神经科学与心理学2016nature.com
共情能力与计算能力之间存在负相关
Study finds negative association between empathizing and calculation ability
进阶 · 约 35 分钟读完前置知识：基础统计学（相关分析）、心理测量与问卷效度、共情/系统化理论
导读
这篇研究在儿童样本中考察共情（empathizing）与计算/算术能力之间的关系，报告二者存在负相关。论文使用家长填写的共情与系统化问卷，以及计算技能和数学流畅性测验；但只能保守地说它发现的是关联，不能说明因果或机制。
HN 关注点：HN 读者围绕这一负相关是否真实展开：是脑网络拮抗、统计上被少数高计算低共情儿童驱动，还是家长报告和数学焦虑传播等测量与机制问题。
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这几条评论里：质疑 2 补充 2
补充指出已有神经影像证据支持共情与逻辑网络拮抗，认为这比社会传播解释更可信。
我很好奇，论文和这里的评论都没提到既往神经影像实验：与共情相关的脑网络和与逻辑思考相关的脑网络是拮抗的，似乎不可能同时活跃。这种怀疑有长期科普传统，可追溯到荣格心理学（思维 vs 情感被视为原始二分），也体现在社会笨拙书呆子的刻板印象和科技行业结构里（销售与工程分部门，创业常说要 hustler 和 hacker）。作为解释，这比“数学差可能通过社会传播”更可能，当然还需要严格实验验证。
nostrademons查看英文原文
Curious to see no mention (in the paper or comments here) of previous neuro-imaging experiments that showed that brain networks associated with empathy and those associated with logical thought are antagonists, and it does not appear to be possible to have both active at the same time: http://blog.case.edu/think/2012/10/30/empathy_represses_analytic_thought_and_vice_versa There's a long pop-science suspicion of this, dating back to Jungian psychology (where Thinking vs. Feeling was considered a primitive dichotomy). It's enshrined in many of our stereotypes about socially awkward nerds, and also in the structure of the tech industry (which has separate departments for sales vs. engineering, and common wisdom that you need a hustler & a hacker for startups). This seems much more likely, as an explanation, than ideas that poor math performance may be transmitted socially, although of course it'd need to be rigorously tested in an experiment to be proven.
质疑质疑结果由少数高计算低共情儿童驱动，整体数据可能并不相关。
在我看来，结果主要是被一群计算技能很高、共情商数相对较低的孩子带偏了。去掉这群人，其余数据乍看并不相关。方法上，Math Fluency 测的是限时算术程序应用，包含 10 以内加减乘；Calculation Skills 综合分合并了 Calculation 和 Math Fluency 子测验。家长填写 EQ-C 和 SQ-C，问卷设计成家长报告是为了避免儿童阅读理解能力差异带来的方差。另一种总结是：112 名儿童中，按算术计算速度排在后 105 名的人里，算术速度和家长评估的共情没有统计显著相关；速度前 7 名的家长则一致认为孩子共情低于平均。
jacobolus查看英文原文
Looks to me mostly like a cluster of kids with very high “calculation skills” and relatively low “empathizing quotient” is skewing their result. If you remove that group, the remaining data looks pretty uncorrelated at a glance: http://www.nature.com/articles/srep23011/figures/1 “Math Fluency is a measure of speeded application of arithmetic procedures. Problems included a mix of addition, subtraction, and multiplication with operands up to 10. Children were given 3 minutes to complete as many as possible. We computed a Calculation Skills composite measure, which combines the Calculation and Math Fluency subtests, in order to have a single measure capturing arithmetic ability. “The primary guardian of each child completed the Combined Empathy Quotient-Child (EQ-C) and Systemizing Quotient-Child (SQ-C). The questionnaire was designed to be parent-report in order to avoid variance associated with children’s reading and comprehension abilities.” Alternative summary: “Out of 112 children, among the bottom 105 children when ranked by arithmetic calculation speed, there’s no statistically significant correlation between arithmetic calculation speed and parental assessment of child empathy. The parents of the top 7 performers by arithmetic calculation speed uniformly think their kids have below-average empathy.”
质疑批评家长报告效度，并提出欺凌等混淆因素。
“问卷设计成家长报告以避免儿童阅读理解能力差异带来的方差”，这看起来像是为了去掉较小变量而引入更大变量，和当前标准相悖。给孩子做诊断时，心理学家总会和孩子交谈，因为只听描述很容易得出错误结论；诊断常先由父母描述引起怀疑，短访谈后就被推翻。读完文章我还想知道，高数学成绩与成为欺凌受害者之间有什么相关，以及欺凌如何影响孩子的社会与共情技能。
belorn查看英文原文
"The questionnaire was designed to be parent-report in order to avoid variance associated with children’s reading and comprehension abilities.” That seems to be as removing smaller variables by introducing a bigger one, which seems counter to current standards. When a child is being diagnosed, the physiologist always talk with the child, as its very easy to get the wrong conclusion by hearing the child being described. Its not uncommon for a diagnose to be first suspected from the descriptions that the parents gives, and then be reverted after just a short interview with the child. After reading the article, I also wonder what correlation there is with high math achievements and being a victim of bullying, and how bullying effects the perceived social and empathy skills of a child.
补充关注数学焦虑社会传播机制及低共情免疫假说。
他们似乎假设导致这一结果的机制是数学焦虑可以像疾病一样传播，而低共情个体在某种程度上免疫。值得弄清楚是什么让数学焦虑可传播，还有哪些态度可能通过类似机制传播并产生可测量的影响。
csense查看英文原文
They seem to be hypothesizing that the mechanism causing this result is that math anxiety can be transmitted like a disease, and lower empathy individuals are somewhat immune. It would be worthwhile to figure out what makes math anxiety transmittable, and what other attitudes might be transmitted by a similar mechanism and lead to measurable impact.
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