The role of planning in different mathematical skills

Despite the fact that planning has been found to be a significant predictor of reading (particularly of reading comprehension), much less is known about its contribution to mathematics. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of two levels of planning (operation planning and action planning) in three mathematical skills (calculation fluency, math problem-solving, and math reasoning). Eighty Grade 2 children from Shanghai, China were assessed on measures of nonverbal cognitive ability (nonverbal matrices), working memory (digit span backwards and N-back), operation planning (matching numbers, planned codes, and planned search), action planning (crack the code), and mathematics (calculation fluency, math problem-solving, and math reasoning). The results of regression analyses showed that both levels of planning accounted for unique variance in mathematics over and above the effects of nonverbal cognitive ability and working memory. The effects of action planning were particularly strong in math problem-solving. These findings suggest that measures of planning could be used along with measures of working memory to detect children at-risk for mathematics disabilities and that intervention programmes targeting planning could be developed to boost children's mathematics performance.     

创造性的公众观的调查研究（Ⅰ）——关于高创造性者的特征

本研究采用凋查分析的方法,在预调查的基础上,编制问卷对创造性的公众观进行了调查研究,结果发现：1．公众认为高创造性者的特征主要涉及认知和人格两个方面。2．公众对高创造性者的特征的认识与专家的认识存在广泛一致,但在广度,深度和具体项目的重要性上存在不少差异。3．不同教育程度的公众对高创造性者的特征的认识总体差异显著．4．公众的性别,年龄,教育程度对高创造性者的特征的认识的某些方面影响显著或非常显著。     

Self‐esteem and culture: Differences in cognitive self‐evaluations or affective self‐regard?

Although people from East Asian countries consistently report lower self-esteem than do those from Western countries, the origins of this difference are unclear. We conducted two studies to illuminate this issue. Study 1 found that Chinese participants appraised themselves less positively than American participants on a cognitive measure of self-evaluations, but cultural differences were absent on a measure of affective self-regard. Moreover, cultural differences in global self-esteem were eliminated once cognitive self-evaluations were statistically controlled. Study 2 found that cultural differences in modesty underlie cultural differences in cognitive self-evaluations. These findings suggest that Chinese feel as positively toward themselves as Americans do, but are less inclined to evaluate themselves in an excessively positive manner.     

工作记忆中有意抑制能力的发展研究

使用Reed设计的有意遗忘研究范式,以194名小学二、三、四、五年级学生和大学生为被试,考察不同年龄阶段被试工作记忆中有意抑制能力的差异,探索抑制机制随年龄增长的发展趋势及儿童工作记忆中有意抑制能力发展的敏感期。结果表明：1）大学生被试和儿童被试之间的有意抑制能力存在显著性差异;2）随年龄的增长,工作记忆中有意抑制能力呈递增趋势;3）儿童的有意抑制能力发展在三年级,9、10岁可能存在一个敏感期。     

Sense of home buffers threats to the self

We hypothesised that sense of home serves as a buffer against self‐threat. In three experiments, we induced sense of home (vs. control) and assessed its buffering function to threat. Sense of home augmented openness to stereotype threat information (Experiment 1), increased performance on a spatial rotation ability test after stereotype threat (Experiment 2), and reduced the desire for high‐status products following mortality salience (Experiment 3). This “proof of concept” research establishes the buffering potential of sense of home and raises theoretical and practical implications.     

The Effect of Conflict Goals on Avoidance Strategies: What Does Not Communicating Communicate?

Avoidance is proposed to be a goal‐directed behavior rather than a behavior that reflects passivity or inaction. To evaluate this proposition, a typology of conflict goals and a typology of conflict avoidance strategies are created, and the relationship between nonavoidance strategies and the elements of these 2 typologies are evaluated within a structural equation model (N = 352). Findings show that, except for pretending and withdrawal, conflict goals successfully predict avoidance strategies, thereby affirming their strategic importance. The article concludes by addressing areas for future research, including modifications and refinement of the typologies and proposing other strategies and goals that may be theoretically significant.     

Colateralization of Broca's area and the visual word form area in left-handers: fMRI evidence

Language production has been found to be lateralized in the left hemisphere (LH) for 95% of right-handed people and about 75% of left-handers. The prevalence of atypical right hemispheric (RH) or bilateral lateralization for reading and colateralization of production with word reading laterality has never been tested in a large sample. In this study, we scanned 57 left-handers who had previously been identified as being clearly left (N = 30), bilateral (N = 7) or clearly right (N = 20) dominant for speech on the basis of fMRI activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (pars opercularis/pars triangularis) during a silent word generation task. They were asked to perform a lexical decision task, in which words were contrasted against checkerboards, to test the lateralization of reading in the ventral occipitotemporal region. Lateralization indices for both tasks correlated significantly (r = 0.59). The majority of subjects showed most activity during lexical decision in the hemisphere that was identified as their word production dominant hemisphere. However, more than half of the sample (N = 31) had bilateral activity for the lexical decision task without a clear dominant role for either the LH or RH, and three showed a crossed frontotemporal lateralization pattern. These findings have consequences for neurobiological models relating phonological and orthographic processes, and for lateralization measurements for clinical purposes.     

A Sociocultural Approach to Narcissism: The Case of Modern China

Using large Internet samples, we examined the possible influence of sociodemographic factors on the Chinese self‐concept and in particular, on the level of narcissism. We found that (i) younger persons are more narcissistic than older ones; (ii) persons from higher socioeconomic classes are more narcissistic than those from lower socioeconomic classes; (iii) persons from only‐child families are more narcissistic than those from families with multiple children; (iv) persons from urban areas are more narcissistic than those from rural areas; and (v) individualistic values are predictive of individual differences in narcissism. The findings suggest that sociocultural changes contribute to the rise of narcissism in China. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.