The selective impairment of the phonological output buffer: evidence from a Chinese patient

We present a Chinese-speaking patient, SJ, who makes phonological errors across all tasks involving oral production. Detailed analyses of the errors across different tasks reveal that the patterns are very similar for reading, oral picture naming, and repetition tasks, which are also comparable to the error patterns of the phonological buffer deficit cases reported in the literature. The nature of the errors invites us to conclude that the patient's phonological output buffer is selectively impaired. Different from previously reported cases, SJ's deficits in oral production tasks are not accompanied by a similar impairment of writing performance. We argue that this dissociation is evidence that the phonological output buffer is not involved in writing Chinese words. Furthermore, the majority of SJ's errors occur at the onset of a syllable, indicating that the buffer has a structure that makes the onset more prone to impairment.     

Coping with systematic bias during bilateral movement

The present studies examined the nature of kinematic interlimb interference during bilateral elbow movements of 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 frequency ratios and the manner in which subjects cope with coordination bias. Analysis of movement trajectories in the first experiment indicated progressively greater angular velocity assimilation across 2:1 and 3:1 conditions. The desired temporal relationship was maintained by slowing or pausing the low-frequency movement at peak extension while the high-frequency arm produced intervening cycles. An increase in amplitude was also evident for concurrent, homologous cycles. Movement smoothness was emphasized and additional practice was provided in a second experiment. This resulted in dissociated peak angular velocity between limbs and eliminated hesitations and amplitude effects. Bias was still evident, however, as an intermittent approach toward a 1:1 ratio within each cycle. This systematic tendency was somewhat greater at the lower of two absolute frequency combinations but was not influenced by the role of each arm in producing the higher or lower frequency movement. The findings from the first experiment suggest that subjects initially accommodate interlimb kinematic assimilation, while producing the intended timing ratio, by intermittently slowing or pausing the lower-frequency movement. This attenuates the need for bilaterally-disparate movement parameters and provides additional time for organizing residual kinematic differences, perhaps reducing transient coupling. Evidence from the second experiment indicates that subtle relative motion preferences are still evident following sufficient practice to perform the movements smoothly. The within-cycle locations of the points of greatest interlimb bias for the 2:1 rhythms were positively displaced from those previously observed for 1:1 oscillations. The persistent coordination tendencies noted in both experiments perhaps reflect an assimilation/compensation cycle and constitute one potential source of the systematic error that often emerges during the acquisition of complex skills.     

Disentangling the Relations Between Different Components of Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese Preschoolers’ School Readiness

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been frequently linked to children’s early development. Treating SES as an aggregated variable has many issues, as different components of SES may relate to child outcomes through divergent mechanisms. The purpose of the study was to examine whether parents’ engagement in home learning activities and children’s participation in extracurricular activities (EAs) would function as pathways through which individual SES components related to children’s school readiness. A total of 588 families with preschool‐aged children were recruited from Guangdong province in China. Children’s receptive vocabulary, Chinese reading, and early math skills were individually assessed at three time points, and children’s social skills were rated by parents. Parents reported their engagement in home learning activities with children and their children’s participation in EAs. The results showed that all three components of family SES were related to multiple aspects of children’s school readiness, but through different pathways. Parental income was related to children’s school readiness through EA participation only; parental education and occupational status were associated with school readiness via both parental engagement and child EA participation. The findings suggest that considering SES components separately will produce a more nuanced understanding of the divergent pathways through which family SES may relate to children’s school readiness. Chinese government may provide parent education programs focused on cognitive stimulation for low‐SES families to promote children’s school readiness. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure children’s equal access to EAs to prevent increasing the developmental gap among children from discrepant socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Self-Esteem,Perceived Stress,and Gender During Adolescence: Interactive Links to Different Types of Interpersonal Relationships

The goal of this study was to analyze the relationships between self-esteem, perceived stress, the quality of different types of interpersonal relationships, and gender in adolescents. This study used a sample of 1614 adolescent high school students and robust data analytic techniques to test the proposed relationships. The results partially supported the initial hypothesis in that perceived stress mediated the relationships between self-esteem and four of the types of interpersonal relationships (i.e., same-sex peer relationships, opposite-sex peer relationships, parent–child relationships, and teacher–student relationships) and moderated the relationship between self-esteem and same-sex peer relationships. In addition, a moderated role of gender was also partially supported in that perceived stress mediated the relationships between self-esteem and same-sex peer relationships, opposite-sex peer relationships, and the parent–child relationship for girls, but not boys. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that perceived stress plays an intervening role in the relationship between self-esteem and different types of interpersonal relationships and that gender seems to be a moderator for some of the patterns of the relationships between these variables. These findings are discussed in light of the possible mechanisms by which the variables could influence each other. Implications for theory and practice as well as some directions for future research were also suggested.     

Neural correlates of infant action processing relate to theory of mind in early childhood

The mechanisms that support infant action processing are thought to be involved in the development of later social cognition. While a growing body of research demonstrates longitudinal links between action processing and explicit theory of mind (TOM), it remains unclear why this link emerges in some measures of action encoding and not others. In this paper, we recruit neural measures as a unique lens into which aspects of human infant action processing (i.e., action encoding and action execution; age 7 months) are related to preschool TOM (age 3 years; n = 31). We test whether individual differences in recruiting the sensorimotor system or attention processes during action encoding predict individual differences in TOM. Results indicate that reduced occipital alpha during action encoding predicts TOM at age 3. This finding converges with behavioral work and suggests that attentional processes involved in action encoding may support TOM. We also test whether neural processing during action execution draws on the proto‐substrates of effortful control (EC). Results indicate that frontal alpha oscillatory activity during action execution predicted EC at age 3—providing strong novel evidence that infant brain activity is longitudinally linked to EC. Further, we demonstrate that EC mediates the link between the frontal alpha response and TOM. This indirect effect is specific in terms of direction, neural response, and behavior. Together, these findings converge with behavioral research and demonstrate that domain general processes show strong links to early infant action processing and TOM.     

前景理论视角下结构化面试问题的设计

前景理论回答了类似应聘者在结构化面试中所面临的不确定场景下,人们是如何决策并行动的问题。论文采用思辨方法就结构化面试问题设计中如何恰当应用前景理论的基本要．董,有效提高结构化面试效度进行了探讨,结论如下：1）问题句子越短、问题越具体,效度有望越高;2）问题导向性要与岗位胜任特征充分契合;3）回溯性行为面试问题效度要高于虚拟情景面试问题;4）由于年龄、性别及个体认知能力等方面的差异,问题设计不仅要因需而变,也要因人而异。     

有限理性的“占优启发式”和“齐当别”决策模型的作为 ——当Allais悖论杠杆撬动了期望效用理论

人们在做决策时常常要受到时间或知识的限制,有时还要受到其双重限制。关于人们是如何进行风险决策,早期有期望效用理论对其加以解释,但Allais悖论对其标准化地位提出了挑战。Simon的“有限理性”观点提出后,一些研究者开始致力于开发决策的“有限理性”模型。文章讨论并比较了无限理性的期望效用理论被Allais悖论杠杆撬动之后,有限理性的“占优启发式”和“齐当别”决策模型所能做的和所不能做的。两种模型的决策标准、计算策略以及未来研究的展望也一并作了讨论     

中学教师成就动机、离职意向与倦怠的关系

本文旨在探讨成就动机、离职意向和倦怠之间的关系。针对已有研究发现的关于成就动机与倦怠的矛盾关系,将成就动机分为追求成功和避免失败,进行相关分析和结构回归方程分析。发现追求成功动机与倦怠负相关,而避免失败动机与倦怠正相关。倦怠是成就动机与离职意向关系的中介变量,经倦怠变量的调节,成就动机对离职意向的直接影响与间接影响相互抵消。     

工作记忆在时间和空间心理联结中的调节作用*

探讨时间的空间表征是否受到工作记忆的调节。实验将时间比较任务和工作记忆中的延迟匹配范式相结合。结果发现,记忆匹配条件下,刺激的空间位置不影响时间判断,而记忆不匹配条件下,当左侧刺激呈现的时间短,右侧刺激呈现的时间长时,时间判断的反应时更短。结果表明,时间的空间表征具有灵活性,受到工作记忆的调节。     

汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的不同视野注意能力

以某城市小学三至五年级的学生为研究对象,筛选出发展性阅读障碍和同年龄对照组两组儿童,采用不同视角的刺激探测任务初步探查了汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的不同视野注意能力及特点。研究使用圆点、数字和汉字三种刺激类型并设置了3°,12°,17°三种视角条件。结果发现,在数字和汉字条件下,汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童对刺激探测的反应时显著长于同年龄对照组儿童,说明在加工复杂刺激时,汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童可能存在知觉加工迟缓的缺陷。但是,汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童并没有表现出扩散的视觉空间注意模式,即更多地注意外侧视野的信息。汉语发展性阅读障碍儿童的视觉空间注意模式与正常儿童相似,表现为随着视角的增加,正确率降低,反应时延长。