Social cognition evolves: illustrations from our work on intergroup bias and on healthy adaptation / La Cognición Social evoluciona: ilustraciones de nuestro trabajo sobre Sesgo Intergrupal y Adaptación Saludable

When we first wrote Social Cognition (1984), social psychology's crisis critiqued methods, replicability, theory, and relevance. Social cognition research illustrates four phases of response to these challenges. First, the Cognitive Miser approach introduced methods less prone to experimenter or participant interference: looking time as attention, categorical memory for who said what. Next, the Motivated Tactician approach addressed replicability by identifying moderator variables, primarily goals and motivations. For example, interdependence (Fiske) and threat (Taylor) are prominent motivations in our respective research. The third wave, perceivers as Activated Actors, translated mental states to behavior, using theory-guided prediction. In intergroup bias, for example, Fiske's Stereotype Content Model predicts patterns of discriminatory behavior distinctive to each combination of stereotypic warmth and competence. Going beyond reported behavior, distinctive activations emerged in brain-imaging and muscle responses. In health psychology, Taylor's Positive Illusions theory predicts people cope with life-threatening illness by viewing the odds optimistically, the self positively, and possible control affirmatively. Again, the social cognitive processes interplay with psycho-physiology. Recently, social cognitive approaches have increasingly addressed inequality: health disparities, bias interventions, power dynamics, class effects, social morality, and intent inferences. Viewing perceivers as Inequality Enablers answers any remaining doubts about the field's continuing relevance

Cuando escribimos por primera vez Social Cognition (1984), la crisis de la psicología social cuestionaba los métodos, la replicabilidad, la teoría y la relevancia. La investigación sobre cognición social presenta cuatro fases en respuesta a estos desafíos. En primer lugar, el enfoque de la Avaricia Cognitiva introdujo métodos menos propensos a la interferencia del experimentador o del participante: considerar el tiempo como atención, o la memoria categórica para quién dijo qué. Posteriormente, el enfoque de la Motivación Táctica abordó la replicabilidad, al identificar variables moderadoras, principalmente objetivos y motivaciones. Por ejemplo, la interdependencia (Fiske) y la amenaza (Taylor) son motivaciones prominentes en nuestra respectiva investigación. Durante la tercera ola, los perceptores como Actores Activados transformaron los estados mentales en comportamiento, utilizando predicciones guiadas por la teoría. En el sesgo intergrupal, por ejemplo, el Modelo de Contenido de Estereotipos de Fiske predice patrones de comportamiento discriminatorio diferentes para cada combinación de calidez y competencia estereotípicas. Yendo más allá de la conducta manifiesta, surgieron activaciones distintivas en imágenes cerebrales y respuestas musculares. En psicología de la salud, la teoría de las Ilusiones Positivas de Taylor predice que las personas se enfrentan con las enfermedades mortales viendo las posibilidades de manera optimista, su autoimagen positivamente, y el posible control afirmativamente. Nuevamente, los procesos cognitivos sociales interactúan con la psicofisiología. Recientemente, los enfoques cognitivos sociales han abordado la desigualdad: desigualdades en salud, intervenciones sesgadas, dinámicas de poder, efectos de clase, moralidad social, e inferencias intencionadas. Considerando a los perceptores como Facilitadores de la Desigualdad responde cualquier duda que pudiese quedar acerca de la relevancia de este campo en la actualidad

Editors' Introduction: Remembering With Others: Conversational Dynamics and Mnemonic Outcomes.

Remembering the past through conversations with others is a uniquely human endeavor. Conversational remembering consists of specific dynamics and can lead to mnemonic outcomes. While conversational dynamics refer to the interactive processes (e.g., the roles speakers and listeners may undertake during the conversation) shaping collaborative remembering, conversational outcomes are about the mnemonic and functional consequences (e.g., forging social bonds) of those processes. Thus, the aim of the present article is to introduce the reader to key concepts and paradigms that have been rigorously developed to empirically investigate the dynamics and outcomes of conversational remembering in cognitive research. The collected review and empirical articles gathered in this topic provide the state-of-the-art in the field.

Thinking through other minds: A variational approach to cognition and culture.

The processes underwriting the acquisition of culture remain unclear. How are shared habits, norms, and expectations learned and maintained with precision and reliability across large-scale sociocultural ensembles? Is there a unifying account of the mechanisms involved in the acquisition of culture? Notions such as "shared expectations," the "selective patterning of attention and behaviour," "cultural evolution," "cultural inheritance," and "implicit learning" are the main candidates to underpin a unifying account of cognition and the acquisition of culture; however, their interactions require greater specification and clarification. In this article, we integrate these candidates using the variational (free-energy) approach to human cognition and culture in theoretical neuroscience. We describe the construction by humans of social niches that afford epistemic resources called cultural affordances. We argue that human agents learn the shared habits, norms, and expectations of their culture through immersive participation in patterned cultural practices that selectively pattern attention and behaviour. We call this process "thinking through other minds" (TTOM) - in effect, the process of inferring other agents' expectations about the world and how to behave in social context. We argue that for humans, information from and about other people's expectations constitutes the primary domain of statistical regularities that humans leverage to predict and organize behaviour. The integrative model we offer has implications that can advance theories of cognition, enculturation, adaptation, and psychopathology. Crucially, this formal (variational) treatment seeks to resolve key debates in current cognitive science, such as the distinction between internalist and externalist accounts of theory of mind abilities and the more fundamental distinction between dynamical and representational accounts of enactivism.

A measure of knowledge flow between specific fields: Implications of interdisciplinarity for impact and funding.

Encouraging knowledge flow between mutually relevant disciplines is a worthy aim of research policy makers. Yet, it is less clear what types of research promote cross-disciplinary knowledge flow and whether such research generates particularly influential knowledge. Empirical questions remain as to how to identify knowledge-flow mediating research and how to provide support for this research. This study contributes to addressing these gaps by proposing a new way to identify knowledge-flow mediating research at the individual research article level, instead of at more aggregated levels. We identify journal articles that link two mutually relevant disciplines in three ways-aggregating, bridging, and diffusing. We then examine the likelihood that these papers receive subsequent citations or have funding acknowledgments. Our case study of cognitive science and educational research knowledge flow suggests that articles that aggregate knowledge from multiple disciplines are cited significantly more often than are those whose references are drawn primarily from a single discipline. Interestingly, the articles that meet the criteria for being considered knowledge-flow mediators are less likely to reflect funding, based on reported acknowledgements, than were those that did not meet these criteria. Based on these findings, we draw implications for research policymakers.

Is Psychology Headed in the Right Direction? Yes, No, and Maybe.

In this piece, I first celebrate the growing contribution of psychology to the understanding and solution of pressing social issues. Then, despite these exciting developments, I worry about whether we have created a field that our students want to spend their lives in, and I suggest concerns that might fruitfully be addressed. Finally, I worry about the potential fragmentation of psychology and applaud programs of research that have shown the unique and important contributions to be made when the methods and perspectives of neuroscience, cognitive science, and computational modeling are integrated with those of social, personality, and developmental psychology. In sum, although this is an exciting time for our field, we can do more to ensure its vigor and its truly interdisciplinary nature as we move forward.

The future of safety science is happening now: The modernization of the benefit-risk paradigm.

The future of safety science is happening now and has the potential to improve patient outcomes through an evolving approach to benefit-risk assessment. Three building blocks for the future of safety science, cognitive and behavioral systems, medical assessment, and data science, individually and collaboratively advance and modernize the benefit-risk paradigm. Incorporating the patient perspective and patient experiences will help identify tools that are useful in real-world practice. Medical assessment teams will bring together the study of toxicity and toxicogenomics, biomarkers, and special populations to personalize the benefit-risk profile. Personalized benefit-risk profiles for patients will help improve outcomes. Data science and related quantitative sciences such as safety statistics, database integration, technology, and epidemiology will provide new approaches and tools for analysis of safety data as well as more rapid access to insights that benefit patients.

Aptitud física y habilidades cognitivas / Aptidão física e habilidades cognitivas / Physical fitness and cognitive skills

Objetivo. Evaluar la correlación entre la aptitud física y las habilidades cognitivas en niños y niñas del nivel transición II de la comuna de Temuco, Chile. Método. Se utilizó el Test de Marcha de seisminutos para determinar la aptitud física y el ítem habilidades cognitivas de la Batería Evalúa-0. Resultados. Se encontró correlación positiva en niños y niñas con aptitud física apta y las variables clasificación, series y letras y números del ítem habilidades cognitivas. En la variable organización perceptiva no se encontró correlación estadísticamente significativa. Conclusión. La aptitud física influye en el desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas que favorecen aprendizajes curriculares en el ámbito escolar como la lectura y la matemática (AU)

Objetivo. Avaliar a correlação entre a aptidão física e habilidades cognitivas em crianças no nível de transição II em Temuco, Chile. Método. Foi utilizado o Teste de Caminhada de seisminutos para determinar a aptidão física e da as habilidades cognitivas na Bateria Evalúa-0. Resultados. Foi encontrado uma correlação positiva em crianças (as) com boa aptidão física e a classificação variáveis série, letras e números de série nos itens de habilidades cognitivas. Na variável organização perceptiva, não se encontrou correlação estatisticamente significativa. Conclusão. A aptidão física influencia no desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivas que favorecem a aprendizagem curricular nas escolas como a leitura e matemática (AU)

Objective. To assess the correlation between physical fitness and cognitive skills in children's transition II level of the commune of Temuco, Chile. Method. The sixminute Walk Test was used to determine the physical fitness and for the cognitive skills item from the Battery Evalúa-0. Results. A positive correlation was found in children with suitable physical fitness and classification variables, series and letters and numbers from the cognitive skill item. In the perceptual organization variable, no statistically significant correlation was found. Conclusion. Physical fitness influences the development of cognitive skills that promote curricular learning in schools as reading and mathematics (AU)

Reflecting on Jens Rasmussen's legacy (2) behind and beyond, a 'constructivist turn'.

This article is the second part of a study on the legacy of Jens Rasmussen. The first article, subtitled 'A Strong Program for a Hard Problem', looks back on his 30 years of scientific contribution, from 1969 to 2000. This second article explores and investigates some of the intellectual roots which influenced his thinking, using them as a basis to understand some limits and move forward. Indeed, historically oriented studies such as this one are not only tributes to researchers, but a way to differentiate and contrast our present situation with the past in order to integrate contemporary trends, be they theoretical or empirical, or oriented towards research and new models. In the first section of this article, I offer a synthesis of the background covered in the previous article, but I use a tree here as a graphical complement. Branches of the tree show the many fruitful directions opened by Jens Rasmussen, directions which inspired many researchers. In the second part, I address what I believe to be behind this wealth of engineering legacy: cybernetics. I contend that cybernetics has had a profound influence on his thinking and provided him key principles for his inspiring and successful models. To develop the tree image, one might say that cybernetics is the trunk of the tree. Finally, in the third part, I take the opportunity to explore the relevance of extending and sensitising his program to constructivist discourses. After an introduction to this discourse, identifying four types of constructivisms (cognitive, social, epistemological and anthropological), I characterise this move as a 'constructivist turn'.

Do potential past and future events activate the Left- Right Mental Timeline? / ¿Hay activación de la línea mental del tiempo de izquierda a derecha para eventos potenciales?

Current evidence provides support for the idea that time is mentally represented by spatial means, i.e., a left-right mental timeline. However, available studies have tested only factual events, i.e., those which have occurred in the past or can be predicted to occur in the future. In the present study we tested whether past and future potential events are also represented along the left-right mental timeline. In Experiment 1 participants categorized the temporal reference (past or future) of either real or potential events and responded by means of a lateralized (left or right) keypress. Factual events showed a space-time congruency effect that replicated prior findings: Participants were faster to categorize past events with the left hand and future events with the right hand than when using the opposite mapping. Crucially, this also ocurred for potential events. Experiment 2 replicated this finding using blocks of trials comprising only potential events. In order to assess the degree of automaticity of the activation of the mental timeline in these two kinds of events, Experiment 3 asked participants to judge whether the expressions referred to factual or potential events. In this case, there was no space-time congruency effect, showing that the lateralized timeline is active only when relevant to the task. Moreover, participants were faster to categorize potential events with the left hand and real events with the right hand than when using the opposite mapping, suggesting for the first time a link between the mental representations of lateral space and potentiality (AU)

La evidencia experimental disponible actualmente sustenta la afirmación de que el tiempo se representa mediante una línea mental del tiempo que va de izquierda a derecha. Sin embargo, todos los estudios hasta el momento examinan eventos factuales, es decir, aquéllos que efectivamente han ocurrido en el pasado o que con certeza sucederán en el futuro. En el presente estudio examinamos si los eventos potenciales pasados y futuros también se representan a lo largo de una línea mental lateral. En el Experimento 1 los participantes categorizaron la referencia temporal (pasado o futuro) tanto de eventos factuales como potenciales presionando una tecla de respuesta lateralizada (izquierda o derecha). Los eventos factuales mostraron un efecto de congruencia espaciotiempo que replica los hallazgos previos: los participantes fueron más rápidos para categorizar eventos pasados con la mano izquierda y eventos futuros con la mano derecha, en comparación con la asignación motora opuesta. Crucialmente, lo mismo ocurrió para los eventos potenciales. El Experimento 2 replicó estos hallazgos usando bloques compuestos sólo por ensayos con eventos potenciales. Con el objetivo de evaluar la automaticidad de la línea mental del tiempo, el Experimento 3 solicitó a los participantes juzgar si las mismas expresiones se referían a eventos factuales o potenciales. En este caso, no se encontró el efecto de congruencia espaciotiempo, mostrando que la línea mental del tiempo se activa sólo cuando es relevante a la resolución de la tarea. Además, los participantes fueron más rápidos para categorizar los eventos potenciales con la mano izquierda y los eventos fácticos con la mano derecha, en comparación con la asignación motora opuesta. Este resultado sugiere, por primera vez, una relación entre las representaciones mentales del espacio lateralizado y la potencialidad (AU)

Reply to reviewers: Reuse, embodied interactivity, and the emerging paradigm shift in the human neurosciences.

In this reply to reviewers, I argue that, although reforming the taxonomy of psychology will lead to great insights in the cognitive sciences, it will not result in 1:1 structure-function mappings in the brain; we should expect to see a great deal of irreducible functional diversity in the brain at multiple spatial scales. I further clarify both the promise and the limitations of the analytic techniques for capturing functional diversity and interrogating the taxonomy of psychology; describe the ways in which neural reuse can help us understand human development; further explore the ways in which my proposals for integrating psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology differ from the approach exemplified by contemporary evolutionary psychology; and lay out some new and hopefully interesting avenues for future research.

After phrenology: Time for a paradigm shift in cognitive science.

Anderson (2014) uses an impressive, consolidating review of the literature to argue for major changes in cognitive science. Arguably, however, much of what he proposes is not particularly new. He also neglects important predictive coding approaches that call his perspective of the brain into question, and his misconstrual of evolutionary psychology devalues an influential paradigm that promises to complement his own.

Identifying and individuating cognitive systems: a task-based distributed cognition alternative to agent-based extended cognition.

This article argues for a task-based approach to identifying and individuating cognitive systems. The agent-based extended cognition approach faces a problem of cognitive bloat and has difficulty accommodating both sub-individual cognitive systems ("scaling down") and some supra-individual cognitive systems ("scaling up"). The standard distributed cognition approach can accommodate a wider variety of supra-individual systems but likewise has difficulties with sub-individual systems and faces the problem of cognitive bloat. We develop a task-based variant of distributed cognition designed to scale up and down smoothly while providing a principled means of avoiding cognitive bloat. The advantages of the task-based approach are illustrated by means of two parallel case studies: re-representation in the human visual system and in a biomedical engineering laboratory.

La función ejecutiva en la esquizofrenia y su asociación con las habilidades cognitivas sociales (mentalistas) / Executive dysfunction in schizophrenia and its association with mentalizing abilities

Introducción. En la esquizofrenia se han encontrado alteraciones en aspectos importantes de la cognición básica y social. El objetivo de este estudio es explorar la relación entre deficiencias en función ejecutiva (FE) y en teoría de la mente(TM) en pacientes que sufren esta enfermedad. Materiales y métodos. Veintidós pacientes de habla hispana y 22 controles emparejados a los primeros en edad, sexo, educación, lengua dominante y CI premórbido fueron evaluados en FE y capacidad de TM. Para evaluar las FE se utilizaron 10 tareas que abarcan 5 dimensiones cognitivas, mientras que, para evaluar la TM, se han usado 3 tareas distintas. Para explorar el grado de asociación entre habilidades ejecutivas y cognitivas sociales (mentalistas) se han empleado técnicas de análisis correlacional. A través del análisis discriminante, se ha examinado la contribución relativa de cada tarea ejecutiva y mentalista a la hora de discriminar entre pacientes y controles. Resultados. Los pacientes presentaron alteraciones tanto en su capacidad ejecutiva como cognitiva social. El análisis de correlación mostró una ausencia de asociación entre las FE y las habilidades de TM dentro del grupo de pacientes, mientras que el patrón fue más bien opuesto en el grupo control. El rendimiento en TM fue más preciso que el rendimiento ejecutivo para predecir a qué grupo pertenecían los participantes. Conclusiones. Aunque los déficits en FE y en TM aparecen conjuntamente en la esquizofrenia, ambos pertenecen a dominios cognitivos distintos y relativamente independientes (AU)

Introduction. Patients with schizophrenia have been found impaired in important aspects of their basic and social cognition. Our aim in this study is to explore the relationship between executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) deficiencies in patients that suffer the illness. Materials and methods. Twenty-two Spanish-speaking inpatients and 22 healthy controls matched in age, sex, education, language dominance, and premorbid IQ were assessed in EF and ToM abilities. The former were assessed using 10 tasks that covered 5 cognitive dimensions and the latter using 3 different tasks. Correlation analyses were used to explore the level of association between executive and mentalizing abilities. A series of discriminant function analyses were carried out to examine the relative contribution of each executive and mentalizing task to discriminate between patients and controls. Results. Patients showed impairments in both, executive and ToM abilities. The correlation analyses showed a virtual absence of association between EF and ToM abilities within the group of patients, and an almost opposite pattern within the healthy group. ToM performance was more accurate than executive performance to discriminate patients from controls. Conclusions. Although EFs and ToM deficits come into view together in schizophrenia, they appear to belong to different and relatively independent cognitive domains (AU)

Closing thoughts for cognitive enhancement.

The wide-ranging field of cognition enhancing research along with its ethics as it stands today is summarized. In the forefront are potentially novel drugs and non-pharmacological treatments for cognitive impairment across many different psychiatric and neurologic indications. Today's research will bring new drugs to patients tomorrow, and tomorrow's research will bring new molecular targets to clinical development that should be cognitive domain-specific. There is the likelihood that special populations may be better treated and that personalized medicine for cognitive impairment could become a reality. It is conceivable that with the current research effort, cognition enhancing drugs will become available to wide-ranging populations of people with neuropsychiatric illness and to those that are healthy. In some cultures, there is a push in society to be more intelligent or have more cognitive prowess. Thus, the ethical use of cognitive enhancing drugs should be an area of debate and communication. Neuroethics is a growing field and it intends to bring together key contributors such as physicians, disease experts, regulatory officials, and policy makers to discuss how such medicines can or should be made available. Together with this, one has to consider the possibility that no single medicine or technology will have a great impact on cognition and, therefore, combination therapy of drugs plus other approaches like exercise or transcranial direct-current stimulation may be the path forward. This is another area of scientific inquiry and debate, and the results should be fruitful and helpful to patients. The science of cognition is advancing at a rapid rate, and communication of its progress along with the development of rational and ethical policies for use of cognitive enhancers will be beneficial.