Available but unattended conceptual information in working memory: temporarily active semantic content or persistent memory for prior operations?

In 2 experiments, the authors investigated available but unattended information following working memory task demands. The experimental task presented a memory set containing exemplars from 2 conceptual categories. Following instructions to focus attention on only 1 category, priming of both categories was assessed with category comparisons of exemplar pairs. Priming was greatest for the focused category and for exemplars from the memory set (direct priming). Priming also extended to new exemplars of both categories (indirect priming) and showed little decline over more than 1 min of intervening processes. Finally, changing between category exemplars and features across memory set and comparison phases eliminated the indirect priming. These results support a persistent, operation-specific, procedural account of available but unattended conceptual information in working memory.     

Psychology and Experimental Economics: A Gap in Abstraction

ABSTRACT— Experimental economics and social psychology share an interest in a widening subset of topics, relying on similar lab-based methods to address similar questions about human behavior, yet dialogue between the two fields remains in its infancy. We propose a framework for understanding this disconnect: The different approaches the disciplines take to translating real-world behavior into the laboratory create a "gap in abstraction," which contributes to crucial differences in philosophy about the roles of deception and incentives in experiments and limits cross-pollination. We review two areas of common interest—altruism and group-based discrimination—which demonstrate this gap yet also reveal ways in which the two approaches might be seen as complementary rather than contradictory.     

中国高中学生中的反应风格及其效应

通过测试正反向陈述的NEO-FFI和EPQ,探讨了中国高中生中默认、极端化、折中化、弹性反应风格的特点,及题目陈述方向的改变对其人格测验信效度的影响。结果发现反应风格在中国高中生中确实存在,折中化和弹性风格对测验的影响最为严重,其次为极端化风格,默认风格则可能不算一种偏差。NEO-FFI量表在使用反向陈述题目时信效度下降,说明由于教育水平低而使高中生理解反向题时存在困难     

巴西医疗保障体系

从巴西医疗保障体系的建立、资金筹集和使用等方面介绍巴西医疗保障体系,重点关注巴西全民统一医疗制度.鉴于巴西与我国在卫生系统绩效和医疗保障制度改革中所面临的相似挑战,试图通过对巴西医疗保障体系比较详细地介绍及与我国进行简单的对比,总结成功经验、吸取教训为我国建立全民覆盖的医疗保障体系提供借鉴和参考.     

"慎独"论之诗学渊源

“慎独”论来源于孔子及其儒门对《诗》之解读与阐发,然后由诗学话语转化为整个儒学的重要理论之一,即“慎独”儒学理论的形成经历了一个从无到有、从简单到复杂、从感性到理性、从诗学到哲学的渐次发展的过程,在这个“层累”递进的过程中,“慎独”被赋予了许多新的不同层次的内涵。     

Overestimation of the projected size of objects on the surface of mirrors and windows

Four experiments investigated judgments of the size of projections of objects on the glass surface of mirrors and windows. The authors tested different ways of explaining the task to overcome the difficulty that people had in understanding what the projection was, and they varied the distance of the observer and the object to the mirror or window and varied the size of the mirror. The authors compared estimations of projected size with estimations of the physical size of the object that produced the projection. For both mirrors and windows, observers accurately judged the physical size of objects but greatly overestimated the projected size of the same objects. Indeed, judgments of projected size were more similar to physical than to projected size. People were also questioned verbally about their knowledge of projected size relative to physical size. The errors produced for these conceptual questions were similar to those found in the perceptual estimation tasks. Together, these results suggest that projections of objects on mirrors and windows are treated in the same way and that observers cannot perceive such projections as distal objects.     

Helping and proactive extra-role behaviors: The influence of motives, goal orientation, and social context

We explore how two motivational orientations (communion and status striving) influence three extra-role organizational behaviors: proactive engagement, providing help, and seeking help. We propose and confirm intervening mechanisms, in the form of (a) goal orientations and (b) attitudes toward coworkers. Proactive behaviors are predicted by status striving, through the intervening mechanisms of both learning and performance proving goal orientations. Providing help is, in turn, motivated by communion striving, and the relationship is mediated by goal orientations (learning and performance avoiding) and by satisfaction with and commitment to coworkers. Finally, seeking help is a function of communion striving, which influences the outcome through learning goal orientation and satisfaction with and confidence in coworkers.     

Psychometric properties of the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised among Icelandic college students

In the present study, the psychometric properties of the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) (Foa, et al., 2002) were investigated. The OCI-R was administered to a total of 816 Icelandic college students. The Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) were administered to a subsample of 304 students, and the PI-WSUR (Padua Inventory Washington State University Revision), the PSWQ and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) to another subsample of 212 students. Also, 89 students filled in the OCI-R twice with two weeks in between. The factor structure of the instrument was replicated in a confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliabilities of the OCI-R total scale and all subscales were satisfactory. Further, the OCI-R total score showed a significantly higher correlation with the PI-WSUR and the MOCI than with the PSWQ or the MPS. Finally, conceptually similar scales of the OCI-R and the MOCI as well as the PI-WSUR showed higher inter-correlations than the correlations that were observed between conceptually more distinct scales. It is concluded that the Icelandic version of the OCI-R has strong psychometric properties in a student population.     

Social anxiety disorder: psychobiological and evolutionary underpinnings

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) also know as social phobia is increasingly recognized as a highly prevalent and disabling psychiatric disorder. SAD patients demonstrate cognitive-affective distortions in relation to social situations and abnormal activation patterns in limbic structures during functional imaging. Behavioral inhibition is an endophenotype that may be useful in understanding vulnerability to SAD, and that has specific imaging and genetic correlates. From an evolutionary perspective, it has been speculated that SAD represents a false appeasement alarm. It is notable that SAD responds to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and monoamine oxidase inhibitors, but not to most tricyclic antidepressants; this finding is consistent with the importance of serotonin and dopamine in mediating this disorder.     

Social effects of an anthropomorphic help agent: humans versus computers.

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of fairness of a computer-administered quiz as a function of the anthropomorphic features of the help agent offered within the quiz environment. The addition of simple anthropomorphic cues to a computer help agent reduced the perceived friendliness of the agent, perceived intelligence of the agent, and the perceived fairness of the quiz. These differences were observed only for male anthropomorphic cues, but not for female anthropomorphic cues. The results were not explained by the social attraction of the anthropomorphic agents used in the quiz or by gender identification with the agents. Priming of visual cues provides the best account of the data. Practical implications of the study are discussed.