Inhibition in Goal Systems: A Retrieval-Induced Forgetting Account

In social psychological models of goals, particular means or goals that receive more activation are pursued while their counterparts are “inhibited.” To account for inhibition, these theories emphasize structural distribution of resources and the consequences of goal or means choices. Absent are alternate accounts of inhibition based on memory processes that rely on retrieval or recall of items. We propose that the act of recalling means or goals from memory entails inhibition of competing alternatives. Two experiments using repeated retrieval paradigms present evidence that recalling one means associated with a particular goal inhibits competing means. Moreover, this inhibitory mechanism is sensitive to the structural relationship of goals and means. Implications for models of inhibition in goal pursuit are discussed.     

Categories and Dimensions

ABSTRACT— The distinction between categories and dimensions has important consequences for basic and applied science in many areas of psychological research. Decisions as to whether individuals should be assigned to groups or located along one or more continua often are based on personal preferences or discipline-specific measurement traditions, which can lead to the creation, use, or reification of spurious categories or dimensions. Methods for evaluating the latent structure of psychological constructs, using powerful and informative tests between competing models, are available. Rather than choosing on a priori grounds, investigators can perform structural research to evaluate the strength and consistency with which results tease apart categorical and dimensional models. Here, we review why researchers should make this distinction empirically, briefly discuss methods available for doing so, and describe the breadth of areas ripe for exploiting the largely untapped potential of structural research.     

A computational model of early argument structure acquisition

How children go about learning the general regularities that govern language, as well as keeping track of the exceptions to them, remains one of the challenging open questions in the cognitive science of language. Computational modeling is an important methodology in research aimed at addressing this issue. We must determine appropriate learning mechanisms that can grasp generalizations from examples of specific usages, and that exhibit patterns of behavior over the course of learning similar to those in children. Early learning of verb argument structure is an area of language acquisition that provides an interesting testbed for such approaches due to the complexity of verb usages. A range of linguistic factors interact in determining the felicitous use of a verb in various constructions —associations between syntactic forms and properties of meaning that form the basis for a number of linguistic and psycholinguistic theories of language. This article presents a computational model for the representation, acquisition, and use of verbs and constructions. The Bayesian framework is founded on a novel view of constructions as a probabilistic association between syntactic and semantic features. The computational experiments reported here demonstrate the feasibility of learning general constructions, and their exceptions, from individual usages of verbs. The behavior of the model over the timecourse of acquisition mimics, in relevant aspects, the stages of learning exhibited by children. Therefore, this proposal sheds light on the possible mechanisms at work in forming linguistic generalizations and maintaining knowledge of exceptions.     

Designing Urban Experiences. The Case of Zuidas,Amsterdam

Zuidas is a new city centre, which is emerging in the outskirts of Amsterdam. The ambitious project of developing a new international city centre has been carefully planned as the Netherlands has a strong and meticulous tradition for urban planning. The planning has however not only encompassed traditional urban planning aspects such as infrastructure, environmental factors and aesthetics, but has also dealt with the design of urban experiences. Through an introduction of the framework of the structure of experiences, this article examines how urban experiences can be understood and analysed, and deals with how urban experiences can be designed through careful consideration of how experiences are constituted. Taking the psychological structure of experiences into account when designing urbanity is not only interesting, but also highly relevant as Zuidas is competing with other international venues such as La Défense, the Docklands and Potsdamer Platz.     

相关维度数量对两种结构类别学习的影响

在多重系统理论研究基础上,运用即时反馈训练范式,以大学生为被试,考查相关维度数量对基于规则和信息整合两种结构的类别学习的影响.结果表明:(1)相关维度数量是影响类别学习的重要因素,基于规则单维度结构的学习显著优于信息整合结构和基于规则双维度结构的学习,基于规则双维度结构的学习与信息整合结构的学习没有显著差异.(2)反应策略受到规则复杂性的影响,当类别结构中隐含的规则比较简单时,学习者使用规则策略;当类别结构中隐含的规则比较复杂时,学习者难以掌握规则,就会使用相似性策略.研究结果支持"难度观",而不支持多重系统理论.     

Nodal structure and the partitioning of equivalence classes

By definition, all of the stimuli in an equivalence class have to be functionally interchangeable with each other. The present experiment, however, demonstrated that this was not the case when using post-class-formation dual-option response transfer tests. With college students, two 4-node 6-member equivalence classes with nodal structures of A-->B-->C-->D-->E-->F were produced by training AB, BC, CD, DE, and EF. Then, unique responses were trained to the C and D stimuli in each class. The responses trained to C generalized to B and A, while the responses trained to D generalized to E and F. Thus, each 4-node 6-member equivalence class was bifurcated into two 3-member functional classes: A-->B-->C and D-->E-->F, with class membership precisely predicted by nodal structure. A final emergent relations test documented the intactness of the underlying 4-node 6-member equivalence classes. The coexistence of the interchangeability of stimuli in an equivalence class and the bifurcation of such a class in terms of nodal structure was explained in the following manner. The conditional discriminations that are used to establish a class also imposes a nodal structure on the stimuli in the class. Thus, the stimuli in the class acquire two sets of relational properties. If the format of a test trial allows only one response option per class, responding on those trials will be in accordance with class membership and will not express the effects of nodal distance. If the format of a test trial allows more than one response option per class, responding on those trials will be determined by the nodal structure of the class. Thus, the relational properties expressed by the stimuli in an equivalence class are determined by the discriminative function served by the format of a test trial.     

Structure and conventions

Wayne Davis’s Meaning, Expression and Thought argues that linguistic meaning is conventional use to express ideas. An obvious problem with this proposal is that complex expressions that have never been used are nonetheless meaningful. In response to this concern, Davis associates conventions of use not only with linguistic expressions but also with the modes in which such expressions can combine into larger expressions. I argue that such constructive conventions are in conflict with the principle of compositionality (as it is usually understood) and that (at least in the cases Davis considers) they are unnecessary for semantic explanations.

严谨性的结构及其应用研究述评

严谨性(Conscientiousness)是指个体在按照社会规范的要求控制冲动的倾向、以任务和目标为导向、先思后行、延迟满足以及遵守规范和纪律等方面上的个体差异。由于其在应用心理学领域(如, 组织管理心理学)的重要作用而被广泛而深入的研究, 主要内容涉及严谨性对工作绩效和其他工作相关行为的的预测、对健康行为和寿命的预测、对学业表现的预测等方面。文章全面回顾了近年来严谨性的结构及其在管理、教育和健康领域的相关研究, 并指出将来的研究应进一步深入探索严谨性的次级结构、测量工具的编制、严谨性与绩效间关系的假设、严谨性与寿命和健康行为之间的关系等问题。     

Diversity Challenges in Community Research and Action: The Story of a Special Issue of AJCP

This story explores an intervention conducted in a Catholic parish community in New York City. The intervention, conducted by the author and a Jesuit priest, focused on issues of unity and diversity among the various Chinese immigrant subgroups in the parish (primarily Cantonese‐ and Mandarin‐speakers). Issues of class, power, and a history of colonialism in the Catholic Church are explored as central to the relations among culturally diverse Chinese American community members and between the members and the practitioners and the church authority. The author especially focuses on how the dynamics that played out in the intervention reflected wider issues of economics, labor practices, and political elitism in the wider Chinatown community. A central part of the author's argument is about power relationships between this parish community and Chinatown and how these power relationships are embedded within broader racial and economic oppression within the United States.     

Premarital Education: An Assessment of Program Efficacy*

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a premarital educational program, with the secondary goal of determining if the structure (conjoint versus group) and the participants’ gender influenced program effectiveness. Data were collected from 29 heterosexual couples. Couples were placed in one of three conditions: (1) premarital education in a group format, (2) premarital education as an individual couple, or (3) the comparison group (no premarital education). The goal of the 8-week intervention was to improve couples’ readiness and preparation for marriage as measured by the PREP-M. The findings suggested that the educational program achieved its stated goal. *The authors would like to acknowledge Aaron Mathney, Dr. Joe Turner, Dr. Kathy Rettig, Sarah DeJean, and Dena Wyum for their assistance with this project.