Learning to Attend and to Ignore Is a Matter of Gains and Losses

ABSTRACT— Efficient goal-directed behavior in a crowded world is crucially mediated by visual selective attention (VSA), which regulates deployment of cognitive resources toward selected, behaviorally relevant visual objects. Acting as a filter on perceptual representations, VSA allows preferential processing of relevant objects and concurrently inhibits traces of irrelevant items, thus preventing harmful distraction. Recent evidence showed that monetary rewards for performance on VSA tasks strongly affect immediately subsequent deployment of attention; a typical aftereffect of VSA (negative priming) was found only following highly rewarded selections. Here we report a much more striking demonstration that the controlled delivery of monetary rewards also affects attentional processing several days later. Thus, the propensity to select or to ignore specific visual objects appears to be strongly biased by the more or less rewarding consequences of past attentional encounters with the same objects.     

Visitors' Motivations to Attend Special Events at Art Galleries: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

With the growth in the number of special events being staged, the special event industry is becoming recognized as one that is influencing developments in tourism and related industries and institutions. Art galleries are one such institution increasingly recognizing the importance of special events to their audience development strategies. Special events enable galleries to make themselves more appealing to both their regular visitors and people who would not normally visit, because such events offer something that is “out of the ordinary” in comparison to what is normally offered. This article presents the findings of an exploratory study investigating the factors that motivate visitors to attend special events in galleries. Visitors were identified as either frequent visitors or occasional visitors. Interviews were conducted with 20 visitors who were attending 1 of 2 different events at 2 different art galleries. The different motivations expressed by the frequent visitors and the occasional visitors are described qualitatively and illustrated by direct quotations from participants' responses.     

Encouraging People With Mood Disorders to Attend a Self‐Help Group1

Using an intervention based on referent power, self‐help sponsors sought to encourage attendance at self‐help meetings. They encouraged patients with major depression or bipolar disorder to attend self‐help meetings following their hospitalizations. The intervention successfully increased the attendance of the experimental group compared to those in the control group. Implications for practice are discussed.     

中国道协代表赴意大利出席道教活动

应意大利道教协会的邀请,中国道教协会副秘书长孟至岭道长和编辑部副主任尹志华博士于3月4日抵达意大利卡塞塔省(Provinciadi Caserta),出席2011年道教节世界庆典开幕典礼。出席典礼的还有新加坡道教协会和马来西亚沙巴     

Attend to it now or lose it forever: selective attention,metacontrast masking,and object substitution

Metacontrast masking occurs when the visibility of a brief target stimulus is decreased by the subsequent appearance of another nearby visual stimulus. Early explanations of the phenomenon involved low-level mechanisms, but subsequent studies have suggested a role for selective attention. The results of three experiments presented here extend previous findings to the metacontrast paradigm. It is shown that the strength of metacontrast masking increases with the number of distractor items in a display, decreases when the target location is validly but not invalidly precued, and is eliminated when search for the target is efficient (pop-out search) but not when search is inefficient (serial search). A connection between metacontrast masking and object substitution masking is considered.     

中国道教协会组团出席新加坡道教总会二十周年庆典

<正>12月3日至6日,中国道教协会秘书长王哲一应邀率团赴新,出席新加坡道教总会二十周年庆典暨新加坡多元宗教及多元种族联欢晚会及相关活动。新加坡道教总会成立于1990年,由新加坡道教界知名人士及道教信徒共同发起组织,是新     

From the Middle Out

Agnosticism has been largely passed over in the literature on Theism. This paper lays out an affirmative case for the agnostic position. Tapping into the classical arguments about the paradoxical qualities of ‘omni’ principles it argues that the agnostic position is ultimately more tenable than either Theism or Atheism. In the first part it regards the paradoxes of omnipotence and their replies strictly logically, declaring them to be true antimonies. In the second part it argues that classic arguments for belief before proof run afoul of additional paradoxes and require the rejection of the most basic logical principles to accept.

MMCPC在中学生中的应用

为了解 MMCPC在中国中学生中是否适用 ,本研究选取了浙江省1 870名中学生进行测试 ,检验 MMCPC的信度和效度。结果显示 ,MMCPC在中国中学生群体中有较好的信度和一定效度。     

Middle Response Functioning in Likert-responses to Personality Items

Two studies examined whether the middle response option in graphic rating scales indicates a moderate standing on a trait/item, or rather a “dumping ground” for unsure or non-applicable (N/A) responses. Study One identified middle response-option dysfunction. Study Two indicated that respondents use the middle response option as an N/A proxy, even under implicit ‘skip if you do not know’ instructional sets. Although middle response category ‘misuse’ did not adversely affect reliability and validity in these studies, it is recommended that assessment developers (especially in on-line administration contexts) regularly include an N/A response option when administering graphic rating scales.

中学生成就目标相关因素的发展研究

探索了影响中学生成就目标各因素间的相互关系及其对学业成绩的影响,并就此提出一个中学生学业活动的简洁模式。(1)中学生的认知参与和能力知觉、成就目标之间极显著正相关,学业焦虑和认知参与、能力知觉、成就目标之间显著负相关;两成就目标间的相关不显著;(2)能力知觉、认知参与、学业焦虑是学业成绩的有效预测因子。     

Salome in the Middle Ages

The chilling biblical story of Herodias’ young daughter (known elsewhere by the name of Salome) and her role in the execution of John the Baptist has fascinated interpreters down the ages. This article explores medieval exegetical traditions with regard to the girl and the remarkable way her story was construed as pointing both to the horrific consequences of lust and anger and to the meta-narrative of the rise of the church, figured in Salome, the hope of salvation.     

中学生心理求助意愿问卷的编制

目的:编制中学生心理求助意愿问卷。方法:经过初测后再选取260名中学生测试该问卷,并进行信度和效度的检验。结果:全量表的克隆巴赫a一致性系数为0.873(n=235,p<0.01);因素分析结果显示为经过初测后确定的四个因子的总方差贡献率为53.644%,四个因子分别为意愿倾向、评价、效果预期、心理卫生知识。结论:中学生心理求助意愿问卷具有较好的信效度,可以作为测查中学生心理求助态度和意愿的工具使用。