儿童歧视知觉模型述评

Brown和Bigler提出了儿童歧视知觉模型,分析了歧视知觉的三个影响因素:认知因素、情景因素和个体差异因素,每个因素都包含了多个影响儿童歧视知觉的子因素。该模型展示了这些因素影响儿童歧视知觉的机制。完善该模型需要探讨其与信息加工理论、发展群际理论、主观群体动力学模型的兼容性。歧视知觉的类型需要进一步细化,因此在综合主观群体动力学模型和发展模型的基础上提出了歧视知觉的分类方案。未来研究还要进一步探讨情绪、文化以及年龄因素对儿童歧视知觉的影响,并探讨该模型对歧视干预的意义。     

The direction of masked auditory category priming correlates with participants' prime discrimination ability

Semantic priming refers to the phenomenon that participants typically respond faster to targets following semantically related primes as compared to semantically unrelated primes. In contrast, Wentura and Frings (2005) found a negatively signed priming effect (i.e., faster responses to semantically unrelated as compared to semantically related targets) when they used (a) a special masking technique for the primes and (b) categorically related prime-target-pairs (e.g., fruit-apple). The negatively signed priming effect was most pronounced for participants with random prime discrimination performance, whereas participants with high prime discrimination performance showed a positive effect. In the present study we analyzed the after-effects of masked category primes in audition. A comparable pattern of results as in the visual modality emerged: The poorer the individual prime discrimination, the more negative is the semantic priming effect. This result is interpreted as evidence for a common mechanism causing the semantic priming effect in vision as well as in audition instead of a perceptual mechanism only working in the visual domain.     

Maternal Treatment Acceptability and Preference of Room Time-Out and Deferred Time-Out Escape Contingencies

ABSTRACT

Maternal preference and acceptability were examined for two methods of addressing time-out escape behavior: room time-out (RTO) and deferred time-out (DTO). With respect to preference, mothers were split about evenly. Spanking frequency and previous effectiveness using privilege removal were associated with preference for DTO while previous effectiveness using RTO was associated with preference for RTO. Child age was negatively associated with acceptability for either treatment and lax parenting style was negatively associated with acceptability for DTO. Results suggest that DTO could provide an alternative escape contingency for mothers who spank their children or who have been unsuccessful using RTO.     

Adaptation of the Children's Friendship Training Program for Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

ABSTRACT

Previous research attests to the marked impairments in social functioning exhibited by children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), suggesting that such children are in need of social skills intervention. Recently, an existing evidence-based manualized behavioral treatment for improving children's friendships was implemented and demonstrated to be effective with children aged 6–12, diagnosed with FASD. In the present report, we describe methods for adapting this behavioral intervention in line with the specific cognitive and behavioral deficits seen in children with FASD and other developmental disabilities to enhance treatment efficacy.     

Number versus extent in newborns’ spontaneous preference for collections of dots

This study investigated processing of number and extent in newborns. Using visual preference, we showed that newborns discriminated between small sets of dot collections relying solely on implicit numerical information when non-numerical continuous variables were strictly controlled (Experiment 1), and solely on continuous information when numerical variables were controlled (Experiment 2). When number and extent were pitted against each other (Experiment 3), newborns showed no visual preference, suggesting that the two variables play comparable roles in attracting newborns’ visual attention. In contrast to reports of dominance of continuous variables, these findings suggest that multiple dimensions attract newborns’ attention and guide their visual exploration.     

The Effect of Psychological Skills Training (PST) on Self-Regulation Behavior,Self-Efficacy,and Psychological Skill Use in Military Pilot-Trainees

Set within B. J. Zimmerman’s (1989 Zimmerman, B. J. (1989). A social cognitive view of self-regulated academic learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 329–339.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], A social cognitive view of self-regulated academic learning, Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 81, pp. 329–339; and B. J. Zimmerman, 2000 Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social–cognitive perspective. In M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich, &; M. Seidner (Eds.), Self-regulation: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 13–39). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], Attaining self-regulation: A social-cognitive perspective, in M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich, &; M. Seidner, Eds., Self-Regulation: Theory, Research, and Applications, pp. 13–39, Orlando, Florida, Academic Press) cyclical model of self-regulation and social–cognitive theory, this study tested the hypothesis that multi-modal psychological skills training (PST) would increase self-regulation behavior, self-efficacy, and psychological skill use in military pilot-trainees experiencing course-related learning difficulties. From pre- to post-intervention, findings showed that specific self-regulation behavior increased linearly. Likewise, significant increases in self-efficacy and psychological skill use occurred, along with concomitant reductions in anxiety and worry. Changes were generally retained at 2-month follow-up. PST highlights potential in modifying pilot-trainee cognitive and behavioral strategies to underpin learning, improve individual/cohort responsiveness, and importantly, cost effectiveness in training provision.     

Generating Recommendations for Simulator Design Through Pilot Assessment of Prototype Utility

Incorporated in a simulator design project, this study assessed the utility of a simulator prototype for air combat training to optimize continued development. After several scenarios, the 13 male participants completed a survey. Seven fidelity levels: visual feedback, head-up/head-down, instrumentation, flight controls, graphics, visual resolution, and field-of-view were rated for three dimensions: realism, limitation of performance, and importance of realism. The results informed decisions about which fidelity levels, head-up/head-down and field-of-view, that should be prioritized during the next design cycle, and generated recommendations for continued simulator design and directives for further evaluations.     

Measuring Team Performance in Complex and Dynamic Military Environments: The SPOTLITE Method

The Scenario-based Performance Observation Tool for Learning In Team Environments (SPOTLITE) provides a systematic method for developing team performance measurement instruments comprised of behaviorally anchored rating scales that are tied to observable behaviors that tap critical knowledge and skills and can be assessed at specific intervals during a training scenario. We developed a measurement instrument for four-person teams of F-16 pilots training for air-to-air combat in a high-fidelity simulation environment and implemented it in a handheld computer to support fast and accurate data entry as a team executes a scenario. An experiment demonstrated the sensitivity, reliability, and validity of the instrument.     

3D Multiple Object Tracking Boosts Working Memory Span: Implications for Cognitive Training in Military Populations

Recently, there has been much theoretical and applied interest in the prospects of cognitive training for improving cognition. NeuroTracker is a relatively recent training device for improving dynamic attention in athletes by training 3D multiple-object tracking skills. We examined its effectiveness for improving working memory (WM) span in members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) by randomly assigning participants to the experimental (NeuroTracker), active control (adaptive dual n-back task), or passive control (no contact) conditions. NeuroTracker training resulted in significant gains in verbal, visual, and matrix span. No gain was observed in the active or passive control group. These results suggest that NeuroTracker could be a useful training tool for increasing WM span in military samples. Future studies could examine the effects of NeuroTracker training on militarily relevant performance measures that draw on WM span.     

Enacting Actuarial Fairness in Insurance: From Fair Discrimination to Behaviour-based Fairness

ABSTRACT

In line with developments in the personalisation of risk, the idea that insurance products should above all be ‘fair’ to the policyholders is increasingly voiced by commentators. The performativity thesis in Science and Technology Studies usually used to study economic markets can be used to investigate different enactments of ‘actuarial fairness’ in insurance practice. Actuarial fairness functions as a technical economic concept and was coined by the neoclassical micro-economist Kenneth Arrow (1921–2017). Faced with anti-discrimination legislation, the insurance industry has, since the 1980s, advanced the principle of actuarial fairness to legitimise their medico-actuarial technologies to discriminate between risk groups. In the absence of this actuarial fairness, it is assumed that dynamics of adverse selection—derived from neoclassical assumptions about economic actors— will result in the bankruptcy of insurance providers. The paradigmatic case of Fairzekering, a showcase of contemporary behaviour-based personalisation in car insurance, demonstrates an important shift in how actuarial fairness is enacted through behaviour-based calculative devices. Here, policyholders are enacted as being personally in control of their driving style while an interactive discount-infrastructure is set up to provide real-time feedback to incentivize policyholders towards ‘good behaviour.’ This enactment of behaviour-based fairness simultaneously implies a shift in the enactment of the economic actors involved, constitutive of the making of new economic ideas in behavioural economics.