Identity and semantic negative priming in rapid serial visual presentation streams

In selective attention tasks, the efficiency of processing concurrently presented target and distractor stimuli in a given display is often influenced by the relationship these stimuli have with those in the previous display. When a to-be-attended target on a current trial (the probe trial) matches the ignored, non-target distractor on a previous trial (the prime trial), a response to the target is typically delayed compared with when the two stimuli are not associated. This negative priming (NP) phenomenon has been observed in numerous studies with traditional NP tasks presenting the target and distractor simultaneously in both the prime and probe trial couplets. Here, however, in four experiments using a mixture of stimulus types (letters, digits, English number words, and logographic Chinese number words), target and distractor stimuli were temporally separated in two rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams instead of concurrently presented. The findings provide a conceptual replication and substantial extension of a recent study by Wong (Plos One, 7, e37023, 2012), and suggest that active suppression of irrelevant distracting information is a more ubiquitous form of cognitive control than previously thought.     

Two kinds of bias in visual comparison illustrate the role of location and holistic/analytic processing differences

A number of studies have shown that two stimuli appearing successively at the same spatial location are more likely to be perceived as the same, even though location is irrelevant to the task. This bias to respond “same” when stimuli are at the same location is termed spatial congruency bias. The experiments reported here demonstrate that the spatial congruency bias extends to letter strings: Participants tend to respond “same” when comparing two strings appearing successively at the same location. This bias may arise because successive stimuli at the same location are more likely to be perceived as a single object. Bias is also affected by the nature of the comparison task. We show that if letters must be compared individually (analytical comparison), there is a bias to respond “different,” but if letter strings are compared as unified wholes (holistic comparison), there is no bias or a bias to respond “same.” This analytical bias is apparently separate from the spatial congruency bias. It appears whether the task requires localization of differences between strings, or counting the number of differences, or ignoring differences in some parts of the stimuli while attending to others. All of these analytical comparison tasks require that letters be selected individually, and the analytical bias may reflect difficulty in preventing interference from neighboring letters in this selection process. Each type of bias reflects a different aspect of visual processing, and both can be measured to probe how processing changes across different tasks.     

汉语形容词的性别编码及其对句子加工的影响

该研究采用图片启动和句子完成范式,考察汉语形容词的性别编码及对句子加工的影响.结果表明：（1）图片的性别信息对形容词性向判断具有重要影响;（2）形容词性向影响被试对句子主语的选择.被试倾向于选择与形容词性向一致的代词为句子主语.对中性形容词,被试选择句子主语的时间更长.整个研究表明,在汉语形容词加工中存在性别编码.     

处在夹缝中的哲学

针对当今科技文化与人文文化的矛盾,哲学能够在理解并弥合这种矛盾的过程中起不可替代的作用。在当前,马克思主义哲学是什么和能够做什么的问题是必须提出来弄清楚的。当前马克思主义哲学的研究水平有待提高：不要再追究国外争论已久的问题,史的研究也不能再停留在按原著顺序叙述的水平上;应该立足现实确立当代性的问题,并具备世界性的眼光。在苏东巨变后,马克思主义者在研究中不能回避原则性问题、为迎合对手而追求所谓非意识形态化。另外,防止离现实和民众愈来愈远的贵族化倾向和追求短平快的市场化倾向,注意术语的公央性和可理解性．也是须注意的问题。     

Validation of the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ) in Taiwanese Undergraduate Students

The aim of this study was to translate and validate the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ; McCullough et al. 2002) using Taiwanese undergraduate students. A total of 608 college students (M _age = 20.19, SD = 2.08) were recruited for the current study and they completed the GQ, optimism, happiness, and big five personality questionnaires. Confirmation factor analysis indicated that a five item model was a better fit than the original six item model. Cross-validation also supported the modified Chinese version of the GQ. In addition, the Chinese version of the GQ was, as expected, positively correlated with optimism, happiness, agreeableness, and extraversion, which supported its construct validity. The Cronbach’s α was .80 for the Chinese version of the GQ, indicating satisfactory validity and reliability in a Taiwanese student sample. It was concluded that the Chinese version of the GQ would be useful for assessing individual differences in dispositional gratitude.     

Relations between mental verb and false belief understanding in Cantonese-speaking children

Previous research has shown that linguistic forms that codify mental contents bear a specific relation with children’s false belief understanding. These forms include mental verbs and their following complements, yet the two have not been considered separately. The current study examined the roles of mental verb semantics and the complement syntax in children’s false belief understanding. Independent tasks were used to measure verb meaning, complements, and false belief understanding such that the verbs in question were present only in the verb meaning test, and no linguistic devices biased toward false belief were used in the false belief test. We focused on (a) some mental verbs that obligatorily affirm or negate what follows and (b) sentential complements, the content of which is to be evaluated against the mind of another person, not reality. Results showed that only (a) predicted false belief understanding in a group of Cantonese-speaking 4-year-olds, controlling for nonverbal intelligence and general language ability. In particular, children’s understanding of the strong nonfactive semantics of the Cantonese verbs /ji5-wai4/ (“falsely think”) predicted false belief understanding most strongly. The current findings suggest that false belief understanding is specifically related to the comprehension of mental verbs that entail false thought in their semantics.     

Methodological Issues in Psychology of Religion Research in the Chinese Context

The present study investigates methodological issues in psychology of religion in Mainland China. Beginning with an overview of Western and Eastern scholars’ representative views on methodological issues relative to psychology of religion, this essay then analyzes the distinctive Chinese cultural background in terms of influences exerted by mainstream ideology, opportunities provided by the goal of building a harmonious society, and the real demand for the development of psychology of religion. Finally, this study puts forward several methodological strategies for constructing a Chinese psychology of religion including advanced theoretical research to strengthen the basis of research methods in Chinese psychology of religion; understanding more precisely the basis of constructing localized methods with Chinese features; and encouraging exploration on diversification and promotion of methodological innovation for psychology of religion in China.     

Risk factors for disordered eating during early and middle adolescence: prospective evidence from mainland Chinese boys and girls

Despite evidence that sociocultural and psychological factors contribute to disordered eating, researchers have yet to examine the extent to which putative risk factors influence vulnerability for girls versus boys within and across phases of adolescence, particularly in non-Western cultures. In this study, early and middle adolescent samples from China (N = 2,909) completed measures of eating disorder pathology and putative risk factors at baseline and were reassessed 12 months later. Among both younger and older girls, elevations in appearance-focused interactions with friends, negative affect, and body dissatisfaction predicted increases in symptomatology at follow-up. In contrast, there was more discontinuity in risk factors relevant to samples of boys. Although media and friendship influences contributed to later disturbances among early adolescent boys, psychological factors, including body dissatisfaction and negative affect, had stronger effects in the multivariate model for older boys. Implications of finding are discussed in relation to adolescent development and a Chinese cultural context.     

Multiple goals, writing strategies, and written outcomes for college students learning English as a second language

This study examined relations of achievement goals of writers who are speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL), the frequency of their writing strategy use, and the quality of their writing from a multiple goals perspective. The goal profiles of 57 EFL college students with similar writing proficiency were based on rating items of an unpublished scale; Group 1 had strong mastery and strong performance-approach goals, and two groups included students with only one strong mastery (Group 2) or performance (Group 3) goal. Think-aloud protocols indicated that the participants adopted 21 strategies in an argumentative writing task, classified into five categories. Group 1 was found to use writing strategies of monitoring or evaluating, revising, and compensating significantly more often than the other two groups, and produced better essays. Strong mastery and performance-approach goals might be beneficial for EFL college writers.