Coh-Metrix: Analysis of text on cohesion and language

Advances in computational linguistics and discourse processing have made it possible to automate many language- and text-processing mechanisms. We have developed a computer tool called Coh-Metrix, which analyzes texts on over 200 measures of cohesion, language, and readability. Its modules use lexicons, part-of-speech classifiers, syntactic parsers, templates, corpora, latent semantic analysis, and other components that are widely used in computational linguistics. After the user enters an English text, Coh-Metrix returns measures requested by the user. In addition, a facility allows the user to store the results of these analyses in data files (such as Text, Excel, and SPSS). Standard text readability formulas scale texts on difficulty by relying on word length and sentence length, whereas Coh-Metrix is sensitive to cohesion relations, world knowledge, and language and discourse characteristics.     

大学新生生活困扰的初步研究

本研究尝试对大学新生的生活困扰问题做一个初步的调查。在广州市某大学新生入学的第一学期末对 2 97名新生用大学新生适应量表进行了测试。结果发现 :( 1 )大学新生的生活困扰涉及人际关系、专业与职业期望、独立生活、资源信息利用和学习等五大方面。 ( 2 )平均而言 ,大学新生明显感到困扰的三个方面依次是资源信息利用、人际关系和学习方面 ;而在专业与职业期望和独立生活两个方面没有感到明显的困扰。 ( 3 )在上述新生生活困扰的五个方面没有发现显著的性别差异。结论 :大学新生的生活困扰问题值得引起足够的重视 ,应该有针对性地采取一些干预措施。     

Environmental attitudes in China: The roles of the Dark Triad,future orientation and place attachment

Given the current environmental situation and social change in China, we explored the relationships between the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) and environmental attitudes (beliefs regarding environmentally related issues), and the mediating roles of future orientation (the tendency to plan for meeting long‐term objectives) and place attachment (the emotional connection with the place of residence) in these relationships. Using a national sample from all 31 provinces of mainland China (N = 998), we found that the psychometric structure of the Dark Triad was well confirmed under Chinese culture. The Dark Triad as a whole was negatively related to environmental attitudes, but narcissism was not significantly associated with environmental attitudes when the three Dark Triad traits were considered as the predictors simultaneously. Future orientation and place attachment mediated the association between the Dark Triad and environmental attitudes. These findings enrich our understanding of the relevant variables of environmental attitudes and provide references for China's government and other developing countries to improve environmental issues. The uniqueness of narcissism could expand the understanding of the commonality and diversity among the Dark Triad traits, and an efficient tool of the Dark Triad was provided under Chinese culture.     

Alternative Multiple Imputation Inference for Categorical Structural Equation Modeling

The use of item responses from questionnaire data is ubiquitous in social science research. One side effect of using such data is that researchers must often account for item level missingness. Multiple imputation is one of the most widely used missing data handling techniques. The traditional multiple imputation approach in structural equation modeling has a number of limitations. Motivated by Lee and Cai’s approach, we propose an alternative method for conducting statistical inference from multiple imputation in categorical structural equation modeling. We examine the performance of our proposed method via a simulation study and illustrate it with one empirical data set.     

生育年龄限制感提高女性的计划生育数量

近几年我国已陷入低生育率国家的行列, 提高育龄女性的生育意愿迫在眉睫。本研究结合心理阻抗以及毕生控制理论, 探索女性对于生育的年龄限制的知觉对于其生育意愿和计划生育数量的影响。研究1为问卷研究, 结果显示, 女性距离自己认为的理想生育年龄越接近时, 生育意愿越强烈。研究2和研究3为实验法研究, 分别启动未婚女性(研究2)和已婚女性(研究3)对于女性生育年龄的限制感。结果表明, 生育年龄的时间限制可以提升未婚女性对儿童的内隐态度和已婚女性的计划生育数量。研究2还发现, 这种提升效果对于前测生育意愿高的女性影响更大, 且将最佳生育年龄设定为26岁的提升效果优于设定为32岁。本研究的结果表明, 生育限制感可以提高女性的生育意愿。创设女性对适宜生育的年龄有限制感的环境, 将有助于提升育龄女性的生育意愿。不建议以进一步放开人口生育指标(如全面放开生育数量的限制)作为提高生育率的手段, 这反而可能导致育龄女性的生育意愿进一步下滑。     

负期望条件下的末期效应：情绪动机诱发风险寻求

风险决策中, 末期效应指“个体在重复多轮决策任务的末尾冒险倾向升高”的现象, 但其内在机制尚不明确。三个研究的结果发现, 在实验室环境和自然环境下, 不同期望(负期望值和等期望值)条件下被试在最后一轮的投资均会显著增加, 末期效应稳定出现, 且不受到最后一轮决策前被试所拥有的代币数量的影响。即, 就算在风险选项收益更小的情况下, 被试也会倾向于在最后一轮选择高风险选项, 且这一效应是参照点独立的, 这说明末期效应的出现是源于对情绪满足感的追求。未来研究可从这一点切入, 进一步研究情绪影响风险决策过程的机制。     

Sleep does not enhance motor sequence learning

Improvements in motor sequence performance have been observed after a delay involving sleep. This finding has been taken as evidence for an active sleep consolidation process that enhances subsequent performance. In a review of this literature, however, the authors observed 4 aspects of data analyses and experimental design that could lead to improved performance on the test in the absence of any sleep consolidation: (a) masking of learning effects in the averaged data, (b) masking of reactive inhibition effects in the averaged training data, (c) time-of-day and time-since-sleep confounds, and (d) a gradual buildup of fatigue over the course of massed (i.e., concentrated) training. In 2 experiments the authors show that when these factors are controlled for, or when their effects are substantially reduced, the sleep enhancement effect is eliminated. Whereas sleep may play a role in protection from forgetting of motor skills, it does not result in performance enhancement.     

“饮食自然”：道教饮食养生思想浅论

在现代社会,道教的饮食养生文化受到了大众的普遍关注.然而,这不单单是因为道教中积累了大量的可供今人借鉴、利用的饮食方法和技术.实际上,道教的核心饮食养生思想及原则,更彰显出了其永久性的价值和魅力.从某种意义而言,更加清晰、深入地了解道教饮食养生思想内核,并把握其内在的科学精神实质,是进一步把道教饮食养生文化发扬光大的重要前提之一.     

铆题比例对等值精度的影响

在非等组铆测验设计中,铆题量占测验长度的多大比例比较合适,这个比例随测验长度的增大可否发生变化？这些是实际工作者和研究者非常关心的问题。该文在固定被试数和测验长度的条件下,探查铆题量所占测验长度比例（简称铆题比例）的变化对等值精度的影响,讨论了在实际等值中如何在等值精度和铆题比例之间取得平衡的问题。并在模拟研究的条件下,给出了几个反应实际等值精度的指标。     

不同类型问题的关键信息表征及其认知加工研究

目的:研究关键信息表征在不同类型问题解决中的作用;方法:本研究使用五种不同类型问题作为实验材料对75名文理科大学生进行问题解决研究,并采用回归统计分析了关键信息、过程策略、信息处理方式三个解题要素对正确解答的效应;结果:(1)关键信息对正确解答作用显著,关键信息表征对正确解题有较好的预测作用;(2)关键信息在不同类型问题解决中的作用有所不同;(3)过程策略对正确解答效应显著。