How to tell essence (when you sense one)

How could perceptual experiences reveal matters of essentiality? Answering this question is crucial for vindicating a thesis about the epistemic import of experience, commonly known as Revelation. The thesis comes in a weak and a strong version. Only on the strong one could it make up an authoritative piece of common sense. But this version also seems to demand too much of our experiences, namely that they can reveal essentiality. However, the impression that our experiences are not suited for this turns out to be due to a non-mandatory assumption about how the revelation of essentiality would work.     

Victim and Perpetrator Groups’ Divergent Perspectives on Collective Violence: Implications for Intergroup Relations

Groups in conflict develop strikingly different construals of the same violent events. These clashing perceptions of past violence can have detrimental consequences for intergroup relations and might provoke new hostilities. In this article, we integrate and juxtapose what we know about construals of collective violence by delineating the different dimensions along which these construals differ between victim and perpetrator groups: regarding the question of who is the victim, who is responsible for the harm doing, what the perpetrator’s intent was, how severe the violence was, and when it took place. Then, we discuss the individual‐ and group‐level factors (e.g., collective narratives, social identities) that shape these construals, as well as their implications for attitudes regarding the conflict and support for relevant policies. We distinguish two different core motives that drive construals and their outcomes among victim and perpetrator groups: Perpetrator groups try to cope with moral identity threats and preserve a positive image of the ingroup, while victim groups try to protect their ingroup from future harm doing and desire acknowledgment of their group’s experiences. Lastly, we discuss implications for strategies and interventions to address victim and perpetrator groups’ divergent perspectives of collective violence.     

小学儿童词汇知识与阅读理解的关系：交叉滞后研究

对小学1、3、5年级共399名学生进行为期1年的追踪测查, 使用交叉滞后模型检验小学低、中、高年级儿童词汇知识与阅读理解的关系。在控制了语音意识、语素意识、一般认知能力和自回归效应之后, 结果发现：在小学低年级, 词汇知识与阅读理解之间未发现显著的纵向预测关系; 在中年级, 词汇知识和阅读理解存在显著的双向预测关系; 在高年级, T1的阅读理解能够显著预测T2的词汇知识, 而T1的词汇知识对T2阅读理解的预测作用不显著。研究结果表明词汇知识与阅读理解的关系在小学不同年级段存在不同的模式, 这一发现支持了阅读发展阶段论, 并对阅读三角理论进行了一定的补充。     

目标预知对路径整合的影响

本研究采用头盔式虚拟现实与返回起点或路标的路径完成任务, 通过指导语来调控被试对于返回位置的预知, 检验目标预知对人类路径整合的影响。实验结果表明, 对于返回起点这一目标的预知可以使被试有效地忽略由于路标出现或路标数量增加而导致的干扰, 而对于返回路标这一目标的预知程度越高, 可以促使被试做出更准确的反应。这样的结果体现了目标预知作为一种非感知觉因素对于人类路径整合的影响, 也体现了人类路径整合的策略性和灵活性。     

Age differences in financial decision making: The benefits of more experience and less negative emotions

The emerging literature on aging and decision making posits that decision‐making competence changes with age, as a result of age differences in various cognitive and noncognitive individual‐differences characteristics. In a national life‐span sample from the United Kingdom (N = 926), we examined age differences in financial decisions, including performance measures of sunk cost and credit card repayment decisions, and self‐report measures of money management and financial decision outcomes. Participants also completed four individual‐differences characteristics that have been proposed as relevant to financial decision making, including two cognitive ones (numeracy and experience‐based knowledge) and two noncognitive ones (negative emotions about financial decisions). First, we examined how age was related to the four financial decision‐making measures and the four individual‐differences characteristics. Older age was correlated to better scores on each of the four financial decision‐making measures, more experience‐based knowledge, less negative emotions about financial decisions, whereas numeracy and motivation were not significantly correlated with age. Second, we found that considering both the two cognitive and the two noncognitive individual‐differences characteristics increased predictions of financial decision making, as compared with considering either alone. Third, we examined how these four individual‐differences characteristics contributed to age differences in financial decision making. Older adults' higher levels of experience‐based knowledge and lower levels of negative emotions seemed to especially benefit their financial decision making. We discuss implications for theories on aging and decision making, as well as for interventions targeting financial decisions.     

Option weights should be determined empirically and not by experts when assessing knowledge with multiple‐choice items

Multiple‐choice tests are frequently used in personnel selection contexts to measure knowledge and abilities. Option weighting is an alternative multiple‐choice scoring procedure that awards partial credit for incomplete knowledge reflected in applicants’ distractor choices. We investigated whether option weights should be based on expert judgment or on empirical data when trying to outperform conventional number‐right scoring in terms of reliability and validity. To obtain generalizable results, we used repeated random sub‐sampling validation and found that empirical option weighting, but not expert option weighting, increased the reliability of a knowledge test. Neither option weighting procedure improved test validity. We recommend to improve the reliability of existing ability and knowledge tests used for personnel selection by computing and publishing empirical option weights.     

The Feeling of Not Knowing It All

How do consumers assess their mastery of knowledge they have learned? We explore this question by investigating a common knowledge consumption situation: encountering opportunities for further learning. We argue and show that such opportunities can trigger a feeling‐of‐not‐knowing‐it‐all (FONKIA), which lowers consumers’ confidence in their mastery of the knowledge they already possess. Specifically, listing optional follow‐up readings at the conclusion of a course lowered students’ confidence in their mastery of the course material they had already learned (Study 1). Encountering an optional learning opportunity increased the FONKIA, which mediated the decreased confidence (Studies 2 and 3). We also document two moderators consistent with our conceptualization. First, participants primed with mastery (vs. instrumental) motivation were more negatively impacted when they encountered optional learning opportunities. Second, the more related the optional opportunities were to the target topic, the lower participants’ confidence in their mastery of what they had already learned. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings, such as encouraging further learning or harming teaching evaluations.     

儿童在因果知识领域内的选择性学习

儿童的选择性学习是目前认知发展领域的热点问题。儿童在因果知识领域内的选择性学习(即选择性因果学习)对于回答儿童如何获取知识这个经典问题具有重要意义。儿童的选择性因果学习表现在对他人解释的辨别、评估与采纳上。他们会主动向可靠的信息提供者寻求解释, 并在接收回答后表现出选择性跟进反应。对于他人的回答, 年幼儿童不仅能根据言语线索辨别出解释性陈述, 还能依据解释的结构特征选择更好的陈述加以采纳, 年长儿童甚至可以从不同模式的解释中灵活地学习更适宜的因果知识。未来研究应深入关注解释的其它特征在儿童选择性因果学习中的作用, 进一步探讨选择性因果学习的认知机制。     

中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征

采用启动效应的实验范式,基于不同加工水平的词汇判断任务,通过变化启动刺激与目标刺激的4个实验,考察了中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征。被试为第二军医大学的学生38名。结果发现:在基于语义的范畴判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验一);当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,也得到了显著的启动效应(实验二);但在基于语音的词汇判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,没有得到启动效应(实验三);而当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验四)。这一结果表明,对于中国大学生程度的中英双语者来说,其第二语言(英语)知识的心理表征特征为:①语义联想特征和语音联想特征,符合激活扩散模型;②第二语言知识的心理表征,不仅在概念语义层有着联系,而且在词汇表征层也有相互的联系;其词汇表征层和语义概念表征层是分层表征的。     

企业组织氛围与组织隐性知识共享之关系研究

本研究旨在考察组织氛围是否与企业中隐性知识的共享存在相关。是否可以以组织氛围的高低来预测企业中隐性知识的共享程度。本研究对辽宁省沈阳市和辽阳市的8家工业企业54个部门(班组)的463名员工组成的样本进行了问卷调查。结果表明,组织氛围的不同维度与隐性知识的不同因子的共享存在相关,组织氛围的不同维度能够在一定水平上预测隐性知识不同因子上的共享程度,但也显示隐性知识的不同因子共享机制并不一致。