Counterfactual thinking as an issue between language and pretend play / El pensamiento contrafactual como un problema entre el lenguaje y el juego de simulación

Discussions on counterfactual thinking (CT) have been focused on whether it is a language skill or it emerges spontaneously before language acquisition. This paper surveys the most compelling arguments regarding these frameworks: (1) the approach ‘CT as a language skill’; (2) those who claim that pretending shows that children have CT; (3) those who consider pretend play is a rehearsal for cognitive dispositions. I shall point out that the three approaches on CT are incomplete: (1) neglects pretend play (which prelinguistic children perform) as an instantiation of the CT; (2) puts too much emphasis on the linguistic dimension of pretense; (3) is highly demanding on the cognitive architecture that we ought to have by nature — the so-called children as scientists.     

Negativity bias in false memory: moderation by neuroticism after a delay

The negativity bias is the tendency for individuals to give greater weight, and often exhibit more rapid and extreme responses, to negative than positive information. Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott illusory memory paradigm, the current study sought to examine how the negativity bias might affect both correct recognition for negative and positive words and false recognition for associated critical lures, as well as how trait neuroticism might moderate these effects. In two experiments, participants studied lists of words composed of semantic associates of an unpresented word (the critical lure). Half of the lists were comprised of positive words and half were comprised of negative words. As expected, individuals remembered negative list words better than positive list words, consistent with a negativity bias in correct recognition. When tested immediately (Experiment 1), individuals also exhibited greater false memory for negative versus positive critical lures. When tested after a 24-hr delay (Experiment 2), individuals higher in neuroticism maintained greater false memory for negative versus positive critical lures, but those lower in neuroticism showed no difference in false memory between negative and positive critical lures. Possible mechanisms and implications for mental health disorders are discussed.     

A Threatened Identity: The Mental Health Status of Syrian Refugees in Egypt and Its Etiology

This study utilized the development-based trauma framework on identity traumas to study the cumulative effects of trauma on the identities of Syrian refugees. Participants included 196 Syrian refugees residing in Cairo, Egypt (Mean age = 35.99, SD = 11.05). The rate of post-traumatic stress disorder was 33.5%, and the rate of depression was around 30%; the level of comorbidity was high with a high rate of suicidal plans or attempts (13.7%). Analyses indicated that existential annihilation anxieties, moderated by identity salience, mediated the effects of cumulative trauma on mental health. The results confirmed the utility and validity of the identity trauma model and provided evidence of the dire mental health needs of Syrian refugees.     

Organizational climate and investigation performance in the Norwegian police: A qualitative study

The present study aimed to identify organizational climate dimensions that are salient for police investigation performance and to explicate the mechanisms of the relationship between organizational climate and investigation performance. We conducted 38 semistructured interviews with participants at three job levels of police investigative work (chiefs of police, n  = 11, senior investigating officers, n  = 14, detectives, n  = 13) in 11 Norwegian police districts. We analyzed the interview data by using a model of organizational climate based on the competing values framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Two types of climate, human relations climate and rational goal climate, were perceived to enhance investigation performance. The findings indicate that a human relations climate enhances investigation performance by developing collective human capital and by supporting internal and external cooperation and coordination of resources. Moreover, the findings suggest that a rational goal climate increases investigation performance by encouraging planning, goal setting, and task focus.     

Selling Innovations Like Soap: The Interactive Systems Framework and Social Marketing

Despite the popularity and noted utility of Wandersman and colleagues' (2008) Interactive Systems Framework, the literature currently provides a primary focus on delivery organizations’ and supportive stakeholders’ capacities and strategies to implement innovations, presenting a critical gap in understanding. Unfortunately, reflective of a larger void in community dissemination and implementation efforts, there is a more limited focus on the dissemination of innovations. This paper presents the social marketing literature as a supplement to the Prevention Synthesis and Translation System (PSTS), the system responsible for dissemination. The study and practice of innovation synthesis and translation is examined in the literature; and based on the conclusions drawn, social marketing theory is used to provide a systematic approach to improving dissemination within the Interactive Systems Framework. Specifically, three gaps related to the PSTS are identified in the literature that align with and can be filled using social marketing. Social marketing is defined and presented as a supplement by providing theory and practices, within a systems context, for effectively communicating and influencing change. By blending social marketing with the Interactive Systems Framework, the aim is to improve the understanding of strategic communication and its role in the effective dissemination, and subsequent implementation, of innovations.     

The AHA! experience: creativity through emergent binding in neural networks

Many kinds of creativity result from combination of mental representations. This paper provides a computational account of how creative thinking can arise from combining neural patterns into ones that are potentially novel and useful. We defend the hypothesis that such combinations arise from mechanisms that bind together neural activity by a process of convolution, a mathematical operation that interweaves structures. We describe computer simulations that show the feasibility of using convolution to produce emergent patterns of neural activity that can support cognitive and emotional processes underlying human creativity.     

“值”在中国人的假设思维中的角色

先前的研究表明, 东西方在假设思维上不存在差异, 或者只是存在于特殊范围内(domain-specific)。本文在中国人的“值”的概念基础上界定一个存在于东西方的假设思维上的新差异。实验1显示了在假设思维概念里, 中国人的“值”是由决策理由的大小和后果的严重程度大小决定的, 同时“值”被证实是中国人假设思维的中介变量。实验2比较了中、法两国被试的假设思维, 结果再次证明了中国被试的假设思维是由“值”概念决定, 相比而言法国被试是由“成本－收益”概念决定的。     

基于日常经验取向的责任心理结构研究

基于日常经验取向,运用理论建构和深度访谈的方法,研究责任的心理结构以及责任情境的认知特征。对207名被试访谈研究的结果表明：（1）责任是人们频繁感知和体验到的一种社会心理现象;（2）人们体察到的责任情境,在职业活动和个人生活领域存在类型上的差异;（3）在职业活动中,人们更倾向于将责任归因于他人,而在个人生活中更倾向于归因于自己;（4）人们对责任情境性质的判定与责任事件最终能否达到预期目标有关;（5）责任心理结构共由情境起因、自我效能、成就感、内外动机等20个核心要素构成;（6）责任心理结构是一个由责任认知、责任情感和责任行为三者构成的一元单向决定模式。     

偶然情绪对决策的影响

情绪在决策领域中的引入曾历经过一个从刻意回避到日益重视的过程, 大量研究表明, 即使与决策本身无关的偶然情绪也会对人类的决策行为具有重要作用。本文通过梳理本领域的最新研究提出未来应注重考察：偶然情绪的影响条件、具体情绪的作用以及偶然情绪与可选项的情感属性对决策的交互影响。最后, 本文在情绪激发方法、情绪的操纵检测和决策任务实测等方面进行了总结并提出一点研究建议。