Abstract Touch is both the first sense to develop and a critical means of information acquisition and environmental manipulation. Physical touch experiences may create an ontological scaffold for the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal conceptual and metaphorical knowledge, as well as a springboard for the application of this knowledge. In six experiments, holding heavy or light clipboards, solving rough or smooth puzzles, and touching hard or soft objects nonconsciously influenced impressions and decisions formed about unrelated people and situations. Among other effects, heavy objects made job candidates appear more important, rough objects made social interactions appear more difficult, and hard objects increased rigidity in negotiations. Basic tactile sensations are thus shown to influence higher social cognitive processing in dimension-specific and metaphor-specific ways.

Embodied Cognition (EC) is a comprehensive approach to, and framework for, the study of the mind. EC treats cognition as a coordinated set of tools evolved by organisms for coping with their environments. Each of the key terms in this characterization-tool, evolved, organism, coping, and environment-has a special significance for understanding the mind that is discussed in this article.

Bem's definition of psychological androgyny obscures a potentially important distinction between those individuals who score high on both masculinity and femininity and those individuals who score low on both. To assess the importance of this distinction, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory was administered to undergraduate subjects. (Author)

Previous behavioral research points to a positive relationship between maternal touch and early social development. Here, we explored the brain correlates of this relationship. The frequency of maternal touch was recorded for 43 five-year-old children during a 10 min standardized play session. Additionally, all children completed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging session. Investigating the default mode network revealed a positive relation between the frequency of maternal touch and activity in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) extending into the temporo-parietal junction. Using this effect as a seed in a functional connectivity analysis identified a network including extended bilateral regions along the temporal lobe, bilateral frontal cortex, and left insula. Compared with children with low maternal touch, children with high maternal touch showed additional connectivity with the right dorso-medial prefrontal cortex. Together these results support the notion that childhood tactile experiences shape the developing “social brain” with a particular emphasis on a network involved in mentalizing.

No Abstract available for this article.

ABSTRACT Nature urture debates continue to be highly contentious in the psychology of gender despite the common recognition that both types of causal explanations are important. In this article, we provide a historical analysis of the vicissitudes of nature and nurture explanations of sex differences and similarities during the quarter century since the founding of the Association for Psychological Science. We consider how the increasing use of meta-analysis helped to clarify sex difference findings if not the causal explanations for these effects. To illustrate these developments, this article describes socialization and preferences for mates as two important areas of gender research. We also highlight developing research trends that address the interactive processes by which nature and nurture work together in producing sex differences and similarities. Such theorizing holds the promise of better science as well as a more coherent account of the psychology of women and men that should prove to be more influential with the broader public.

Four meta-analyses were conducted to examine gender differences in personality in the literature (1958-1992) and in normative data for well-known personality inventories (1940-1992). Males were found to be more assertive and had slightly higher self-esteem than females. Females were higher than males in extraversion, anxiety, trust, and, especially, tender-mindedness (e.g., nurturance). There were no noteworthy sex differences in , impulsiveness, activity, ideas (e.g., reflectiveness), locus of control, and orderliness. Gender differences in personality traits were generally constant across ages, years of data collection, educational levels, and nations.

The social constructionism perspective says that we never know what universal true or false is, what is good or bad, right or wrong; we know only stories about true, false, good, bad, right or wrong. The social constructionism abandons the idea of constructivist that individual’s mind represents a mirror of reality. The constructionism is focused on relations and sustains the individual’s role in social construction of realities. 67Maps for the same territory” seems to be the essence of constructivist. The social constructionism is not interested to create maps; it surprises the processes that maps form. Our maps are formed from our experience and how we perceive them. All our maps are differing maps of the same world. Each of us creates our own worlds from our perceptions of the actual world. The social constructionism sees the language, the communication and the speech as having the central role of the interactive process through which we understand the world and ourselves.

Abstract We examined the relationship between structural brain variation and general intelligence using voxel-based morphometric analysis of MRI data in men and women with equivalent IQ scores. Compared to men, women show more white matter and fewer gray matter areas related to intelligence. In men IQ/gray matter correlations are strongest in frontal and parietal lobes (BA 8, 9, 39, 40), whereas the strongest correlations in women are in the frontal lobe (BA10) along with Broca's area. Men and women apparently achieve similar IQ results with different brain regions, suggesting that there is no singular underlying neuroanatomical structure to general intelligence and that different types of brain designs may manifest equivalent intellectual performance.

Abstract A mechanism of perceptual analysis by which infants derive meaning from perceptual activity is described. Infants use this mechanism to redescribe perceptual information into image-schematic format. Image-schemas create conceptual structure from the spatial structure of objects and their movements, resulting in notions such as animacy, inanimacy, agency, and containment. These earliest meanings are nonpropositional, analogical representations grounded in the perceptual world of the infant. In contrast with most perceptual processing, which is not analyzed in this fashion, redescription into image-schematic format simplifies perceptual information and makes it potentially accessible for purposes of concept formation and thought. In addition to enabling preverbal thought, image-schemas provide a foundation for language acquisition by creating an interface between the continuous processes of perception and the discrete nature of language.

Abstract In this qualitative study the researchers adopted a case study design genre and utilized multiple data collection tools: focus group discussions, individual phenomenological interviews and discourse analysis to unmask the patriarchal nature of the Zimbabwean school curriculum. Our analysis of data thus involved content and discourse analyses of curricular material as well as the coding and decoding of participants' responses in accordance with the emerging themes. This approach was motivated by our quest to obtain deeper insights by examining the phenomenon in its natural setting. As a result they unraveled a wide range of the gender biases and prejudices embodied in the school curriculum, which entrench gender disparities by polarizing the educational and occupational aspira tions of boys and girls along gender lines. These results followed the interviewing of a sampl e of 40 participants distributed as 30 schoolgirls and 10 teachers and were also complemented by the content and discourse analyses conducted to selected curricular material. The participants were conveniently and purposively sampled. The results also revealed that through their classroom pedagogy teachers play an influentia l role in the perpetual production and peddling of gender role ideologies and stereotypes that culminate in the consequent gender polarization of social roles for boys and girls or men and women in society. The study also revealed that in spite of the level of consciousness on the need for equality and equity between women and men in society, the Zimbabwean school curriculum continues to play a significant role in the reproduction and structuring of gender role stereotypes, prejudices and disparities.

Abstract The current study utilized longitudinal, self-report data from a sample of 109 dual-earner, working-class couples and their 6-year-old children living in the northeastern United States. Research questions addressed the roles of parents' gender ideology and gendered behaviors in predicting children's development of gender-role attitudes. It was hypothesized that parents' behavior would be more influential than their ideology in the development of their children's attitudes about gender roles. Parents responded to questionnaires assessing their global beliefs about women's and men's "rightful" roles in society, work preferences for mothers, division of household and childcare tasks, division of paid work hours, and job traditionality. These data were collected at multiple time points across the first year of parenthood, and during a 6-year follow-up. At the final time point, children completed the Sex Roles Learning Inventory (SERLI), an interactive measure that assesses gender-role attitudes. Overall, mothers' and fathers' behaviors were better predictors of children's gender-role attitudes than parents' ideology. In addition, mothers and fathers played unique roles in their sons' and daughters' acquisition of knowledge about gender stereotypes. Findings from the current study fill gaps in the literature on children's gender development in the family context-particularly by examining the understudied role of fathers in children's acquisition of knowledge regarding gender stereotypes and through its longitudinal exploration of the relationship between parents' gender ideologies, parents' gendered behaviors, and children's gender-role attitudes.

Emerging evidence has shown that human thought can be embodied within physical sensations and actions. Indeed, abstract concepts such as morality, time, and interpersonal warmth can be based on metaphors that are grounded in bodily experiences (e.g., physical temperature can signal interpersonal warmth). We hypothesized that social-category knowledge is similarly embodied, and we tested this hypothesis by examining a sensory metaphor related to categorical judgments of gender. We chose the dimension of "toughness" (ranging from tough to tender), which is often used to characterize differences between males and females. Across two studies, the proprioceptive experience of toughness (vs. tenderness) was manipulated as participants categorized sex-ambiguous faces as male or female. Two different manipulations of proprioceptive toughness predictably biased the categorization of faces toward "male." These findings suggest that social-category knowledge is at least partially embodied.

Social-categorical knowledge is partially grounded in . In Study 1, participants describing "hard" and "soft" politicians, and "hard" and "soft" scientists used different "hard" and "soft" traits for the two groups, suggesting that the meaning of these traits is context specific. Studies 2 to 4 showed that both meanings were supported by hard and soft . Consistent with political stereotypes, perceivers viewing faces while handling a hard ball were more likely to categorize them as Republicans rather than as Democrats, compared to perceivers viewing the same faces while handling a soft ball (Study 2). Similarly, consistent with stereotypes of "hard" and "soft" academic disciplines, perceivers were more likely to categorize photographs of professors as physicists than historians when handling a hard versus soft ball (Study 3). Finally, thinking about Republicans and Democrats led participants to perceive a ball as harder or softer, respectively, suggesting that simulating might aid social-categorical thinking (Study 4).

Embodied cognition has attracted significant attention within cognitive science and related fields in recent years. It is most noteworthy for its emphasis on the inextricable connection between mental functioning and embodied activity and thus for its departure from standard cognitive science's implicit commitment to the unembodied mind. This article offers a review of embodied cognition's recent empirical and theoretical contributions and suggests how this movement has moved beyond standard cognitive science. The article then clarifies important respects in which embodied cognition has not departed fundamentally from the standard view. A shared commitment to representationalism, and ultimately, mechanism, suggest that the standard and embodied cognition movements are more closely related than is commonly acknowledged. Arguments against representationalism and mechanism are reviewed and an alternative position that does not entail these conceptual undergirdings is offered.

Uncertainty is an inescapable element of human life. But how do people deal with it? To date, most research has focused on the cognitive strategies people adopt to do so. In four experiments we examine, whether people may also use an alternative experiential route to cope with uncertainty. We demonstrate that (1) when faced with uncertainty, people seek soft haptic sensations (Experiments 1 and 2) and (2) that doing so is functional (Experiments 3 and 4). More specifically, we show that people shift their preference to objects with soft (i.e., soft-grip pen, soft candy) rather than hard properties (i.e., hard-grip pen, hard candy) when feeling uncertain. Furthermore, we show that holding something soft (i.e., a soft-grip pen, a soft cloth) as compared to something hard (i.e., a hard-grip pen, a hard cloth) reduces uncertainty on a subsequent ambiguous task and helps to shield against uncertainty in daily life by increasing tolerance toward uncertainty. Overall, this research reveals that humans may use their oldest and most fundamental sense – touch – as a basic experiential device to cope with uncertainty.

性别角色代表个人的社会性别,对个人乃至整个民族素质的发展有重要意义。随着时代的变化,当代大学生的性别角色观与性别角色也发生着变化。由于已有的性别角色测量工具多年来没有修订,因此,对当代大学生性别角色的测量亟需一个对发展变化敏感的有效测量工具。本研究根据性别角色研究的通行原则,基于1700个相关词汇,筛选出男女正性词各35个,中性词20个。在386名大学生中初测结果显示,男性化量表(16个题目)含领导力、男子气、理性、大度四个因子,体现出男性的"工具性"特质;女性化量表(16个题目)含同理心、女子气、勤俭心细三个因子,反映出女性的"表达性"特质;中性化量表则有18个题目。之后在全国5008名大学生中的复测表明,该男性化量表内部一致性系数为0.89,女性化量表为0.84;两个量表的重测信度分别为0.82和0.80;验证性因素分析显示该量表的结构效度良好,他评效度和专家效度较高。与已有性别角色量表比较,构成本量表的词汇有较大变化:男性化词汇体现的"理性化"特质反映出当代中国男性的特点;女性化词汇虽仍以"表达性"特质为主,但也体现了中国传统"勤俭心细"的特征。大样本调查发现,当代大学生性别角色双性化、未分化和单性化群体数量各占约三分之一;传统占优势的单性化已让位于非单性化;理想的双性化与最差的未分化同步增长;男性化比例男性高于女性,女性化比例女性高于男性,传统性别角色的影响减弱但依然存在。

知觉符号理论是第二代认知科学的核心理论之一,研究者采用多种实验范式、在各个领域对该理论进行了探讨.分析以往的研究发现,大量的研究主要探讨语言表征、概念获得、具身情绪、推理过程、社会认知和知觉符号发展等科学问题.本文对此领域的发展进行了简要梳理,特别是以实验范式发展为主线详细介绍了知觉符号理论的发展,并在此基础上提出了多元表征的思考.最后,对知觉符号理论的发展提出了展望.

The viewpoints of embodied cognition advocate that cognition is essentially embodied and the body plays a pivotal role in an organism’s cognitive processes. Traditional symbolic–computational theories assume conceptual representation is stored as abstract symbols in semantic memory, separated from systems governing perception and action. The embodied theories of conceptual representation hold that conceptual representation is grounded in the same neural systems that govern sensation, perception and action. According this viewpoint, concepts are essentially neural recordings during perceptual and motor experiences, and these recordings can later be re–enacted as the way of conceptual processing. Recent work has focused on the emergence of perceptual phenomena in conceptual processing, the effect of body movement on conceptual processing, the embodied effect for processing abstract conception, the embodied effect for processing combined concept and modality switching costs effect. Future researches should focus on combining symbolic–computational theories and embodied theories.