On the why-what phenomenon: A phenomenological explication of the art of asking questions

In the psychology of teaching, teaching of knowledge is one of the central themes. The psychology of teaching itself is also knowledge, so that the psychology of teaching and the teaching of psychology mutually include each other. Here, I would like to consider a phenomenon in the art of questioning in teaching a literary work of art and would like to show its relevance to the psychology of teaching in general.     

Validity of psychologists' identification of EMR students in the perspective of the California decertification experience

The Diana (Diana v. State Board of Education, Note 1) and the Larry P. (Larry P. v. Riles, Note 2) litigations led to decertification of thousands of California EMR students and their return to the regular program. Allegations, including those of biased testing, went largely uncontested in order that change in special education could result from court mandate, but the allegations left the psychologists in a libeled state. A study of cumulative records and psychologists files in 12 representative districts permitted a comparison of the EMR placement of those later decertified (D) with matched nondecertified (EMR). Other than a small mean difference in IQ at placement, nothing was found to support various allegations. Records showed no systematic differences betweeen D and EMR groups in pre-EMR reasons for referral nor in teacher marks, discnfirming beliefs in referral of higher functioning students for deportment rather than for academic failure. Districts permitted a mean of at least two years in regular placement before assessment, attesting to class failure rather than IQ as the initial and necessary basis for EMR identification (no D-EMR difference in this either). The data permit a conclusion that the work of the school psychologists in the EMR placement was professionally competent, given the guidelines in effect at the time.     

Spread of Risk Information Through Microblogs: Twitter Users with More Mutual Connections Relay News That is More Dreadful1

In elucidating the spread of risk information through microblogging, it is important to understand the behaviors of numerous average users, in addition to the activities of authorities. We followed the transmission pathways of 10 actual widely spread tweets concerning several risk information topics, including natural disasters, nuclear disasters, and infectious diseases, and we identified the types of risk that affected retweeting by classifying each tweet based on Slovic's risk-perception model. Furthermore, we examined the types of users who did and did not retweet the information. Users with few connections in the form of followers (i.e., people who are following a user) or followees (people a user is following), or with a low ratio of mutual followers within their connections, had a tendency to retweet a large amount of risk information, regardless of the type of risk involved. On the other hand, users with a high ratio of mutual followers exhibited a greater tendency to retweet risk information when it was perceived as dreadful, though they did not retweet risk information much on the whole. These results suggest that there are two mechanisms by which risk information is spread within the Twitter network: information exchange and social sharing of personal reactions.     

Color of computer display frame in work performance, mood, and physiological response

The effects of the color of a personal computer screen on work performance, psychological mood, and autonomic response were investigated. 24 subjects were asked to perform visual tasks presented on the computer display. Three types of computer monitor, which were colored red, blue, or beige, were employed to present visual cognitive tasks. The mood measure, the Japanese Stress Arousal Check List, and heart rate measurement were administered before and after work on each color of computer monitor. Analysis of a low-demand task (Exp. 1) showed that the red computer monitor reduced visual task performance compared to that with the blue, while the blue monitor decreased visual task performance on a high-demand task (Exp. 2). The color of the monitor did not affect mood or heart rate. Based on these findings, the effect of the color of environmental cues on work was discussed.     

Effects of receptive listening on the congruence of speakers' response latencies in dialogues

The present study investigated the receptiveness of speakers toward conversational partners in dialogues by comparing duration of response latencies in both Compromise and Debate conditions. 12 dyads of speakers holding opposing opinions participated in a 15-min. dialogue. Six dyads in the Compromise condition reached a conclusion through discussion and consideration of the partner's opinion. The six dyads in the Debate condition imposed their opinion on the conversational partner. Analysis indicated that in compromise dialogues, the response latencies of the conversational partners become similar over the time course, while in debate diaogues, the response latency does not become similar, suggesting that speakers having a receptive attitude adjust their response latencies to match the partner's. The role of congruence of response latencies in dyadic communication was discussed.     

Linguistic cues enhance the learning of perceptual cues

When language is correlated with regularities in the world, does it enhance the learning of these regularities? This question lies at the core of both notions of linguistic bootstrapping in children and the Whorfian hypothesis. Support for an affirmative answer is provided in an artificial-noun-learning task in which 2-year-old children were taught to distinguish categories of solid and nonsolid things with and without supporting correlated linguistic cues.     

Cognitions, metacognitions, and chronic pain

Purpose: Although the content of thoughts has received a considerable amount of attention in pain research, the importance of thought processes (metacognitions) has received less attention. Method: One hundred twenty-nine individuals with muscular dystrophy and chronic pain completed measures assessing metacognitions and frequency of both catastrophizing and pain control beliefs. Results: Greater use of reappraisal and distraction metacognitions were associated with more perceived control over pain, whereas greater use of worry and punishment metacognitions were associated with more catastrophizing. Conclusions/Implications: The current findings indicate that metacognitions are associated with both pain control beliefs and catastrophizing and therefore may play an important role in the development or maintenance of pain-related cognitive content thought to influence patient functioning. Research is needed to determine whether treatments that encourage changes in both metacognitions and cognitive content are more effective than treatments that focus on cognitive content alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

A review of time-motion analysis and combat development in mixed martial arts matches at regional level tournaments

Mixed martial arts (MMA) have become a fast-growing worldwide expansion of martial arts competition, requiring high level of skill, physical conditioning, and strategy, and involving a synthesis of combat while standing or on the ground. This study quantified the effort-pause ratio (EP), and classified effort segments of stand-up or groundwork development to identify the number of actions performed per round in MMA matches. 52 MMA athletes participated in the study (M age = 24 yr., SD = 5; average experience in MMA = 5 yr., SD = 3). A one-way analysis of variance with repeated measurements was conducted to compare the type of action across the rounds. A chi-squared test was applied across the percentages to compare proportions of different events. Only one significant difference (p < .05) was observed among rounds: time in groundwork of low intensity was longer in the second compared to the third round. When the interval between rounds was not considered, the EP ratio (between high-intensity effort to low-intensity effort plus pauses) was 1:2 to 1:4. This ratio is between ratios typical for judo, wrestling, karate, and taekwondo and reflects the combination of ground and standup techniques. Most of the matches ended in the third round, involving high-intensity actions, predominantly executed during groundwork combat.     

Recognizing discrimination explicitly while denying it implicitly: Implicit social identity protection

Past research suggests that members of devalued groups recognize their groups are discriminated against. Do the implicit responses of members of these groups demonstrate the same pattern? We argue that they do not and that this is due to a motivated protection of members of devalued groups' social identity. Study 1 demonstrates that, at an explicit level African-Canadians recognize that their group is discriminated against, but at an implicit level African-Canadians think that most people like their group to a greater extent than do European-Canadians. Study 2 replicates this implicit finding with Muslim participants while demonstrating that, when affirmed, this group difference disappears. Study 3 demonstrates that implicit normative regard can predict collective action over and above implicit attitudes and explicit normative regard. The implications for changing the status quo are discussed.