Aspectual asymmetries in the mental representation of events: Role of lexical and grammatical aspect

Temporal information is important in the construction of situation models, and many languages make use of perfective and imperfective aspect markers to distinguish between completed situations (e.g., He made a cake) and ongoing situations (e.g., He is making a cake). Previous studies in which the effect of grammatical aspect has been examined have shown that perfective sentences are often processed more quickly than imperfective ones (e.g., Chan, Yap, Shirai, & Matthews, 2004; Madden & Zwaan, 2003; Yap et al., 2004; Yap et al., 2006). However, these studies used only accomplishment verbs (i.e., verbs with an inherent endpoint, such as bake a cake). The present study on the processing of Cantonese includes activity verbs (i.e., durative verbs with no inherent endpoint, such as play the piano), and the results indicate a strong interaction between lexical aspect (i.e., verb type) and grammatical aspect. That is, perfective sentences were processed more quickly with accomplishment verbs, consistent with previous findings, but imperfective sentences were processed more quickly with activity verbs. We suggest that these different aspectual asymmetries emerge as a result of the inherent associations between accomplishment verbs and the bounded features of perfective aspect and between activity verbs and the unbounded features of imperfective aspect. The sentence stimuli from this study may be downloaded from mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

An online database of phonological representations for Mandarin Chinese

A Web-based database is developed to provide psycholinguists with a large-scale phonological representation system for all Mandarin Chinese monosyllables. The construction of the system is based on the slot-based phonological pattern generator (PatPho), with an adequate consideration of the language-specific features of the Chinese phonology. Users can retrieve the relevant phonological representations through an interactive query system on the Web. The query outcomes can be saved in a number of formats, such as Excel spreadsheets, for further analyses. This representation system can be used for a variety of purposes—in particular, connectionist language modeling and, more generally, the study of Chinese phonology.     

错误再认的双加工机制——兼作信号检测论的分析

采用DRM范式,通过对预警、呈现时间以及再认时间压力的同时操纵,深入探索错误记忆的产生机制.实验结果发现:(1)编码阶段的预警提示可使再认判断的标准趋于严格,从而降低错误记忆效应;(2)提取阶段的再认时间压力可显著降低被试对关键诱饵与学过项目的区分能力,进而提高错误记忆效应;(3)预警提示在无时间压力时要比有时间压力时更有效降低错误再认.该结果证实在记忆信息的提取阶段存在双加工过程,激活与监测的双加工在错误记忆产生过程中存在对抗式的交互作用.当监测过程在编码和提取两个阶段均受到易化时,策略性的控制过程最有效;当监测过程受阻时,将导致激活的效应更明显.     

动态和静态条件下内隐时间的存在和特征

采用2×2×2混合实验设计,使用具体和抽象两种不同性质的图形材料对动态和静态两种条件下内隐时间的存在及其特征进行了考察,结果表明：（1）动态条件下被试对抽象图形的位置偏移判断更为准确;（2）测试图形与识记图形之间位置偏移判断的错误率在测试图形与诱导图形内隐运动方向一致的条件下比不一致条件下大;（3）无论实验材料为具体图形还是抽象图形,被试对测试图形和识记图形的位置偏移判断错误率之间不存在差异。研究结果证明了内隐时间的存在,进一步探明了内隐时间具有方向性和认知不可渗透性的特点,并证明了运动范式为研究内隐时间及其特点的有效方法。     

Biculturalism amongst ethnic minorities: Its impact for individuals and intergroup relations

This review article offers an integration of acculturation, biculturalism, and intergroup relations research. Additionally, it argues that bicultural identities can be more accurately conceptualised as a third, hyphenated cultural identity (e.g., Chinese‐Australian), in addition to one's ethnic and the dominant national identity. In doing so, this article proposes that hyphenated cultural identities may be personally meaningful for many ethnic minorities and discusses the function of hyphenated cultural identification for individuals and society. Given the relevance of bicultural identification, it is argued that recognising and understanding a hyphenated cultural identity is fundamental to ethnic minorities' wellbeing, as well as improving the quality of intergroup relations in multicultural societies, such as Australia.     

Assessing Proprioception in Children: A Review

Proprioception is the subconscious and conscious awareness of the spatial and mechanical status of the musculoskeletal framework. When working with children with motor delays and sensory integrative dysfunction, occupational therapists routinely assess the client's proprioceptive system. However, currently available assessments for occupational therapists are primarily observer-based and concerns have been raised about the reliability of observer-based assessments of sensation. The author's purpose was to review measures of proprioception currently available to occupational therapists and explore direct measures of proprioception from neuroscience and rehabilitation that can be adapted for pediatric clinical use. Observer-based and direct measurements of proprioception assessments complement each other in meeting clinical needs. A better understanding of both types of evaluation will improve proprioceptive evaluation.     

学习困难儿童元记忆能力的实验研究

该研究以有和无意义联系的两种中文词对为材料,采用2×3×2混合实验设计,对小学三到五年级的学习困难儿童与学优儿童的JOL监测判断水平和学习时间分配之间的差异及其发展特点进行研究。结果表明：（1）学习困难儿童的JOL判断等级显著低于学优儿童;（2）在自定步骤学习过程中,随着年级增长,学习困难儿童能够根据学习材料的性质决定其学习时间的分配策略,表现出一定的元记忆控制能力,但其分配策略的有效性不高;（3）学习困难儿童的JOL监测判断水平和学习时间分配策略从小三到小五在缓慢提高;（4）学习困难儿童的JOL监测判断和学习时间分配之间存在交互影响。     

Counting to Infinity: Does Learning the Syntax of the Count List Predict Knowledge That Numbers Are Infinite?

By around the age of 5½, many children in the United States judge that numbers never end, and that it is always possible to add 1 to a set. These same children also generally perform well when asked to label the quantity of a set after one object is added (e.g., judging that a set labeled “five” should now be “six”). These findings suggest that children have implicit knowledge of the “successor function”: Every natural number, n, has a successor, n + 1. Here, we explored how children discover this recursive function, and whether it might be related to discovering productive morphological rules that govern language-specific counting routines (e.g., the rules in English that represent base-10 structure). We tested 4- and 5-year-old children’s knowledge of counting with three tasks, which we then related to (a) children’s belief that 1 can always be added to any number (the successor function) and (b) their belief that numbers never end (infinity). Children who exhibited knowledge of a productive counting rule were significantly more likely to believe that numbers are infinite (i.e., there is no largest number), though such counting knowledge was not directly linked to knowledge of the successor function, per se. Also, our findings suggest that children as young as 4 years of age are able to implement rules defined over their verbal count list to generate number words beyond their spontaneous counting range, an insight which may support reasoning over their acquired verbal count sequence to infer that numbers never end.     

青少年网络受欺负与网络欺负的关系:一个有调节的中介模型

为探讨青少年网络受欺负对网络欺负影响的心理机制,本研究基于一般压力理论与情绪调节模型构建了一个有调节的中介模型,并采用网络欺负量表、社交焦虑量表以及情绪调节量表对武汉市某中学724名初中生进行测量,结果发现：（1）网络受欺负与社交焦虑、网络欺负显著正相关,社交焦虑与网络欺负显著正相关,认知重评与社交焦虑显著负相关,表达抑制与网络欺负显著正相关;（2）网络受欺负不仅直接预测网络欺负,还通过社交焦虑间接预测网络欺负;（3）网络受欺负对网络欺负的中介作用受到情绪调节策略的调节,对低认知重评的个体或高表达抑制的个体而言,中介作用更强。研究结果不仅解释了网络欺负是如何产生的,以及在什么条件下影响更大,也为减少网络欺负的发生提供了重要依据。