Constructs to describe individual knowledge / Constructos para describir el conocimiento individual

Abstract

The basic unit of any cognitive model that attempts to describe individual knowledge and its manifestations must be chosen carefully, as the resulting position on learning, teaching and, in general, of the psychological research subject depends largely on this choice. The objective is to assess and contrast two constructs of enormous significance in cognitive psychology that have been used as cognitive units under different theoretical contexts: the concept in its classical sense, and the scheme in its organismic version. Arguments are presented to show that the latter is more consistent with constructivist assumptions and is more respectful of psychological data such as the Gestalt and prototype effects or the existence of procedural and implicit knowledge.     

Echoing the emotions of others: empathy is related to how adults and children map emotion onto the body

ABSTRACT

Empathy involves a mapping between the emotions observed in others and those experienced in one’s self. However, effective social functioning also requires an ability to differentiate one’s own emotional state from that of others. Here, we sought to examine the relationship between trait measures of empathy and the self-other distinction during emotional experience in both children and adults. We used a topographical self-report method (emBODY tool) in which participants drew on a silhouette of a human body where they felt an emotional response while watching film and music clips, as well as where they believed the character in the film or performer was feeling an emotion. We then assessed how the degree of overlap between the bodily representation of self versus other emotions related to trait empathy. In adults, the degree of overlap in the body maps was correlated with Perspective Taking. This relationship between cognitive empathy and degree of overlap between self and other was also found with children (8–11 years old), even though children performed worse on the task overall. The results suggest that mapping emotions observed or imagined in other’s bodies onto our own is related to the development of empathy.     

Compensatory knowledge signaling in consumer word‐of‐mouth

This paper extends prior research on consumer knowledge beliefs and word-of-mouth transmission. Findings from four studies suggest that people compensate for unfavorable discrepancies between their actual and ideal consumer knowledge with heightened efforts to signal knowledgeability through the content and volume of their word-of-mouth transmissions. This compensatory knowledge signaling effect is moderated by the self-concept relevance (psychological closeness) of the word-of-mouth target and lay beliefs in the self-enhancement benefits of transmitting product knowledge. Content analysis of participants' product communications further supports our knowledge signaling account. The relationship between actual:ideal knowledge discrepancies and heightened word-of-mouth intentions is mediated by the specific negative emotion associated with actual:ideal self-discrepancies. Overall, the findings suggest that the relationship between consumer knowledge and word-of-mouth transmission depends not only on what you think you know, but also on what you wish you knew.     

Teacher Racism,Academic Self‐Concept,and Multiculturation: Investigating Adaptive and Maladaptive Relations With Academic Disengagement and Self‐Sabotage for Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Australian Students

The issue of patterns of educational disengagement for Indigenous Australian students has long been of considerable concern within Indigenous education research. Although there is an expanding research base identifying factors that may increase (or decrease) the risk of disengagement for Indigenous students, little acknowledgement has been given to international research highlighting how stigma and discrimination may be associated with student disengagement and the resiliency factors that may nullify these associations. Utilising a sample of 1,376 (305 Indigenous; 1,071 non‐Indigenous) students from five New South Wales high schools in Australia, this study sought to examine the influence of academic self‐concept and two culturally sensitive constructs—specifically, perceived multiculturation (perceived cultural respect) and racial discrimination—on two disengagement‐orientated outcomes: affective disengagement and self‐sabotaging behaviour (behavioural disengagement) for both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous students. The findings showed relatively consistent direct and positive effects of academic self‐concept and direct negative effect of teacher racism for both groups of students. An interaction effect (discrimination × multiculturation) for the Indigenous students only was also identified, which suggested that the negative effects of racial discrimination on self‐sabotaging behaviour are exacerbated when the Indigenous students perceived higher levels of cultural respect from others. Overall, while these findings suggest that promoting higher levels of inter‐cultural respect may be beneficial for Indigenous and non‐Indigenous alike (e.g., culturally inclusive programmes), such positive perceptions may put Indigenous students at greater risk if the impact of racism is not also addressed. The implications of these findings suggest that cultural safety must be framed both in promoting the positive (cultural respect) and in eliminating the negative (racism).     

Metaphysics of quantity and the limit of phenomenal concepts

Quantities like mass and temperature are properties that come in degrees. And those degrees (e.g. 5 kg) are properties that are called the magnitudes of the quantities. Some philosophers talk about magnitudes of phenomenal qualities as if some of our phenomenal qualities are quantities. The goal of this essay is to explore the anti-physicalist implication of this apparently innocent way of conceptualizing phenomenal quantities. I will first argue for a metaphysical thesis about the nature of magnitudes based on Yablo’s proportionality requirement of causation. Then, I will show that, if some phenomenal qualities are indeed quantities, there can be no demonstrative concepts about some of our phenomenal feelings. That presents a significant restriction on the way physicalists can account for the epistemic gap between the phenomenal and the physical. I’ll illustrate the restriction by showing how that rules out a popular physicalist response to the Knowledge Argument.     

具身认知视角下的概念隐喻理论

隐喻是一种常见的语言现象.概念隐喻理论认为,隐喻不仅是一种语言修辞手段,隐喻反映了人类认知的重要特征:人类的抽象概念系统是以感知觉经验和具体概念为基础发展形成的.根据概念隐喻理论,主体可以以感知运动经验对抽象概念进行体验式表征与加工.大量研究证明,抽象概念的加工同对其进行隐喻化描述的身体经验具有关联.这些研究主要涉及空间隐喻、温度隐喻、洁净隐喻、触觉隐喻等.未来的研究应探讨多重隐喻对认知的影响、探索塑造隐喻映射单向作用与相互作用的因素,并关注概念隐喻理论的应用性等问题.     

心理疾病污名内隐测评的类别标签初探

采用单一类型内隐联想测验,考察以往研究中常用的概括化心理疾病词和具体心理疾病词作为心理疾病内隐污名间接测量概念词或类别标签的有效性。结果发现,相较于与积极词配对的任务,两类概念词与消极词（心理疾病态度词）配对的任务反应时更快,正确率更高。研究表明概括化概念和具体疾病与反映人们对心理疾病患者真实态度的消极词存在更紧密的自动联结,是人们头脑中表征心理疾病的概念词或类别标签,可作为内隐测量中的心理疾病概念词用于污名评估。     

A technique based on trade‐off maps to visualise and analyse relationships between objectives in optimisation problems

Understanding the relationships between objectives in a multiobjective optimisation problem is important for developing tailored and efficient solving techniques. In particular, when tackling combinatorial optimisation problems with many objectives, that arise in real‐world logistic scenarios, better support for the decision maker can be achieved through better understanding of the often complex fitness landscape. This paper makes a contribution in this direction by presenting a technique that allows a visualisation and analysis of the local and global relationships between objectives in optimisation problems with many objectives. The proposed technique uses four steps: First, the global pairwise relationships are analysed using the Kendall correlation method; then, the ranges of the values found on the given Pareto front are estimated and assessed; next, these ranges are used to plot a map using Gray code, similar to Karnaugh maps, that has the ability to highlight the trade‐offs between multiple objectives; and finally, local relationships are identified using scatter plots. Experiments are presented for three combinatorial optimisation problems: multiobjective multidimensional knapsack problem, multiobjective nurse scheduling problem, and multiobjective vehicle routing problem with time windows . Results show that the proposed technique helps in the gaining of insights into the problem difficulty arising from the relationships between objectives.