Effects of children’s hearing loss on the synchrony between parents’ object naming and children’s attention

Children’s attentional state during parent-child interactions is important for word learning. The current study examines the real-time attentional patterns of toddlers with and without hearing loss (N = 15, age range: 12–37 months) in parent-child interactions. High-density gaze data recorded from head-mounted eye-trackers were used to investigate the synchrony between parents’ naming of novel objects and children’s sustained attention on the named objects in joint play. Results show that the sheer quantities of parents’ naming and children’s sustained attention episodes were comparable in children with hearing loss and their peers with normal hearing. However, parents’ naming and children’s sustained attention episodes were less synchronized in the hearing loss group compared to children with normal hearing. Possible implications are discussed.     

Case–contrast study about parent–infant interaction in a Brazilian sample of siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders

Siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present greater susceptibility to developmental problems, in comparison with siblings of typically developing children. The greater prevalence of mental health disorders among parents of children with ASD increases younger siblings’ vulnerability to emotional problems. The aim of this study is to compare the interaction between carers and babies aged 2 to 26 months (M = 11.7, SD = 6.9) who are siblings of children with ASD (ASD dyads) with the interaction of dyads of siblings of typically developing children (TD dyads). The protocol of Clinical Indicators of Risk for Child Development and the Coding Interactive Behaviour measures were used to evaluate interaction. ASD dyads presented higher scores of constriction in their interaction, P = .024, with babies presenting higher scores of withdrawal behavior, P = .003, and carers presenting higher scores of depressive mood, P = .008, when compared to TD dyads. The ASD dyads have interactive impairments more frequently than do the TD dyads.     

Contrast effects in judgmental forecasting when assessing the implications of worst and best case scenarios

Two experiments investigated whether individuals' forecasts of the demand for products and a stock market index assuming a best or worst case scenario depend on whether they have seen a single scenario in isolation or whether they have also seen a second scenario presenting an opposing view of the future. Normatively, scenarios should be regarded as belonging to different plausible future worlds so that the judged implications of one scenario should not be affected when other scenarios are available. However, the results provided evidence of contrast effects in that the presentation of a second “opposite” scenario led to more extreme forecasts consistent with the polarity of the original scenario. In addition, people were more confident about their forecasts based on a given scenario when two opposing scenarios were available. We examine the implications of our findings for the elicitation of point forecasts and judgmental prediction intervals and the biases that are often associated with them.     

消极刻板印象和群际焦虑:阻碍群际交往的重要因素

消极刻板印象和群际焦虑是阻碍群际交往的重要因素。基于群际接触理论和群际焦虑理论模型,测量了少数民族和汉族交往时的群际焦虑水平、彼此持有的刻板印象和外群体态度等变量,考查了这些变量的特征及关系。结果表明:(1)汉族在群际交往过程中的群际焦虑水平显著高于少数民族;(2)女性比男性持有更积极的外群体态度;(3)消极刻板印象是产生群际焦虑和偏见态度的重要原因。减少消极刻板印象、降低群际焦虑是促进群际交往的重要途径。     

羞怯对攻击的影响:安全感和社会比较倾向的中介作用

为考察安全感和社会比较倾向在羞怯与攻击之间关系的中介作用,采用大学生羞怯量表、社会比较倾向量表、安全感量表和攻击问卷对543名大学生进行测量。结果发现(1)羞怯、攻击和社会比较倾向三者之间呈显著两两正相关,且三者分别与安全感呈显著负相关;(2)羞怯对攻击的直接效应显著;(3)安全感和社会比较倾向在羞怯与攻击关系间起完全中介作用。     

Action co-representation and the sense of agency during a joint Simon task: Comparing human and machine co-agents

Recent studies have suggested that individuals are not able to develop a sense of joint agency during joint actions with artificial systems. We sought to examine whether this lack of joint agency is linked to individuals’ inability to co-represent the machine-generated actions. Fifteen participants observed or performed a Simon response time task either individually, or jointly with another human or a computer. Participants reported the time interval between their response (or the co-actor response) and a subsequent auditory stimulus, which served as an implicit measure of participants’ sense of agency. Participants’ reaction times showed a classical Simon effect when they were partnered with another human, but not when they collaborated with a computer. Furthermore, participants showed a vicarious sense of agency when co-acting with another human agent but not with a computer. This absence of vicarious sense of agency during human-computer interactions and the relation with action co-representation are discussed.     

Bioinspired decision-making for a socially interactive robot

Nowadays, robots and humans coexist in real settings where robots need to interact autonomously making their own decisions. Many applications require that robots adapt their behavior to different users and remember each user’s preferences to engage them in the interaction. To this end, we propose a decision making system for social robots that drives their actions taking into account the user and the robot’s state. This system is based on bio-inspired concepts, such as motivations, drives and wellbeing, that facilitate the rise of natural behaviors to ease the acceptance of the robot by the users. The system has been designed to promote the human-robot interaction by using drives and motivations related with social aspects, such as the users’ satisfaction or the need of social interaction. Furthermore, the changes of state produced by the users’ exogenous actions have been modeled as transitional states that are considered when the next robot’s action has to be selected. Our system has been evaluated considering two different user profiles. In the proposed system, user’s preferences are considered and alter the homeostatic process that controls the decision making system. As a result, using reinforcement learning algorithms and considering the robot’s wellbeing as the reward function, the social robot Mini has learned from scratch two different policies of action, one for each user, that fit the users’ preferences. The robot learned behaviors that maximize its wellbeing as well as keep the users engaged in the interactions.     

功能性近红外光谱技术在说谎研究中的应用

功能性近红外光谱技术(functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS)是近年来新兴起的一种脑成像技术, 其凭借生态效度高,成本低等优势已成为一种具有广阔前景的测谎技术.研究者使用了被动说谎和主动说谎的实验范式, 验证了fNIRS技术在说谎研究中的可行性和准确性, 揭示了其在探讨年幼儿童说谎行为和真实互动情景中自发说谎行为的神经机制中的优势.未来研究应综合运用多种指标和方法, 考察说谎行为的神经网络, 加强真实人际互动情景下自发谎言神经机制和儿童说谎认知发展神经机制的研究, 这将有助于揭示说谎的本质, 提高测谎效力.     

授权型领导的负面效应：理论机制与边界条件

已有研究主要关注授权型领导的正面影响, 然而, 新近的研究表明授权型领导可能也会引发潜在的负面效应。针对此问题, 首先界定了授权型领导的概念及其核心特征。其次, 基于双重任务加工效应、角色理论和内隐领导理论, 阐释了授权型领导负面效应的理论机制, 并进一步分析和总结了授权型领导的有效性在何种条件下能够实现。最后, 提出了授权型领导负面效应未来研究方向的建议。