The information content of panoramic images II: view-based navigation in nonrectangular experimental arenas

Two recent studies testing navigation of rats in swimming pools have posed problems for any account of the use of purely geometric properties of space in navigation (M. Graham, M. A. Good, A. McGregor, & J. M. Pearce, 2006; J. M. Pearce, M. A. Good, P. M. Jones, & A. McGregor, 2004). The authors simulated 1 experiment from each study in a virtual reality environment to test whether experimental results could be explained by view-based navigation. The authors recorded a reference image at the target location and then determined global panoramic image differences between this image and images taken at regularly spaced locations throughout the arena. A formal model, in which an agent attempts to minimize image differences between the reference image and current views, generated trajectories that could be compared with the search performance of rats. For both experiments, this model mimics many aspects of rat behavior. View-based navigation provides a sufficient and parsimonious explanation for a range of navigational behaviors of rats under these experimental conditions.     

Motivations underlying attitudes: regulatory focus and majority versus minority support

Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the present work examined the motivations underlying intergroup attitudes expressed under conditions of majority versus minority support. In two studies, participants expressed their attitudes towards equality and non‐discrimination of foreigners and were informed that the equality and non‐discrimination principle was supported by either a majority or a minority. Regulatory focus was assessed as the extent to which participants felt promotion‐related and prevention‐related emotions when acting either inconsistently or consistently with the egalitarian principle. Results provided evidence supporting the hypothesis that attitudes are related to prevention emotions when supported by a majority, but to promotion emotions when supported by a minority. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

有自杀意念大学生的内隐态度探析

该文结合Greenwald开创的内隐联想测验,自编IAT程序,对有自杀意念大学生的内隐态度进行了相关研究。结果显示,有自杀意念大学生较无自杀意念大学生的内隐态度对自杀类词语敏感等。家庭所在地为农村对有自杀意念大学生的内隐态度有显著性影响。     

道教"贵柔守雌"思想对贾平凹小说的影响

道教"贵柔守雌"的伦理思想主张男女平等,这一点对贾平凹继<废都>后的小说创作有着明显的影响,也委婉地导致了他的小说中女性角色的定位由误读回归到人格化塑造的道路.反映在小说中,则具体表现为道教隐士和充满道教意蕴的意象对女主人翁的感情与人格发展的塑造性的影响.本论文就这种隐性的创作转交作一梳理,揭示道教"贵柔守雌"思想在其中发挥的作用.     

同步内隐／外显序列学习：事件相关的fMRI的初步研究

本文利用事件相关fMRI研究探讨对于内隐和外显学习在脑区激活上的差异.实验采用同步内隐/外显学习序列,以有色的形状作为刺激材料.要求被试对于刺激的颜色做选择反应,并在颜色消失后找出形状的内在规则.颜色和图形序列分别采用两个独立的马尔可夫链,即下一个图形的颜色或者形状有70%的可能服从序列规则.行为数据显示被试习得了外显和内隐的规则,fMRI成像主要比较内隐和外显学习在学习过程和知识运用上脑区激活的差异.结果发现,与内隐学习柑比,外显学习在额叶的激活更为显著.而且,内隐学习和外显学习在视觉皮层的激活出现分离,内隐学习中枕叶的激活减弱,而外显学习中枕叶的激活增加.     

Neural and genetic foundations of face recognition and prosopagnosia

Faces are of essential importance for human social life. They provide valuable information about the identity, expression, gaze, health, and age of a person. Recent face‐processing models assume highly interconnected neural structures between different temporal, occipital, and frontal brain areas with several feedback loops. A selective deficit in the visual learning and recognition of faces is known as prosopagnosia, which can be found both in acquired and congenital form. Recently, a hereditary sub‐type of congenital prosopagnosia with a very high prevalence rate of 2.5% has been identified. Recent research results show that hereditary prosopagnosia is a clearly circumscribed face‐processing deficit with a characteristic set of clinical symptoms. Comparing face processing of people of prosopagnosia with that of controls can help to develop a more conclusive and integrated model of face processing. Here, we provide a summary of the current state of face processing research. We also describe the different types of prosopagnosia and present the set of typical symptoms found in the hereditary type. Finally, we will discuss the implications for future face recognition research.     

Action Research: A Missing Component in the Emergence of Social and Cross‐Cultural Psychology as a Fully Inter‐Connected Global Enterprise

Action research, as envisaged by Lewin, uses research to solve a social problem and provide theoretical knowledge. It involves a cyclical–spiral of planning, action, and evaluation with feedback between parties, taking into account power and value differences and empowering change agents. This has been all but abandoned by social psychologists today. Contemporary ‘participatory’ action research has migrated to fields like education and development and community studies that emphasize a social constructionist epistemology with a qualitative approach of recording bottom‐up processes of social change and community self‐awareness. The globalization of psychology affords new opportunities for a return to more top‐down Lewinian traditions, where academics in the developing world – embedded within a cultural milieu of interconnectedness and relatively exempt from pressures to publish or perish – can work together with academics in wealthy countries to produce a process oriented psychology that is capable of making a difference under conditions of climate change and the end of cheap oil. Asian social psychology, where strongly indigenous psychologies have taken root in growing economies, may take a leading role in this movement.     

How should we revise diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders in the DSM-V?

This article reviews literature on the validity and performance characteristics of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders (SUDs) and recommends changes in these criteria that should be considered for the next edition of the DSM (DSM-V). Substantial data indicate that DSM-IV substance abuse and substance dependence are not distinct categories and that SUD criteria are best modeled as reflecting a unidimensional continuum of substance-problem severity. The conceptually and empirically problematic substance abuse diagnosis should be abandoned in the DSM-V, with substance dependence defined by a single set of criteria. Data also indicate that various individual SUD criteria should be revised, dropped, or considered for inclusion in the DSM-V. The DSM-V should provide a framework that allows the integration of categorical and dimensional approaches to diagnosis. Important areas for further research are noted.     

Long‐term immigrant adaptation: Eight‐year follow‐up study among immigrants from Russia and Estonia living in Finland

This study was a longitudinal investigation of the three different dimensions of long‐term immigrant adaptation (i.e., psychological, sociocultural, and socioeconomic adaptation) and the relationships between them in an 8‐year follow‐up with panel data. The 282 respondents were immigrants in Finland, born between 1961 and 1976, coming from the former Soviet Union. The results suggest that the adaptation of these immigrants has developed favourably. In 8 years, the respondents had improved their Finnish language skills and their position in the labour market. No differences were observed in their levels of psychological well‐being between the two assessments. Of the three adaptation dimensions assessed, sociocultural adaptation, measured as proficiency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Finnish, turned out to be the most significant predictor of the two other long‐term outcomes of immigrant adaptation (i.e., socioeconomic and psychological). In particular, the better the initial command of the Finnish language, the better were their socioeconomic and psychological adaptation outcomes after 8 years of residence. These results demonstrate the importance of parallel and longitudinal assessments of the different outcomes of immigrant adaptation in order to address which particular dimensions of adaptation are most critical in the beginning of acculturation in terms of determining positive development and long‐term immigrant adaptation.     

Influence analysis for the factor analysis model with ranking data

Influence analysis is an important component of data analysis, and the local influence approach has been widely applied to many statistical models to identify influential observations and assess minor model perturbations since the pioneering work of Cook (1986) . The approach is often adopted to develop influence analysis procedures for factor analysis models with ranking data. However, as this well‐known approach is based on the observed data likelihood, which involves multidimensional integrals, directly applying it to develop influence analysis procedures for the factor analysis models with ranking data is difficult. To address this difficulty, a Monte Carlo expectation and maximization algorithm (MCEM) is used to obtain the maximum‐likelihood estimate of the model parameters, and measures for influence analysis on the basis of the conditional expectation of the complete data log likelihood at the E‐step of the MCEM algorithm are then obtained. Very little additional computation is needed to compute the influence measures, because it is possible to make use of the by‐products of the estimation procedure. Influence measures that are based on several typical perturbation schemes are discussed in detail, and the proposed method is illustrated with two real examples and an artificial example.