Probability, logic and the cognitive foundations of rational belief

Since Pascal introduced the idea of mathematical probability in the 17th century discussions of uncertainty and “rational” belief have been dogged by philosophical and technical disputes. Furthermore, the last quarter century has seen an explosion of new questions and ideas, stimulated by developments in the computer and cognitive sciences. Competing ideas about probability are often driven by different intuitions about the nature of belief that arise from the needs of different domains (e.g., economics, management theory, engineering, medicine, the life sciences etc). Taking medicine as our focus we develop three lines of argument (historical, practical and cognitive) that suggest that traditional views of probability cannot accommodate all the competing demands and diverse constraints that arise in complex real-world domains. A model of uncertain reasoning based on a form of logical argumentation appears to unify many diverse ideas. The model has precursors in informal discussions of argumentation due to Toulmin, and the notion of logical probability advocated by Keynes, but recent developments in artificial intelligence and cognitive science suggest ways of resolving epistemological and technical issues that they could not address.     

The distinctiveness and utility of a measure of trait emotional awareness

There has been a proliferation of new measures of individual differences in emotional processing, but too little research that evaluates the distinctiveness and utility of such measures. We critically evaluated the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), which is a measure of people's awareness of emotions in both the self and others. Across two studies, university students (N=124 and 107 for study 1 and 2, respectively) completed the LEAS, as well as a battery of personality measures and ability tests, and a mood-induction task. The LEAS was statistically distinct from a wide variety of personality measures, emotional intelligence tests, and self-report ability measures. In addition, both studies demonstrated that people high in emotional awareness were less likely than others to show mood congruent biases in their judgments (e.g. when bad moods lead to negative judgments and good moods to good judgments). The LEAS appears to be both distinctive and useful in understanding mood-relevant processes.     

An investigation of the interaction between cognitive style and context reinstatement on the memory performance of eyewitnesses

The power of context reinstatement to improve recall is well established, but the degree of effect obtained varies widely between studies. Exploring possible causes for this variation, this paper examines the relationship between cognitive style and the efficacy of context reinstatement in improving free and cued recall in an eyewitness paradigm. Experiment 1, using a live staged event and a 1 week delay, indicated a significant improvement in free recall with the reinstatement of context and, as expected, no such improvement in cued recall. However, analysis of the data according to field dependency, as measured by Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, and Karp's [A manual for the Embedded Figures Test (1971) Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press] Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) revealed that, in free recall, field dependent witnesses' scores improved significantly with context reinstatement, whilst the scores of field independent witnesses did not. In cued recall, however, the field independent witnesses scored significantly higher overall than field dependent witnesses. Experiment 2 sought replication of these findings again utilised the GEFT and the Riding [Cognitive Styles analysis (1991) Birmingham: Learning and Training Technology] Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA). Analysis of the data according to the Wholist-Analytic (W-A) dimension of the CSA, indicated no interaction with either context reinstatement or memorial performance. However the GEFT analysis produced similar results to that obtained in Experiment 1. The meaning of the interaction between the GEFT and both free and cued recall, and the failure of the CSA to similarly interact are discussed, together with the implication of these findings for establishing the value of reinstating context for individual eyewitnesses.     

中学生价值观、自我概念与生活满意度的关系研究

用问卷法对7省市958名中学生的价值观、自我概念与生活满意度进行研究,结果表明:(1)中学生具有较高的总体生活满意度;(2)男生在身心状况和学习状况两领域的满意度显著高于女生;高一学生在物质生活领域的满意度显著高于其他三个年级,在社会适应与社会支持领域的满意度显著高于高二,在学习状况领域的满意度显著高于初三,在社会发展与国际政治领域的满意度显著高于高三;(3)价值观中的金钱权力、法律规范家庭价值取向和自我概念各因子对物质生活满意度具有显著的预测作用;价值观中的法律规范价值取向和自我概念中的人际关系自我、学习能力自我和外貌自我对身心状况满意度具有显著的预测作用;价值观中的法律规范、家庭价值取向和自我概念中的人际关系自我、学习能力自我和外貌自我对社会适应与社会支持满意度具有显著的预测作用;价值观中的金钱权力、法律规范、家庭价值取向和自我概念中的理想自我、人际关系自我、学习能力自我对学习状况满意度具有显著的预测作用;价值观中的金钱权力、法律规范、家庭、公共利益价值取向和自我概念中的学习能力自我对社会发展与国际政治满意度具有显著的预测作用.     

Fluctuations of answer and confidence rating in a general-knowledge problem task: Is confidence rating a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring?

In order to examine whether confidence rating is a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring, a general-knowledge test was used. A question set was answered in experimental session 1, and the same question set was employed in session 2. Subjects chose one answer from two alternatives. No significant difference in answer accuracy was found between sessions, which suggests that identical information processing was carried out, and that any difference between sessions was based on probabilistic fluctuation. The major results were as follows: (a) In both sessions, answer accuracy was an increasing function of confidence. (b) Answer-change rate (rate of different answers to the same question between sessions) decreased monotonically with confidence. (c) The distributions of confidence rating in session 2, conditional on the rating in session 1, were nearly identical in no-answer-change and answer-change cases. These results suggest that confidence rating is not a result of monitoring memory-relevant output itself but an estimation of possibility of answer fluctuation.     

重点中学与普通中学学生非智力因素的比较研究

本研究分别对重点中学与普通中学初一、初三年级学生的非智力因素状况进行调查,结果表明初一年级学生的非智力因素水平在两类学校之间不存在差异,而初三年级学生的非智力因素水平在两类学校之间存在着显著性差异（Ｐ＜０．０５）。随着年龄的增长,重点中学与普通中学学生的非智力因素水平都有所发展,但重点中学的学生发展得更好。本研究表明学校的教育环境影响着学生非智力因素的发展。     

Understanding attraction in formal mentoring relationships from an affective perspective

Despite the critical role affect can play in mentoring, a type of close relationships in the workplace, affect has not received much attention in existing mentoring research. Drawing upon Byrne's affect-centered model of attraction, we examined the relationships among mentors' moods during their interaction with protégés, mentors' liking of protégés, and mentoring support received by protégés. Moreover, we also examined the moderating effect of protégés' emotional intelligence (EI) on the relationship between mentors' moods and liking. Based on data collected from 237 ongoing formal mentoring dyads, we found that mentors' positive moods were positively related, and negative moods were negatively related, to mentoring support received through mentors' liking. Furthermore, protégés' EI only moderated the positive relationship between mentors' positive moods and liking such that the positive relationship was stronger for protégés low on EI. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The Effect of General Creative Personality and Freedom of Task Choice on Adolescents' Social Creativity

This study investigated the effect of general creative personality and freedom of task choice on the social creativity of adolescents. The results indicated, first, that senior high school students scored higher than junior high school students. Second, girls scored higher than boys on originality, fluency, flexibility, appropriateness, and utility with regard to creative social problem‐solving. Third, freedom of task choice and its interaction with creative personality had significant effects on the originality, appropriateness, utility, flexibility, and fluency of social creativity. Adolescents who completed the task voluntarily scored higher on these dimensions than adolescents who completed it reluctantly and, among the voluntary adolescents, those with high and medium creative personality scored higher than those with low creative personality, whereas no such difference was found among the reluctant adolescents. Adolescents were more likely to show social creativity, and their general creative personality was more likely to be brought into effect under the freedom of task choice condition.     

The Role of Trait Emotional Intelligence in Academic Performance: Theoretical Overview and Empirical Update

Considerable debate still exists among scholars over the role of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) in academic performance. The dominant theoretical position is that TEI should be orthogonal or only weakly related to achievement; yet, there are strong theoretical reasons to believe that TEI plays a key role in performance. The purpose of the current article is to provide (a) an overview of the possible theoretical mechanisms linking TEI with achievement and (b) an update on empirical research examining this relationship. To elucidate these theoretical mechanisms, the overview draws on multiple theories of emotion and regulation, including TEI theory, social-functional accounts of emotion, and expectancy-value and psychobiological model of emotion and regulation. Although these theoretical accounts variously emphasize different variables as focal constructs, when taken together, they provide a comprehensive picture of the possible mechanisms linking TEI with achievement. In this regard, the article redresses the problem of vaguely specified theoretical links currently hampering progress in the field. The article closes with a consideration of directions for future research.