A stimulus set of words and pictures matched for visual and semantic similarity

Researchers in different fields of psychology have been interested in how vision and language interact, and what type of representations are involved in such interactions. We introduce a stimulus set that facilitates such research (available online). The set consists of 100 words each of which is paired with four pictures of objects: One semantically similar object (but visually dissimilar), one visually similar object (but semantically dissimilar), and two unrelated objects. Visual and semantic similarity ratings between corresponding items are provided for every picture for Dutch and for English. In addition, visual and linguistic parameters of each picture are reported. We thus present a stimulus set from which researchers can select, on the basis of various parameters, the items most optimal for their research question.     

Worry and working memory influence each other iteratively over time

Little research has examined whether the relationship between working memory (WM) and anxiety/worry remains stable or changes over time; and, if changes occur, the factor(s) influencing change. Claims about influence are typically inferred from data collected at a single time point, and may misrepresent the nature of influence. To investigate the iterative influence of WM and Worry and/or vice versa, 133 fourteen-year-olds completed WM and Worry measures several times over the course of a single day as they prepared for a math test. We used a bivariate latent difference score model to analyse possible changes in WM–Worry relationships. The best fitting model indicated high Worry predicts decreases in WM, and low or decreased WM predicts increases in Worry; high WM with low Worry predicts accurate problem solving; low WM with high Worry predicts inaccurate problem solving. Findings show relationships between WM and Worry varies considerably over a single day, and initial disadvantages become worse over time.     

What good leaders actually do: micro-level leadership behaviour,leader evaluations,and team decision quality

We supplement broad definitions of leadership behaviour with the concept of micro-level leadership behaviour, leaders’ verbal and non-verbal visible conduct and interaction. For the context of team decision-making, we identify two potentially beneficial micro-level leadership behaviours, question asking and behavioural mimicry. Specifically, we propose that under conditions of informational complexity and unshared information, participative leadership is most appropriate for team decision-making, that its effects are mediated by inquiring and empathy, and that question asking and mimicry are the behavioural micro-level manifestations of inquiring and empathy. We thus hypothesize that the effect of participative leadership on team decision quality and leader evaluation is mediated by question asking and mimicry. We conduct a laboratory experiment with student teams working on a hidden profile decision-making task and measure question asking through behavioural coding and mimicry with motion sensors. Results show that the effect of participative leadership on decision quality is mediated by question asking, and that the effect of participative leadership on leader evaluation as transformational is mediated by leaders’ behavioural mimicry and question asking. Under control of these micro-level behaviours, team decision quality and leader evaluations were unrelated.     

Minding gaps on the skin: Opposite bisection biases on forehead and back of one’s head

Humans perceive the world from an egocentric perspective, while being able to mentally take a third person’s perspective. Graphesthesia tasks revealed that letters written on the back of one’s own head are consistently perceived from an embodied perspective, while the perspective on one’s front is less consistent and often disembodied. We developed a cutaneous gap bisection task as a more discrete measure of the perspective on the body. In analogy to a visual pseudoneglect, we expected bisections to deviate toward the left ear when perceived from an embodied perspective. While this hypothesis was confirmed for gap bisections on the back, the results on the front suggest overall a disembodied perspective. Contrary to our expectation, this pattern was not predicted by the spontaneous perspective participants took in a graphesthesia task, indicating different cognitive mechanisms. We discuss these findings in the frame of the current literature on spatial attention and perspective taking.     

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARENT‐CHILD PLAY SCALE FOR USE IN CHILDREN WITH FEEDING DISORDERS

The Parent‐Child Play Scale was developed as a scale that complements the Parent‐Child Feeding Scale, created by I. Chatoor et al. (1997), to evaluate mother–infant/toddler interactions in two different caregiving contexts of a young child's everyday life, specifically play and feeding. This Play Scale can be used with infants and toddlers ranging in age from 1 month to 3 years and provides reliable global ratings of mother–child interactions during 10 min of videotaped free‐play in a laboratory setting. The scale consists of 32 mother and infant/toddler interactive behaviors which are rated by trained observers from videotaped observations. Four subscales are derived: Dyadic Reciprocity, Maternal Unresponsiveness to Infant's/Toddler's Cues, Dyadic Conflict, and Maternal Intrusiveness. Construct validity and interrater and test‐retest reliability of the Play Scale have been demonstrated. This Play Scale discriminates between children with and without feeding disorders as well as between children with different subtypes of feeding disorders as defined by the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood, Revised (DC:0–3R) (Feeding Disorder of State Regulation, Feeding Disorder of Caregiver‐Infant Reciprocity, and Infantile Anorexia). It can be used for research or clinical practice in the diagnosis and treatment of early feeding problems, to assess the pervasiveness of mother–infant/toddler difficulties and to monitor changes following therapy.     

Using principles of cognitive science to improve science learning in middle school: What works when and for whom?

Four principles of cognitive science were used to make systematic revisions in middle school science instructional modules from two kinds of curriculum: one popular textbook series and one popular hands‐on series (two modules each). Schools were randomly assigned to 1 of the 3 arms (cognitive science modifications with professional development, active control with professional development, or business‐as‐usual). Two cohorts of students were followed in each arm for each setting. There were significant benefits of the cognitive science intervention, but the nature of effects varied for the two settings and curricula. For the text‐based curriculum, positive effects of cognitive science modifications were concentrated in classrooms with lower proportions of underrepresented minority students. For the hands‐on curriculum, there were positive effects that were not linked to school composition. Participation in the active control did not significantly improve student learning. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

Why are they being so nice to us? Social identity threat and the suspicion of Whites’ motives

Abstract

Stigmatizing racism has made Whites’ kindness attributional ambiguous to people of color (POC). When this ambiguity is experienced in domains where stereotypes are active, POC may experience praise from Whites as a form of social identity threat. The current article reviews how POC are predicted to respond to Whites’ positivity as a function of their beliefs about Whites’ motives. To the extent that POC are suspicious of Whites’ motives and chronically discount positivity from Whites, praise and positive overtures from Whites were predicted to be threatening. Evidence suggests that POC suspicious of Whites motives are the most sensitive to positive responses from Whites, reacting with both greater threat and social accuracy compared to non-suspicious POC. The current work reviews the empirical evidence on suspicion and highlights avenues for future research that explores suspicion’s origins and capacity to shape the academic and professional identities of POC.     

心理理论与社会互动方式对初中生社会善念发展的影响

为了探讨初中生社会善念的发展特点及相关影响因素,实验1采用卡通插图范式和SoMi范式,以628名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察不同心理理论类型初中生的社会善念的发展;实验2使用社会互动情境和SoMi范式,以360名7~9年级初中生为被试,考察社会互动方式与反馈类型对不同年级初中生社会善念的影响。结果发现:(1)初中生的社会善念不存在年级和性别差异,但7年级中高情感心理理论初中生的社会善念显著多于高认知心理理论初中生;(2)7年级初中生在积极反馈条件下的社会善念较多,而8年级初中生在消极反馈条件下较多,9年级初中生在这两种条件下则不存在显著差异;(3)在合作情境中,初中生在积极反馈下的社会善念更多,而在竞争情境中,初中生在消极反馈下的社会善念更多。研究说明初中生的社会善念具有跨年龄和跨性别的稳定性,并且会受到心理理论、社会互动方式及反馈类型的影响。     

Teaching and learning as a bi-directional activity: investigating dyadic interactions between child teachers and child learners

Building upon Vygotsky's ideas about the shift from other- to self-regulation in the “zone of proximal development,” we study how children, when teaching a board game that they previously co-constructed with a peer to a new child, reciprocally negotiate the roles of teacher and learner. From our investigation, we find that the quality of the relationship between teacher and learner changes from one reflecting guidance to one reflecting collaboration. This collaborative model of teaching and learning differs from more traditional models by which an active adult teacher is depicted as transmitting knowledge to a relatively passive child learner. Instead, we contend and demonstrate that the practice of teaching and learning is best viewed as a bi-directional interaction that results in the cognitive growth of both teacher and learner.