest of all skills on which s depends. Two formulations of the model are presented, in which the learning path is allowed to change from pretest to posttest or not. A simulation study shows that models based on the true competence space obtain a better fit than models based on false competence spaces, and are also characterized by a higher assessment accuracy. An empirical application shows that models based on pedagogically sound assumptions about the dependencies among the skills obtain a better fit than models assuming independence among the skills.     

To know you is to love you: Effects of intergroup contact and knowledge on intergroup anxiety and prejudice among indigenous Chileans

Two surveys were conducted in Chile with indigenous Mapuche participants (N study 1: 573; N study 2: 198). In line with previous theorising, it was predicted that intergroup contact with the non‐indigenous majority reduces prejudice. It was expected that this effect would be because of contact leading to more knowledge about the outgroup, which would then lead to less intergroup anxiety. The two studies yielded converging support for these predictions.     

Who Knows? Knowledge Activation,Belief in Certainty of Knowledge,Maximization Tendencies and Need for Cognition in Answerability Judgments

In this study, investigating answerability judgments, 123 participants judged whether each of 46 general knowledge questions could currently be answered by themselves, by someone else, or by no one. There were 26 consensus questions (high expected consensus about their answerability) and 20 non-consensus questions. Before each question, half of the participants rated the extent of their knowledge related to the question. Results showed that answering consensus questions compared with non-consensus led to a lower proportion of “No one knows” answers. Moreover, in the knowledge rating condition compared with the control condition, participants choose “No one knows” proportionally less. Participants’ ratings of belief in certainty of knowledge were associated with more “Someone else knows” for the non-consensus questions. Moreover, tendency to maximization led to a higher proportion of “Someone else knows” options for the non-consensus questions. Finally, high need for cognition was associated with fewer choices of “Someone else knows.”     

Effects of an Occupational Therapy Hand Dominance Transfer Intervention for Soldiers With Crossed Hand-Eye Dominance

Crossed dominance (CD) is defined as an individual's dominant hand and dominant eye being on opposite sides of the body. CD negatively impacts an individual's ability to accurately aim and fire long-barreled guns. The authors developed and evaluated a hand dominance transfer (HDT) intervention to improve the M16 rifle shooting accuracy, efficiency, and skill transfer. Twenty-four U.S. Army soldiers with CD were taught how to handle and fire an M16 rifle using the nondominant hand. Training was conducted at a military, indoor laser-equipped weapons simulator. Accuracy for shooting 40 rounds at baseline with the nondominant eye and dominant hand (NDE/DH) was 22.12 compared to shooting 30.46 with the dominant eye and nondominant hand (DE/NDH). This difference was statistically significant with p = .000. The transfer of shooting accuracy skill (retention) following the HDT intervention was 33.42 with a comparative p value of .100. Efficiency of shooting 10 rounds at baseline with the NDE/DH was 6.3 compared to shooting 7.3 with the DE/NDH. This difference was not statistically significant (p = .107). The transfer of shooting efficiency skill (retention) was 7.96 with a comparative p value of .349. This study supports shooting with the DE/NDH. HDT could be further developed to address the soldiering skill of shooting an M16.     

Seeing is Knowing: On the Predictive Accuracy of Self‐ and Informant Reports for Prosocial and Moral Behaviours

Under certain circumstances, well‐known others (so‐called informants) may possess unique insights into targets' personality traits beyond the targets' self‐views. Specifically, as proposed by the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, an incremental predictive ability of informants is most likely for traits and corresponding behaviours that are clearly visible to others and highly evaluative in nature. In two studies, we provide an empirical test of this proposition and extend prior research to one of the most important domains of interpersonal interaction: prosocial and moral behaviours. Specifically, we investigate the unique predictive power of informant reports in trait Honesty–Humility for fairness in the dictator game and dishonesty in a cheating paradigm. Importantly, while both these classes of behaviour are highly evaluative in nature, only fairness is clearly visible to others. Correspondingly, in line with the self–other knowledge asymmetry model, our results reveal unique predictive accuracy of informant reports for fairness. For dishonesty, by contrast, there was no conclusive evidence for incremental predictive power of informant reports. This implies that informants may indeed provide valuable information beyond targets' self‐reports on trait aspects driving fair behaviour, but that targets themselves are their own best experts when it comes to judging trait aspects driving dishonest behaviour. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Language facilitates introspection: Verbal mind-wandering has privileged access to consciousness

Introspection and language are the cognitive prides of humankind, but their interactions in healthy cognition remain unclear. Episodes of mind-wandering, where personal thoughts often go unnoticed for some time before being introspected, offer a unique opportunity to study the role of language in introspection. In this paper, we show that inner speech facilitates awareness of mind-wandering. In two experiments, we either interfered with verbal working memory, via articulatory suppression (Exp. 1), or entrained it, via presentation of verbal material (Exp. 2), and measured the resulting awareness of mind-wandering. Articulatory suppression decreased the likelihood to spontaneously notice mind-wandering, whereas verbal material increased retrospective awareness of mind-wandering. In addition, an ecological study using smartphones confirmed that inner speech vividness positively predicted mind-wandering awareness (Exp. 3). Together, these findings support the view that inner speech facilitates introspection of one’s thoughts, and therefore provides empirical evidence for a positive relation between language and consciousness.