Are Newborns Morally Different from Older Children?

Policies and position statements regarding decision-making for extremely premature babies exist in many countries and are often directive, focusing on parental choice and expected outcomes. These recommendations often state survival and handicap as reasons for optional intervention. The fact that such outcome statistics would not justify such approaches in other populations suggests that some other powerful factors are at work. The value of neonatal intensive care has been scrutinized far more than intensive care for older patients and suggests that neonatal care is held to a higher standard of justification. The relative value placed on the life of newborns, in particular the preterm, is less than expected by any objective medical data or any prevailing moral frameworks about the value of individual lives. Why do we feel less obligated to treat the premature baby? Do we put newborns in a special and lesser moral category? We explore this question from a legal and ethical perspective and offer several hypotheses pertaining to personhood, reproductive choices, “precious children,” and probable evolutionary and anthropological factors.     

叙事语篇中时间表征的评定差异研究

为了探讨时间表征在多大程度上影响人们对叙事属性的判断,让66名博士生被试对12篇删除了明显时间概念词的叙事语篇（创造性与非创造性叙事各6篇）进行时间表征方面的评定,从而检验了“过去”、“现在”、“将来”等时间概念在叙事语篇中的时间表征意义,以及存在的性别、年龄等差异。     

Obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid major depression: what is the role of cognitive factors?

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) commonly experience comorbid mood disturbances such as major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous studies that have compared OCD patients with and without MDD have revealed differences in demographic characteristics, clinical severity, and symptom presentation between these two patient groups. Previous studies have not, however, examined whether there are differences with respect to cognitive processes. The present study therefore aimed to address this gap in the literature. Eighty patients with OCD and no unipolar mood disorders were compared with 34 OCD patients with comorbid major depression on measures of OCD symptoms, cognitions, and insight, as well as on measures of depression and functional impairment. Whereas depressed OCD patients evidenced higher scores than non-depressed OCD patients on semi-idiographic measures of OCD symptoms and cognitions, this was not the case for nomothetic measures. Functional impairment and the tendency to misinterpret innocuous intrusive thoughts as significant emerged as unique predictors of depression within the entire sample of OCD patients. Results are discussed in terms of (a) the importance of semi-idiographic assessment of OCD, (b) possible explanations for the relationship between OCD symptoms, depression, and cognitive processes, and (c) the psychological treatment of comorbid OCD and MDD.     

Influence of dysphoria on positive and negative cognitive reactivity to daily mood fluctuations

We used an experience sampling design to investigate the influence of dysphoria on positive and negative cognitive reactivity. Participants recorded their thoughts and mood four times per day on PDA devices for one week. We hypothesized that those higher in dysphoria would demonstrate a greater increase in negative thinking in response to negative mood, and a weaker increase in positive cognitions in response to positive mood. These hypotheses were largely supported. For those participants who reported higher initial dysphoria, there was a stronger association between negative mood and thinking and a weaker link between positive mood and thinking. Regression analyses indicated that positive and negative cognitive reactivity were independently related to dysphoria, suggesting that they represent distinct processes. Our results highlight the importance of understanding levels of both negative and positive cognitive reactivity and underscore the benefits of assessing mood and cognition with repeated measurements in "real-time," in order to better understand the antecedent effects of mood on thinking.     

The effect of decision risk and project stage on escalation of commitment

We investigate the joint effects of decision risk and the stage of project completion on escalation of commitment. In two experiments, we demonstrate that the effect of decision risk is moderated by project stage such that the decision risk has the strongest effect on escalation of commitment at the intermediate stage of project completion. This is due to the dynamic influences underlying escalation of commitment. Whereas the need for project information influences resource commitment at the initial stage of a project, the need for project completion affects resource allocation at the terminal stage. In contrast, motivation to commit resources is disproportionately low at the intermediate stage since both the need for project information and the need for project completion are relatively weak. As such, the decision to commit resources is most sensitive to the moderating effect of decision risk when the project is about half complete.     

从对框架效应的分析看风险决策的神经基础

对风险决策的研究近年来一直是微观经济学和心理学的热门,但是从传统的决策理论到主张有限理性的预期理论大多是对决策行为的研究,决策的心理机制一直是无法解释的黑箱子。令人兴奋的是近几年来神经科学家及其他领域的学者开始用先进的神经心理学的方法来研究风险决策,试图理解神经过程调节风险决策行为的方式。文章从分析违背“不变性”原则的框架效应入手,从正反框架、确定选择和风险选择、风险规避和风险寻求、高估小概率事件几个方面,全面分析风险决策可能的神经基础。在总结已有研究的基础上提出了把风险决策研究扩展到不确定决策,把风险决策中的一次决策研究扩展到多次决策的研究思路     

Investigating the subjective reports of rejection processes in the word frequency mirror effect

We sought to systematically investigate how participants subjectively classify the basis of their recognition memory judgments for low and high word frequency items. We found that participants more often reported rejection processes related to the increased perceived memorability for unstudied low word frequency items (relative to high word frequency items), rather than classifying their decision on a lack of familiarity. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern and demonstrated context variability and word frequency independently influenced the subjective classifications for correct rejections. Results of Experiment 3 revealed that these differences are dependent upon having experience with both low and high frequency items. Overall, these data suggest participants’ rejection of low frequency items is more strongly related to judgments of perceived memorability, but only when they are presented in the context of high frequency items. The results are discussed in relation to distinctiveness and expected memorability.