Effects of Reward Structures on Academic Performance and Group Processes in a Classroom Setting

Researchers have suggested that cooperative, intergroup competitive, and individualistic reward structures result in different patterns of academic performance and group processes. In this study, we investigated these relationships in an undergraduate business school setting. A reward structure was manipulated across four separate classes, and outcomes were measured using self-reports of group effectiveness, academic performance as graded by instructors, and peer evaluations from group members. The results indicated that group effectiveness was rated significantly higher under the cooperative and no-reward conditions compared to the intergroup competitive reward condition. Peer evaluations in the intergroup competitive condition were significantly lower then those under the other three conditions.     

Explorations of silence in the religious rituals of Buddhists and Quakers

This paper is a participant-observation-based study of one Quaker and three Buddhist groups. Using a sociological framework, it explores silence as actively practiced in religious ritual. It demonstrates the usefulness of employing multiple continuums to analyze practices, including a speech–silence continuum, a body movement–body stillness continuum, and a thinking–not thinking continuum. Even when silence is seen as active, it may be construed as functioning to turn people inward and away from each other. Instead, this paper demonstrates how silence for these groups is not necessarily socially isolating. For instance, participants not only learned, practiced, and reflected on silence together, but drew connections between the practice of silence and changes in everyday social interactions, including bringing compassion into these. Some persons referred to realizing a sense of interconnectedness in the silence akin to a Meadian fusion.     

The first-perspective alignment effect: The role of environmental complexity and familiarity with surroundings

People often remember relatively novel environments from the first perspective encountered or the first direction of travel. This initial perspective can determine a preferred orientation that facilitates the efficiency of spatial judgements at multiple recalled locations. The present study examined this “first-perspective alignment effect” (FPA effect). In three experiments, university students explored three-path routes through computer-simulated spaces presented on a desktop computer screen. Spatial memory was then tested employing a “judgement of relative direction” task. Contrary to the predictions of a previous account, Experiment 1 found a reliable FPA effect in barren and complex environments. Experiment 2 strongly implicated the importance of complete novelty of the space surrounding the route in producing the effect. Experiment 3 found that, while familiarity with the surrounding space greatly attenuated the FPA effect with immediate testing, the effect reemerged following a 7-day delay to testing. The implications for the encoding and retrieval of spatial reference frames are discussed.     

Judgements of relative direction: The effect of task instructions on spatial recall

One of the most widely used tasks in the spatial memory literature is the judgement of relative direction (JRD) test. The present investigation examined the hypothesis that standard JRD task demands bias spatial recall. In two experiments, participants' recall of small-scale layouts as measured by standard JRD tests (in which the relationship between objects was employed to establish imagined orientations within the learned scene) was compared with recall as measured by novel JRD tasks. The novel tasks emphasized either the internal front/back and left/right axes of individual objects (Experiment 1) or extrinsic spatial cues (Experiment 2). Spatial recall was found to reflect the reference cues emphasized by the JRD task in Experiment 1 and by the novel task in Experiment 2. The finding that directional judgements tended to reflect a frame of reference aligned with the set of cues emphasized by task demands suggests that the nature of the task employed to test knowledge can have an effect on spatial recall.     

Bilingual working memory span is affected by language skill

A complex span procedure was used to study whether there is a measurable extra load on general working memory (WM) when a not fully automatised language has to be comprehended. Participants verified heard sentences in relation to simultaneously shown pictures and memorised the last word of each sentence. The sentences were presented in growing set sizes and recall of all the last words was required after each set. The largest number of sentences that could be processed in combination with successful recall of their last words determined the participant's WM span. Sentences were either in the participants' native language or a well-mastered second language, English. Participants were psychology and English students. WM span and decision accuracy were better for native-language than foreign-language sentences, especially for the psychology students. A second experiment ascertained that the difference between participant groups could not be explained by variables related to phonological shortterm memory or word processing. A third experiment controlled for systematic trade-off differences between languages and groups. We conclude that aspects of sentence comprehension in foreign language develop with practice so that they require less WM resources.     

清华简《程寤》主旨试探

《程寤》中太姒所梦的内涵引起许多学者的关注,从而展开了很多有价值的探索。本文结合学术界的现有成果,辅以个人的认识,对此梦的含义做了进一步的论述,认为梓与太子发密切相关,代表周;松、柏、械、柞指周的贤臣。太子发在梦中的作用十分重要,此梦的象征意义乃是太子发将会率周的贤臣占领商都,推翻商朝。     

Meta-Externalism vs Meta-Internalism in The Study of Reference

We distinguish and discuss two different accounts of the subject matter of theories of reference, meta-externalism and meta-internalism. We argue that a form of the meta-internalist view, “moderate meta-internalism”, is the most plausible account of the subject matter of theories of reference. In the second part of the paper we explain how this account also helps to answer the questions of what kind of concept reference is, and what role intuitions have in the study of the reference relation.     

Frames of Reference for Human Perceptual-Motor Coordination: Space-Based Versus Joint-Based Adaptation

In this study, the authors addressed the issue of whether space-based motor planning occurs at a higher, equal, or lower level of central nervous system control than joint-based motor planning by using a computerized adaptation paradigm. Visual displays of participants' (N = 32) reaching movements to spatial targets were distorted either with respect to spatial hand displacements (space-based distortion) or with respect to joint angle displacements (joint-based distortion). Participants adapted more easily to space-based distortion than to joint-based distortion. The results suggest that when the participants were confronted with new visuomotor mappings, they aimed for virtual spatial targets whose positions were adjusted to compensate for the distortions associated with the new mappings. That strategy was preferred over a joint- or posture-based strategy, in which a posture is selected for the displayed spatial target and is then modified so that the new mapping between adopted and seen positions can be accommodated. The results support the widely held view that space-based planning occurs at a higher level than joint-based planning.     

On Theoretical Edges and Exclusionary Borders: Towards a Genealogy of “Analyzability” in Jungian Psychoanalysis1

An oft-repeated and largely unexamined assumption in Jungian psychoanalysis is the notion of “analyzability”, that is, of an individual's ability or present capacity to think symbolically. It is often taught that if someone is unable to think symbolically, a depth analysis is not possible. Such an individual may be more aptly suited for supportive psychotherapy, the argument goes, an experience that may very well lead to the development of the ego's capacity for symbolic thought but is not, in and of itself, a Jungian analysis. While this sort of categorical thinking has, at times, crossed over into ontological claims about individuals and groups, the notion of analyzability encountered in psychoanalytic theory and praxis is often cloaked in facially neutral language. The impact, however, has been anything but neutral in effect. In this paper, I propose a softening of our theoretical edges through a genealogy of the category of analyzability within the broader history of psychoanalysis. Through this excavation, I explore the contingent nature of the category of analyzability, how it has constricted knowledge, perpetuated inequality, and, more broadly, obscured ways of knowing. In so doing, I recover the radically democratic potential that lies at the heart of Jungian psychoanalysis.     

Double Reference Points: the Effects of Social and Financial Reference Points on Decisions Under Risk

The existing literature is inconsistent about how social comparison affects risk attitudes. We propose a framework where the total utility is composed of the social and financial utilities. The financial utility is consistent with prospect theory (i.e., an S‐shaped utility function with a financial reference point), whereas the social utility is affected by both social and financial reference points. Therefore, social risk attitudes are determined by interaction between gains/losses in both social and financial contexts. On the basis of safety‐first principle, we propose that when experiencing financial gains, individuals tend to seek upside potential and take social risks (i.e., a convex social utility function). In contrast, when facing financial losses, people would be more risk seeking in social gains but more risk averse in social losses to maximize security (i.e., an inverse S‐shaped utility function). We also propose that the relative importance of financial and social utilities depends on the saliency of the reference points and size of stakes. Studies 1 and 2 showed that individuals were risk seeking in both social gains and losses with social reference points alone. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that when both financial and social reference points were salient, participants were risk averse in both social gains and losses when facing financial gains, but risk seeking in social gains and risk averse in social losses when facing financial losses. The hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework were in general supported by our experiments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.