The associations between space and order in numerical and non-numerical sequences

Spatial-numerical associations have been found across different studies, yet the basis for these associations remains debated. The current study employed an order judgment task to adjudicate between two competing accounts of such associations, namely the Mental Number Line (MNL) and Working Memory (WM) models. On this task, participants judged whether number pairs were in ascending or descending order. Whereas the MNL model predicts that ascending and descending orders should map onto opposite sides of space, the WM model predicts no such mapping. Moreover, we compared the spatial-order mapping for numerical and non-numerical sequences because the WM model predicts no difference in mapping. Across two experiments, we found consistent spatial mappings for numerical order along both horizontal and vertical axes, consistent with a MNL model. In contrast, we found no consistent mappings for letter sequences. These findings are discussed in the context of conflicting extant data related to these two models.     

Religion and Civic Purpose in Sophocles's Philoctetes

Why should citizens participate in civic endeavors they oppose? In the Philoctetes , Sophocles dramatizes the actions of three interlocutors who struggle for answers to an intractable personal and political conflict amid an existential civic crisis. The characters try several methods to resolve the impasse, specifically deceit, sympathy and appeals to duty. Ultimately, civic religion succeeds in creating unity where other methods of resolution fail. The civic religion framework in the Philoctetes can be seen as Sophocles's statement that resolution of the most extreme political conflicts can be obtained through a combination of piety and reason that respects foundational civic doctrines transcending politics. In this way, civic religion serves to unify political communities divided by self‐interest, intolerance, and desire for revenge while preserving self‐determination and the dignity of free will.     

Trait anhedonia is a transdiagnostic correlate of internalizing problems during adolescence

Developmental research documents that anhedonia, or diminished interest in usual activities, is associated with a diverse array of emotional problems in childhood and adolescence. Meanwhile, official nosologies desginate anhedonia as a more specific characteristic of major depressive disorder. Using a quantitative model of the internalizing domain, we compared the strength of transdiagnostic versus diagnosis-specific pathways from anhedonia to major depression (and other internalizing conditions) during adolescence. We recruited 241 youth ages 14–17 who completed semistructured interviews of anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as several self-report surveys of trait anhedonia and neuroticism. Confirmatory factor analysis of diagnostic correlations revealed good fit for a unidimensional model of the 10 internalizing conditions we assessed. This overarching internalizing dimension was statistically significantly correlated with trait anhedonia (r = 0.17) and neuroticism (r = 0.59). In contrast, anhedonia was virtually unrelated to major depression (r = −0.02), net the internalizing dimension. Thus, in this sample, the connection between anhedonia and major depression was explained by a transdiagnostic dimension presumed to underlie all internalizing problems. Compared to neuroticism, however, anhedonia had a more limited association with internalizing, consistent with established personality models of anxiety and depression. We conclude that these data are consistent with conceptualizing anhedonia predominantly as a transdiagnostic correlate of internalizing conditions, rather than a specific marker of major depression, in developmental psychopathology research and clinical interventions for young people.     

Inferring task performance and confidence from displays of eye movements

Eye movements reveal what is at the center of people's attention, which is assumed to coincide with what they are thinking about. Eye-movement displays (visualizations of a person's fixations superimposed onto the stimulus, for example, as dots or circles) might provide useful information for diagnosing that person's performance. However, making inferences about a person's task performance based on eye-movement displays requires substantial interpretation. Using graph-comprehension tasks, we investigated to what extent observers (N = 46) could make accurate inferences about a performer's multiple-choice task performance (i.e., chosen answer), confidence, and competence from displays of that person's eye movements. Observers' accuracy when judging which answer the performer chose was above chance level and was higher for displays reflecting confident performance. Observers were also able to infer performers' confidence from the eye-movement displays; moreover, their own task performance and perceived similarity with the performer affected their judgments of the other's competence.     

THE PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL ON BIOETHICS—REQUIESCAT IN PACE

In mid‐June 2009, the Obama administration dissolved the President's Council on Bioethics (PCBE), a group established by President George W. Bush in August 2001 and whose nearly eight‐year life was marked from beginning to end by controversy. While some will regret the PCBE's passing, others will regard the Council as a failed experiment in doing public bioethics.     

国外科研人员管理研究综述

文章评论了国外科研人员管理的近期文献。对Badawy（1988）在他早期文献评论中认定的4类研究进行了更新：人力资源计划、奖励科研人员、赞赏科研人员的成绩和职业管理。还讨论了6种影响科研人员管理方式的新方向：跨功能团队、领导科研人员、知识管理、人口结构多样性、电子及其他技术和对外办事。基于这些文献的最新论述，介绍了今天在商业环境下领导科研人员的10个方面。     

Reliability and validity of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List - Revised

A recent factor analysis of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) changed the Anxiety, Depression, and Hostility scales from bipolar to unipolar scales and added two new scales: Positive Affect and Sensation Seeking. Internal reliability of the MAACL-R scales, computed for normal and patient samples, was adequate for state and trait forms except for Sensation Seeking. Test-retest reliability in college students was higher for the trait form with retest intervals of from 2 to 8 weeks than for the state form with retest intervals of from 2 to 5 days. The pattern of correlations among self-, peer, and counselor ratings and the MAACL-R scales for normal and patient samples indicates improved discriminant validity and equally good convergent validity as the old scales. The use of standard scores that are indexed to the number of items checked reduced scale intercorrelations by controlling the acquiescence set.The financial support of the Weldon Springs Endowment Fund, University of Missouri at Kansas City, toward the completion of this research project is gratefully acknowledged.     

An empirical investigation of the specificity and sensitivity of the automatic thoughts questionnaire and dysfunctional attitudes scale

Cognitive assessment of depression is not well advanced and the evidence for the validity and reliability of measures is incomplete. This study examined two cognitive assessments of depression-the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS). There were two major objectives of this study. The first objective was to examine the ability of these two measures of cognitions to discriminate depressive symptomatology within a variety of sample populations-university undergraduate students, medical and psychiatric outpatients, and acute psychiatric inpatients. The second objective was to examine the ability of the ATQ and DAS succesfully to classify depressed and nondepressed patients. The results of this study suggest that the ATQ is a sensitive and specific measure of depression. Nonspecificity to the ATQ, however, was demonstrated in the substance abuse disorder group and the personality disorder group. In contrast, the DAS, although correlated with depressive symptomatology, was not found to be specific to depression.Part of this project is supported by a Special Project Grant from the University of Queensland to Dr. Oei.