Paths to Learning Ten-Structured Understandings of Teen Sums: Addition Solution Methods of Japanese Grade 1 Students

A group of 64 Israeli twelfth-grade students of two different ethnic backgrounds participated in an experiment exploring the effects of argumentative design and social identity on the learning of a charged, ethnicity-related historical controversy. Students were divided into two learning conditions: an argumentative-disciplinary condition and a conventional textbook-based control condition. Students wrote short essays about Israel's “Melting Pot” policy of immigration absorption, prior to and after evaluation of historical sources and discussion. In the argumentative-disciplinary condition the final argumentative level of writing and the frequencies of stand and plot change were higher than in the control essays. As for confirmation bias, primary plot, stand, and argumentative level of pre-essays predicted final outcomes in the conventional textbook-based learning condition; no such relation existed in the argumentative-disciplinary condition. Narratives from the different ethnic groups differed in the frequency, direction, and degree of change, all toward improved in-group image. The design decisions toward the facilitation of argumentative activity seemed to facilitate narrative change, while social identity needs seemed to motivate it.     

Bilateral spatial summation of cooling of symmetrical sites

The possibility of spatial summation of conducted ??Ts (temperature decrements from the adapted skin temperature) was tested when the ??Ts were presented simultaneously and individually at symmetrical sites on either side of the body. The use of a signal detection rating method yielded data that indicate that spatial summation is complete (area and intensity trade reciprocally) for ??s near threshold and at clearly suprathreshold intensities of stimulation is invariant of the adapted skin temperature (AT), and the intensity of stimulation within the range of stimuli used (from as little as ?0.05?C to as much as ?1.25?C). In view of the characteristics ascribed to the thermosensory apparatus in humans, it is postulated that spatial summation occurs in the central nervous system.     

Stabilized images: The search for pattern elements

In a series of four experiments, the fragmentation of stabilized lines and angles viewed in different orientations was studied. With high inter-O agreement, it was possible to demonstrate reliable differences among patterns, with resistance to fading being a function of both pattern and orientation. The results were discussed in terms of possible supraretinal stages of pattern analysis.     

艾滋病预防性疫苗的研制——转向是岸

对20多年来国际艾滋病疫苗研制失败的关键原因和另辟蹊径进行剖析和探讨.抗原天然构象的缺失导致疫苗无效;特异性免疫系统受HIV侵害无力免疫导致疫苗失效;HIV高度变异、众多分株,寄望研制一种广谱的疫苗不可能,预防免疫难以实施、有效;HIV不适宜制备预防性疫苗,只有调转方向才能走出迷惘,并推出了颠覆传统理论思维的两个防、治疫苗的发明设计.     

Errors are aversive: defensive motivation and the error-related negativity

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event-related potential that is maximal approximately 50 ms after the commission of an error. The ERN is generated in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the medial prefrontal cortex implicated in both cognitive and emotional processing. Affective and motivational variables influence the magnitude of the ERN, which suggests that the ERN may relate to emotional or motivational aspects of error detection. In the present study, we evaluated the possibility that errors prime defensive motivational responses, and that the ERN may predict the magnitude of defensive reactivity after errors. We found that (a) the defensive startle response was larger following errors than following correct responses, and (b) the magnitude of the ERN predicted the degree of startle potentiation following errors. Thus, response errors prime defensive motivation-and the ERN predicts individual differences in the aversive response to errors.     

Measurement in Cross-Cultural Neuropsychology

The measurement of cognitive abilities across diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups has a contentious history, with broad political, legal, economic, and ethical repercussions. Advances in psychometric methods and converging scientific ideas about genetic variation afford new tools and theoretical contexts to move beyond the reflective analysis of between-group test score discrepancies. Neuropsychology is poised to benefit from these advances to cultivate a richer understanding of the factors that underlie cognitive test score disparities. To this end, the present article considers several topics relevant to the measurement of cognitive abilities across groups from diverse ancestral origins, including fairness and bias, equivalence, diagnostic validity, item response theory, and differential item functioning.     

网络游戏过度使用者的注意偏向及其ERP特征

网络成瘾与吸烟、饮酒等物质成瘾具有许多相似性,因此也可能存在类似的认知偏向和神经机制。本研究采用事件相关电位技术,通过点探测范式研究网络游戏过度使用者的注意偏向问题。结果显示：（1）与一般使用者相比,网络游戏过度使用者存在明显的注意偏向;（2）游戏图片对网络游戏过度使用者诱发的P2的振幅小于一般使用者;（3）网络游戏过度使用者对游戏图片位置上出现的探测点的加工（P1）较早。结果提示,网络游戏过度使用者的注意偏向存在特定的脑电模式。     

The Influence of Income Level and Ethnicity on Coping Strategies

The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) by S. Folkman and R. S. Lazarus (1988) has been used widely; however, few studies have evaluated this assessment tool in research concerning populations from different income levels and ethnic backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to compare the endorsement of the 8 coping strategies as outlined by Folkman and Lazarus's original research with Caucasian, middle class participants to the endorsement of coping approaches in a low income, primary care sample. Results suggest that low income individuals report utilizing greater rates of coping strategies overall and specifically employ emotion-focused coping strategies more than Folkman and Lazarus's original sample. Ethnic differences within the present study's low income sample were also examined and suggest that even within this low income sample, African Americans use certain emotion-focused coping strategies significantly more than Caucasian participants.     

Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior

Across four experimental studies, individuals who were depleted of their self-regulatory resources by an initial act of self-control were more likely to “impulsively cheat” than individuals whose self-regulatory resources were intact. Our results demonstrate that individuals depleted of self-control resources were more likely to behave dishonestly (Study 1). Depletion reduced people’s moral awareness when they faced the opportunity to cheat, which, in turn, was responsible for heightened cheating (Study 2). Individuals high in moral identity, however, did not show elevated levels of cheating when they were depleted (Study 3), supporting our hypothesis that self-control depletion increases cheating when it robs people of the executive resources necessary to identify an act as immoral or unethical. Our results also show that resisting unethical behavior both requires and depletes self-control resources (Study 4). Taken together, our findings help to explain how otherwise ethical individuals predictably engage in unethical behavior.