Effects of Cortical Lesions upon the Onset of Hoarding in Rats

Psychologists agree that play is an essential ingredient in a child's development. The present investigation evaluated the effects of an intensive period of dramatic play upon the cognitive structures of young children (N = 12 boys and girls, ages 3 to 5 years) using repertory grids to extract their systems of personal constructs. The period of dramatic play produced substantial and sustained improvements in the numbers of constructs, which confirms the importance of play in cognitive growth. The findings are also taken to support the value of drama therapy in bringing about cognitive change in the mentally ill.     

Development of Force Adaptation During Childhood

Humans learn to make reaching movements in novel dynamic environments by acquiring an internal motor model of their limb dynamics. Here, the authors investigated how 4- to 11-year-old children (N = 39) and adults (N = 7) adapted to changes in arm dynamics, and they examined whether those data support the view that the human brain acquires inverse dynamics models (IDM) during development. While external damping forces were applied, the children learned to perform goal-directed forearm flexion movements. After changes in damping, all children showed kinematic aftereffects indicative of a neural controller that still attempted to compensate the no longer existing damping force. With increasing age, the number of trials toward complete adaptation decreased. When damping was present, forearm paths were most perturbed and most variable in the youngest children but were improved in the older children. The findings indicate that the neural representations of limb dynamics are less precise in children and less stable in time than those of adults. Such controller instability might be a primary cause of the high kinematic variability observed in many motor tasks during childhood. Finally, the young children were not able to update those models at the same rate as the older children, who, in turn, adapted more slowly than adults. In conclusion, the ability to adapt to unknown forces is a developmental achievement. The present results are consistent with the view that the acquisition and modification of internal models of the limb dynamics form the basis of that adaptive process.     

Facilitation of Psychomotor Learning by Classically Differentiated Supplementary Feedback Cues

2 experiments on the control of psychomotor performance by classically differentiated supplementary feedback cues are reported. The first, conducted with 30 Ss as a replication of an earlier study, demonstrated again that otherwise ineffective supplementary cues can be transformed into highly effective regulators of psychomotor performance by differential conditioning procedures. The second, conducted with 78 Ss, showed that the effects of classically differentiated supplementary cues on tracking skill increased as a negatively accelerated function of the number of differentiation trials. Results were interpreted as exemplifying the operation of secondary drive and reinforcement principles, although the nonspecific transfer of arousal and/or warm-up effects were acknowledged as worthy alternatives.     

Relationship between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism

Religious characteristics are often related to attitudes about legal issues (e.g., death penalty). This study investigated whether U.S. university students’ religious beliefs (i.e., fundamentalism, devotionalism, evangelism) and religious motivations (i.e., intrinsic, extrinsic religiosity) were associated with responses to vigilantism (i.e., whether the vigilante is justified, should be legally responsible, should receive a lighter sentence). Participants read three scenarios describing vigilantism in response to different crimes (murder, drug dealing, child molestation). More punitive responses to vigilantism were associated with being low in fundamentalism, extrinsic religiosity, and evangelism, and with being high in devotionalism and intrinsic religiosity. Motivations were more frequent predictors of responses to vigilantism than beliefs. Results are the first step in explaining relationships between religious characteristics and responses to vigilantism.     

希望:心理学的研究述评

在对Snyder希望理论进行概括的基础上,将之与其他几个相关的概念如乐观、个人成长主动性、自信和未来取向等进行比较,并介绍了测量希望的工具.希望与学业成绩、心理健康、生理健康以及企业的领导力和员工表现是有密切联系的,且可能在物质滥用治疗中有一定的作用.关于希望概念近年来不断有新的研究出现,目前在基本概念、文化适应、神经生物机制以及应用研究等方面仍存在进一步研究之必要.     

3~8岁儿童自尊发展特点的研究

采用自编的《3~8岁儿童自尊教师评定量表》,探讨了3~8岁儿童自尊发展的年龄和性别差异。结果表明：(1)3~8岁儿童的自尊存在显著的年龄差异,4岁和7岁可能是儿童自尊发展的转折年龄;(2)3~8岁儿童自尊发展存在非常明显的性别差异,女生自尊发展水平显著高于男生。     

2-8年级儿童的责任心发展

以241名2-8年级儿童为被试,运用情境故事探索儿童责任心发展的特点。结果显示：（1）责任心的认知判断与行为倾向一致性较低;行为倾向与情感体验一致性较高;（2）责任心归因可以分为权威取向、自我取向、认可取向、成本取向、原则取向5种;（3）随着年级升高,自我和社会责任心归因中权威取向比例下降,原则取向比例上升;环境责任心归因中成本取向比例下降,原则取向比例上升;（4）责任心的成本取向似乎与现今的社会转型有关,是以往研究所没有的。     

岗位特征及相关因素对辅导员工作倦怠的影响

本研究旨在探讨岗位特征及相关因素对高校辅导员工作倦怠的影响。在高校辅导员培训课堂上共收取有效数据342份。结果表明：⑴岗位特征包括职业价值感、职业无意义感、岗位消极特征和岗位积极特征四个因子;⑵希望和职业价值感能显著正向预测,角色压力能显著负向预测工作倦怠;⑶角色压力在职业无意义感、岗位消极特征、社会支持对工作倦怠的影响中起完全中介作用,而在职业价值感、希望对工作倦怠的影响中起部分中介作用。本研究初步发现了岗位特征及相关因素对辅导员工作倦怠的作用路径。     

眼动技术在个体认知能力差异研究中的应用

本文从可能性和可行性两方面介绍和论述了眼动技术在个体认知能力差异研究中的应用。在可能性方面,个体眼动特征具有的良好的重测信度和内部一致性信度;在可行性方面,已有研究利用注视和眼跳相关指标、眼动轨迹和瞳孔直径这三类指标对该问题进行探索,结果均发现这些眼动特征与认知能力之间存在着密切关系。今后研究应继续深入探索两者关系的内在认知和神经机制,并尝试结合人工智能算法开发高信效度的眼动认知测验。