Misleading cues improve developmental assessment of working memory capacity: The color matching tasks

The theory of constructive operators was used as a framework to design two versions of a paradigm (color matching task, CMT) in which items are parametrically ordered in difficulty, and differ only contextually. Items in CMT-Balloon are facilitating, whereas items in CMT-Clown contain misleading cues. Participants of ages 7–14 years and adults (N = 149) were studied. We found significant model-predicted graded differences in performance between the facilitating and misleading tasks, across and within age groups, expressing age versus items’ demand interactions. Younger children were differentially affected by contextual cues. Even though both task versions were highly correlated with a well-established developmental measure of attentional capacity, CMT-Clown, which contained misleading cues, was a better measure of working memory capacity. These results show a need to estimate degree of misleadingness whenever performance levels in working memory or mental attention tasks are compared and interpreted. Developmental profiles of both tasks are discussed in terms of contextual differences and neoPiagetian stages of development.     

A new measure for dispositional optimism and pessimism in young children

We describe here a new test for dispositional optimism and pessimism in young children, the Parent‐rated Life Orientation Test of children (the PLOT) and assess its psychometric properties. Two hundred and twenty one mother–father pairs rated their children's (mean age = 8.1, SD = 0.3 years) dispositional optimism and pessimism using a new scale, the PLOT, including four optimism and four pessimism items. We associated the PLOT with parent‐rated self‐esteem (Behavioral Rating Scale of Presented Self‐Esteem in Young Children), social competence (Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Scale, the SCBE‐30), psychiatric symptoms (Child Behaviour Checklist, the CBCL) and temperament (Children's Behaviour Questionnaire, the CBQ) of the child. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the mother‐ and father‐rated PLOT revealed a significantly better fit for a two‐ over a one‐factor solution (p < 0.001). The optimism and pessimism subscales displayed good reliabilities, inter‐parental agreement and modest to moderate associations, in the expected direction, with the measures of self‐esteem, social competence, temperament and behaviour problems. To conclude, the PLOT shows good construct and convergent validity and reliability. The findings encourage its use to assess early emerging generalized expectancies of positive and negative outcomes in young children. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High regularities in eye-movement patterns reveal the dynamics of the visual working memory allocation mechanism

With only two to five slots of visual working memory (VWM), humans are able to quickly solve complex visual problems to near optimal solutions. To explain the paradox between tightly constrained VWM and impressively complex human visual problem-solving ability, we propose several principles for dynamic VWM allocation. In particular, we propose that complex visual information is represented in a temporal manner using only a few slots of VWM that include global and local visual chunks. We built a model of human traveling salesman problem solving based on these principles of VWM allocation and tested the model with eye-movement data. Exactly as the model predicted, human eye movements during traveling salesman problem solving have precise quantitative regularities with regard to both the general statistical pattern of attentional fixations and how they vary across individuals with different VWM capacities. Even though VWM capacity is very limited, eye movements dynamically allocate VWM resources to both local and global information, enabling attention to fine details without loss of the big picture.     

Predicting academic success with the Big 5 rated from different points of view: Self‐rated,other rated and faked

Self‐ratings of personality predict academic success above general intelligence. The present study replicated these findings and investigated the increment of other‐ratings or intentionally distorted self‐ratings. Participants (N = 145) had to compile a personality questionnaire twice. First they were given neutral instructions. The second time they were asked to imagine a specific applicant setting. Furthermore, two peers rated each participant. Additionally, verbal, numerical and figural reasoning scores were obtained. Grades on a statistics exam obtained 2 months later served as the criterion. Results replicated prior findings and showed incremental validity for self‐ and other‐rated personality, which was stable after controlling for intelligence. Faking had no impact on the domain‐score level, but results on the facet‐score level were less encouraging. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

文化生活脚本理论及其研究进展

为了解释人对于生活事件的回忆出现的记忆隆起现象,出现了文化生活脚本理论。文化生活脚本是文化上共享、关于重要生活事件发生时间及顺序的知识。它是规范事件的图式,可以用来检索和叙述个人过去经历的过程。文章综述了文化脚本的研究及其进展,并对进一步的研究提出了设想。     

系列再生法:探讨刻板印象的新思路

系列再生法最早起源于Bartlett(1932)对记忆的研究。在信息传递过程中,该方法旨在寻找被试之间的信息如何传递和变形,其传播变形背后的意义和规律何在。目前应用该方法的最新研究围绕以记忆探测为出发点,寻求记忆链条的传播规律对刻板印象的解释,对该领域的研究起到了积极的推动作用。在评述了系列再生法的基本原理和具体实施方法后,分析了该方法在刻板印象研究中的最新研究证据和未来的应用与展望。     

国民公正观的结构

对429名被调查者的研究发现,最为公众赞同的公正观依次为:(1)公正体现在法律面前人人平等;(2)公正体现为人们在求学、就业、投资、参政等方面的机会平等;(3)公正体现在程序公平合理。因素分析表明,国民的公正观是多元的,可分为6个维度,分别为权利、衡平、救济、报应、平等、平均。聚类分析的结果表明,公正内隐观的6个维度最终可聚为"均等"和"对等"2类。     

多目标视觉追踪的现象、规律和认知加工机制

传统注意研究多基于单个注意焦点和采用静态视觉信息。由Pylyshyn(1988)提出的多目标追踪范式则基于动态场景,是研究同时追踪多个目标的容量有限的注意机制比较常用的范式。在多目标追踪基础上发展起来的多身份追踪范式中的对象带有身份信息,涉及到较复杂的认知机制,如注意、视觉工作记忆等。探讨以上两种视觉追踪的认知加工机制对真实或模拟情境中动态信息的认知加工活动有重要的理论价值和实践指导意义。     

预见:情景记忆的未来投射与重构

预见是对有关个人的未来事件进行模拟的过程。相关的研究从几个方面展开:从比较心理学的角度探讨预见能力的种系发生图谱,从发展心理学的角度考察预见能力的发生发展状况,从认知神经科学的角度揭示预见过程的认知机制和神经基础。未来的研究应该补充和修正预见能力的种系发生图谱,揭示发展过程中预见能力与其他能力的关系,进一步考察卷入预见过程脑区之间的特定神经通路,并提高和拓展其社会应用的价值和范围。     

积极情景线索对内隐攻击性的影响

通过向被试呈现代表积极情景线索的材料(一段含有互助、和谐信息的公益短片),运用内隐联想测验(IAT)范式,从内隐社会认知的角度来研究积极情境线索对个体内隐攻击性的影响,并分析这种影响是否具有性别差异。结果表明:未观看积极情景线索材料的被试表现出显著的内隐攻击性,而观看积极情景线索材料的被试的内隐攻击性不显著;积极情景线索的主效应显著,且这一效应不存在性别差异。这说明,积极情景线索能有效抑制个体的内隐攻击性,并支持自我攻击信念IAT是测量个体内隐攻击性的有效工具。