Does Family Cohesion Predict Children's Effort? The Mediating Roles of Sense of Coherence,Hope, and Loneliness

The degree of cohesion and support within families has often been considered a predictor of students' effort-investment and success in school. The objectives of this study are to examine the roles of personal factors (i.e., sense of coherence and hopeful thinking) as well as interpersonal factors (i.e., loneliness) in mediating the relationship between family cohesion and effort. The sample consists of 1719 elementary school children (781 boys and 938 girls) from the fifth and six grades (mean age = 10.25, SD = 0.70) of 29 elementary schools in central Israel. Students answered study questionnaires in the middle of their academic year. Analyses utilizing hierarchical multiple regression and Hayes' bootstrapping approach (PROCESS; Preacher & Hayes, 2008) were used. The results support the distinctive contribution of family cohesion and the mediating roles of sense of coherence and hope (as protective factors) as well as loneliness (as a risk factor) in predicting students' school effort. This study has important educational implications, emphasizing the value of promoting hopeful thinking and coping with loneliness in helping students to thrive in their studies.     

Narrative skill and testimonial accuracy in typically developing children and those with intellectual disabilities

Children must describe maltreatment coherently for their testimony to be influential in court. We know little about how well children with intellectual disabilities (CWID) describe their experiences relative to typically developing (TD) children, despite CWID's vulnerability to maltreatment. We investigated children's reports of an experienced event and compared coherence in CWID (mild to moderate impairment: 7–11 years) with TD children matched for mental (4–10 years) or chronological age (7–11 years). All children included important markers of narrative coherence in their reports. Children with lower mental ages, particularly those with an intellectual disability, included fewer markers of narrative coherence in their reports than children with higher mental ages. Individual markers of narrative coherence, particularly recall of content, predicted accuracy of testimony and resistance to suggestion even when disability and mental age were taken into account. These findings highlight the importance of helping children to describe their experiences coherently.     

Do individuals with autism process words in context? Evidence from language-mediated eye-movements

It is widely argued that people with autism have difficulty processing ambiguous linguistic information in context. To investigate this claim, we recorded the eye-movements of 24 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and 24 language-matched peers as they monitored spoken sentences for words corresponding to objects on a computer display. Following a target word, participants looked more at a competitor object sharing the same onset than at phonologically unrelated objects. This effect was, however, mediated by the sentence context such that participants looked less at the phonological competitor if it was semantically incongruous with the preceding verb. Contrary to predictions, the two groups evidenced similar effects of context on eye-movements. Instead, across both groups, the effect of sentence context was reduced in individuals with relatively poor language skills. Implications for the weak central coherence account of autism are discussed.     

Properties of Goal Systems: Consistency, Conflict, and Coherence

The paper provides a formal representation of goal systems. The focus is on three properties: consistency, conflict, and coherence. An aim is to attain conceptual clarity of these properties. It is argued that consistency is adequately regarded as a property relative to the decision situation or, more specifically, the set of alternatives that the agent faces. Moreover, as a condition of rationality, consistency is stronger than some writers have claimed. Conflict is adequately regarded as a relation over subsets of a given goal system and should likewise be regarded as relative to the set of alternatives that the agent faces. Coherence is given a probabilistic interpretation, based on a support relation over subsets of goal systems. Presented by Heinrich Wansing     

连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响

采用独立记得-知道范式(IRK)和加工分离范式(PDP)探讨了整体连贯和局部连贯条件下连贯性高低对文本表征意识性的影响。实验1使用独立记得-知道范式(IRK), 通过分析被试对再认项目判断为“记得”或“知道”的比例(击中率), 探讨连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响。实验2使用加工分离范式(PDP), 通过分析被试在包含、排斥测验中的击中率和虚报率, 探讨连贯性对文本表征意识性的影响。总的实验结果表明, 在整体连贯条件下, 连贯性只影响有意识加工, 不影响无意识加工; 而局部连贯条件下, 连贯性对有意识加工和无意识加工都有影响, 证明了不同连贯条件下连贯性高低对文本表征的加工过程有着不同的影响。     

时距知觉中的情绪效应

情绪极易影响时距知觉,致使主观时距偏离客观时距。新近研究者们结合日趋成熟的标量计时模型及神经学相关依据,并通过采用标准化情绪诱发材料的实验研究,较为系统地解释了情绪的生理唤醒和注意唤醒两种成分各自对内部计时机制造成的干扰效应。研究发现,两种效应中前者会加长主观时距而后者会使其缩短,且分别有不同的发生特点。该文在介绍国内外关于时距知觉中的情绪效应的新近研究基础上,提出应从探索两种效应的分离方法、考虑记忆效应因素以及增加实验自变量的数目和取值水平三个方面来开展进一步的研究     

基于因果关系归类中的实验效应

采用与Rehder实验相同的程序,考察了不同非典型特征值用语和基本比率信息表达方式对基于因果关系归类的影响.实验1结果表明,非典型特征值采用"正常"或典型特征值的相反值并不会对归类中的实验效应产生不同的影响.实验2结果表明,与将基本比率信息表达为具体明确的一个值"75%"相比,"A倾向于具有特征X"的表达方式会削弱一致性效应.突显因果位置效应.这些结果说明.改变两种实验效应强度的是Marsh和Ahn实验中采用的基本比率信息的表达方式而不是Rehder实验中的非典型特征值用语.     

高功能孤独症幼儿空间工作记忆的组块加工缺陷

孤独症谱系障碍者存在空间工作记忆加工缺陷,其具体受损环节尚不明确。组块是一种有效的策略性信息编码方式,是空间工作记忆的关键环节。高度结构化的刺激容易形成高水平组块,因此,刺激结构化程度对记忆效果的影响能够反映个体的组块加工能力。研究采用Sternberg空间工作记忆任务、Corsi空间广度任务,加入刺激结构化因素,考察高功能孤独症幼儿是否存在组块加工缺陷,并探讨组块加工是否直接影响到空间工作记忆容量。实验1采用Sternberg空间工作记忆任务,结果表明,ASD幼儿存在明显的组块加工缺陷。在易于组块的高结构化条件下,健康幼儿的记忆成绩明显较高,而ASD幼儿在高、低结构化条件下的记忆成绩并无显著差异。实验2采用Corsi空间广度任务,结果显示,不论高、低结构化条件,ASD幼儿的空间工作记忆容量均显著低于健康幼儿。但ASD幼儿由于存在组块加工缺陷,在高、低结构化条件下的记忆成绩差异较健康幼儿小。因此,ASD幼儿的组块能力一定程度上影响了空间工作记忆容量。此外,记忆存储器的异常可能也是ASD幼儿空间工作记忆容量不足的重要原因。研究表明,ASD幼儿的空间组块缺陷主要由于弱中央统合的认知风格,他们缺乏自上而下的组块加工动机,难以主动对刺激形成高水平组块编码,从而影响记忆效果。     

奖惩对行为抑制能力和自主生理活动影响的时效性

将45名被试随机分配为奖励组、惩罚组和对照组, 实验进程按时间发展过程被分为五阶段, 采用停止信号任务探讨奖惩刺激对行为抑制能力和自主生理活动影响的时效性。结果显示：奖惩刺激对行为反应时和抑制失败率影响仅在第二、三阶段差异显著, 对心率影响的显著差异在第三阶段结束、而对皮电和指温影响的显著差异仍持续到第五阶段。结果表明：奖惩刺激对行为的抑制作用具有时效性, 有效时间内表现为仅奖励能提高行为抑制能力; 奖惩刺激对心率的影响具有时效性, 但对其它生理指标的影响则未显示出时效性。     

The Truth-Conduciveness Problem of Coherentism and a Sellarsian Explanatory Coherence Theory

According to the truth-conduciveness problem of coherentism, the coherence theory of justification can hardly show that coherentist justification is truth-conducive. This problem is generally conceived as the most recalcitrant problem with the coherence theory. The purpose of this paper is to show that it does not pose a serious problem for a certain version of coherentism, namely a Sellarsian explanatory coherence theory of justification combined with the deflationary theory of truth. On this version of coherentism, our epistemic goal is to gradually improve our conceptual framework so as to maximize its explanatory coherence, and there is no substantial norm of truth independent of the norms of justification, so that we cannot evaluate the truth-conduciveness of a belief independently of the norms of justification. I argue that this version of coherentism can cope with the truth-conduciveness problem.