Altering information to gain action control: Functional aspects of human information processing in decision making

In recent approaches to social judgment, information distortion has been discussed primarily as a violation of individual rationality, due to unintentionally occurring biases. In contrast to this view, it is argued that frequently individuals make purposive use of selective changes in information processing in order to avoid indecisiveness. In this sense, selective changes in information processing may be considered a functional requirement of a volitional process which protects the current intention (or tentative decision) from being replaced by competing behavioral tendencies. On the basis of J. Kuhl's theory of action control (1981, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 155–170; 1982, in W. Hacker, W. Volpert, & M. von Cranach, Eds., Cognitive and Motivational Aspects of Action, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1984, in B. A. Maher, Progress in Experimental Personality Research, Vol. 13, New York: Academic Press) it was predicted that subjects having a high score on the action-control scale (i.e., action-oriented subjects) should show a stronger tendency to increase the attractiveness rating of a tentatively preferred decision during the process of decision making than subjects scoring low on that scale (i.e., state-oriented subjects). To test this assumption, students searching for an apartment were offered 16 apartments along with a list containing information about the alternatives. The subjects had to rate the attractiveness of each apartment twice before they were asked to indicate which apartments they would like to rent. The results confirmed the predictions. It was found that action-oriented subjects increased the divergence of their attractiveness ratings from the first to the second point of evaluation, whereas state-oriented subjects did not.     

Advanced training in child psychology: Key elements in offering a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) programme in South Africa

The aim of this article is to propose some benchmarks for a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) in advanced training in Child Psychology in South Africa, and to highlight key elements in offering such a programme. In doing so, we use as case illustration an existing DPsych programme currently being offered at the University of the Free State, South Africa. We consider advanced child psychology training to registered psychologists in the clinical, counselling and educational categories. The DPsych option encompasses clinical practice, research, training, selection, and student outcomes in the context of theory as well as evidence-based practices. A wider adoption of a DPsych, focusing on child psychology, would add value to the integration of the best available research and clinical expertise in child mental health care in South Africa.     

On the role of the anterior cingulate cortex in phonation: A case report

A 41-year-old male patient is presented with a lesion in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial orbital cortex, and rostral striatum bilaterally and supplementary motor area on the left side. The patient first exhibited a state of akinetic mutism which lasted about 6 weeks. During this state, no volitional vocal utterances were made; there were, however, occasional groans of pain. During recovery, the mute phase was replaced by a state in which the patient could whisper but not phonate verbal utterances. About 10 weeks after the accident, phonation was restored. The speech was characterized, however, by monotonous intonation and a very low frequency of spontaneous utterances. While the frequency of spontaneous speech improved noticeably during the following months, emotional intonation remained permanently defective. A comparison of the present case with other cases from the literature as well as experimental monkey data suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex is involved in the volitional control of emotional vocal utterances.     

Physiological Correlates of Choice‐Induced Dissonance: An Exploration of HPA‐Axis Responses

Choice can produce a negatively arousing cognitive conflict (called dissonance), which is thought to motivate the chooser to spread their preferences for the relevant options (called Spreading of Alternatives, or SA). The current work aimed to determine the relationship between HPA‐axis activity and both choice‐induced dissonance and its reduction (i.e. SA) among individuals with varying cultural backgrounds. European–Americans and Asians made a choice between two equally attractive CDs either in the presence of a cue indicative of social eyes (i.e. public‐choice condition) or in the absence thereof (i.e. private‐choice condition). As predicted, European–Americans and Asians showed a reliable SA primarily in the private and public choice conditions, respectively. Importantly, a sharp decline of salivary cortisol was observed over the span of 30 min, and, moreover, this decline was reliably predicted by the magnitude of SA regardless of either culture or the choice being private vs. public. These results suggest that although choice‐induced dissonance is too weak to elicit an HPA‐axis stress response, SA is associated with variability in the decline of salivary cortisol during the laboratory task. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mean fundamental frequency in stutterers and nonstutterers during reading and spontaneous speech

Corresponding to the higher tension of muscles involved in speech production, a higher mean fundamental frequency should be expected in stutterers as compared to nonstutterers. It could be shown by the change scores of the mean fundamental frequency from reading to free conversation that stutterers tend to have a higher fundamental frequency during spontaneous speech.     

SA8000企业社会责任的伦理解读

本文认为SA8000没有囊括企业社会责任的全部内容,仅规定了企业的内部社会责任;SA8000不只是发展中国家企业的社会责任,而是全球企业共同的社会责任;SA8000不是强加给企业的负担,它有助于正确处理企业社会责任与企业经济绩效的关系,实现共赢理念.     

内隐联想测验研究进展述评

内隐联想测验作为基于反应时范式的内隐社会认知研究方法,自1998年由Greenwald提出后,得到了广泛的应用。但因其本身具有一定局限性,近10年来,研究者们对这一方法进行了不断地修正和改进,先后发展出了GO／NO—GO联想任务、外部情感西蒙作业等;近几年又提出了单类内隐联想测验、单靶内隐联想测验和单属性内隐联想测验等,这些方法丰富充实了内隐联想测验,是对Greenwald提出的IAT的继承和发展。     

Hemispheric emotional asymmetry in a dichotic listening task.

In a dichotic listening experiment white noise was played to one ear and either music or poetry to the other ear. Subjects rated the stimuli on each of three dimensions. The results showed that both music poetry were judged as more pleasant when heard at the left than the right ear. In addition the music, but not the poetry, was perceived as more soothing at the left ear. The findings are discussed in relation to other indications in the literature that left and right cerebral hemispheres differ in their emotional make-up.     

MOSA method: a tool for solving multiobjective combinatorial optimization problems

The success of modern heuristics (Simulated Annealing (S.A.), Tabu Search, Genetic Algorithms, …) in solving classical combinatorial optimization problems has drawn the attention of the research community in multicriteria methods. In fact, for large‐scale problems, the simultaneous difficulties of 𝒩𝒫‐hard complexity and of multiobjective framework make most Multiobjective Combinatorial Optimization (MOCO) problems intractable for exact methods. This paper develops the so‐called MOSA (Multiobjective Simulated Annealing) method to approximate the set of efficient solutions of a MOCO problem. Different options for the implementation are illustrated and extensive experiments prove the efficiency of the approach. Its results are compared to exact methods on bi‐objective knapsack problems. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anticipatory coarticulation in a patient with apraxia of speech

Articulatory anticipation of vowel gestures was assessed in an apraxic patient, a dysarthric patient, and three normal speakers. The technique of assessment included perceptual identification of gated speech stimuli. The speech material consisted of /getVte/ utterances with the target vowels /i/, /y/, and /u/. In the case of the apraxic patient the gated vowels were identified at a later instant relative to the preceding plosion burst than in the normal speakers. This result was interpreted as reflecting a delayed onset of coarticulatory gestures, in particular lip rounding. The identification rates for the dysarthric's vowels rather reflected the general reduction of this patient's vowel space.