Applied Cognitive Psychology最新文献

Despite considerable interest in children's ability to provide temporal information, there remain many unanswered questions about what children can provide and how to elicit this information. In Study 1, children (N = 147, aged 5 to 10 years) participated in an activity session. Either shortly after or 1 day later, children completed an interview focused on temporal concepts: duration, temporal distance, day of the week. Children generally provided imprecise temporal information, though there was evidence of a developmental improvement in accuracy. There was little evidence of a negative impact of delay to recall on children's accuracy. In Study 2, children (N = 139, aged 6 to 12 years) participated in an activity session and 3 days later completed an interview about duration and temporal distance. Overall, accuracy was low, but most estimates were reasonable. The present studies have implications for both what is considered an accurate response and for what degree of temporal precision is reasonable to request from children.

How should we measure people's vulnerability to unreasonable conspiracy theories? This is a key question for those designing interventions that aim to limit the spread of inaccurate beliefs. We argue that existing approaches are either too specific (measuring belief in a known conspiracy theory) or too general (measuring broad beliefs about the world). We developed the critical thinking about conspiracies (CTAC) assessment, where participants critically assess fictional conspiracies. Across five studies (N = 3977), we separately validated an 8-item brief version and a 15-item long version of the CTAC. Both versions have a two-factor solution, where the ability to correctly appraise implausible and plausible conspiracy theories is distinct but interrelated components. The CTAC demonstrates convergent validity with conspiracy ideation and cognitive reflection. The CTAC can be easily administered online and takes approximately 5–10 min to complete.

Studies of childhood amnesia have shown that most adults cannot remember events from before the age of about 3.5. A recent line of work, however, has shown that some individuals remember earlier events but misdate them to later ages (known as telescoping). This study takes a complementary approach by searching for memories that cannot be telescoped—in this case, memories of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Three hundred and two young adults were asked about their memory of 9/11 (mean age on 9/11 = 4.4; SD = 2.1; range 1.8–13.5). Over 50% of participants who were between 4 and 5 at the time had a flashbulb memory, and a substantial minority of participants had strong memories even though they were between 2 and 3 at the time. The results provide further evidence that people frequently remember events from very early childhood—at least when they are powerful events that typically elicit a flashbulb.

This experimental study explores how dual-process theories of decision-making may enrich our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms supporting Mass Transit (MT) users' route choices. We examined whether Type 1 (i.e., autonomous and heuristic-based) and Type 2 (i.e., deliberative and criteria-based) processing may explain how on-board crowding information in smartphone route planning apps influences willingness to wait for less crowded routes. The data of 377 participants who completed an online experiment simulating route planning for 35 trips in central Paris were analysed. The willingness to wait phenomenon was found to be driven by two distinct information-processing mechanisms: (1) deliberative evaluation of explicit crowding, waiting, and in-vehicle time information, and (2) autonomous heuristics activated by implicit colour cues associated with green-orange-red crowding levels. The findings of this study highlight passenger crowding as a key route selection criterion and illustrate the relevance of dual-process theories in passengers' decision-making in MT.

Technology plays a prominent role in contemporary education. In this special issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology, we compiled a collection of articles that employed technological advancements in the training of knowledge and skills. Some articles use simulations, such as virtual environments and 2D and 3D avatars. Other articles compare various presentation modalities and pedagogical agents. Many of the research articles leverage the advantages of technology, such as learning management systems that offer the ability to deliver training bursts and collect user data, automatic immediate feedback, and interactive experiences. In our introduction, we review the important elements of training—with or without technology—through the identification of seven key topics that represent the papers in this special issue: feedback, practice, motivation, levels of learning, cognitive load, simulations, and pedagogical agents. We consider the advantages, disadvantages, and critical principles of technology in education, with an emphasis on skills training.