Factors influencing the update of beliefs regarding controversial political issues

When updating beliefs in light of new information, people preferentially integrate information that is consistent with their prior beliefs and helps them construe a coherent view of the world. Such a selective integration of new information likely contributes to belief polarisation and compromises public discourse. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the factors that underlie biased belief updating. To this end, I conducted three pre-registered experiments covering different controversial political issues (i.e., Experiment 1: climate change, Experiment 2: speed limit on highways, Experiment 3: immigration in relation to violent crime). The main hypothesis was that negative reappraisal of new information (referred to as “cognitive immunisation”) hinders belief updating. Support for this hypothesis was found only in Experiment 2. In all experiments, the magnitude of the prediction error (i.e., the discrepancy between prior beliefs and new information) was strongly related to belief updating. Across experiments, participants’ general attitudes regarding the respective issue influenced the strength of beliefs, but not their update. The present findings provide some indication that the engagement in cognitive immunisation can lead to the maintenance of beliefs despite disconfirming information. However, by far the largest association with belief updating was with the magnitude of the prediction error.

Anthracene-induced formation of highly twisted metallacycle and its crystal structure and tunable assembly behaviors

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) continue to attract increasing interest with respect to their applications as luminescent materials. The ordered structure of the metal−organic complex facilitates the selective integration of PAHs that can be tuned to function cooperatively. Here, a unique highly twisted anthracene-based organoplatinum metallacycle was prepared via coordination-driven self-assembly. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the metallacycle was twisted through the cooperation of strong π···π stacking interactions and steric hindrance between two anthracene-based ligands. Notably, the intramolecular twist and aggregation behavior introduced restrictions to the conformational change of anthracenes, which resulted in increased emission intensity of the metallacycle in solution. The emission behaviors and suprastructures based on the highly twisted metallacycle can be modulated by the introduction of different solvents. This study demonstrates that this metallacycle with highly twisted structure is a promising candidate for sensing and bioimaging applications.

Selective Integration

After Henry Kissinger’s secret visit in 1971, China claimed its seat at the United Nations and set about learning how to deal with global institutions. The country’s entrance into the organization was eye-opening for Chinese diplomats and also began a process of international integration that would see Beijing establish ties with virtually every other country in the world. Still, China’s international integration was slowed by continuing political uncertainty at home, which was settled only after the death of Mao, the fall of the Gang of Four, and the eventual ascendancy of Deng Xiaoping.

Offline knowledge assimilations ensue online obscurity to inspire implicit learning

Passive priming of prior knowledge to assimilate ongoing experiences underlies advanced cognitive processing. However, the necessary neural dynamics of memory assimilation remains elusive. Uninstructed brain could also show boosted creativity, particularly after idling states, yet it remains unclear whether the idling brain can spontaneously spark relevant knowledge assimilations. We established a paradigm that links/separates context-dependent memories according to geometrical similarities. Mice exploring one of four contexts one day before undergoing contextual fear conditioning in a square context showed a gradual fear transfer to pre-exposed geometrically relevant contexts next day, but not after 15 min. Anterior cingulate cortex neurons representing relevant, rather than distinct, memories were significantly co-reactivated during post-conditioning sleep only, before their selective integration next day during testing. Disrupting sleep co-reactivations prevented assimilation while preserving recent memory consolidation. Thus, assimilating pertinent memories during sleep through co-reactivation of their respective engrams represents the neural underpinnings of sleep-triggered implicit cortical learning.

Chapter 7: Selective Integration: Roles for Public Health, Kinesiology, and Physical Education

The authors explore the priorities for American physical education in the 21st century and reconsider the role of physical education teacher education. Purpose: This chapter will discuss the potential intersection of kinesiology, physical education, and public health with the assumption that their selective integration has the potential to stimulate the development of innovative pedagogical practices and new program designs. Method: A narrative summary of published works was used to support the rationale for reciprocal selective integration to increase the impact of physical education, kinesiology, and public health efforts to enhance health and well-being. Results: The practices and programs should be specialized and pedagogically focused to advance integrative, community-based approaches designed to achieve the national physical education standards and improve health and well-being. These new approaches are timely and essential in schools and communities, especially those where children and families experience adversity. Discussion/Conclusion: There are many ways in which selective integration can transpire. A redesign of physical education teacher education is warranted and timely.

Moving Time vs. Frame-relative motion

There is an elaborate analogy between Moving Time (composed of primary metaphors; e.g. Christmas is approaching) and Frame-relative Fictive Motion (e.g. Your destination is approaching). It has been suggested that this analogy could be involved in the motivation of Moving Time. However, a semantic frame analysis that includes all stages of the motion event shows that this analogy could not be involved in the motivation of Moving Time. It is further argued that Moving Time and Frame-relative Fictive Motion are instances of different types of cognitive-semantic structure. Moving Time is a selective integration of concepts from frames that do not share elements with each other, whereas Frame-relative Fictive Motion presupposes a single semantic frame. For the purpose of distinguishing fictive motion from primary metaphor (e.g. Moving Time), Coextension-path and Pattern-path fictive motion are studied in addition to Frame-relative. These three types of fictive motion can be distinguished from primary metaphor because they involve the integration of concepts from frames that share specific structure, whereas primary metaphor involves frames that do not share specific structure. In a preliminary classification of fictive motion as a type of metaphor, all three types of fictive motion discussed may be classified as resemblance-based metaphors. Coextension-path and Frame-relative fictive motion are also motivated by correlations in experience. These correlations, however, are different in kind from those that motivate primary metaphor.