Ability, breadth, and parsimony in computational models of higher-order cognition

Computational models will play an important role in our understanding of human higher‐order cognition. How can a model's contribution to this goal be evaluated? This article argues that three important aspects of a model of higher‐order cognition to evaluate are (a) its ability to reason, solve problems, converse, and learn as well as people do; (b) the breadth of situations in which it can do so; and (c) the parsimony of the mechanisms it posits. This article argues that fits of models to quantitative experimental data, although valuable for other reasons, do not address these criteria. Further, using analogies with other sciences, the history of cognitive science, and examples from modern‐day research programs, this article identifies five activities that have been demonstrated to play an important role in our understanding of human higher‐order cognition. These include modeling within a cognitive architecture, conducting artificial intelligence research, measuring and expanding a model's ability, finding mappings between the structure of different domains, and attempting to explain multiple phenomena within a single model.     

Modeling how, when, and what is learned in a simple fault-finding task

We have developed a process model that learns in multiple ways while finding faults in a simple control panel device. The model predicts human participants' learning through its own learning. The model's performance was systematically compared to human learning data, including the time course and specific sequence of learned behaviors. These comparisons show that the model accounts very well for measures such as problem-solving strategy, the relative difficulty of faults, and average fault-finding time. More important, because the model learns and transfers its learning across problems, it also accounts for the faster problem-solving times due to learning when examined across participants, across faults, and across the series of 20 trials on an individual participant basis. The model shows how learning while problem solving can lead to more recognition-based performance, and helps explain how the shape of the learning curve can arise through learning and be modified by differential transfer. Overall, the quality of the correspondence appears to have arisen from procedural, declarative, and episodic learning all taking place within individual problem-solving episodes.     

Intimate Distance: Rethinking the Unthought God in Christianity

The work of the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy shares with the thinkers of the ‘theological turn in phenomenology’ the programmatic desire to place the ‘theological’, in the broad sense of rethinking the religious traditions in our secular time, back on the agenda of critical thought. Like those advocating a theological turn in phenomenology, Nancy’s deconstructive approach to philosophical analysis aims to develop a new sensibility for the other, for transcendence, conceptualized as the non-apparent in the realm of appearing phenomena. This is why Nancy launches a project looking for the ‘unthought’ and unexpected within the Christian traditions, called deconstruction of Christianity. However, the deconstructive approach to the non-apparent differs fundamentally from that of the thinkers of the turn (1) in its being non-apologetic and non-restorative with regard to religion, because it starts from a problematization of the—typically modern, that is romantic—desire to defend and protect what would be ‘lost’ and possibly to restore this, (2) in its focus on the complex difference-at-work (différance) between religion and secularism, a difference that can be termed entanglement and complicity between these two, (3) in its hypothesis that this entanglement is essentially one between (the meaning and experience of, the rituality around) presence and absence in modern culture, (4) in its conviction that the philosophy and history of culture must join, support, complete and maybe even turn around phenomenology when dealing with the difficult task of determining what exactly would be ‘left’ of the ‘theological’ in our time. In this article, both positions are compared and confronted further, leading to an account of Nancy’s re-readings of the Christian legacy (its theology, doctrine, art, rituals etc.), and ending in a more detailed, exemplary inquiry into the tension between distance and proximity, characteristic of the Christian God.

Attitudes related to child sexual abuse: scale construction and explorative study among psychologists

A Child Sexual Abuse Attitude and Belief Scale was constructed and then answered by 242 child psychologists. Four CSA related attitude and belief subscales were identified through confirmatory factor analysis: (1) The Disclosure subscale reflecting favouring a disclosure at any cost; (2) The Pro-Child subscale reflecting unconditional belief in children's reports; (3) The Intuition subscale reflecting favouring an intuitive approach to CSA investigations; and (4) The Anti Criminal Justice System subscale reflecting negative attitudes towards the legal system. Beliefs that were erroneous according to empirical research were analyzed separately. The results suggest that some psychologists hold extreme attitudes and many erroneous beliefs related to CSA. Some misconceptions are common. Female participants tended to have stronger attitudes than male participants. The more training in interviewing children the participants had had, the more erroneous beliefs and stronger attitudes they had. Experience did not affect attitudes and beliefs.     

Contingent responses of mothers and peers to indirect and direct aggression in preschool and school-aged children

The primary goal of the study was to determine whether mother and peer's responses to direct and indirect aggression would contribute to children's use of direct and indirect aggression. Using adaptations of the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scale, a multi-informant strategy, and a sample of disadvantaged families, data were collected from 296 mothers of children ages 4-11, 237 children ages 6-11, and 151 teachers of those children. Mothers and peers were reported to react more harshly in response to direct aggression compared with indirect aggression, and higher rates of direct aggression were associated with reduced popularity. These findings were seen as being consistent with the hypothesis that different forms of aggression result in differential responding by mothers and peers, as well as the notion that direct aggression is a higher cost option than indirect aggression. Results also replicated previous findings that boys tend to use physical aggression more than girls, but girls use indirect aggression more than boys. Finally, low IQ was correlated with higher direct aggression in girls but had no relation with aggression in boys.     

Student victimization by school staff in the context of an Israeli national school safety campaign

In this study, we examined and compared findings from four nationally representative studies of victimization of students by school staff in Israel. We explored whether levels of student victimization by school staff (teachers, principals, secretaries, janitors, etc.) have changed between 1998, 1999, 2002, and 2005, and whether patterns of group differences (gender, age, and cultural groups) were replicated across those four points in time. We employed representative samples stratified by ethnic affiliation and school levels. In 1998, there were 15,916 4th-11th grade students from 232 schools; in 1999, 16,414 4th-11th grade students from 239 schools; in 2002, 21,577 4th-11th grade students from 410 schools and in 2005, 27,316 4th-11th grade students from 526 schools across Israel. Overall, the results reveal that for the entire student population in Israel reports of victimization are quite similar across the four waves of data collection. Levels of physical victimization were consistently higher among boys and Arab students, but other group differences were less consistent, especially with regard to differences between age groups.     

青少年父母支持的特点及其对社会适应的影响:情绪智力的中介作用

本研究旨在考察青少年父母支持的特点,并探讨父母支持、情绪智力对社会适应的影响。采用《青少年父母社会支持问卷》、《青少年情绪智力问卷》和《青少年社会适应状况评估问卷》对2623名中学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)青少年所获得的父母支持总体状况良好,且存在显著的性别和年级差异:女生在情感支持和陪伴支持方面显著高于男生,在肯定价值和工具性支持方面不存在显著的性别差异;父母支持的4个维度都表现出随年级增长而下降的趋势,高二年级的父母支持显著低于初一、初二年级。(2)父母支持、情绪智力和社会适应的简单相关分析发现,父母支持与积极社会适应显著正相关,与消极社会适应显著负相关;情绪智力与积极社会适应显著正相关,与消极社会适应显著负相关;父母支持与情绪智力显著正相关。(3)父母支持与青少年社会适应的典型相关分析表明,两者的整体相关显著,父母支持组变量可被典型变量解释的比例为5.85%,社会适应组变量可被典型变量解释的比例为28.5%,冗余指数分别为1.23、5.99。(4)情绪智力在中学生父母支持和社会适应之间起完全中介作用。     

少数民族压力应对研究的文化视角

随着社会的急剧变迁与多元文化的相互融合与碰撞, 少数民族的压力应对问题已经变得日益重要。对少数民族压力应对与文化的关系进行全面的审视与探讨, 能够更好地理解多元文化交融下少数民族压力应对的心理机制, 促进民族团结与社会和谐。文章总结了少数民族压力应对研究的4种文化视角, 包括压力应对的跨文化研究、文化适应的压力应对研究、宗教应对研究、中国传统文化的应对思想研究, 并对不同研究视角进行了评述。未来中国少数民族压力应对研究应该综合多学科、多元文化视角的研究思路, 加强量与质的研究范式的整合, 进一步扩展少数民族压力应对的研究领域与研究范围, 从我国民族地区社会变迁的实际情况出发, 加强对少数民族不同社会群体的压力应对研究。     

医患文化冲突分析——对医患关系紧张的新审视

医患关系始终表现为一种文化关系,医患关系紧张问题有着复杂的文化根源,当前出现的医患关系紧张问题的实质就是医患之间存在文化冲突。从文化的视角对医患文化冲突的程度、引起冲突的原因以及发生冲突的文化主体进行重新审视,以期进一步认识紧张的医患关系。     

跨文化行为心理学——文化取向心理学第四方向

首先简要回顾比较了文化取向心理学的四个不同的方向：文化心理学、本土心理学、跨文化心理学,以及新的发展方向——跨文化行为心理学;重点介绍了跨文化行为心理学与文化碰撞情境概念的提出以及一个跨文化行为模型;其次提出了该学科在跨文化协同增效方面的重要应用;最后做出了在中国文化背景下开展相应研究的展望。