What gaze adds to arrows: Changes in attentional response to gaze versus arrows in childhood and adolescence

From early ages, gaze acts as a cue to infer the interests, behaviours, thoughts and emotions of social partners. Despite sharing attentional properties with other non-social directional stimuli, such as arrows, gaze produces unique effects. A spatial interference task revealed this dissociation. The direction of arrows was identified faster on congruent than on incongruent direction-location trials. Conversely, gaze produced a reversed congruency effect (RCE), with faster identifications on incongruent than congruent trials. To determine the emergence of these gaze-specific attentional mechanisms, 214 Spanish children (4–17 years) divided into 6 age groups, performed the aforementioned task across three experiments. Results showed stimulus-specific developmental trajectories. Whereas the standard effect of arrows was unaffected by age, gaze shifted from an arrow-like effect at age 4 to a gaze-specific RCE at age 12. The orienting mechanisms shared by gaze and arrows are already present in 4-year olds and, throughout childhood, gaze becomes a special social cue with additional attentional properties. Besides orienting attention to a direction, as arrows would do, gaze might orient attention towards a specific object that would be attentionally selected. Such additional components may not fully develop until adolescence. Understanding gaze-specific attentional mechanisms may be crucial for children with atypical socio-cognitive development.     

学前期儿童执行功能和语言的双向关系:社会经济地位的调节

采用追踪研究考察258名学前儿童执行功能与语言的双向关系,及二者关系是否受社会经济地位调节。交叉滞后结果表明,学前儿童语言发展与执行功能三个子成分（抑制控制、认知灵活性、工作记忆）存在双向关系;T1时儿童语言对T2时认知灵活性的预测作用受家庭社会经济地位调节：在高社会经济地位家庭中,T1时间儿童的语言能显著正向预测T2时认知灵活性,低社会经济地位家庭中预测作用不显著;其余双向关系中调节作用均不显著。本研究表明,学前儿童执行功能三个子成分与语言均存在双向关系,且社会经济地位在部分关系中起到调节作用。     

数字空间联结的灵活性及其内在机制

数字空间联结一直是认知心理学领域研究的热点之一。探索数字空间联结的一个重要指标为空间-数字反应联合编码(spatial-numerical association of response codes, SNARC)效应(左/右手对小/大数反应更快更准确)。以往研究已验证SNARC效应的普遍性及其在方向上的灵活性, 并提出多种理论解释。此外, SNARC效应在加工阶段上也具有灵活性, 其原因可能有：(1)加因素法则的理解偏差; (2)观察的角度单一; (3)观察效标的差异; (4)使用任务的差异。结合以上因素, 提出双阶段(数量信息的空间表征、空间表征到反应选择)加工模型, 不同的操控因素分别作用于两个阶段可能是引起SNARC效应灵活变化的核心原因。未来研究可从对比任务差异、引入不同干扰因素等方面进一步验证双阶段加工模型, 并结合认知神经科学技术揭示数字空间联结灵活性的内在神经机制。     

自闭症谱系障碍个体的注意解离

注意解离是注意定向网络的重要组成部分, 指在注意转移过程中对原来刺激进行注意分离的过程。自闭症个体注意解离的早期受损会直接影响其它重要功能的发展, 尤其是唤醒调节和共同注意发展。采用间隙重叠范式的研究发现, 自闭症个体注意解离能力是否异常还存在争议, 被试年龄及取样、测量指标和刺激特征可能是影响的因素; 其神经机制可能涉及额叶、顶叶、小脑和胼胝体等脑区。未来应从脑机制研究入手, 综合考虑被试特征、研究方法和刺激特征对注意解离结果的影响, 明确其在自闭症早期预测和识别中的作用。     

Bio-inspired task-rule retrieval model with auditory sorting test

Cognitive architectures (CAs) are currently used to bring the behavior of computer systems closer to human behavior. One of the main capacities of humans is the ability to plan and make decisions. Thus, part of the human behavior is based on rules associated with the relevant environmental stimuli. Rule management can be divided into six needed processes: rule learning, rule retrieving, rule coding, rule updating, rule reinforcement, and rule changing. A key aspect of rule processing is retrieval, which involves the use of information extracted from memory. This work deals with how rules are stored in coded form in the brain, retrieved and used as the need arises. The proposed model takes inspiration mainly from the processes in the VLPFC and MTL brain areas to extract rules from memory and create a rule-set that is sent to the DLPFC. The DLPFC and VLPFC prefrontal area operations are also described, and a process is proposed to select the appropriate rule and give a response. The experimentation of the implementation of our proposal with different configuration parameters gives rise to different approaches to human behavior in rule retrieval. Our conclusion is that after a virtual entity is endowed with this proposal, it computes in a way similar to human behavior.     

Poor cognitive flexibility,and the experience thereof,in a subclinical sample of female students with obsessive‐compulsive symptoms

Research indicates that people with obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) have poor cognitive flexibility. However, studies have largely focused on actual abilities and while individuals' emotional responses may be just as important, little is known about how those with OCD experience a situation that requires cognitive flexibility. It is furthermore largely unknown whether cognitive flexibility may also be important for people with OCD symptoms, rather than only to those with full blown disorders. This study investigates the relationship between cognitive flexibility, and the experience thereof in female students with and without OCD symptoms. It was expected that poor cognitive flexibility would be positively associated to OCD symptoms, and that those with OCD symptoms would display poor cognitive flexibility, and experience situations requiring cognitive flexibility as more difficult, than those without OCD symptoms. Participants completed a measure for OCD symptoms, a neuropsychological task to measure cognitive flexibility, and a self‐report measure assessing emotional experience of situations requiring cognitive flexibility. Positive associations between OCD symptoms and both poor cognitive flexibility and negative experience of situations requiring cognitive flexibility were found. Furthermore, those with OCD symptoms performed poorer on the cognitive flexibility task than those without OCD symptoms, and reported higher scores on the cognitive inflexibility questionnaire. Results confirm a relation between OCD symptoms and poor cognitive flexibility in a subclinical sample and identify a relation between OCD symptoms and a negative experience of situations that require cognitive flexibility. Overall findings suggest that poor cognitive flexibility may be an important part of OCD symptomatology.     

工作投入如何影响员工建言：认知灵活性和权力动机的作用

员工建言日益成为组织创新和变革的推动力,在学术界它也引起了广泛关注.以往研究多从社会交换的视角来探索建言的发生机制,而从社会认知的视角的研究则较为缺乏,本研究将弥补该不足.采用问卷调查法,从苏南地区企业单位选取368份有效配对样本,研究探索了员工的工作投入对其建言行为的影响机制,及认知灵活性和权力动机的调节作用.结果表明,工作投入对建言行为具有显著的正向影响,建言效能感在其中起着中介作用;认知灵活性正向调节工作投入与建言效能感之间的关系,权力动机负向调节建言效能感对工作投入和建言行为的中介作用.文章最后讨论了研究存在的局限,并对建言行为的未来研究做了展望.     

抑制范式下的情绪注意偏向

与中性信息相比,情绪信息会引起更快更多的注意并具有一种认知加工上的优先权.在注意实验中,与不带情绪色彩的刺激相比,具有情绪意义的刺激更能吸引注意或占用注意资源且引起注意偏向.个体对情绪信息的适度偏向具有重要的社会生活意义.本文介绍了情绪注意偏向的注意成分理论、图式理论、注意资源理论和平行分布处理(PDP)模型,并分别对抑制范式下以不同情绪材料展开的正常被试和特殊被试的情绪注意偏向研究进行了总结概括,同时指出了未来在抑制范式下利用ERPs、fMRI新技术研究不同被试群体情绪与注意关系的可能性.     

视觉工作记忆对注意选择的自动导向作用

对Downing(2000)的实验范式加以改进使得实验设计完全符合检验记忆驱动注意捕获所需要满足的标准,实验一采用要求被试在工作记忆保持阶段完成探测区分任务的双任务范式,结果发现被试对呈现在匹配物体空间位置上的探测项反应时显著快于对呈现在非匹配物体空间位置上的探测项反应时,而在实验二中当对被试没有记忆要求时却没有发现这种空间位置一致的优势效应,说明视觉工作记忆内容对选择性注意产生了自动导向作用。     

The importance of choice in therapy: From the perspective of a,hopefully flexible,CBT practitioner

The main purpose of this paper is to present a personal account of my therapeutic journey and to show how my practice of CBT is informed not only by orientation-specific variables (e.g. emphases on 1) attitude; 2) perpetuation of disturbance as opposed to its acquisition; 3) specificity; 4) the development of client self-help skills; and 5) homework), but by more general, trans-theoretical variables (e.g. rooting therapy in the bonds, views, goals and tasks domains of the working alliance and dealing effectively with threats to this alliance). In doing so, I hope to show that when practised well CBT draws upon general principles that span different therapeutic approaches as well as on ideas specific to CBT.