The modulation of semantic transparency on the recognition memory for two-character Chinese words

This study demonstrated that semantic transparency as a linguistic property modulates the recognition memory for two-character Chinese words, with opaque words (i.e., words whose meanings cannot be derived from constituent characters—e.g., “光[/guang/, light]棍[/gun/, stick]”, bachelor) remembered better than transparent words (i.e., words whose meanings can be derived from constituent characters—e.g., “茶[/cha/, tea]杯[/bei/, cup]”, teacup). In Experiment 1, the participants made lexical decisions on transparent words, opaque words, and nonwords in the study and then engaged in an old/new recognition test. Experiment 2 employed a concreteness judgment as the encoding task to ensure equivalent semantic processing for opaque and transparent words. In Experiment 3, the neighborhood size of the two-character words was manipulated together with their semantic transparency. In all three experiments, opaque words were found to be better remembered than transparent words. We concluded that the conceptual incongruence between the meanings of a whole word and its constituent characters made opaque words more distinctive and, hence, better remembered than transparent words.     

Is Jesus Still “ACTing Up”?

In this essay, I discuss the continuing relevance of Jesus ACTED UP in three dimensions: the pastoral, the academic, and the self-critical. Framing the essay with personal reflections, I first describe how the book continues to meet the pastoral needs of the LGBTIQ community, especially by channeling our rage in a constructive way. I then describe how the book continues to be relevant to the academic community by speaking truth to power. Finally, I describe how the book continues to speak to the LGBTIQ community by cautioning against a turning inwards of oneself (i.e. incurvatus in se). I conclude the essay with a personal note of gratitude to Bob Shore-Goss for the ways in which he personally embodies these three dimensions in his life and work.     

汉语图片命名中获得年龄的作用

不同语种的研究都发现获得年龄是影响图片命名和词汇命名的重要因素。该研究对汉语图片命名中获得年龄的作用进行了初步探讨。研究分为两部分,第一部分让20名大学生对187幅选自Snodgrass和Vanderwart图片集的线条画的名称的获得年龄进行了评定;第二部分以该187幅图片为刺激,30名大学生被试对图片进行命名反应。以命名反应时为因变量,采用多重回归分析,发现除了名称一致性和概念熟悉性,获得年龄是图片命名反应时的主要预测指标,并没有发现词频的效应。文章对此结果进行了讨论。     

Retracted: Effects of cartoon violence on aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors

This article reports on an experiment designed to test whether the cartoon manipulation leads to significant increases in aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors among Chinese children (n = 3,000). Results indicated that brief exposure to a violent cartoon triggered higher aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors than a nonviolent cartoon. Females displayed higher aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors than males in a nonviolent cartoon condition, while males displayed higher aggressive behaviors than females in a violent cartoon condition. Mediation analysis suggested that the effect on aggressive behaviors was mediated by aggressive thoughts. The findings imply that cartoon developers, parents, and teachers should develop cartoons that inhibit children's aggressive thoughts to avoid aggressive behaviors. Females are the key group for the prevention and intervention of aggression in a nonviolent cartoon context, while males are the key group for the prevention and intervention of aggression in a violent cartoon context.     

死亡凸显对自我姓名注意瞬脱对抗效应的影响

已有研究表明死亡凸显会抑制自我面孔和自我参照记忆加工的自我优势,可是死亡凸显对自我姓名的影响尚不明确,本研究采用事件相关电位技术,探索死亡凸显对自我姓名注意瞬脱对抗效应及其大脑神经活动的影响。58名被试在经历不同的启动任务后,完成自我姓名、朋友姓名和名人姓名的注意瞬脱任务。行为结果发现自我姓名识别正确率显著高于朋友姓名和名人姓名,表现出稳定的自我姓名加工的注意瞬脱对抗效应;电生理数据发现死亡启动后自我姓名诱发的P300波幅显著低于消极启动组和中性启动组,而朋友姓名和名人姓名并不受启动的影响。本研究结果与以往研究结果共同表明死亡想法凸显会使个体将抑制自我加工（自我姓名、自我面孔和自我参照记忆）作为应对远端死亡焦虑的一种手段。     

人声加工的神经机制

人声是人类听觉环境中最熟知和重要的声音, 传递着大量社会相关信息。与视觉人脸加工类似, 大脑对人声也有着特异性加工。研究者使用电生理、脑成像等手段找到了对人声有特异性反应的脑区, 即颞叶人声加工区(TVA), 并发现非人类动物也有类似的特异性加工区域。人声加工主要涉及言语、情绪和身份信息的加工, 分别对应于三条既相互独立又相互作用的神经通路。研究者提出了双通路模型、多阶段模型和整合模型分别对人声的言语、情绪和身份加工进行解释。未来研究需要进一步讨论人声加工的特异性能否由特定声学特征的选择性加工来解释, 并深入探究特殊人群(如自闭症和精神分裂症患者)的人声加工的神经机制。     

The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries

The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Local collaborators recruited 5,447 members of college communities in 20 countries, who provided data via a Web site in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Q‐sort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7:00 p.m. Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were the United States/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience; South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Neuroticism, Openness, and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross‐cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.     

Functions of autobiographical memory in Taiwanese and American emerging adults

The study addresses cultural and person-level factors contributing to emerging adult's use of memory to serve adaptive functions. The focus is on three functions: self-continuity, social-bonding and directing-behaviour. Taiwanese (N = 85, 52 women) and American (N = 95, 51 women) emerging adults completed the Thinking about Life Experiences scale, and measures of trait personality, self-concept clarity and future time perspective. Findings show that individuals from both cultures use memory to serve these three functions, but Taiwanese individuals use memory more frequently than Americans to maintain self-continuity. Culture also interacted with person-level factors: in Taiwan, but not America, memory is more frequently used to create self-continuity in individuals high in conscientiousness. Across cultures, having lower self-concept clarity was related to greater use of memory to create self-continuity. Findings are discussed in terms of how memory serves functions in context and specific aspects of the Taiwanese and American cultural context that may predict the functional use of memory in emerging adulthood.     

Ease‐of‐retrieval effects on procedural justice judgements under conditions of informational and personal uncertainty

This study tests whether individuals' reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval processes when forming procedural justice judgements are moderated by informational and personal uncertainty. In Studies 1 and 2 we examined the predicted effects of informational uncertainty. Results indicated that participants in information‐uncertain conditions relied on ease‐of‐retrieval, whereas those in information‐certain conditions relied on content information to make procedural justice judgements. In Study 3 we examined the combined effects of informational uncertainty and personal uncertainty on reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval when forming procedural justice judgements. The findings of Study 3 indicated that personal uncertain participants who were in informational certain conditions based their procedural justice judgements on content information, whereas all other participants based their procedural justice judgements on ease‐of‐retrieval. This is the first paper to demonstrate that the joint effect of informational uncertainty and personal uncertainty on reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval is different from the two uncertainties acting alone.     

人格特质及脑功能连接对社交网络的影响

采用网络分析的方法, 本研究从个体受欢迎程度和个体间亲密程度两方面探究了人格特质对社交网络的影响, 并在此基础上进一步探究了个体间大脑静息态功能连接相似性和社交网络的关系。结果发现：(1)高尽责性的个体在需要“值得信任”特质的社交网络中更受欢迎, 高宜人性的个体在需要“共享时光”的社交网络中更受欢迎; (2)在需要“相同兴趣”特质的社交网络中, 个体间人格相似性和社会距离呈显著负相关关系; (3)同样在需要“相同兴趣”特质的社交网络中, 个体间部分功能连接相似性与社会距离呈显著负相关关系, 这些功能连接主要集中在额顶控制网络以及背侧注意网络; 同时, 部分节点功能连接相似性与社会距离呈显著正相关关系, 这些功能连接主要集中在默认网络。研究结果揭示了人格特质对不同社交网络结构的影响, 以及个体间人格特质相似性和静息态脑网络相似性与社会距离的关系。本研究对理解社交网络的结构, 形成规律以及其中的信息传播规律有着重要启示意义。