Recent studies of eye movements in reading and other information processing tasks, such as music reading, typing, visual search, and scene perception, are reviewed. The major emphasis of the review is on reading as a specific example of cognitive processing. Basic topics discussed with respect to reading are (a) the characteristics of eye movements, (b) the perceptual span, (c) integration of information across saccades, (d) eye movement control, and (e) individual differences (including dyslexia). Similar topics are discussed with respect to the other tasks examined. The basic theme of the review is that eye movement data reflect moment-to-moment cognitive processes in the various tasks examined. Theoretical and practical considerations concerning the use of eye movement data are also discussed.

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Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research.

Attachment--and loss.

Статья посвящена вопросам влияния власти на поведение человека. Авторы рассматривают данные различных источников, в которых увеличение власти связывается с напористостью, а ее уменьшение - с подавленностью. Конкретно, власть ассоциируется с: а) позитивным аффектом; б) вниманием к вознаграждению и к свойствам других, удовлетворяющим личные цели; в) автоматической переработкой информации и резкими суждениями; г) расторможенным социальным поведением. Уменьшение власти, напротив, ассоциируется с: а) негативным аффектом; б) вниманием к угрозам и наказаниям, к интересам других и к тем характеристикам я, которые отвечают целям других; в) контролируемой переработкой информации и совещательным типом рассуждений; г) подавленным социальным поведением. Обсуждаются также последствия этих паттернов поведения, связанных с властью, и потенциальные модераторы.

Power, approach, and inhibition. Власть, напористость и подавленность

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(16)31389-7.pdf

Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course

Why Men Rebel was first published in 1970 on the heels of a decade of political violence and protest not only in remote corners of Africa and Southeast Asia, but also at home in the United States. Forty years later, the world is riveted on uprisings in the Middle East, and the United States has been overtaken by a focus on international terrorism and a fascination with citizen movements at home and abroad. Do the arguments of 1970 apply today? Why Men Rebel lends new insight into contemporary challenges of transnational recruitment and organization, multimedia mobilization, and terrorism.

Why Men Rebel

We review explanations offered by researchers for optimism in comparative risk judgments – the belief that one is at lower risk than other people for negative events. Our review organizes the explanations into four categories. The categories reflect a) the desired end-states of comparative judgments, b) the cognitive processes that guide judgments, c) the information people have or use in making judgments, and d) the underlying affect. For each explanation we review relevant studies. We conclude by discussing whether comparative optimism reflects a distortion in personal risk judgments or judgments of the average person’s risk, by addressing the interplay of the various accounts of comparative optimism, and by discussing directions for future research. Psychics and astrologers sustain a steady business by appealing to people’s desire to predict the future. People want to know whether they will be lucky in love or at risk for cancer or other debilitating illnesses. Yet people are not just interested in how their future will unfold in an absolute sense; they are interested in knowing how their future will compare with that of other people, and for good reason. In a variety of domains (sports competitions, admissions to competitive graduate schools, job promotions), success and failure are defined by how people measure up to others because those others provide a standard against which people can evaluate themselves (Festinger, 1954). Of course, the future is uncertain, and unlike psychics and astrologers, laypeople lack a crystal ball for predicting what lies ahead. They must instead weigh their knowledge of themselves and their knowledge of others to forecast the future. Importantly, over two decades of research on comparative risk judgments suggest that people systematically tip the scale in their own favor, predicting their outcomes will be brighter than that of their peers. Comparative optimism refers to the tendency for people to believe that they are less likely to experience negative

/pdf/exploring-the-causes-of-comparative-optimism-2d6jy0c017.pdf

Exploring the causes of comparative optimism.

Although people generally appear optimistic about the future, they shift from optimism under certain circumstances. Drawing from a recent review of the literature, we describe how both optimism and shifts from optimism serve the common goal of preparedness, which includes a readiness to deal with setbacks and a readiness to take advantage of opportunities. Shifts from optimism occur in response to available information and to the possibility that things may not turn out as hoped. People tend to shift from optimism when feedback is anticipated in the near future, when the outcome is important, when negative outcomes are easily imagined, and when the outcomes are uncontrollable. In addition, people with low self-esteem shift from optimism more readily than do people with high self-esteem. Finally, both optimism and shifts from optimism have unique benefits in terms of preparedness.

/pdf/is-optimism-always-best-future-outlooks-and-preparedness-2bwbhjzngt.pdf

Is Optimism Always Best? Future Outlooks and Preparedness

This report examines 174 young children’s language outcomes in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, the first randomized trial of foster placement after institutional care. Age of foster placement was highly correlated with language outcomes. Placement by 15 months led to similar expressive and receptive language test scores as typical age peers at 30 and 42 months. Placement from 15 to 24 months also led to dramatic language improvement. In contrast, children placed after 24 months had the same severe language delays as children in institutional care. Language samples at 42 months confirmed that placement after 24 months led to lower expressive skill.

/pdf/effect-of-foster-care-on-young-children-s-language-learning-42otui340v.pdf

Effect of Foster Care on Young Children's Language Learning.

“To ask how humor works in a grown-up person is to ask how everything works in a grown-up person,” says Marvin Minsky (1988), making the issue sound profoundly important until the depressing realization sets in that understanding humor must consequently be remarkably complicated. Some solace comes from the fact that you can insert virtually any moderately complex psychological activity into Minsky’s quotation, replacing “humor,” and the quotation still works. Nevertheless, Minsky is right: humor is an intricate, somewhat murky phenomenon, probably explaining why scores of deep thinkers from Plato and Aristotle through Descartes, Hobbes, and Kant to Darwin, Dewey, and Freud have had theories of humor.

Visual Analysis of Cartoons: A View from the Far Side

Introduction and Overview. Part 1. Personal Security in Individual Contexts. Security and Uncertainty in Contemporary Delayed-Return Cultures: Coping with the Blockage of Personal Goals, K. van den Bos, I. McGregor, L. Martin. Being Threatened and Being a Threat Can Increase Reliance On Thoughts: A Self-Validation Approach, P. Brinol, K. G. DeMarree, R. E. Petty. Psychological Insecurity and Leadership Styles, C. Schoel, D. Stahlberg, C. Sedikides. The Psychology of Defensiveness: An Integrative Security System Model of Attachment, Self-esteem, and Worldviews, J. Hart. Part I Commentary, C. Holbrook, D. Fessler. Part 2. Personal Security in Interpersonal Contexts. Narcissism and Protection Against Social Threat, S.D. Freis, A.A. Brown, R.M. Arkin. Regulating Relationship Security of Chronically Insecure Partners, E. Lemay. An Attachment Perspective on Personal Security, M. Milkulincer, P.R. Shaver. Attachment Security and Prosociality: Dynamics, Underlying Mechanisms, and Implications, O. Gillath, G. Karantzas. A Goal Circumplex Model of Security Strivings in Social and Cultural Context, K. Tomczyk, B. Yu, X. Zhou. Ostracism Threatens Personal Security: A Temporal Need Threat Framework, E. D. Wesselmann, A. Hales, D. Ren, K. D. Williams. Part II Commentary, M. Clark, K. Von Culin, J. Hirsch. Part 3. Personal Security in Cultural and Health Contexts. Security Seeking in a Regulatory Focus Whodunit: The Case of the Relative Orientation in Behavioral Economics, G. Leonardelli, V. Bohns, J. Gu. Achieving Existential Security through Symbolically Fusing Secular and Religious Sources of Control and Order, A. Kay, S. Shepherd, R. Eibach. Responding to Psychological Threats with Deliberate Ignorance: Causes and Remedies, J. Shepperd, J. Howell. Uncertainty in Healthcare: A Multi-Level Approach, S. Andrews, K. Sweeny. Part III Commentary, A.J. Rothman, A. K. Farrell, L. Auster-Gussman. Part 4. Interdisciplinary Analyses of Personal Security. "Fear Appeals" and Security in American Foreign Relations, C. Fettweis. Terrorism, Personal Security, and Responsible Policy Making, J. Mueller, M.G. Stewart. Secure in Their Beliefs: Personal Security, the Quest for Personal Significance, and the Psychology of Extremism, A. Kruglanski, N. Schori-Eyal. Ecology and Evolution of Personal Security: Adaptive Interdependence of the Individual and the Collective, R. Sagarin. Part IV Commentary, T. Kolditz, J. Lovelace.

Patrick J. Carroll

Papers

Exploring the causes of comparative optimism.

Is Optimism Always Best? Future Outlooks and Preparedness

Effect of Foster Care on Young Children's Language Learning.

Visual Analysis of Cartoons: A View from the Far Side

Handbook of Personal Security