Recent trends in cultural theories

Multiculturalism is probably the most important and most misunderstood psychological construct of this decade. This article identifies specific and uniquely valuable contributions of a multicultural perspective and demonstrates the importance of multicultural awareness training as a primary prevention strategy, directed toward preventing multicultural misunderstandings before they happen by training mental health providers to become more aware of their culturally learned assumptions and the contrasting cultural contexts of their clients. The development of recent multicultural theories will be reviewed to demonstrate how the definition of cultural theories have changed over time toward a broader and more complicated perspective. Finally practical applications of culture-centered theories will be reviewed through the presentation of a Cultural Grid for separating behaviors from expectations in each cultural context.     

A model of episodic memory: Mental time travel along encoded trajectories using grid cells

The definition of episodic memory includes the concept of mental time travel: the ability to re-experience a previously experienced trajectory through continuous dimensions of space and time, and to recall specific events or stimuli along this trajectory. Lesions of the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex impair human episodic memory function and impair rat performance in tasks that could be solved by retrieval of trajectories. Recent physiological data suggests a novel model for encoding and retrieval of trajectories, and for associating specific stimuli with specific positions along the trajectory. During encoding in the model, external input drives the activity of head direction cells. Entorhinal grid cells integrate the head direction input to update an internal representation of location, and drive hippocampal place cells. Trajectories are encoded by Hebbian modification of excitatory synaptic connections between hippocampal place cells and head direction cells driven by external action. Associations are also formed between hippocampal cells and sensory stimuli. During retrieval, a sensory input cue activates hippocampal cells that drive head direction activity via previously modified synapses. Persistent spiking of head direction cells maintains the direction and speed of the action, updating the activity of entorhinal grid cells that thereby further update place cell activity. Additional cells, termed arc length cells, provide coding of trajectory segments based on the one-dimensional arc length from the context of prior actions or states, overcoming ambiguity where the overlap of trajectory segments causes multiple head directions to be associated with one place. These mechanisms allow retrieval of complex, self-crossing trajectories as continuous curves through space and time.     

Theoretical accounts of spatial learning: A neurobiological view (commentary on Pearce, 2009)

Theories of learning have historically taken, as their starting point, the assumption that learning processes have universal applicability. This position has been argued on grounds of parsimony, but has received two significant challenges: first, from the observation that some kinds of learning, such as spatial learning, seem to obey different rules from others, and second, that some kinds of learning take place in processing modules that are separate from each other. These challenges arose in the behavioural literature but have since received considerable support from neurobiological studies, particularly single neuron studies of spatial learning, confirming that there are indeed separable (albeit highly intercommunicating) processing modules in the brain, which may not always interact (within or between themselves) according to classic associative principles. On the basis of these neurobiological data, reviewed here, it is argued that rather than assuming universality of associative rules, it is more parsimonious to assume sets of locally operating rules, each specialized for a particular domain. By this view, although almost all learning is associative in one way or another, the behavioural-level characterization of the rules governing learning may vary depending on which neural modules are involved in a given behaviour. Neurobiological studies, in tandem with behavioural studies, can help reveal the nature of these modules and the local rules by which they interact.     

A dynamic system analysis of dyadic flexibility and stability across the Face-to-Face Still-Face procedure: Application of the State Space Grid

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) paradigm allows to study the mother–infant dyad as a dynamic system coping with social stress perturbations. The State Space Grid (SSG) method is thought to depict both flexibility and stability of the dyad across perturbations, but previous SSG evidence for the FFSF is limited. The main aims were: (1) to investigate mother–infant dyadic flexibility and stability across the FFSF using the SSG; (2) to evaluate the influence of dyadic functioning during Play on infant Still-Face response and of infant stress response in affecting dyadic functioning during Reunion. Forty 4-month-old infants and their mothers were micro-analytically coded during a FFSF and eight SSG dyadic states were obtained. Dyadic flexibility and attractor states were assessed during Play and Reunion. Infants’ stress response was coded as negative engagement during the Still-Face episode. Two dyadic states, “maternal hetero-regulation” and “affective mismatch”, showed significant changes in the number of visits from Play to Reunion. During Play “maternal positive support to infant play” emerged as attractor state, whereas during Reunion a second attractor emerged, namely “affective mismatch”. Dyadic affective mismatch during Play correlated with infants’ negative engagement during Still-Face, whereas infants’ response to Still-Face resulted in minor social matching during Reunion. Findings provide new insights into the flexible, yet stable, functioning of the mother–infant dyad as a dynamic system. Evidence of a reciprocal influence between dyadic functioning and infant social stress response are discussed.     

多元动机网格测验（MMG-S）中文版的修订报告

对Sokolowski等人编制的简版多元动机网格测验（MMG-S）作了中文版的修订。MMG-S的验证性因素分析表明：中文修订版MMG-S仍保持英文版的六因子结构,修订后六因子的α系数在0.70~0.84之间。中文修订版MMG-S具有良好的心理学测量指标,可用于测量企业管理人员的三种社会性动机。     

受众卷入及其对广告传播效果的影响

卷入（involvement）概念在市场研究中得到了极为广泛的关注,特别是在广告心理领域更是备受重视。研究发现,卷入常常影响广告的传播效果,制约着广告自身特点、插播环境、受众主体特征等作用的发挥。同时,学者们围绕这一概念构建了卷入的四水平说、加工深度模型、精细加工可能性模型、FCB网格、Rossiter-Percy网格等诸多理论模型。文章对相关研究进行了较系统的考察,并提出了现有研究依然存在的一些问题,如生态效度偏低、研究方法单一、相关的自动加工研究不够等     

New ideas for brain modelling 3

This paper considers a process for the creation and subsequent firing of sequences of neuronal patterns, as might be found in the human brain. The scale is one of larger patterns emerging from an ensemble mass, possibly through some type of energy equation and a reduction procedure. The links between the patterns can be formed naturally, as a residual effect of the pattern creation itself. This paper follows-on closely from the earlier research, including two earlier papers in the series and uses the ideas of entropy and cohesion. With a small addition, it is possible to show how the inter-pattern links can be determined. A compact Grid form of an earlier Counting Mechanism is also demonstrated and may be a new clustering technique. It is possible to explain how a very basic repeating structure can form the arbitrary patterns and activation sequences between them, and a key question of how nodes synchronise may even be answerable.