Auditory ERP in extremely premature 5-year-old children

The aim of this research was to test the hypothesis of a functional impairment in the automatic detection of deviant tones in 141 children born after 25 to 28 weeks of gestational age, as compared to 45 age-matched full-term control children. All of them were assessed at age 5 years 9 months and instructed to listen passively to two different pure tones (1000 vs 1200 Hz; 20 vs 80%) counterbalanced between ears. Rarity was thus defined by specific ear by tone combinations. The temporal N100 showed a clear contralateral functional organization of the central auditory pathway, especially for the left ear, but without group difference. By contrast, in full-term controls but not in premature children, the central N200 was specifically increased over frontal leads to rare stimuli as compared to frequent. Premature children demonstrated a lack of brain response when more complex processing integrating different informations was required.     

Learning artificial grammars: No evidence for the acquisition of rules

Two experiments investigated whether there is evidence for acquisition of rules in implicit artificial grammar learning (AGL). Two different methods were used in meeting this goal, multiple regression analysis and analysis of receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs). By means of multiple regression analysis, several types of knowledge were identified that were used in judgments of grammaticality, for example, about single letters and about larger stimulus fragments. There was no evidence for the contribution of rule knowledge. The ROCs were in accord with a similarity-based account of AGL and thus did not support the notion that rule knowledge is acquired in AGL either. Simulations with a connectionist model corroborated the conclusion that the results were in accord with a similarity-based, associative account.     

群际威胁与社会认知基本维度自我肯定对自我评价的影响

两个实验探索群际威胁情境下表达性和能动性自我肯定对个体自我评价的影响。实验一诱发群际威胁,操作表达性自我肯定,测量被试的自我评价水平。实验二与实验一采用相同的方法,诱发群际威胁,操作能动性自我肯定,之后测量自我评价水平。两个实验均发现,群际威胁组的自我评价显著低于控制组;在群际威胁情境下,表达性自我肯定组和能动性自我肯定组的自我评价显著高于无自我肯定组。研究表明,群际威胁虽然是群体水平的感知,但会对个体水平的自我评价产生消极影响,通过社会认知基本维度进行自我肯定能有效缓解群际威胁对自我评价的消极影响。自我肯定对群际威胁与自我评价之间关系的作用机制还需要进一步探讨。     

Imitation is beneficial for verb learning in toddlers

The interplay between action and language is still not fully understood in terms of its relevance for early language development. Here, we investigated whether action imitation may be beneficial for first language acquisition. In a word-learning study 24-, 30- and 36-month-old children (N = 96) learned the labels of different actions in one of two conditions: Either the children just observed the experimenter producing the action (observation condition) or children produced the action themselves (action condition). The results show that 36-month-olds learned the labels of the more complex actions in both conditions, whereas 30-month-olds learned the labels only in the action but not in the observation condition. These findings suggest that action imitation is beneficial for verb learning early in life.     

Eye movements reflect and shape strategies in fraction comparison

The comparison of fractions is a difficult task that can often be facilitated by separately comparing components (numerators and denominators) of the fractions—that is, by applying so-called component-based strategies. The usefulness of such strategies depends on the type of fraction pair to be compared. We investigated the temporal organization and the flexibility of strategy deployment in fraction comparison by evaluating sequences of eye movements in 20 young adults. We found that component-based strategies could account for the response times and the overall number of fixations observed for the different fraction pairs. The analysis of eye movement sequences showed that the initial eye movements in a trial were characterized by stereotypical scanning patterns indicative of an exploratory phase that served to establish the kind of fraction pair presented. Eye movements that followed this phase adapted to the particular type of fraction pair and indicated the deployment of specific comparison strategies. These results demonstrate that participants employ eye movements systematically to support strategy use in fraction comparison. Participants showed a remarkable flexibility to adapt to the most efficient strategy on a trial-by-trial basis. Our results confirm the value of eye movement measurements in the exploration of strategic adaptation in complex tasks.     

The Instrumental Role of Personality Traits: Using Mixture Structural Equation Modeling to Investigate Individual Differences in the Relationships Between the Big Five Traits and Life Satisfaction

Adopting a social-cognitive view of personality, this study investigated individual differences in the direct (i.e., temperamental) and indirect (i.e., instrumental) effects of the Big Five traits on life satisfaction. For that purpose, we examined a process model in which domain-based emotional experiences mediated the instrumental effects of personality traits. Using mixture structural equation modeling (n = 2682 adults) we found that the direct effects of neuroticism and extraversion were invariant across individuals, whereas the instrumental effects of the Big Five traits varied across two unobserved subgroups. In one of these subgroups (60 %), conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism had relatively larger effects on domain-based affect and life satisfaction. In a second subgroup (40 %), extraversion was comparatively more relevant for explaining domain-based affect and life satisfaction. Our findings provide evidence that the instrumental role of personality traits and judgmental processes may act in accord to promote subjective well-being.