What is agentic about the Spatial Agency Bias? How pragmatic relevance contributes to the spatial representations of actions

The mental imagination of (social) actions has been shown to follow a left‐to‐right trajectory, with the thematic agent associated with the left position (Spatial Agency Bias, Suitner & Maass in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 53, 2016, p. 245–301). For example, individuals asked to choose a picture that visualizes the sentence “Tom kicks George” tend to choose an image where the agent, Tom, is positioned on the left‐hand side rather than on the right‐hand side. However, as an alternative to the thematic role of the agent, such findings may reflect a mental representation following pragmatic relevance. Specifically, a pragmatic perspective holds that word order and syntactic functions are strategic devices to communicate that the element is important for the sentence. Thus, positioning in the described picture‐matching task may actually reflect the agent's pragmatic relevance instead of agency per se. As a test, we vary whether sentences are written in the active versus the passive voice. Results from five studies indicate that the passive voice results in the tendency to place the agent on the right‐hand side rather than on the left‐hand side of a picture. Instead, the acted‐upon person is positioned on the left‐hand side of a picture. A sixth experiment reveals that for the passive voice, the agent is still seen as more agentic than the receiver, but is considered less relevant. The findings are congruent with the proposed pragmatic relevance account. Implications for the Spatial Agency Bias as well as for building mental representations in general are discussed.     

汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童视觉同时性加工技能子成分的发展及其与阅读的关系

通过分别以高频汉字(实验1)和图形非言语材料(实验2)为刺激的两个联合视觉注意任务, 并采用基于Budensen视觉注意理论的参数估计方法, 系统地探查小学三~六年级汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的视觉同时性加工技能缺陷的内在机制。以43名汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童和46名生理年龄匹配典型发展儿童为被试, 每类被试均被分为小学中年级组(三、四年级)和高年级组(五、六年级)。两个实验均发现不同年级组的阅读障碍儿童在知觉加工速度参数上显著小于控制组儿童。在空间注意分布权重参数上, 实验1的结果显示, 不同于控制组儿童向左侧化发展的注意分布模式, 两个年级组的阅读障碍儿童均表现为无偏的注意分布; 而实验2未发现显著组别差异。且这两种同时性加工子技能分别与不同水平的汉语阅读技能密切相关。结果表明, 汉语阅读障碍儿童在同时加工多个视觉刺激时存在持续的知觉加工速度缓慢的问题, 在同时加工言语类刺激时还表现出异常的空间注意分布模式。本研究有助于从基础认知层面揭示汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的缺陷机理, 为进一步设计相关的提高阅读效率的干预方案提供理论依据。     

儿童空间观点采择的自动性及其发展

使用空间观点采择任务,探究7~11岁儿童的空间观点采择的自动性和发展趋势。结果发现：（1）在他人任务中,正确率随着角度的增长而减小;（2）在自我任务中,相比于空间关系不一致时,一致时的正确率更高,且反向的一致性效应出现在150°~180°间。本研究结果显示：本项空间观点采择任务对儿童有效;7~9岁的儿童可以自动进行空间转换;11岁的儿童可以自动进行需要判断左右位置的空间观点采择。本研究首次证明,11岁是儿童自动进行需要判断左右位置的空间观点采择的相对年龄转折点。     

Passion,grit and mindset in the ages 14 to 77: Exploring relationship and gender differences

This study aims to investigate the relationship between passion, grit and mindset across the life span. The sample consisted of 917 participants between 14 to 77 years old. The eight item Passion Scale was used to assess passion, and the Grit-S scale to assess grit. Mindset was measured with the Theories of Intelligence Scale (TIS). The scale has 8-items.The results showed that for the group as a whole there was a significant relationship between passion and grit (r = .325); passion and mindset (r= .166) and grit and mindset (r= .167).For the female group (N = 502) the correlation was significant for the three factors: between passion and grit (r = .311), for passion and mindset (r = .195), and grit and mindset (r = .170). For the male group (N = 415) the correlation between the factors was also significant: for passion and grit (r = . 362), for passion and mindset (r = . 161), and grit and mindset (r = . 163).For the youngest age groups (14–19, 20–36, 37–53) the correlation between passion and grit was significant: 14–19: r = .588; 20–36: r = .317; 37–53: r = . 491. For the two oldest age groups the correlation was not significant. For passion and mindset the correlation was significant for the two youngest age group only. 14–19: r = .226; 20–36: r = . 161. For grit and mindset there was significant correlation for age group 2 only. 20–36: r = . 195).These findings might be potentially important for better understanding of the relationship between these constructs positively related to learning, achievement, well-being and life satisfaction.     

内外源性空间注意对多感觉整合的影响

本文采用内-外源性空间线索靶子范式, 操控内源性线索有效性(有效线索、无效线索)、外源性线索有效性(有效线索、无效线索)、目标刺激类型(视觉刺激、听觉刺激、视听觉刺激)三个自变量。通过两个不同任务难度的实验(实验1: 简单定位任务; 实验2: 复杂辨别任务)来考察内外源性空间注意对多感觉整合的影响。两个实验结果均发现外源性空间注意显著减弱了多感觉整合效应, 内源性空间注意没有显著增强多感觉整合效应; 实验2中还发现了内源性空间注意会对外源性空间注意减弱多感觉整合效应产生影响。结果表明, 与内源性空间注意不同, 外源性空间注意对多感觉整合的影响不易受任务难度的调控; 当任务较难时内源性空间注意会影响外源性空间注意减弱多感觉整合效应的过程。由此推测, 内外源性空间注意对多感觉整合的调节并非彼此独立、而是相互影响的。     

Visual perspective as a two-dimensional construct in episodic future thought

Visual perspective (first-person vs. third-person) is a salient characteristic of memory and mental imagery with important cognitive and behavioural consequences. Most work on visual perspective treats it as a unidimensional construct. However, third-person perspective can have opposite effects on emotion and motivation, sometimes intensifying these and other times acting as a distancing mechanism, as in PTSD. For this reason among others, we propose that visual perspective in memory and mental imagery is best understood as varying along two dimensions: first, the degree to which first-person perspective predominates in the episodic imagery, and second, the degree to which the self is visually salient from a third-person perspective. We show that, in episodic future thinking, these are anticorrelated but non-redundant. These results further our basic understanding of the potent but divergent effects visual perspective has on emotion and motivation, both in everyday life and in psychiatric conditions.     

Effects of containment and closure policies on controlling the COVID‐19 pandemic in East Asia

Growing efforts have been made to pool coronavirus data and control measures from countries and regions to compare the effectiveness of government policies. We examine whether these strategies can explain East Asia’s effective control of the COVID‐19 pandemic based on time‐series data with cross‐correlations between the Stringency Index and number of confirmed cases during the early period of outbreaks. We suggest that multidisciplinary empirical research in healthcare and social sciences, personality, and social psychology is needed for a clear understanding of how cultural values, social norms, and individual predispositions interact with policy to affect life‐saving behavioural changes in different societies.     

Selfish power and unselfish status in Chinese work situations

The present research explored the selfishness of power and status as well as the mechanism in Chinese work situations. By using experimental and survey methods, two studies were designed to investigate the relationships among power, status, and self‐interested behaviour (SIB) as well as the mediating effect of perspective‐taking (PT). Results of the two studies consistently indicated that power increases whereas status reduces SIB. These opposing behavioural effects are partially attributed to the fact that power reduces whereas status increases PT. In addition, our results showed an interaction between power and status on SIB in Study 1 (interaction as a mental function), and a positive correlation between perceived power and status in Study 2 (correlation as a mental perception). Through the discussion from the perspective of the self/other‐orientation trait, as well as the stable effects of power and status on SIB in the two studies, we conclude that power is selfish and status is unselfish in Chinese work situations.     

空间交互研究新视角：多重社会因素的影响

空间交互是人类生存和社交的重要内容, 主要包括语言交流和视角采择两大范畴。对空间交互策略和效率的影响因素的研究, 传统上集中于空间因素, 近年来逐渐开始关注各种社会因素, 包括个体自身的社会认知特质、交互对象的社会属性和空间环境中的社会线索, 并从不同角度提出了理论解释。未来研究应关注社会认知与空间认知的跨领域融合, 考察更加多元的空间交互对象, 最终建立一个整合空间和社会因素的空间交互理论框架。     

自动观点采择：内隐心智化与潜心智化的争议

自动观点采择现象已有很多研究证实, 但其产生机制还存在争议。目前存在内隐心智化与潜心智化两种观点：前者认为自动观点采择是自发采择他人视角的领域特殊加工; 而后者提出自动观点采择实质为反射性注意定向、位置的空间编码等领域一般加工, 模拟了心智化在社会环境中的作用。在内隐心智化和潜心智化可独立或共同运行的基础上, 提出了内隐心智化和潜心智化协同作用模型。未来研究应借助先进的技术手段研究多样的被试群体, 探索自动观点采择的作用机制。