Basic Psychological Processes Research Articles

Effects of environmental diversity on exploration and learning: The case of bilingualism.

Bilingual environments provide a commonplace example of increased complexity and uncertainty. Learning multiple languages entails mastery of a larger and more variable range of sounds, words, syntactic structures, pragmatic conventions, and more complex mapping of linguistic information to objects in the world. Recent research suggests that bilingual learners demonstrate fundamental variation in how they explore and learn from their environment, which may derive from this increased complexity. In particular, the increased complexity and variability of bilingual environments may broaden the focus of learners' attention, laying a different attentional foundation for learning. In this review, we introduce a novel framework, with accompanying empirical evidence, for understanding how early learners may adapt to a more complex environment, drawing on bilingualism as an example. Three adaptations, each relevant to the demands of abstracting structure from a complex environment, are introduced. Each adaptation is discussed in the context of empirical evidence attesting to shifts in basic psychological processes in bilingual learners. This evidence converges on the notion that bilingual learners may explore their environment more broadly. Downstream consequences of broader sampling for perception and learning are discussed. Finally, recommendations for future research to expand the scientific narrative on the impact of diverse environments on learning are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive dependencies and psychological health correlates of coherence in autobiographical reasoning

ABSTRACT Autobiographical reasoning is a process by which an individual creates a coherent life account. The degree of coherence in autobiographical reasoning has been related to psychological health correlates such as depression and self-esteem in previous studies, but with inconsistent findings. Similarly, the basic psychological processes required to achieve coherence have been previously studied with regard to intelligence, but infrequently, and also with mixed findings. In the present study, we first developed and evaluated a German version of the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ) as an established measure of self-reported coherence. Second, we tested for cognitive dependencies on intelligence and memory indices. Third, we analysed its associations with psychological health correlates. We assessed a sample of 272 participants and thereof 189 participants again two-weeks later. Results supported the assumptions of the German ANIQ’s psychometric qualities (factor structure, test-retest reliability, invariance) and validity (with regard to self-consciousness, self-concept clarity, and written accounts of personal turning points). We found coherence to be independent of intelligence and verbal memory, but partially dependent on figural memory. Coherence was related to depression, positivity, self-esteem, and self-esteem stability, but not to anxiety, substantiating its salutogenic effects.

Invisible Disabilities and Inequality

In this address, I consider the realized and potential contributions of sociological social psychology to research on inequality based on invisible disabilities and the challenges that invisible disabilities pose to current social psychological theories. Drawing from the social structure and personality framework, I advance the general notion of invisible disability as a dimension of inequality, consider how four basic social psychological processes (social categorization, identity, status, and stigmatization) have and can help us understand how invisible disabilities shape outcomes over the life course, and suggest new lines of research social psychologists could pursue. I close with brief comments about the benefits of such an agenda for sociological social psychology as well as how these lines of research can inform theories of stratification.

Varieties of interdependence and the emergence of the Modern West: Toward the globalizing of psychology.

Cultural psychology-the research field focusing on the mutual constitution of culture and the mind-has made great strides by documenting robust cultural variations in how people think, feel, and act. The cumulative evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that Westerners are independent, whereas those in the rest of the world are interdependent. Although this research traditionally examined North Americans and East Asians, recent research has extended this literature to other non-Western regions. We review this emerging research and describe four distinct forms of interdependence in four non-Western cultural zones. Specifically, interdependence is promoted through (a) conflict avoidance (dominant in much of East Asia), (b) self-assertion for ingroup protection (dominant in Arab regions), (c) expression of emotions that promote interpersonal resonance (dominant in Latin America), and (d) argumentation for conflict resolution (dominant in South Asia). Furthermore, we propose that the Modern West adopted the existing signature features of interdependence in the neighboring cultural zones (notably, self-assertion, emotional expression, and argumentation) and redefined the psychological function and social meaning of these features; instead of promoting interdependence, they became means to achieve independence. This theoretical integration suggests that cultural variation in basic psychological processes emerged over the last several 1,000 years under the influence of ecology, migration, and intergroup relations. The current effort underscores the need to globalize psychological science. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents’ Level of Knowledge of Early Childhood Developmental Learning Disorder Indicators

The current study sought to reveal the level of parents’ knowledge of developmental learning disorders in early childhood in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire was designed comprising (35) questions that measure the parents’ knowledge of indicators of developmental learning disorders. These were distributed among (5) the main areas related to basic psychological processes, namely attention, perception, memory, language, thinking and problem-solving. The questionnaire was electronically applied to a random sample of (462) parents in Khobar, Dhahran, Dammam and Jubail. The results demonstrated that parents have a moderate level of knowledge of indicators of developmental learning disorders among those in early childhood and that no statistically significant differences were attributed to their relationship with the child, educational qualifications and the level of the family income. One of the most significant recommendations is the development of educational and scientific resources associated with indicators of developmental learning disorders for children in early childhood and the provision of open seminars and discussion panels between parents to share experiences. The researchers also recommend performing additional studies focused on developing diagnostic criteria to detect symptoms of developmental learning difficulties which will assist educators in identifying children at risk of learning difficulties at an early age.
 
 Received: 10 February 2022 / Accepted: 13 April 2022 / Published: 5 May 2022

Effectiveness of working memory on visual-spatial working memory performance of pre-school children with learning problem at risk

Introduction: Specific learning difficulties are the existence of disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes which play a role in the process of understanding and using spoken or written language. Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the effect of working memory intervention on visual-spatial working memory performance among the preschool children at risk of learning disabilities. Method: This study was a quasi-experimental study including pretest and posttest design with a control group. The statistical population comprised all children who were studying in preschool centers and kindergartens (2016-2017) in Tehran (District 14). A sample of 20 preschool students who were selected through purposive sampling participated in this study. They were randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (10 participants in each group). The experimental group participated in working memory program to 60-minute 12 sessions during the three months. In order to measure the performance of working memory, the working memory subset of IQ scale, Tehran-Stanford-Binet test and N-Back test were used. The data were analyzed by SPSS-22 and t-Test. Results: The mean and standard deviation of the subjects age are 6.2 and 0.45, respectively. The results showed that the working memory intervention caused the improvement on visual-spatial working memory performance of children (P<0.001). Conclusion: Considering the findings of the present study, it seems that visual-spatial working memory intervention can improve the working memory of preschool children and it can be used to enhance the visual-spatial working memory function of children and prevent the learning problems.

Psychological science treatment

New discoveries in psychological science have changed our understanding of some basic psychological processes. The new science, however, has not of yet been properly incorporated into the practice of psychotherapy. This has created a confusing state of affairs, lacking clear distinctions between therapy interventions rooted in lore and personal insight and those based on systematic scientific inquiry. In this paper, I discuss the problems caused by the current situation and propose a new distinction by which the psychological (science) treatment of psychological disorders is differentiated from psychotherapy. The implications of the proposed distinction for clinical research and training are discussed.

Movement Patterns in Students Diagnosed with ADHD, Objective Measurement in a Natural Learning Environment.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is the most common neuropsychological disorder in childhood and adolescence, affecting the basic psychological processes involved in learning, social adaptation and affective adjustment. From previous research, the disorder is linked to problems in different areas of development, with deficiencies in psychological processes leading to the development of the most common characteristics of the disorder such as inattention, excess of activity and lack of inhibitory control. As for the diagnosis, in spite of being a very frequent disorder, there are multiple controversies about which tools are the most suitable for evaluation. One of the most widespread tools in the professional field is behavior inventories such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires for Parents and Teachers or the ADHD Rating Scale-V. The main disadvantage of these assessment tools is that they do not provide an objective observation. For this reason, there are different studies focused on recording objective measures of the subjects’ movement, since hyperkinesia is one of the most characteristic symptoms of this disorder. In this sense, we have developed an application that, using a Kinect device, is capable of measuring the movement of the different parts of the body of up to six subjects in the classroom, being a natural context for the student. The main objective of this work is twofold, on the one hand, to investigate whether there are correlations between excessive movement and high scores in the inventories for the diagnosis of ADHD, Rating Scale-V and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and, on the other hand, to determine which sections of the body present the most significant mobility in subjects diagnosed with ADHD. Results show that the control group, composed of neurotypical subjects, presents less kinaesthetic activity than the clinical group diagnosed with ADHD. This indicates that the experimental group presents one of the main characteristics of the disorder. In addition, results also show that practically all the measured body parts present significant differences, being higher in the clinical group, highlighting the head as the joint with the highest effect size.

Análisis de la relación entre el resultado de lectura crítica en las pruebas Saber 11, el promedio académico y el desempeño en tareas de atención y memoria en estudiantes universitarios

Se analizó la relación entre el resultado de lectura crítica en las pruebas Saber 11, el rendimiento académico y el desempeño en tareas de atención y memoria en 55 estudiantes universitarios (edad media=20 años, D.T.=2.51) a través de la prueba Memometric, la subprueba de retención de dígitos de Wechsler y el test de cancelación de la A. Como resultado, se encontró que el rendimiento en el módulo de lectura crítica y el desempeño académico no se relacionan únicamente con procesos psicológicos básicos como la atención selectiva y la memoria de trabajo. Adicionalmente, las correlaciones entre las variables estudiadas fueron bajas (con puntuaciones entre r = .004 y r = .42; p < .05), a excepción de dos, que pueden ser consideradas como moderadas: inverso memometric y promedio académico con un r ,50 p < .05; y directo memometric e inverso memometric, con un r = ,67, p < .05. Con el análisis posterior del modelo de regresión se observó que el desempeño en la prueba de lectura crítica Saber 11 fue significativo para la predicción del rendimiento académico. En conclusión, solo fueron corroboradas dos de las relaciones planteadas. Se sugiere para futuras investigaciones incluir variables relacionadas con los recursos afectivos del estudiante y los ambientes de aprendizaje.

The Emotional Divergent-Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP): Design, Implementation, and Results.

In a social environment that requires young people to adapt to increasingly demanding situations, emotional education and creativity training may be key for both personal development and academic performance. Given that there are currently no known interventions that develop emotional and creative skills simultaneously in a youth population, the main objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the Emotional Divergent–Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP). The study design was quasi-experimental with a non-equivalent control group and pretest–posttest measures. The participants included 196 students between 16 and 24 years of age belonging to two centers of higher education. Our results showed that the EDICOP contributed to the improvement of the participants’ divergent-proactive style, positive affectivity, emotional predisposition, and attention, as well as to their preference for cognition. Overall, the EDICOP is, therefore, both relevant and useful, and further research on the mood–creativity link is merited to generate new contexts in higher education for the promotion of both the emotional and creativity dispositions and self-awareness, by combining three basic psychological processes (emotion, cognition, and motivation).

THE SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND LEVELS OF FORMATION OF STUDENTS’ ECONOMIC SELF-DETERMINATION

The article analyses theoretically and methodologically the influencing factors and the levels of formation of students’ economic self-determination in the period of social changes. Self-determination is a socio-psychological phenomenon formed on basic psychological processes and aimed at finding by an individual of their own way of life to meet their needs. The most important factors of students’ economic self-determination are their financial well-being, formation of personality, professional self-determination and, only then, formation of their social identity. Economic self-determination is considered by students as self-determination in the economic environment with the purpose to achieve an optimal position in the system of economic relations (labour, exchange, property, distribution, etc.). Students’ economic self-determination is considered by us as self-determination in the economic environment with the following purposes: to achieve an optimal position in the system of economic relations (labour, exchange, property, distributive, etc.); to have an attitude to socio-economic conditions and their dynamics; to develop their own ideas about life meaning and life goals, life principles, values; to outline own rights (borders, boundaries); to perform self-analysis of one's own expectations and potential opportunities to meet them. Students’ economic self-determination is the step-by-step formation of their economic consciousness in socially close environment (family, friends, etc.) based on everyday knowledge on economic reality, examples of parental behaviour and their personal values. The main factors influencing the formation of students’ economic self-determination are: personal qualities, value orientations, socio-demographic, socio-economic, economic, socio-cultural factors, as well as an individual’s attitude to other people and material values, to time and money, etc. We have also found that economic self-determination, as one of the factors of professional self-determination, influences young people’s choice of a self-sufficiency strategy. Modern youth chooses legitimate ways of economic self-sufficiency and considers entrepreneurial activities as one of the ways to achieve self-sufficiency, and already hired jobs as temporary employment after receipt appropriate education to gain experience or strengthen knowledge and skills. Thus, analyzing concepts presented by deterrent scientists and summarizing the reviewed literature, we consider economic self-determination as a process of achieving by an individual of their own position in economic relations, which allow them to realize optimally their economic interests in the existing socio-economic conditions and their own understanding of life meaning, goals, principles, values, their rights and expectations.

Balanced time perspective as a facilitator of immigrants' psychological adaptation: A study among Ukrainian immigrants in Poland.

The perception of time plays a fundamental role in the organisation of basic psychological processes, and as such may also influence migrants' psychological wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between the perception of time and immigrants' psychological adaptation (i.e., affective aspects of migration) based on a sample of 238 Ukrainians residing in Poland. To assess time perception, we drew primarily from time perspective theory, which defines time perspective as a measure of the degree to which individuals non-consciously construe the past, the present, and the future. Psychological adaptation was assessed, focusing on participants' basic psychological needs satisfaction, their satisfaction with life, and their psychological condition. We observed a relatively strong negative relationship between negative past and fatalistic present time perspectives and psychological adaptation. Additionally, we found that a more balanced and less negative temporal profile was related to significantly better psychological adaptation of immigrants. We discuss these results in light of the cultural validity of time perspective theory, the destructive impact of negative time perspective on migrants' psychological wellbeing, and the potential applications of time perspective-based therapy in integration interventions for immigrants.

The bibliometric studies in the field of Ibero-American psychology

La bibliometría consiste en el tratamiento matemático y estadístico de la información científica y, por ello, se la concibe como la cuantificación de la información bibliográfica susceptible de ser analizada. Más allá de que algunos autores la conciban como una metodología y otros como una técnica, la bibliometría facilita la organización, selección y categorización de la información para un tratamiento cuantitativo y cualitativo. Desde hace más de tres décadas, los estudios bibliométricos han comenzado a proliferar con diferentes usos, orientaciones y aplicaciones en el campo de la psicología iberoamericana. En este trabajo se analizan los estudios bibliométricos en el campo de la psicología iberoamericana recuperados de tres bases de datos: Dialnet (España), Redalyc (México) y SciELO (Brasil). A partir de una muestra de 81 trabajos seleccionados, se realizó una categorización según las diferentes líneas de investigación, los autores más frecuentes, los países de los autores, el rango de años de las publicaciones, el idioma de las publicaciones, el género en la redacción de los trabajos, las revistas que más estudios bibliométricos publicaron y las más analizadas desde la perspectiva bibliométrica. También se analizó el contexto histórico de aparición de los estudios bibliométricos en el campo de la psicología de Iberoamérica. Se concluye que los estudios bibliométricos son un importante recurso metodológico para la evaluación de la disciplina y profesión psicológica, siempre que logren ir más allá de la mera descripción de datos cuantitativos y puedan complementarse con análisis cualitativos, lo que brindaría mayor potencialidad interpretativa y explicativa.

A Review of Photogrammetry and Photorealistic 3D Models in Education From a Psychological Perspective

Until sufficient practical experience and documented examples are available, emerging technological methods to create educational content typically require in-depth knowledge from different fields in order to apply them in the most beneficial way. The method of creating photorealistic 3D models (PR3DMs) of real-world objects with the methods of photogrammetry is an example of such emerging technologies. This paper discusses the fundamental concepts of photogrammetry to provide an overview of the necessary basic knowledge for educators and researchers interested in the presentation of realistic virtual materials. Additionally, a deeper introduction to basic psychological processes while learning with photorealistic materials is presented. This provides deeper insights into potentials and issues, as well as an overview of the most crucial research gaps in learning with PR3DMs. Finally, current and future applications, as well as the potential for learning topics apart from factual knowledge, such as emotional or behavioral outcomes, are discussed.

Culture and Business: How Can Cultural Psychologists Contribute to Research on Behaviors in the Marketplace and Workplace?

Cultural psychology has great potential to expand its research frameworks to more applied research fields in business such as marketing and organizational studies while going beyond basic psychological processes to more complex social practices. In fact, the number of cross-cultural business studies has grown constantly over the past 20 years. Nonetheless, the theoretical and methodological closeness between cultural psychology and these business-oriented studies has not been fully recognized by scholars in cultural psychology. In this paper, we briefly introduce six representative cultural constructs commonly applied in business research, which include (1) individualism vs. collectivism, (2) independence vs. interdependence, (3) analytic vs. holistic cognition, (4) vertical vs. horizontal orientation, (5) tightness vs. looseness, and (6) strong vs. weak uncertainty avoidance. We plot the constructs on a chart to conceptually represent a common ground between cultural psychology and business research. We then review some representative empirical studies from the research fields of marketing and organizational studies which utilize at least one of these six constructs in their research frameworks. At the end of the paper, we recommend some future directions for further advancing collaboration with scholars in the field of marketing and organizational studies, while referring to theoretical and methodological issues.

Suggestion of a dynamic model of the development of neurodevelopmental disorders and the phenomenon of autism

The present article is a theoretical contribution suggesting a simple model of the dynamics involved in the development of neurodevelopmental disorders and the phenomenon of autism offering an explanation of why different individuals have different onset of manifest disease. The model relates to present genetic and epigenetic evidence and previous theoretical models. The dynamic model applies an individualized transdiagnostic and dimensional approach integrating several levels of influence involved in the dynamic interaction between an individual and their environment across time. The dynamic model illustrates the interaction between a basic neurobiological susceptibility, compensating mechanisms, and stress-related releasing mechanisms involved in the development of manifest clinical illness. The model has a particular focus on the dynamics of neurocognitive processes and their relationship to more basic information, psychological and social processes. A basic assumption guiding the model is that even quite normal events related to typical development may increase the risk of enduring stress in cognitively vulnerable individuals, further increasing their risk of developing manifest clinical illness. The model suggests that genetic variation, endogenous epigenetic processes of development, and epigenetic changes influenced by physical/chemical and social environmental risk and resilience factors all may contribute to phenotypical expression. A genetic susceptibility may translate into a biological susceptibility reflected in cognitive impairments. A cognitively vulnerable individual may be at increased risk of misinterpreting sensory inputs, potentially resulting in psychopathological expressions, e.g., autistic symptoms, observed across several neurodevelopmental disorders. The genetically influenced experience of an individual relates to cognitive phenomena occurring at the interfaces between the brain, mind, and society. The severity of clinical illness may differ from the severity of a disorder of reasoning. The dynamic model may help guide future development of personalized medicine in psychiatry and identify relevant points of intervention. A discussion of the implications of the model relating to epigenetic evidence and to previous theoretical models is included at the end of the paper.

Analisis Kesulitan Belajar Membaca dan Menulis Permulaan PAUD Di Kelompok Bermain Fun Islamic School

Child learning difficulties are children who are disrupted in one o more basic psychological processes that include understanding and using spoken or written language. This study aims to describe the learning difficulties experienced by children aged 5-6 years in group playing FUN ISLAMIC SCHOOL Purworejo Yogyakarta. The method used is a qualitative research method with a case study approach. The data source consisted of 2 teachers in the group of children aged 5-6 years, and 4 children who had problems due to learning difficulties were the case subjects in this study. After data is collected, data is presented for inclusion. Reading difficulties in children aged 5-6 years are different, in the pocess of writing in class children have poor writing in learning activities in class. Based on the results of the study there are a number of suggestions that can be considered by related parties in an effort to overcome the learning difficulties of children.

Differences in specific learning disability identification with the Woodcock-Johnson IV.

The Ability Achievement Discrepancy model remains the primary identification method used by school personnel. This study examined identification of a specific learning disability using the Ability Achievement Discrepancy model with the Woodcock-Johnson IV (WJ-IV). Two different test scores can be used to represent the ability construct: one that maintains the overlap between intelligence quotient (IQ) and basic psychological processes (i.e., general intellectual ability) and one that mostly removes the overlap between IQ and basic psychological processes (i.e., fluid-crystallized intelligence). The study included 3,736 individuals from the WJ-IV standardization sample to ascertain whether different proportions of individuals were identified by the 2 methods as well as identify which tests contributed to the differences. χ2 tests of independence and absolute ratios were used to examine the proportion of individuals identified; a multivariate analysis of variance and follow-up Tukey honestly significant differences were conducted to determine whether the groups of individuals identified in each model differed on their academic achievement scores, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to identify the tests that contributed to differences in identification rates. The results indicated that different proportions of individuals were identified as a function of the IQ score used, even though achievement scores were generally similar across identification methods. Black students were overrepresented and White students were underrepresented compared with their proportion in the total sample. Discrepancy profiles largely varied as a function of the internal psychometrics of the WJ-IV rather than characteristics of the individual. Implications for practice and methodological limitations are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Podstawowa jednostka przetwarzania informacji integrująca poznanie, emocje i język

<p class="Tekstpodstawowy21">W pracy podjęto problem istnienia jednostki poznawczej integrującej podstawowe procesy psychiczne: poznanie, emocje i język. W tym celu, inspirując się poglądami K. Pribrama i R. Llinasa, zaproponowano wykorzystanie w psychologii koncepcji podstawowej jednostki przetwarzania informacji (<em>logonu</em>), która ma postać matematycznego wzoru opracowanego przez D. Gabora. Wskazano na argumenty przemawiające za istnieniem takiej jednostki w psychice oraz omówiono jej wartość dla psychologii, nawiązując do koncepcji okna uwagowego, teorii postaci (<em>Gestalt</em>) oraz równoważenia struktur poznawczych według J. Piageta.</p>

National Stereotypes and Robots' Perception: The "Made in" Effect.

In the near future, the human social environment worldwide might be populated by humanoid robots. The way we perceive these new social agents could depend on basic social psychological processes such as social categorization. Recent results indicate that humans can make use of social stereotypes when faced with robots based on their characterization as “male” or “female” and a perception of their group membership. However, the question of the application of nationality-based stereotypes to robots has not yet been studied. Given that humans attribute different levels of warmth and competence (the two universal dimensions of social perception) to individuals based in part on their nationality, we hypothesized that the way robots are perceived differs depending on their country of origin. In this study, participants had to evaluate four robots differing in their anthropomorphic shape. For each participant, these robots were presented as coming from one of four different countries selected for their level of perceived warmth and competence. Each robot was evaluated on their anthropomorphic and human traits. As expected, the country of origin's warmth and competence level biased the perception of robots in terms of the attribution of social and human traits. Our findings also indicated that these effects differed according to the extent to which the robots were anthropomorphically shaped. We discuss these results in relation to the way in which social constructs are applied to robots.