Showing papers in "Annual Review of Psychology in 2015"
TL;DR: This work organizes and analyze what has been learned from the past 35 years of work on emotion and decision making and proposes the emotion-imbued choice model, which accounts for inputs from traditional rational choice theory and from newer emotion research, synthesizing scientific models.
Abstract: A revolution in the science of emotion has emerged in recent decades, with the potential to create a paradigm shift in decision theories. The research reveals that emotions constitute potent, pervasive, predictable, sometimes harmful and sometimes beneficial drivers of decision making. Across different domains, important regularities appear in the mechanisms through which emotions influence judgments and choices. We organize and analyze what has been learned from the past 35 years of work on emotion and decision making. In so doing, we propose the emotion-imbued choice model, which accounts for inputs from traditional rational choice theory and from newer emotion research, synthesizing scientific models.
1,556 citations
TL;DR: Examination of the information-processing demands of the mind-wandering state suggests that it involves perceptual decoupling to escape the constraints of the moment, its content arises from episodic and affective processes, and its regulation relies on executive control.
Abstract: Conscious experience is fluid; it rarely remains on one topic for an extended period without deviation. Its dynamic nature is illustrated by the experience of mind wandering, in which attention switches from a current task to unrelated thoughts and feelings. Studies exploring the phenomenology of mind wandering highlight the importance of its content and relation to meta-cognition in determining its functional outcomes. Examination of the information-processing demands of the mind-wandering state suggests that it involves perceptual decoupling to escape the constraints of the moment, its content arises from episodic and affective processes, and its regulation relies on executive control. Mind wandering also involves a complex balance of costs and benefits: Its association with various kinds of error underlines its cost, whereas its relationship to creativity and future planning suggest its potential value. Although essential to the stream of consciousness, various strategies may minimize the downsides of mind wandering while maintaining its productive aspects.
1,074 citations
TL;DR: The impact of sleep on adaptive and innate immunity, with consideration of the dynamics of sleep disturbance, sleep restriction, and insomnia on antiviral immune responses with consequences for vaccine responses and infectious disease risk and proinflammatoryimmune responses with implications for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression is highlighted.
Abstract: Sleep has a critical role in promoting health. Research over the past decade has documented that sleep disturbance has a powerful influence on the risk of infectious disease, the occurrence and progression of several major medical illnesses including cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the incidence of depression. Increasingly, the field has focused on identifying the biological mechanisms underlying these effects. This review highlights the impact of sleep on adaptive and innate immunity, with consideration of the dynamics of sleep disturbance, sleep restriction, and insomnia on (a) antiviral immune responses with consequences for vaccine responses and infectious disease risk and (b) proinflammatory immune responses with implications for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. This review also discusses the neuroendocrine and autonomic neural underpinnings linking sleep disturbance and immunity and the reciprocal links between sleep and inflammatory biology. Finally, interventions are discussed as effective strategies to improve sleep, and potential opportunities are identified to promote sleep health for therapeutic control of chronic infectious, inflammatory, and neuropsychiatric diseases.
730 citations
TL;DR: The idea that research on self-regulation powerfully highlights ways in which gaps in school readiness and later achievement are linked to poverty and social and economic inequality is illustrated and points the way to effective approaches to counteract these conditions.
Abstract: Research on the development of self-regulation in young children provides a unifying framework for the study of school readiness. Self-regulation abilities allow for engagement in learning activities and provide the foundation for adjustment to school. A focus on readiness as self-regulation does not supplant interest in the development of acquired ability, such as early knowledge of letters and numbers; it sets the stage for it. In this article, we review research and theory indicating that self-regulation and consequently school readiness are the product of integrated developmental processes at the biological and behavioral levels that are shaped by the contexts in which development is occurring. In doing so, we illustrate the idea that research on self-regulation powerfully highlights ways in which gaps in school readiness and later achievement are linked to poverty and social and economic inequality and points the way to effective approaches to counteract these conditions.
722 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that neuroscientific evidence plays a critical role in understanding the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact, and is advocated for a view of control function that treats it as a domain of reward-based decision making.
Abstract: Research on cognitive control and executive function has long recognized the relevance of motivational factors. Recently, however, the topic has come increasingly to center stage, with a surge of new studies examining the interface of motivation and cognitive control. In the present article we survey research situated at this interface, considering work from cognitive and social psychology and behavioral economics, but with a particular focus on neuroscience research. We organize existing findings into three core areas, considering them in the light of currently vying theoretical perspectives. Based on the accumulated evidence, we advocate for a view of control function that treats it as a domain of reward-based decision making. More broadly, we argue that neuroscientific evidence plays a critical role in understanding the mechanisms by which motivation and cognitive control interact. Opportunities for further cross-fertilization between behavioral and neuroscientific research are highlighted.
661 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that the diagnostic validity of social attributions from faces has been greatly overstated in the literature and the functional significance of these attributions is offered.
Abstract: Since the early twentieth century, psychologists have known that there is consensus in attributing social and personality characteristics from facial appearance. Recent studies have shown that surprisingly little time and effort are needed to arrive at this consensus. Here we review recent research on social attributions from faces. Section I outlines data-driven methods capable of identifying the perceptual basis of consensus in social attributions from faces (e.g., What makes a face look threatening?). Section II describes nonperceptual determinants of social attributions (e.g., person knowledge and incidental associations). Section III discusses evidence that attributions from faces predict important social outcomes in diverse domains (e.g., investment decisions and leader selection). In Section IV, we argue that the diagnostic validity of these attributions has been greatly overstated in the literature. In the final section, we offer an account of the functional significance of these attributions.
636 citations
TL;DR: Different subregions of the NAc play dissociable roles in refining action selection, promoting approach toward motivationally relevant stimuli, suppressing inappropriate actions so that goals may be obtained more efficiently, and encoding action outcomes that guide the direction of subsequent ones.
Abstract: Nearly 40 years of research on the function of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) has provided a wealth of information on its contributions to behavior but has also yielded controversies and misconceptions regarding these functions. A primary tenet of this review is that, rather than serving as a “reward” center, the NAc plays a key role in action selection, integrating cognitive and affective information processed by frontal and temporal lobe regions to augment the efficiency and vigor of appetitively or aversively motivated behaviors. Its involvement in these functions is most prominent when the appropriate course of action is ambiguous, uncertain, laden with distractors, or in a state of flux. To this end, different subregions of the NAc play dissociable roles in refining action selection, promoting approach toward motivationally relevant stimuli, suppressing inappropriate actions so that goals may be obtained more efficiently, and encoding action outcomes that guide the direction of subsequent ones.
590 citations
TL;DR: Investigation of neuroendocrine stress mechanisms that may be involved suggest that chronic social isolation increases the activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, and these effects are more dependent on the disruption of a social bond between a significant pair than objective isolation per se.
Abstract: Social isolation has been recognized as a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in humans for more than a quarter of a century. Although the focus of research has been on objective social roles and health behavior, the brain is the key organ for forming, monitoring, maintaining, repairing, and replacing salutary connections with others. Accordingly, population-based longitudinal research indicates that perceived social isolation (loneliness) is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality independent of objective social isolation and health behavior. Human and animal investigations of neuroendocrine stress mechanisms that may be involved suggest that (a) chronic social isolation increases the activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, and (b) these effects are more dependent on the disruption of a social bond between a significant pair than objective isolation per se. The relational factors and neuroendocrine, neurobiological, and genetic mechanisms that may contribute to the association between perceived isolation and mortality are reviewed.
573 citations
TL;DR: Findings of adolescent-specific changes in self-control and underlying brain circuitry are considered in terms of how evolutionarily based biological constraints and experiences shape the brain to adapt to the unique intellectual, physical, sexual, and social challenges of adolescence.
Abstract: Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood that begins around the onset of puberty and ends with relative independence from the parent. This developmental period is one when an individual is probably stronger, of higher reasoning capacity, and more resistant to disease than ever before, yet when mortality rates increase by 200%. These untimely deaths are not due to disease but to preventable deaths associated with adolescents putting themselves in harm's way (e.g., accidental fatalities). We present evidence that these alarming health statistics are in part due to diminished self-control—the ability to inhibit inappropriate desires, emotions, and actions in favor of appropriate ones. Findings of adolescent-specific changes in self-control and underlying brain circuitry are considered in terms of how evolutionarily based biological constraints and experiences shape the brain to adapt to the unique intellectual, physical, sexual, and social challenges of adolescence.
543 citations
TL;DR: This review provides a survey and synthesis of four areas of active methodological research: (a) mediation analysis for longitudinal data, (b) causal inference for indirect effects, (c) mediationAnalysis for discrete and nonnormal variables, and (d) mediation assessment in multilevel designs.
Abstract: Mediation processes are fundamental to many classic and emerging theoretical paradigms within psychology. Innovative methods continue to be developed to address the diverse needs of researchers studying such indirect effects. This review provides a survey and synthesis of four areas of active methodological research: (a) mediation analysis for longitudinal data, (b) causal inference for indirect effects, (c) mediation analysis for discrete and nonnormal variables, and (d) mediation assessment in multilevel designs. The aim of this review is to aid in the dissemination of developments in these four areas and suggest directions for future research.
517 citations
TL;DR: The literature on human speech perception development is reviewed within the context of this CP model, highlighting research that reveals the interplay of maturational and experiential influences at key junctures in development and presenting paradigmatic examples testing CP models in human subjects.
Abstract: A continuing debate in language acquisition research is whether there are critical periods (CPs) in development during which the system is most responsive to environmental input. Recent advances in neurobiology provide a mechanistic explanation of CPs, with the balance between excitatory and inhibitory processes establishing the onset and molecular brakes establishing the offset of windows of plasticity. In this article, we review the literature on human speech perception development within the context of this CP model, highlighting research that reveals the interplay of maturational and experiential influences at key junctures in development and presenting paradigmatic examples testing CP models in human subjects. We conclude with a discussion of how a mechanistic understanding of CP processes changes the nature of the debate: The question no longer is, “Are there CPs?” but rather what processes open them, keep them open, close them, and allow them to be reopened.
TL;DR: An overview of the literature is provided, considering three broad domains of research: translational (implementing traditional methods online), phenomenological (topics spawned or mediated by the Internet; e.g., cyberbullying), and novel (new ways to study existing topics; eg., rumors).
Abstract: Today the Internet plays a role in the lives of nearly 40% of the world's population, and it is becoming increasingly entwined in daily life. This growing presence is transforming psychological science in terms of the topics studied and the methods used. We provide an overview of the literature, considering three broad domains of research: translational (implementing traditional methods online; e.g., surveys), phenomenological (topics spawned or mediated by the Internet; e.g., cyberbullying), and novel (new ways to study existing topics; e.g., rumors). We discuss issues (e.g., sampling, ethics) that arise when doing research online and point to emerging opportunities (e.g., smartphone sensing). Psychological research on the Internet comes with new challenges, but the opportunities far outweigh the costs. By integrating the Internet, psychological research has the ability to reach large, diverse samples and collect data on actual behaviors, which will ultimately increase the impact of psychological researc...
TL;DR: An evaluation of the PA-cognition link across the life span provides modest support for the effect of PA on preserving and even enhancing cognitive vitality and the associated neural circuitry in older adults.
Abstract: We examine evidence supporting the associations among physical activity (PA), cognitive vitality, neural functioning, and the moderation of these associations by genetic factors. Prospective epidemiological studies provide evidence for PA to be associated with a modest reduction in relative risk of cognitive decline. An evaluation of the PA-cognition link across the life span provides modest support for the effect of PA on preserving and even enhancing cognitive vitality and the associated neural circuitry in older adults, with the majority of benefits seen for tasks that are supported by the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. The literature on children and young adults, however, is in need of well-powered randomized controlled trials. Future directions include a more sophisticated understanding of the dose-response relationship, the integration of genetic and epigenetic approaches, inclusion of multimodal imaging of brain-behavior changes, and finally the design of multimodal interventions that may y...
TL;DR: This review suggests that error prevention needs to be supplemented by error management--an approach directed at effectively dealing with errors after they have occurred, with the goal of minimizing negative and maximizing positive error consequences.
Abstract: Every organization is confronted with errors. Most errors are corrected easily, but some may lead to negative consequences. Organizations often focus on error prevention as a single strategy for dealing with errors. Our review suggests that error prevention needs to be supplemented by error management--an approach directed at effectively dealing with errors after they have occurred, with the goal of minimizing negative and maximizing positive error consequences (examples of the latter are learning and innovations). After defining errors and related concepts, we review research on error-related processes affected by error management (error detection, damage control). Empirical evidence on positive effects of error management in individuals and organizations is then discussed, along with emotional, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral pathways of these effects. Learning from errors is central, but like other positive consequences, learning occurs under certain circumstances--one being the development of a mind-set of acceptance of human error.
TL;DR: A dual plasticity model is proposed in which feature-based plasticity is a change in a representation of the learned feature, and task-based Plasticity isA change in processing of the trained task.
Abstract: Visual perceptual learning (VPL) is long-term performance increase resulting from visual perceptual experience. Task-relevant VPL of a feature results from training of a task on the feature relevant to the task. Task-irrelevant VPL arises as a result of exposure to the feature irrelevant to the trained task. At least two serious problems exist. First, there is the controversy over which stage of information processing is changed in association with task-relevant VPL. Second, no model has ever explained both task-relevant and task-irrelevant VPL. Here we propose a dual plasticity model in which feature-based plasticity is a change in a representation of the learned feature, and task-based plasticity is a change in processing of the trained task. Although the two types of plasticity underlie task-relevant VPL, only feature-based plasticity underlies task-irrelevant VPL. This model provides a new comprehensive framework in which apparently contradictory results could be explained.
TL;DR: Evidence showing how health and nutritional risks co-occur in the lives of children under the age of 2 years who live in developing countries, in addition to inadequate psychosocial stimulation, prevent children from developing expected cognitive and language abilities is reviewed.
Abstract: Health and nutritional risks co-occur in the lives of children under the age of 2 years who live in developing countries. We review evidence showing how these risks, in addition to inadequate psychosocial stimulation, prevent children from developing expected cognitive and language abilities. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 interventions aimed at enhancing stimulation and 18 interventions that provided better nutrition—all conducted since 2000—revealed that stimulation had a medium effect size of 0.42 and 0.47 on cognitive and language development, respectively, whereas nutrition by itself had a small effect size of 0.09. The implementation processes of these interventions are described and compared. A number of unresolved issues are outlined and discussed, including ways to maximize parental health behavior change, assess mediators that account for intervention effects, and expand the assessment of young children's brain functions that underlie language and cognition and are affected by nutri...
TL;DR: Research supporting the physical-social pain overlap is summarized, three criticisms of this overlap model are presented and addressed, and key next steps are suggested.
Abstract: Emerging evidence has shown that social pain--the painful feelings that follow from social rejection, exclusion, or loss--relies on some of the same neural regions that process physical pain, highlighting a possible physical-social pain overlap. However, the hypothesis that physical pain and social pain rely on shared neural systems has been contested. This review begins by summarizing research supporting the physical-social pain overlap. Next, three criticisms of this overlap model are presented and addressed by synthesizing available research. These criticisms include the suggestions that (a) neural responses to social pain are indicative of conflict detection processes, rather than distress; (b) all negative affective processes, rather than social pain specifically, activate these pain-related neural regions; and (c) neural responses to social (and physical) pain reflect the processing of salience, rather than hurt. Implications of these findings for understanding social and physical pain are discussed, and key next steps are suggested.
TL;DR: This review examines recent research on the perception and experience of the complex, multifaceted identities that both complicate and enrich the authors' lives and considers how opportunities that emerge from the possession of identities that include multiple distinct or overlapping groups might benefit both perceivers and targets.
Abstract: Categorization plays a fundamental role in organizing daily interactions with the social world. However, there is increasing recognition that social categorization is often complex, both because category membership can be ambiguous (e.g., multiracial or transgender identities) and because different categorical identities (e.g., race and gender) may interact to determine the meaning of category membership. These complex identities simultaneously impact social perceivers' impressions and social targets' own experiences of identity, thereby shaping perceptions, experiences, and interactions in fundamental ways. This review examines recent research on the perception and experience of the complex, multifaceted identities that both complicate and enrich our lives. Although research has historically tended to focus more on difficulties and challenges associated with multiple identities, increasing attention is being paid to opportunities that emerge from the possession of identities that include multiple distinc...
TL;DR: Genetic differential susceptibility experiments can test the bright side as well as the dark side of the moderating role of genotypes traditionally considered to represent vulnerability to negative conditions, and possibilities to broaden the G component in the G×E equation by including genetic pathways are suggested.
Abstract: The efficacy of interventions might be underestimated or even go undetected as a main effect when it is hidden in gene-by-environment (G×E) interactions. This review moves beyond the problems thwarting correlational G×E research to propose genetic differential susceptibility experiments. G×E experiments can test the bright side as well as the dark side of the moderating role of genotypes traditionally considered to represent vulnerability to negative conditions. The differential susceptibility model predicts that carriers of these risk genotypes profit most from interventions changing the environment for the better. The evolutionary background of G×E and differential susceptibility is discussed, and statistical methods for the analysis of differential susceptibility (versus diathesis stress) are reviewed. Then, based on results from 22 randomized G×E experiments, meta-analytic evidence for the differential susceptibility model is presented. Intervention effects are much stronger in the susceptible genotyp...
TL;DR: A review of studies investigating the function of the hippocampus going back several decades reveals many ideas that seem to converge on a critical role for the hippocampus in stress response and emotion.
Abstract: New neurons continue to be generated in the dentate gyrus throughout life, providing this region of the hippocampus with exceptional structural plasticity, but the function of this ongoing neurogenesis is unknown. Inhibition of adult neurogenesis produces some behavioral impairments that suggest a role for new neurons in learning and memory; however, other behavioral changes appear inconsistent with this function. A review of studies investigating the function of the hippocampus going back several decades reveals many ideas that seem to converge on a critical role for the hippocampus in stress response and emotion. These potential hippocampal functions provide new avenues for investigating the behavioral functions of adult neurogenesis. And, conversely, studies in animals lacking adult neurogenesis, which are likely to have more limited and more specific impairments than are seen with lesions, may provide valuable new insights into the function of the hippocampus. A complete understanding of the function ...
TL;DR: This interdisciplinary body of research is brought together and the main theories that have been proposed to explain human prosociality are reviewed, with an emphasis on kinship, reciprocity, indirect reciprocities, punishment, and morality.
Abstract: Humans are an intensely social species, frequently performing costly behaviors that benefit others. Efforts to solve the evolutionary puzzle of altruism have a lengthy history, and recent years have seen many important advances across a range of disciplines. Here we bring together this interdisciplinary body of research and review the main theories that have been proposed to explain human prosociality, with an emphasis on kinship, reciprocity, indirect reciprocity, punishment, and morality. We highlight recent methodological advances that are stimulating research and point to some areas that either remain controversial or merit more attention.
TL;DR: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) findings on white matter development at the fetal stage and in infancy as well as DTI applications for understanding neurocognitive development and brain abnormalities in preterm infants are reviewed.
Abstract: The human brain rapidly develops during the final weeks of gestation and in the first two years following birth. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a unique in vivo imaging technique that allows three-dimensional visualization of the white matter anatomy in the brain. It has been considered to be a valuable tool for studying brain development in early life. In this review, we first introduce the DTI technique. We then review DTI findings on white matter development at the fetal stage and in infancy as well as DTI applications for understanding neurocognitive development and brain abnormalities in preterm infants. Finally, we discuss limitations of DTI and potential valuable imaging techniques for studying white matter myelination.
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TL;DR: This article identifies three hallmarks of causal reasoning-the role of mechanism, narrative, and mental simulation-all of which go beyond mere probabilistic knowledge, and proposes that the hallmarks are closely related.
Abstract: Causal knowledge plays a crucial role in human thought, but the nature of causal representation and inference remains a puzzle. Can human causal inference be captured by relations of probabilistic dependency, or does it draw on richer forms of representation? This article explores this question by reviewing research in reasoning, decision making, various forms of judgment, and attribution. We endorse causal Bayesian networks as the best normative framework and as a productive guide to theory building. However, it is incomplete as an account of causal thinking. On the basis of a range of experimental work, we identify three hallmarks of causal reasoning—the role of mechanism, narrative, and mental simulation—all of which go beyond mere probabilistic knowledge. We propose that the hallmarks are closely related. Mental simulations are representations over time of mechanisms. When multiple actors are involved, these simulations are aggregated into narratives.
TL;DR: Comparisons of closely related species can identify when distinct mechanisms underlie related biases by examining evolutionary dissociations in choice strategies, and comparative work can provide insight into the biological rationality of economically irrational preferences.
Abstract: Humans exhibit a suite of biases when making economic decisions. We review recent research on the origins of human decision making by examining whether similar choice biases are seen in nonhuman primates, our closest phylogenetic relatives. We propose that comparative studies can provide insight into four major questions about the nature of human choice biases that cannot be addressed by studies of our species alone. First, research with other primates can address the evolution of human choice biases and identify shared versus human-unique tendencies in decision making. Second, primate studies can constrain hypotheses about the psychological mechanisms underlying such biases. Third, comparisons of closely related species can identify when distinct mechanisms underlie related biases by examining evolutionary dissociations in choice strategies. Finally, comparative work can provide insight into the biological rationality of economically irrational preferences.
TL;DR: How longitudinal research has identified three particular groups of disorders shown to differ on the basis of symptom trajectories and risk-factor profiles is delineated.
Abstract: Progress in treating and preventing mental disorders may follow from research that integrates development, genetics, and neuroscience. This review first delineates how longitudinal research has identified three particular groups of disorders shown to differ on the basis of symptom trajectories and risk-factor profiles. In the next section, the review describes how research on genetic contributions to psychopathology has elucidated the nature of risk for two groups of disorders, the neurodevelopmental and psychotic disorders. In the third section, the review describes how research on environmental contributions to psychopathology has targeted early temperament, its associated perturbations in information-processing functions, and its relations to a third group of disorders, the emotional disorders. For all three groups of disorders, such integrative research has generated ideas about novel interventions. The hope is that over the coming decade such ideas will lead to novel treatments that alter the trajectory of risk in developmental psychopathology.
TL;DR: It is argued that the recent shift in researcher attention toward basic cognitive processes that give rise to decision phenomena constitutes the beginning of that replacement paradigm, which closely aligns with Kuhn's notion of paradigm shift.
Abstract: For decades, the dominant paradigm for studying decision making—the expected utility framework—has been burdened by an increasing number of empirical findings that question its validity as a model of human cognition and behavior. However, as Kuhn (1962) argued in his seminal discussion of paradigm shifts, an old paradigm cannot be abandoned until a new paradigm emerges to replace it. In this article, we argue that the recent shift in researcher attention toward basic cognitive processes that give rise to decision phenomena constitutes the beginning of that replacement paradigm. Models grounded in basic perceptual, attentional, memory, and aggregation processes have begun to proliferate. The development of this new approach closely aligns with Kuhn's notion of paradigm shift, suggesting that this is a particularly generative and revolutionary time to be studying decision science.
TL;DR: The prospects of improving the quality of fNIRS data from infants to address in a more sophisticated way how cognitive development is mediated by changes in underlying neural mechanisms are highlighted.
Abstract: Over the past 20 years, the field of cognitive neuroscience has relied heavily on hemodynamic measures of blood oxygenation in local regions of the brain to make inferences about underlying cognitive processes. These same functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) techniques have recently been adapted for use with human infants. We review the advantages and disadvantages of these two neuroimaging methods for studies of infant cognition, with a particular emphasis on their technical limitations and the linking hypotheses that are used to draw conclusions from correlational data. In addition to summarizing key findings in several domains of infant cognition, we highlight the prospects of improving the quality of fNIRS data from infants to address in a more sophisticated way how cognitive development is mediated by changes in underlying neural mechanisms.
TL;DR: Findings highlight the multifaceted nature of both concepts and culture, suggesting that researchers may productively adopt a systems-level approach to conceptual organization and cultural epistemologies.
Abstract: The well-respected tradition of research on concepts uses cross-cultural comparisons to explore which aspects of conceptual behavior are universal versus culturally variable. This work continues, but it is being supplemented by intensified efforts to study how conceptual systems and cultural systems interact to modify and support each other. For example, cultural studies within the framework of domain specificity (e.g., folkphysics, folkpsychology, folkbiology) are beginning to query the domains themselves and offer alternative organizing principles (e.g., folksociology, folkecology). Findings highlight the multifaceted nature of both concepts and culture: Individuals adopt distinct conceptual construals in accordance with culturally infused systems such as language and discourse, knowledge and beliefs, and epistemological orientations. This picture complicates questions about cognitive universality or variability, suggesting that researchers may productively adopt a systems-level approach to conceptual o...
TL;DR: The value of flexibility in the face of great social and cultural change appears to be the dominant theme from research on immigrant youth, although that flexibility can be constrained by socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial stratification systems in host societies.
Abstract: The socioeconomic and cultural changes that result from an increasingly interconnected world have been speculated to have important implications for the nature of adolescent development. Unfortunately, the historical time necessary for these changes to take place means that definitive research on the impact of globalization necessarily will be slow in forthcoming. Adolescents from immigrant families, however, already experience the social and cultural shifts thought to typify globalization, and an analysis of their experiences could shed light on what to expect as existing national barriers become more permeable. The value of flexibility in the face of great social and cultural change appears to be the dominant theme from research on immigrant youth, although that flexibility can be constrained by socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial stratification systems in host societies. This review highlights the implications of these findings for what may lie ahead for teenagers as globalization continues to expand.
TL;DR: Human infants are involved in communicative interactions with others well before they start to speak or understand language, and recent studies suggest that when someone demonstrates something using an object as the medium of instruction, infants can conceive the object as an exemplar of the whole class of objects of the same kind.
Abstract: Human infants are involved in communicative interactions with others well before they start to speak or understand language. It is generally thought that this communication is useful for establishing interpersonal relations and supporting joint activities, but, in the absence of symbolic functions that language provides, these early communicative contexts do not allow infants to learn about the world. However, recent studies suggest that when someone demonstrates something using an object as the medium of instruction, infants can conceive the object as an exemplar of the whole class of objects of the same kind. Thus, an object, just like a word, can play the role of a symbol that stands for something else than itself, and infants can learn general knowledge about a kind of object from nonverbal communication about a single item of that kind. This rudimentary symbolic capacity may be one of the roots of the development of symbolic understanding in children.