The Monkey as a Psychological Subject

Many species in long-term captivity have tried to kill time by playing friendly games with their warders. In the end, only rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) could tolerate the tedious hide-and-seek games that their human jailers prefer to play. In this article, written many years before the Stockholm syndrome was first described, the author relates how it was eventually discovered which species is most willing to contribute to the development of a genuinely scientific human psychology. Harry F. Harlow died in 1981 and Dr. Frank C.P. van der Horst (fhorst@fsw.leidenuniv.nl) of Leiden University stands as the person to addess correspondence to.

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On the Importance of Well-being

Many among philosophers and non-philosophers would claim that well-being is important in moral theory because it is important to the individual whose well-being it is. The exact meaning of this claim, however, is in need of clarification. Having provided that, I will present a charge against it. This charge can be found in the recent work of both Joseph Raz and Thomas Scanlon. According to the latter the concept of well-being plays an unimportant role in an agent’s deliberation. As I will show, to claim this much is to undermine our initial claim; and to do that is to undermine some of the most central theories in normative ethics. I will focus on Scanlon’s discussion in particular because it affords us with two criteria for the assessment of the importance for a person of a value-concept such as well-being. I will claim that much of Scanlon’s case rests on the idea that well-being is an inclusive good, a good constituted by other things that are good in and for themselves. Then, I will put forward a case against Scanlon’s challenge by (1) showing that inclusiveness, when properly understood, does not lead to the conclusion Scanlon is led to and (2) showing that on at least the reading Scanlon prefers, his criteria are inappropriate.

Modality and domain specific components in auditory and visual working memory tasks

In the tripartite model of working memory (WM) it is postulated that a unique part system—the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSSP)—processes non-verbal content. Due to behavioral and neurophysiological findings, the VSSP was later subdivided into visual object and visual spatial processing, the former representing objects’ appearance and the latter spatial information. This distinction is well supported. However, a challenge to this model is the question how spatial information from non-visual sensory modalities, for example the auditory one, is processed. Only a few studies so far have directly compared visual and auditory spatial WM. They suggest that the distinction of two processing domains—one for object and one for spatial information—also holds true for auditory WM, but that only a part of the processes is modality specific. We propose that processing in the object domain (the item’s appearance) is modality specific, while spatial WM as well as object-location binding relies on modality general processes.     

Crime and punishment: distinguishing the roles of causal and intentional analyses in moral judgment

Recent research in moral psychology has attempted to characterize patterns of moral judgments of actions in terms of the causal and intentional properties of those actions. The present study directly compares the roles of consequence, causation, belief and desire in determining moral judgments. Judgments of the wrongness or permissibility of action were found to rely principally on the mental states of an agent, while judgments of blame and punishment are found to rely jointly on mental states and the causal connection of an agent to a harmful consequence. Also, selectively for judgments of punishment and blame, people who attempt but fail to cause harm more are judged more leniently if the harm occurs by independent means than if the harm does not occur at all. An account of these phenomena is proposed that distinguishes two processes of moral judgment: one which begins with harmful consequences and seeks a causally responsible agent, and the other which begins with an action and analyzes the mental states responsible for that action.     

论现象学心理学的理论特征

现象学心理学将现象学哲学落实到心理学中,反对自然科学心理学的自然主义主张,以维护心理现象的原本面目为己任,成为一种激进的人文科学心理学。其理论特征表现为：严格的现象学哲学观;激进的人文科学观;鲜明的生活面向观;独特的意向性心理本质观;坚实的质性研究观;批判的价值负载观。     

香气在营销中的应用

香气营销是一种基于嗅觉与情绪、记忆、行为决策之间关系的体验式营销模式。近年来, 心理学家和营销专家对香气营销的关注主要集中于对其理论依据、营销效果、与其他因素交互作用等方面的研究, 证实怡人的香气可显著延长顾客的店内停留时间, 提高产品评估, 加强品牌记忆。未来香气营销的研究应更关注嗅觉心理反应的差异性对营销效果的影响。     

疾病的心理防御：人类如何应对病菌威胁

病菌和传染病构成的选择压力导致动物进化出了身体免疫以及行为免疫反应。而人类的大脑进化促使他们发展出了最为复杂的行为免疫系统。很早开始, 我们就依赖自身的各种行为免疫反应抵抗病菌。当这些疾病抵御机制跟群体生活协同进化之后, 我们的很多社会行为和态度都具有了减少疾病感染的功能, 它们包括对外群体成员的偏见、歧视, 以及对内群体成员的从众、服从。而更高层次的文化差异比如集体主义-个人主义, 至少部分原因是要管理与疾病感染有关的风险。本篇综述讨论了与抵御病菌威胁有关的社会行为、态度和其他心理现象。     

陈立与20世纪中国工业心理学

陈立的工业心理学生涯跨越70年, 但主要活动集中于1935至1937年, 1977至1990年代中期, 中断40年而再续, 可谓波澜起伏。除了1935年撰写的《工业心理学概观》, 陈立的主要贡献源于后一阶段, 其中包括：恢复了中断多年的中国心理学教学和研究、建立了中国第一个与管理有关的专业(工业心理学)和第一个国家重点实验室、培养了国内第一批工业心理学硕、博士、继承和发扬了实地调研—实验室研究—理论学习相结合的工业心理学传统; 陈立还通过写作和其他形式的呼吁, 促成了中国管理学的兴盛。但他晚年却觉得自己一生是失败的, 主要是因为他认为工业心理学没能做到 “指导人走向最适宜的机会, 并在此过程中实现最高的自我”。     

Implicit learning

Implicit learning appears to be a fundamental and ubiquitous process in cognition. Although defining and operationalizingimplicit learning remains a central theoretical challenge, scientists' understanding of implicit learning has progressed significantly. Beyond establishing the existence of "learning without awareness," current research seeks to identify the cognitive processes that support implicit learning and addresses the relationship between learning and awareness of what was learned. The emerging view of implicit learning emphasizes the role of associative learning mechanisms that exploit statistical dependencies in the environment in order to generate highly specific knowledge representations.