Threshold-style processing of Chinese characters for adult second-language learners

To assess the learning of word form and meaning in an unfamiliar writing system, we carried out primed-naming experiments with learners of Chinese at the end of their first and second terms in a Chinese class at an American university. The subjects were required to name a target Chinese character after a prime character had been presented for 500 msec. There were three priming conditions defined by the relation between the prime and the target: orthographically similar, homophonic, and semantically related. At the end of the first term, there was a significant facilitation for naming speed in the orthographic condition, but not in the homophonic or semantic conditions. However, at the end of the second term, orthographical facilitation disappeared. Instead, naming speed was facilitated by semantically related primes. A threshold-style framework was proposed to illustrate the processing of Chinese orthography, phonology, and semantics by second-language learners.     

Modeling the effects of verbal and nonverbal pair strength on associative recognition

Operations that improve the accuracy of associative recognition can do so in qualitatively different ways. Increasing repetitions and study time increases hit rates but has small effects on false alarm rates, and the specific patterns of false alarms are dependent on the stimuli (e.g., pairs of words, pseudowords, faces, or Chinese characters). In contrast, manipulating the type of stimuli that make up pairs produces a robust mirror effect: The hit rate is greater, and the false alarm rate is lower, for better recognized stimuli. To explain these findings, a model of single-item recognition is extended to associative recognition. Within this dual-process framework, the present results suggest that words are encoded more extensively than nonverbal stimuli and that recognition of frequently encountered stimuli (words and faces) is more likely to be based on recollection than is recognition of uncommon stimuli (pseudowords and Chinese characters).     

面孔加工的认知神经科学研究：回顾与展望

面孔加工的认知神经科学研究中的核心问题是,是否存在功能和神经机制上独立的面孔加工模块以及面孔加工系统的组织形式。使用电生理、脑成像以及对脑损伤病人进行神经心理学检查等手段,研究者已经找到选择性地对面孔反应的脑区,即梭状回面孔区（FFA）。文章从面孔加工系统的特异性与多成分性以及面孔识别模型等方面,系统回顾了该领域的主要研究成果。文章最后还简单展望了今后的研究方向。     

Reviews: Books and Theater

HEINZ KOHUT: THE MAKING OF A PSYCHOANALYST. By Charles B. Strozier. 475 pp. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. $35.00. Theater: The Amen Cornerby James Baldwin     

Reviews: Books, Theater, and Painting

JUNG AND THE POSTMODERN: THE INTERPRETATION OF REALITIES. By Christopher Hauke. 304 pp. London & Philadelphia: Routledge, 2000. THE FASHIONING OF ANGELS: PARTNERSHIP AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE. By Stephen and Robin Larsen. pp. Chrysalis Books, 2000, $19.95. CHILDREN IN THERAPY: USING THE FAMILY AS A RESOURCE. Edited by C. Everett Bailey. 529 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. $45.00. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND COPING: THEORY, RESEARCH, PRACTICE. By Kenneth I. Pargament. New York: Guilford Press, 1997. $50.00. SOUL WILDERNESS: A DESERT SPIRITUALITY. By Kerry Walters. 153pp. New York/Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2001. $12.95. SOUL MAKING: THE DESERT WAY OF SPIRITUALITY. By Alan Jones. 215 pp. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1985. $16.00. Theater: Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach. Painting: Vermeer and the Delft School     

Factor Structure of the Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale in Patients Diagnosed with Anxiety Disorders

The Illness Intrusiveness Rating Scale (IIRS) is a measure designed to assess the impact of illness on various domains of functioning (G. M. Devins, 1994). In anxiety disordered patients, illness intrusiveness ratings are higher than those of chronically ill medical patients, suggesting that the IIRS may have a different underlying structure in a sample of individuals with anxiety disorders. To examine this possibility, IIRS items were submitted to an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in 2 samples (total N = 294). These solutions were compared to solutions in chronically ill populations from a previous study. In the exploratory analysis, both a one-factor and a three-factor solution were identified, accounting for 42 and 61% of the variance, respectively. Confirmatory analyses showed adequate similarity between the three-factor structure of the IIRS from a medically ill population and the current three-factor structure, suggesting that elevated IIRS scores in anxiety disordered samples cannot be explained simply by a different structure of the instrument.     

Cognitive and affective consequences of repressive coping

This investigation examined whether repressors, individuals who seem especially reactive to emotional stimuli, would attempt to control their emotional reactions to unpleasant events, and whether such attempts would impair repressors’ recall for those stimuli. Participants viewed either an unpleasant or an emotionally neutral film and then reported their mood following the film and their recall memory for details in the film. Repressors reported a more pleasant mood than nonrepressors after the unpleasant film. Repressors did not, however, differ from non-repressors in their memory for details in the film. The results suggest that while repressors are efficient regulators of emotion, the cognitive effects of the repressive coping style are less clear. This research was supported by a University of Plymouth QR grant to the first author.     

Multiple partners in the age of AIDS: Self-consciousness theory and HIV risk behavior

In two studies, we found consistent correlations among gender, self-consciousness, and high-risk sexual behavior in college students. Men higher in public self-con-sciousness reported more sexual partners, but less pleasurable sexual experiences. Among women higher in private self-consciousness, using sex to assuage feelings of loneliness was associated with a greater number of sexual partners. However, higher levels of private self-consciousness coupled with a view of sex as a way to satisfy emotional needs predicted fewer sexual partners. A closer examination of how self-consciousness, attitudes toward sexual activity, and gender influence decisions to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors is proposed.