Children's Understanding of the Instrumental Value of Products and Brands

Gelman and Echelbarger (2019—this issue) provide a valuable discussion about children's understanding of the inferred or nonobvious features of objects, which has implications for how children value products. We further this conversation by examining how children value products and brands as a means for meeting important goals, which we refer to as instrumental valuation. Specifically, we examine developmental trends in instrumental valuation for three goals—self‐concept development, self‐presentation, and happiness. Across these areas, we find that children place greater value on products and brands for meeting these goals as they grow older, particularly during late childhood and early adolescence. We conclude with a discussion of how age differences in instrumental valuation add to the general conversation about how children of different ages value objects.     

The effect of presentation format and encoding strategy on associative memory distortion

IntroductionPrevious studies using semantically related words revealed more accurate memory when the items were encoded visually rather than auditorily and when mental images were created during encoding. However, how the level of memory distortion is affected by the creation of different mental imagery formats or by techniques that should suppress generation of mental images has rarely been investigated.ObjectiveThe aim of the present studies was to investigate the ways in which the encoding strategy affects the accuracy of memory reports for two presentation formats of semantically related words: verbal and pictorial.MethodIn experiment 1, the participants were asked to memorize either pictures or their verbal equivalents (words) from the same category, using one of two encoding strategies: uttering the words or counting backwards. In experiment 2, pictorially or auditory presented material was encoded together with the creation of either visual or auditory mental images of the items. The results of the experimental groups were compared to control groups that received no specific instruction.ResultsHigher levels of false recognition, together with lower rates of correct recognition, were observed for words, presented either visually or auditory, relative to pictures. Moreover, self-generation of additional code during the processing of information favored the reduction of false recognitions.ConclusionEncoding strategies that engaged dual coding reduced false recognition. The results are discussed within the distinctiveness heuristic phenomenon.     

Analysis of vehicle-based lateral performance measures during distracted driving due to phone use

Distracted driving due to mobile phone use has been identified as a major contributor to accidents; therefore, it is required to develop ways for detecting driver distraction due to phone use. Though prior literature has documented various visual behavioural and physiological techniques to identify driver distraction, comparatively little is known about vehicle based performance features which can identify driver’s distracted state during phone conversation and texting while driving. Therefore, this study examined the effects of simple conversation, complex conversation, simple texting and complex texting tasks on vehicle based performance parameters such as standard deviation of lane positioning, number of lane excursions, mean and standard deviation of lateral acceleration, mean and standard deviation of steering wheel angle and steering reversal rates (for 1°, 5° and 10° angle differences). All these performance measures were collected for 100 licensed drivers, belonging to three age groups (young, mid-age and old age), with the help of a driving simulator. Effects of all the phone use conditions and driver demographics (age, gender and phone use habits) on the measures were analysed by repeated measures ANOVA tests. Results showed that 1°, 5° SRRs are able to identify all the distracted conditions except for simple conversation; while, 10° SSR can detect all the distracted conditions (including simple conversation). The results suggest that 10° SRR can be included in intelligent in-vehicle devices in order to detect distraction and alert drivers of their distracted state. This can prevent mobile phone use during driving and therefore can help in reducing the road accidents due to mobile phone distractions.     

A belief in trend reversal requires access to cognitive resources

There are two research traditions studying people's reactions to random binary events: one concerns serial choice reaction times, the other concerns predictions of events in a series. The present studies focused on comparing expectations between these two approaches. We formed and tested a general hypothesis that, regardless of the type of task, when an individual faces a sequence of events they initially expect trend continuation. Only when people assume that a sequence is random might they override the default and expect trend reversal instead. In a series of experiments we found that limitation of access to cognitive resources enhances expectations of trend continuation. Our interpretation of this finding is that an expectation of trend continuation is the default for the human cognitive system and that a belief in trend reversal requires access to cognitive resources to overcome the tendency to expect trend continuation.     

The influence of acceptance goals on self‐presentational efforts

The current work examined whether self‐presentational efforts are influenced differently when people hold a goal to establish, maintain or repair an interpersonal connection. Results supported the counterintuitive prediction that participants with a repair goal would convey a less favourably oriented persona (e.g. less friendly, less similar and less genuine) compared to those with an establish or maintain goal. The efforts of repair goal participants were also perceived as less effective. The analysis also showed that certain self‐presentation dimensions (i.e. friendliness, genuineness and similarity) mediated the relationship between acceptance goals and perceived effectiveness. The findings extend and contribute to the self‐presentation and belongingness literatures.     

A Monte Carlo evaluation of masked visual analysis in response‐guided versus fixed‐criteria multiple‐baseline designs

We developed masked visual analysis (MVA) as a structured complement to traditional visual analysis. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the effects of computer‐simulated MVA of a four‐case multiple‐baseline (MB) design in which the phase lengths are determined by an ongoing visual analysis (i.e., response‐guided) versus those in which the phase lengths are established a priori (i.e., fixed criteria). We observed an acceptably low probability (less than .05) of false detection of treatment effects. The probability of correctly detecting a true effect frequently exceeded .80 and was higher when: (a) the masked visual analyst extended phases based on an ongoing visual analysis, (b) the effects were larger, (c) the effects were more immediate and abrupt, and (d) the effects of random and extraneous error factors were simpler. Our findings indicate that MVA is a valuable combined methodological and data‐analysis tool for single‐case intervention researchers.     

认知负荷视角下的知识反转效应

知识反转效应研究始于20世纪90年代中期, 在认知负荷的框架下对学习者先备知识与教学方法有效性之间的交互作用进行研究, 其研究范式起源于能力倾向与教学处置交互作用模型。认知负荷理论认为知识反转效应的产生是由于高先备知识者接受冗余教学而产生了额外的认知负荷, 动机理论却认为, 高先备知识者由于冗余的认知加工而产生的负荷可能是一种动机资源负荷。在优化外在认知负荷与相关认知负荷的教学设计中发现了大量知识反转效应的实验证据, 其教学的启示意义在于需要随着学习者领域知识的不断变化适宜性地调整教学方法。未来需要在完善研究方法、拓展研究领域的基础上, 整合研究成果以建立效应发生与发展的理论模型。     

Why perversion?: False love and the perverse pact1

In this paper, the author works with the awareness that perversion is a socially, historically and theologically loaded term, at the same time as it may be the latest frontier in psychoanalysis, both clinically, and in relation to contemporary art and culture which emphasize the perverse. Positioning itself against tendencies to deny the existence of a category of perversion or, inversely, to abuse it for the power that accrues from the act of diagnosing, she also points to other liabilities in the history of the treatment of this term, such as the narrowing down of perversion to the exclusively sexual domain, or, alternatively, the overextension of it to polymorphously erotic practices that enhance sexual excitement. The paradoxes of perversion and the difficulties of distinguishing the perverse from the non‐perverse are addressed. The case is also made that, in order to understand perversion, one must unlink it from the narrow notion of sexual practice and see what is involved on a deeper level an approach initiated when psychoanalysis turned to perversion as a defense against psychotic anxieties, and began considering the necessary place of perversion in the transference countertransference. Two features common to both sexual and non‐sexual perverse relations are the seductive and bribing aspects of perversion, and its means‐ends reversal. Perversion is a haven for the disguising of hatred and suspicion as excitement and (false) love. Displaced child and beating father, entitled child and seductive mother, are both prototypes of psychoanalytic refiection on parents who excite, deceive and corrupt their children and establish perverse pacts with them. The notion of the perverse pact is foregrounded in Alice's analysis, where first the resurrection and then the dismantling of such a pact were effected through various analytic means.