The role of embodied intention in early lexical acquisition

We examine the influence of inferring interlocutors' referential intentions from their body movements at the early stage of lexical acquisition. By testing human participants and comparing their performances in different learning conditions, we find that those embodied intentions facilitate both word discovery and word-meaning association. In light of empirical findings, the main part of this article presents a computational model that can identify the sound patterns of individual words from continuous speech, using nonlinguistic contextual information, and employ body movements as deictic references to discover word-meaning associations. To our knowledge, this work is the first model of word learning that not only learns lexical items from raw multisensory signals to closely resemble infant language development from natural environments, but also explores the computational role of social cognitive skills in lexical acquisition.     

Visual working memory for simple and complex visual stimuli

Does the magical number four characterize our visual working memory (VWM) capacity for all kinds of objects, or is the capacity of VWM inversely related to the perceptual complexity of those objects? To find out how perceptual complexity affects VWM, we used a change detection task to measure VWM capacity for six types of stimuli of different complexity: colors, letters, polygons, squiggles, cubes, and faces. We found that the estimated capacity decreased for more complex stimuli, suggesting that perceptual complexity was an important factor in determining VWM capacity. However, the considerable correlation between perceptual complexity and VWM capacity declined significantly if subjects were allowed to view the sample memory display longer. We conclude that when encoding limitations are minimized, perceptual complexity affects, but does not determine, VWM capacity.     

大学生亲社会倾向、亲社会推理以及它们的相关模式

采用《亲社会倾向测量》和《亲社会推理客观测量》研究了17至20岁大学生的六类亲社会倾向和亲社会推理的状况。发现大学生将利他的亲社会倾向列为六类倾向中的首位,接下来依次是紧急的、情绪性的、依从的、匿名的和公开的亲社会倾向;在亲社会推理五种类型中大学生选择比率最高的是内化价值定向的推理,接下来依次是刻板定向、需要定向和享乐主义定向的推理,所占比率最低的是赞扬定向的推理;六类亲社会倾向与亲社会推理之间具有特定的棚关模式．利他的和匿名的亲社会倾向与内化价值定向和刻板定向的推理正相关、与享乐主义定向及赞扬定向的推理负相关,公开的亲社会倾向与赞扬定向的推理正相关、与需要定向的推理负相关。跨文化比较证实,中美大学生的上述三个方面表现出一定的差异。     

Constant capacity in an immediate serial-recall task: a logical sequel to Miller (1956)

We assessed a hypothesis that working memory capacity should include a constant number of separate mental units, or chunks (cf. Miller, 1956). Because of the practical difficulty of measuring chunks, this hypothesis has not been tested previously, despite wide attention to Miller's article. We used a training procedure to manipulate the strength of associations between pairs of words to be included in an immediate serial-recall task. Although the amount of training on associations clearly increased the availability of two-item chunks and therefore the number of items correct in list recall, the number of total chunks recalled (singletons plus two-word chunks) appeared to remain approximately constant across association strengths, supporting a hypothesis of constant capacity.     

Kicking coordination captures differences between full-term and premature infants with white matter disorder

This study explores the relation of white matter disorder (WMD) to intralimb coordination patterns in premature infants with very low birth weight (VLBW). We specifically measured the temporal-spatial characteristics of intralimb coordination patterns of the legs. Three groups of infants were compared at one month corrected age (CA): 10 premature infants born VLBW and WMD (PTWMD), 10 premature infants born VLBW without WMD (PT) and 10 full term infants (FT). Using kinematic variables, we discriminate among VLBW infants with WMD from the two comparison groups. Infants born with WMD maintain patterns of tight coupling among leg joints (all flexion or all extension) while PT and FT term infants have begun to decouple leg joints by this age (combinations of flexion with extension). The coupling pattern is captured through joint correlations, discrete relative phase, and phase plane portraits. The PTWMD infants also demonstrate aberrant patterns of coordination evident through both temporal and spatial characteristics of the kicks. This is the first evidence that movement disorder associated with brain lesions can be identified and quantified with kinematic variables as early as one month of age.     

Improving measurement precision of test batteries using multidimensional item response models

A conventional way to analyze item responses in multiple tests is to apply unidimensional item response models separately, one test at a time. This unidimensional approach, which ignores the correlations between latent traits, yields imprecise measures when tests are short. To resolve this problem, one can use multidimensional item response models that use correlations between latent traits to improve measurement precision of individual latent traits. The improvements are demonstrated using 2 empirical examples. It appears that the multidimensional approach improves measurement precision substantially, especially when tests are short and the number of tests is large. To achieve the same measurement precision, the multidimensional approach needs less than half of the comparable items required for the unidimensional approach.     

试论中医基础研究中的创造性思维

创造性思维对于中医基础研究非常重要.在中医基础研究中过分依赖高新技术,或者不敢直面问题、遇到困难退缩将阻碍创造性思维.中医基础研究的创造性思维需要研究者在传统知识、现代知识、高新技术与仪器等方面作好充分的准备.为使研究保持正确的方向,在研究中要处理好"已知"与"未知"的关系并以"和"的态度对待学术争论.     

Unconscious priming by color and form: different processes and levels

Using a metacontrast masking paradigm, prior studies have shown (a) that a target's color information and form information, can be processed without awareness and (b) that unconscious color processing occurs at early, wavelength-dependent levels in the cortical information processing hierarchy. Here we used a combination of paracontrast and metacontrast masking techniques to explore unconscious color and form priming effects produced by blue, green, and neutral stimuli. We found that color priming in normal observers is significantly reduced when an additional paracontrast mask precedes the target at optimal masking SOAs. However, no reduction of form-priming effects was obtained at similar optimal paracontrast SOAs. We conclude that unconscious color priming depends on an early, wavelength- or stimulus-dependent response of color neurons located at early cortical levels whereas unconscious form priming occurs at later levels.     

Evidence for an Error Monitoring Deficit in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

We studied error monitoring in ADHD and control children in a task requiring inhibition of a motor response. The extent of slowing following successful (stopped) and failed (nonstopped) inhibition was compared across groups. We also measured the time required to inhibit a response (stop signal reaction time, SSRT). Compared to controls, ADHD participants slowed less following nonstopped responses. Slowing did not vary with comorbid reading, oppositional, conduct or anxiety disorder, sex or ADHD subtype. Slowing after nonstopped responses was marginally, although significantly correlated with total ADHD symptoms and with age. ADHD participants had significantly longer SSRT than controls, but SSRT was not significantly correlated with slowing. The apparent deficit in error monitoring in ADHD and its independence from the inhibition deficit observed in ADHD has implications for executive control models of ADHD, performance problems associated with the disorder and for component theories of executive control.