Perspectives

Environments shape reward learning, which can result in individual differences in behaviour. In this Perspective, Nussenbaum and Hartley consider the development of reward learning through the lens of meta-learning models, in particular meta-reinforcement learning.

Experiences of objects and features are biased to appear more like previously seen stimuli than they really are. In this Perspective, Manassi and Whitney describe this phenomenon of positive serial dependence and propose continuity fields as the underlying mechanism.

Theories of how human cognition differs from that of non-human animals often posit domain-specific advantages. In this Perspective, Cantlon and Piantadosi posit that differences in domain-general information capacity underlie uniquely human capacities.

Off-job recovery and optimal work motivation are vital for reducing or avoiding work stress and promoting occupational health and work performance. In this Perspective, Kujanpää and Olafsen propose a dual-pathway model of proactive recovery strategies that delineates how individuals can self-manage their off-job time through proactive recovery strategies to optimize motivation across life domains.

Social emotions such as guilt and gratitude serve adaptive functions critical to social interactions and relationships. In this Perspective, Yu and colleagues argue that to advance a mechanistic understanding of social emotions, an integrative approach is needed that considers goals and functions, cognitive operations and biological implementation.

Studies of the effect of sleep on learning and memory sometimes reveal conflicting or unreliable results. In this Perspective, Nemeth and colleagues review methodological challenges and make recommendations for improving the reliability of research in this field.

The p-factor is a construct that is thought to explain and perhaps cause variation in all forms of psychopathology. In this Perspective, Watts et al. outline theoretical and statistical challenges in the p-factor literature that raise questions about whether general factors of psychopathology are useful summaries of psychopathology variation.

Self-control is traditionally viewed as an individual-level struggle, reflecting prevailing notions of individual autonomy and personal responsibility. In this Perspective, Hofmann calls for a multilevel approach to self-control that considers not only how individuals may proactively shape their environments, but also how structural factors often shape individuals’ environments beyond their control.

Large language models (LLMs), which can generate and score text in human-like ways, have the potential to advance psychological measurement, experimentation and practice. In this Perspective, Demszky and colleagues describe how LLMs work, concerns about using them for psychological purposes, and how these concerns might be addressed.

Adaptive behaviour requires the ability to maintain focus on a task and to flexibly switch tasks, depending on the context. In this Perspective, Egner integrates the task focus and task switching literatures and suggests that cognitive stability and flexibility are supported by independent mechanisms.

Traditional syntheses are limited by methodological issues and the rapid rate of research production. In this Perspective, Sakaluk et al. propose a model for more useful syntheses that integrate data on impact, consistency, research credibility and sampling inclusivity and present these data in a modular and accessible way.

People can reason about the relationships between people and about other people’s emotions. In this Perspective, Smith-Flores and Powell review research in both domains and propose a framework of how people jointly reason about social affiliation and emotion.

People address societal problems by engaging in collective action to attempt to change underlying structural systems (cause-focused solutions) or prosocial behaviours to help those affected (consequence-focused solutions). In this Perspective, Brown and Craig draw on construal level theory and regulatory scope theory to understand why people engage in different forms of social action.

Behavioural economic accounts of addiction suggest that drug consumption arises from overvaluation of small, immediate rewards and drug-specific reinforcement. In this Perspective, Acuff et al. propose an extension to this reinforcer pathology model that highlights the critical role of alternative reinforcers in addiction motivation.

People belong to multiple social categories (such as those based on race, ethnicity, or gender) simultaneously. In this Perspective, Lei et al. propose a sociohistorical model of intersectional social prototypes that reconciles existing theories and generates testable hypotheses about the development and structure of social prototypes.

Neurocognitive evidence indicates that episodic memory and semantic memory have a more extensive role in creative ideation. In this Perspective, Benedek et al. integrate this memory research within existing creativity theorizing to present a framework whereby creative ideas arise across four distinguishable stages.

Fear is an adaptive response to threat, but is also implicated in clinical conditions. In this Perspective, Beckers et al. argue that harnessing the potential of Pavlovian fear conditioning as a laboratory model of clinical anxiety requires moving beyond the study of fear acquisition to associated phenomena: extinction, generalization and avoidance.

Whether human face-processing specialization arrives innately at birth or arises through experience across development is an enduring debate. In this Perspective, Scott and Arcaro argue for an experience-based account whereby face-processing specialization emerges from associative and non-associative learning constrained by intrinsic neurobiological mechanisms.

Philosophers of science have identified epistemological criteria for evaluating the promise of a scientific theory. In this Perspective, Dale et al. propose that a principle of methodological variety should be one of these criteria, and argue that psychologists should actively cultivate methodological variety to advance theory.

Individuals with anorexia nervosa persistently exert effortful behaviour such as restrictive eating that most individuals find aversive. In this Perspective, Haynos et al. propose a novel mechanistic account for why such behaviours persist from the social psychology theory of learned industriousness.