儿童类别学习中知识效应的年龄差异

采用特征主题的类别学习实验范式,考察了儿童类别学习中知识效应的年龄差异。63名小学4年级学生(年龄范围9～10岁)、65名小学6年级学生(年龄范围11～12岁)和77名初中2年级学生(年龄范围13～14岁)参加了本实验。结果表明:当类别特征能够在已有知识的基础上形成主题时,3个年龄组儿童类别学习的轮次和错误数均显著下降,而且主题突出时,这种趋势更加明显;在统一主题条件下,小学4年级、小学6年级和初中2年级3个年龄组儿童类别学习的轮次和错误数依次减少;而在无主题和突出主题条件下,3个年龄组儿童类别学习的成绩无显著差异。     

Affective processing in positive schizotypy: Loose control of social-emotional information

Behavioral studies suggested heightened impact of emotionally laden perceptual input in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, in particular in patients with prominent positive symptoms. De-coupling of prefrontal and posterior cortices during stimulus processing, which is related to loosening of control of the prefrontal cortex over incoming affectively laden information, may underlie this abnormality. Pre-selected groups of individuals with low versus high positive schizotypy (lower and upper quartile of a large screening sample) were tested. During exposure to auditory displays of strong emotions (anger, sadness, cheerfulness), individuals with elevated levels of positive schizotypal symptoms showed lesser prefrontal–posterior coupling (EEG coherence) than their symptom-free counterparts (right hemisphere). This applied to negative emotions in particular and was most pronounced during confrontation with anger. The findings indicate a link between positive symptoms and a heightened impact particularly of threatening emotionally laden stimuli which might lead to exacerbation of positive symptoms and inappropriate behavior in interpersonal situations.     

Plagues,Pagans, and Christians: Differential Survival,Social Networks,and the Rise of Christianity

In his book, The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark argues that the early Christian church indirectly benefitted from the plagues that struck the early Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Common Era. In particular, he argues that the early church's doctrines concerning love, charity, and social service would have led Christians to enjoy higher survival rates than pagans, which would have left the social networks of the former relatively intact, while those of the latter in disarray. Moreover, since recruitment to new religious movements occurs largely through social ties, the probability that an average pagan would have converted to Christianity would have been greater after the plagues than before. In this article, we use computer modeling to test Stark's hypothesis. Not only do we find support for his hypothesis, we also show that higher survival rates for either group not only would have benefitted their respective social networks but also would have benefitted their competitor's social networks, highlighting how network effects often flow in multiple and unexpected ways. We conclude with suggestions for future research, in particular how scholars can build upon our analyses and explore alternative assumptions.     

Women experience more serious relationship problems when male partners endorse hostile sexism

Men's hostile sexism promotes aggressive attitudes, motivations and behaviors toward women. Despite the costs these effects should have for women, prior research has failed to test how men's hostile sexism predicts the problems women experience in important domains. We address this oversight by utilizing dyadic data from 363 heterosexual couples to test how male partners’ hostile sexism predicts women's relationship experiences and evaluations. Male partners’ hostile sexism was associated with women experiencing more severe problems across a greater number of domains. Moreover, the areas experienced as most problematic were consistent with the power, dependence, and trust concerns underlying men's hostile sexism, including problems with power dynamics, jealousy, and serious problems involving gender-role conflict, abuse, infidelity and alcohol/drugs. The greater problems associated with male partners’ hostile sexism predicted more negative relationship evaluations for women. These results demonstrate the importance of examining how men's hostile sexism harms women in important life domains.     

Contrast effects in judgmental forecasting when assessing the implications of worst and best case scenarios

Two experiments investigated whether individuals' forecasts of the demand for products and a stock market index assuming a best or worst case scenario depend on whether they have seen a single scenario in isolation or whether they have also seen a second scenario presenting an opposing view of the future. Normatively, scenarios should be regarded as belonging to different plausible future worlds so that the judged implications of one scenario should not be affected when other scenarios are available. However, the results provided evidence of contrast effects in that the presentation of a second “opposite” scenario led to more extreme forecasts consistent with the polarity of the original scenario. In addition, people were more confident about their forecasts based on a given scenario when two opposing scenarios were available. We examine the implications of our findings for the elicitation of point forecasts and judgmental prediction intervals and the biases that are often associated with them.     

Adding emotionality to seductive details—Consequences for learning?

According to the seductive detail effect, adding interesting but irrelevant information (i.e., seductive details) can be detrimental to learning success. In this study, it was explored within two experiments whether the valence of text‐based seductive details might affect learning outcomes differently. For Experiments 1 and 2, we pretested text‐based seductive details for their emotional valence (n = 32 or n = 25 students, respectively). For the main studies of Experiments 1 (n = 105) and 2 (n = 131), university students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that varied with respect to the presence of seductive details and their emotional valence (no vs. positive vs. negative vs. neutral). Unexpectedly, results revealed in both experiments no seductive details effect and also no differences between the three seductive detail conditions for the used learning outcome measures retention and transfer. Possible reasons for these findings and their implications are discussed.     

羞怯对攻击的影响:安全感和社会比较倾向的中介作用

为考察安全感和社会比较倾向在羞怯与攻击之间关系的中介作用,采用大学生羞怯量表、社会比较倾向量表、安全感量表和攻击问卷对543名大学生进行测量。结果发现(1)羞怯、攻击和社会比较倾向三者之间呈显著两两正相关,且三者分别与安全感呈显著负相关;(2)羞怯对攻击的直接效应显著;(3)安全感和社会比较倾向在羞怯与攻击关系间起完全中介作用。     

授权型领导的负面效应：理论机制与边界条件

已有研究主要关注授权型领导的正面影响, 然而, 新近的研究表明授权型领导可能也会引发潜在的负面效应。针对此问题, 首先界定了授权型领导的概念及其核心特征。其次, 基于双重任务加工效应、角色理论和内隐领导理论, 阐释了授权型领导负面效应的理论机制, 并进一步分析和总结了授权型领导的有效性在何种条件下能够实现。最后, 提出了授权型领导负面效应未来研究方向的建议。