Looking for ideas: Eye behavior during goal-directed internally focused cognition

Humans have a highly developed visual system, yet we spend a high proportion of our time awake ignoring the visual world and attending to our own thoughts. The present study examined eye movement characteristics of goal-directed internally focused cognition. Deliberate internally focused cognition was induced by an idea generation task. A letter-by-letter reading task served as external task. Idea generation (vs. reading) was associated with more and longer blinks and fewer microsaccades indicating an attenuation of visual input. Idea generation was further associated with more and shorter fixations, more saccades and saccades with higher amplitudes as well as heightened stimulus-independent variation of eye vergence. The latter results suggest a coupling of eye behavior to internally generated information and associated cognitive processes, i.e. searching for ideas. Our results support eye behavior patterns as indicators of goal-directed internally focused cognition through mechanisms of attenuation of visual input and coupling of eye behavior to internally generated information.     

Generating variable and random schedules of reinforcement using Microsoft Excel macros

Variable reinforcement schedules are used to arrange the availability of reinforcement following varying response ratios or intervals of time. Random reinforcement schedules are subtypes of variable reinforcement schedules that can be used to arrange the availability of reinforcement at a constant probability across number of responses or time. Generating schedule values for variable and random reinforcement schedules can be difficult. The present article describes the steps necessary to write macros in Microsoft Excel that will generate variable-ratio, variable-interval, variable-time, random-ratio, random-interval, and random-time reinforcement schedule values.     

Stress Generation in Adolescent Depression: The Moderating Role of Child Abuse and Neglect

The present study examined the role of childhood abuse and neglect and depression recurrence in moderating the generation of stressful life events in adolescent depression. Maltreatment history and stressful life events were assessed using two rigorous contextual interviews and rating systems. In a sample of 59 community depressed adolescents we found significantly higher rates of interpersonal events in the 3-month period immediately following depression episode onset versus the 3-month period immediately preceding onset in adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment. By contrast, rates of events remained constant over a matched period in a control group of non-maltreated adolescents. Furthermore, the generation of interpersonal events only held among those on a first onset of depression. These results suggest that a history of childhood abuse and neglect exacerbates the psychosocial dysfunction associated with the onset of depression, particularly in the very first episode.     

代数应用题项目生成的结构分析方法

自动化项目生成是近年来兴起的测量领域, 是一种以项目认知加工理论为基础的原则性项目设计(principled item design)模式。其中, 如何在项目认知模型基础上, 通过任务结构分析的方式系统全面的鉴别和提取任务特征是一个关键环节。基于已有文献中代数应用题的命题分析法、网络语言分析法、关系-函数分析法、任务分析地图等四种结构分析方法, 研究探索了能够服务于自动化项目生成的代数应用题任务结构分析方法。该分析表明, 前三种方法分别对应于个体解题过程需要形成的三种中介表征, 即问题陈述背后的命题表征、事件时空关系的情境模型、以及变量间数量关系的问题模型, 第四种方法从过程角度分析了问题解决的认知需求。然而, 要实现项目生成的特征提取需求, 尚需对现有四种方法所揭示问题特征的心理现实性、特征提取的系统性和完备性、任务领域的适用范围、以及不同方法的整合等问题开展进一步研究。     

协作抑制的作用机制：来自编码阶段的证据

协作抑制是指当人们在一个记忆小组中一起提取信息的时候,小组提取的信息总量比等量个体提取的信息总量要少。本研究采用经典的协作抑制研究范式和两次提取任务,考察编码方式和学习次数对协作提取任务的影响,进一步将考察协作抑制的产生机制作为总研究目的。结果表明,编码方式相同条件下出现协作抑制,而编码方式不同条件下协作抑制消失,显示协作抑制的出现与否依赖于认知条件的改变;无论是学习一次还是学习两次,在第一次小组提取中出现协作抑制,而在第二次个人提取中协作抑制消失,在使用困难学习材料时也得到同样的研究结果。研究结果支持协作抑制的提取策略破坏假说。     

叙事时间表征的特点研究

叙事时间表征是时间心理学研究中有重要意义的研究领域,但迄今为止国内外对此尚未有系统研究。本文在概述这方面相关研究的基础上,提出了一些关于叙事时间表征特点的假没,以便为今后这方面的时间心理学研究提供线索。     

A path-analytic strategy to analyze psychoanalytic treatment effects

This paper introduces a path-analytic strategy to analyze psychoanalytic treatment effects. A simple causal model is used to analyze a well-known case study by Charles Brenner. Application of even this simple model to the case study sharpens causal inferences that may be validly made, highlights important aspects of the psychoanalytic process and builds a foundation for further model development.     

Generating leads with sequential persuasion: should sales influence tactics be consistent or complementary?

Firms are becoming increasingly systematic in sales lead generation activities and recognize that multiple interactions are often required to generate leads and to reassure buyers of the benefits of an offering. However, the literature is contradictory regarding what types of persuasive messages should be used across these multiple interactions. This paper investigates what combination of sales influence tactics (SITs) should be used when customers are approached more than once regarding the same offering, that is, sequentially. Should the SITs be consistent (the same), or complementary (different)? Consistent vs. complementary SIT approaches were tested in two field experiments, one with an electronics manufacturer in a single communication channel setting and one with a financial services provider in a cross-channel setting. The results supported our hypothesis and indicated that the use of complementary SITs across interactions, regardless of the order, increases lead conversion.     

Destruction and guilt: Splitting and reintegration in the analysis of a traumatised patient

The author traces in detail how, in the analytic relationship, she was slowly able to read aspects of the trauma as 'quotations' and gradually, through transference, transform them into a symbolic language. Split-off aggression and guilt feelings became progressively accessible to interpretation through transferential projective identifi cations. During his analysis, the patient discovered he was the child of Nazi criminals: on his mother's side they were the third generation; on his father's side, the second.