Intergenerational Relationships Within the Local Congregation

ABSTRACT

The following article explores the effect of the quality of intergenerational relationships on the health, healing and wholeness of the congregation. The fundamental premise is that an intergenerational approach to congregational life is a conscious, intentional choice on the part of the leadership and membership of that congregation to honor both the contributions and the requirements of each and every generation for the good of that generation as well as the good of the whole community. A casestudy is presented to demonstrate this approach. A reflection on the casestudy focuses on three dimensions of this approach to building up intergenerational relationships, i.e., the revelation of 1 Corinthians 12, the approach of family systems theory, and the paradigm of pastoral care.     

押韵加工的认知神经机制

押韵是指一对词语中从最后一个发音的元音到词尾的语音结构均相同的现象。现有押韵加工主要分为押韵识别与押韵产生两个研究领域,两者的认知加工过程相似,包括字形编码、形音转换、语音表征与语音分段等阶段。从语音加工与字形加工两方面对押韵过程的神经基础进行探讨,发现左半球颞上回与额下回分别负责语音表征与语音分段,左半球梭状回参与着字形编码,而有效的形音转换依赖于左半球顶下小叶与额下回组成的神经网络。今后应进一步整合不同研究方法与任务下的研究结果,并对押韵产生加工进行更深入的探讨。     

论代际公平

公平问题是一个现代社会日益凸现的问题。如果将公平问题放在“代”的语境中加以讨论和审视 ,则可以将公平分为代内公平和代际公平。代内公平实际上就是一般所说的公平。代际公平可分为在场各代之间的公平和在场各代与后代之间的公平。由于对这两种代际公平未加区分 ,因此 ,人们在讨论代际公平问题时往往显得语义含糊。由于在场各代处于现实的关系之中 ,他们之间的公平是具有实践基础的。但是 ,对在场各代与尚未出场的人类后代之间的公平却存在着较大的争议 ,其焦点在于尚未出场的人类后代与在场各代之间的关系并不是现实的。为此 ,对在场各代与人类后代的公平进行权利论证明就是当前一个迫切的理论课题。     

Specificity and Abstraction of Examples: Opposite Effects on Fixation for Creative Ideation

Fixation is one of the major obstacles that individuals face in creative idea generation contexts. Several studies have shown that individuals unintentionally tend to fixate to the examples they are shown in a creative ideation task, even when instructed to avoid them. Most of these studies used examples formulated with high level of specificity. However, no study has examined individuals’ creative performance under an instruction to diverge from given examples, when these examples are formulated with a high level of abstraction. In the present study, we show that (a) instructing participants to avoid using common examples when formulated with a high level of specificity increases fixation; whereas (b) instructing participants to avoid such examples while using a more abstract level for stating these common examples—such as a categorization of these examples—mitigates fixation and doubles the number of creative ideas generated. These findings give new insights on the key role of categorization in creative ideation contexts.     

Enhancement of Creativity: Semantic Priming Through Naming Objects Loosens Functional Fixedness within Idea Generation

Functional fixedness is related to excessive focusing on a specific functional property of an object. We assumed that the naming of other objects which possess the same functional property to a lesser extent than a given object can reduce the excessive focusing on this functional property for this object. It can help to loosen functional fixedness and improve individual creative performance. We tested the effectiveness of this method with 302 participants aged between 17 and 22 (256 female and 46 male). The study consisted of two experiments with 110 and 192 participants, respectively. Prior to performing a creative activity (story writing in Experiment 1 and thinking up unusual uses of a given object in Experiment 2), participants from different groups were asked to name objects which possess the main functional property of the given object to the same extent, to a lesser extent, and to a greater extent, respectively. In both phases of the study, we found a significant effect on the extent of the target property possession on originality. Results showed that participants named objects with the lesser manifestation of a target property outperformed their counterparts from other groups.     

Looking for ideas: Eye behavior during goal-directed internally focused cognition

Humans have a highly developed visual system, yet we spend a high proportion of our time awake ignoring the visual world and attending to our own thoughts. The present study examined eye movement characteristics of goal-directed internally focused cognition. Deliberate internally focused cognition was induced by an idea generation task. A letter-by-letter reading task served as external task. Idea generation (vs. reading) was associated with more and longer blinks and fewer microsaccades indicating an attenuation of visual input. Idea generation was further associated with more and shorter fixations, more saccades and saccades with higher amplitudes as well as heightened stimulus-independent variation of eye vergence. The latter results suggest a coupling of eye behavior to internally generated information and associated cognitive processes, i.e. searching for ideas. Our results support eye behavior patterns as indicators of goal-directed internally focused cognition through mechanisms of attenuation of visual input and coupling of eye behavior to internally generated information.     

Generating variable and random schedules of reinforcement using Microsoft Excel macros

Variable reinforcement schedules are used to arrange the availability of reinforcement following varying response ratios or intervals of time. Random reinforcement schedules are subtypes of variable reinforcement schedules that can be used to arrange the availability of reinforcement at a constant probability across number of responses or time. Generating schedule values for variable and random reinforcement schedules can be difficult. The present article describes the steps necessary to write macros in Microsoft Excel that will generate variable-ratio, variable-interval, variable-time, random-ratio, random-interval, and random-time reinforcement schedule values.     

Random Item IRT Models

It is common practice in IRT to consider items as fixed and persons as random. Both, continuous and categorical person parameters are most often random variables, whereas for items only continuous parameters are used and they are commonly of the fixed type, although exceptions occur. It is shown in the present article that random item parameters make sense theoretically, and that in practice the random item approach is promising to handle several issues, such as the measurement of persons, the explanation of item difficulties, and trouble shooting with respect to DIF. In correspondence with these issues, three parts are included. All three rely on the Rasch model as the simplest model to study, and the same data set is used for all applications. First, it is shown that the Rasch model with fixed persons and random items is an interesting measurement model, both, in theory, and for its goodness of fit. Second, the linear logistic test model with an error term is introduced, so that the explanation of the item difficulties based on the item properties does not need to be perfect. Finally, two more models are presented: the random item profile model (RIP) and the random item mixture model (RIM). In the RIP, DIF is not considered a discrete phenomenon, and when a robust regression approach based on the RIP difficulties is applied, quite good DIF identification results are obtained. In the RIM, no prior anchor sets are defined, but instead a latent DIF class of items is used, so that posterior anchoring is realized (anchoring based on the item mixture). It is shown that both approaches are promising for the identification of DIF.     

Stress Generation in Adolescent Depression: The Moderating Role of Child Abuse and Neglect

The present study examined the role of childhood abuse and neglect and depression recurrence in moderating the generation of stressful life events in adolescent depression. Maltreatment history and stressful life events were assessed using two rigorous contextual interviews and rating systems. In a sample of 59 community depressed adolescents we found significantly higher rates of interpersonal events in the 3-month period immediately following depression episode onset versus the 3-month period immediately preceding onset in adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment. By contrast, rates of events remained constant over a matched period in a control group of non-maltreated adolescents. Furthermore, the generation of interpersonal events only held among those on a first onset of depression. These results suggest that a history of childhood abuse and neglect exacerbates the psychosocial dysfunction associated with the onset of depression, particularly in the very first episode.     

热手谬误？赌徒谬误？ ——随机序列知觉中近因效应的格式塔现象研究

通过两个实验来探讨随机序列中的近因效应。在实验1中,采用传统实验范式,让被试进行一系列的抛掷硬币结果的猜测并给予反馈,结果发现：（1）在最近连续几次硬币呈现的结果不同时,人们通常把各个结果分别作为独立的单元来看待,大部分情况下做出随机性的预期;（2）在最近连续几次硬币呈现的结果相同时,人们通常把连续几次相同的结果作为一个认知单元来看待,在最近猜测对错两种情况下分别出现了截然相反的两种近因效应。当最近1次猜对时,对下一结果的预期出现正近因效应即热手谬误,但是最近几次连续猜对时谬误减少乃至消失;当最近1次猜错时,对下一结果的预期出现负近因效应即赌徒谬误,并且最近几次连续猜错时负近因效应并未受到太大影响。实验2在实验1范式的基础上,把硬币抛掷的结果人为分组,发现被试对每一组的第一个结果做出预期时,实验1中的各种效应均消失,该现象支持关于随机序列知觉的“格式塔理论”。