A unique visual rhythm does not pop out

We investigated attentional demands in visual rhythm perception of periodically moving stimuli using a visual search paradigm. A dynamic search display consisted of vertically “bouncing dots” with regular rhythms. The search target was defined by a unique visual rhythm (i.e., a shorter or longer period) among rhythmic distractors with identical periods. We found that search efficiency for a faster or a slower periodically moving target decreased as the number of distractors increased, although searching for a faster target was about one second faster than searching for a slower target. We conclude that perception of a visual rhythm defined by a unique period is not a “pop-out” process, but a serial one that demands considerable attention.     

心理理论的遗传基础初探

心理理论在社会交往中起着关键作用,其认知过程包括对自我和他人的心理状态进行推断及预测下一步行为.心理理论在不同个体间具有差异,这种差异可能部分归因于与心理理论相关的神经化学物质如多巴胺、五羟色胺、催产素、血管加压素等.来自不同群体的研究结果还发现,与这些神经化学物质有关的基因多态性,如儿茶酚胺氧位甲基转移酶、多巴胺D4受体基因、5-羟色胺受体基因、催产素受体基因等都与心理理论的表现有关.     

Can you forgive? It depends on how happy you are

This paper examined how individual group status and happiness influence forgiveness. In Study 1, happiness was treated as a trait difference: highly happy people, compared with very unhappy people, were found to be more willing to forgive murderers. More important, an interaction effect between happiness and group status on forgiveness was found, that is, highly happy people tended to be more forgiving when either ingroup or outgroup members were killed; unhappy people, however, tended to be less forgiving about murder when ingroup rather than outgroup members were killed. In Study 2, happiness was treated as an emotional state difference: happiness, rather than sadness, was found to bring greater forgiveness. Moreover, consistent with the interaction effect displayed in Study 1, happy participants tended to forgive more when ingroup or outgroup members were hurt; sad participants tended to forgive less when ingroup members rather than outgroup members were hurt. Implications for connections between happiness, group membership, and forgiveness are discussed.     

Saying Goodbye to Our Children: A Phenomenon of Soul-Making

In this article, the author navigates a personal yet common circumstance as a possible experience of soul-making, a concept outlined by James Hillman in his pivotal text Re-Visioning Psychology. Pulling the four moves of personifying, pathologizing, psychologizing, and dehumanizing through the life event of a child's graduating from high school and moving onto college, the author reveals, through the myths of Chronos, Ananke, Demeter, and Persephone, how saying goodbye to our children can deepen our relationship with psyche. The article offers an accessible interpretation of the often heady and conceptual theories of Hillman and describes a process of learning to accept and even come to find love in the inevitability of one's own mortality.     

Math anxiety: A review of its cognitive consequences,psychophysiological correlates,and brain bases

A decade has passed since the last published review of math anxiety, which was carried out by Ashcraft and Ridley (2005). Given the considerable interest aroused by this topic in recent years and the growing number of publications related to it, the present article aims to provide a full and updated review of the field, ranging from the initial studies of the impact of math anxiety on numerical cognition, to the latest research exploring its electrophysiological correlates and brain bases from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Finally, this review describes the factors and mechanisms that have been claimed to play a role in the origins and/or maintenance of math anxiety, and it examines in detail the main explanations proposed to account for the negative effects of math anxiety on performance: competition for working memory resources, a deficit in a low-level numerical representation, and inhibition/attentional control deficit.     

Do Pro-environmental Behaviors and Awareness Contribute to Improve Subjective Well-being?

In this paper, we study the influence of both environmental awareness and behaviors on subjective well-being (SWB). By using ordered logit techniques in a sample from Granada, a city in southern Spain, we find that concern about the environment and voluntary work actions to preserve it are relevant for SWB. When both are combined, namely when a person is concerned and volunteers, the influence on SWB is greater. These results introduce the SWB dimension in the knowledge-concern-action paradox, which states that even if the individual is concerned about the environment, this concern does not always translate into personal action to preserve it. Actions such as habits related to water saving inside the household are not significant in explaining SWB, but using devices that save water increases it. In summary, our results suggest that actions and awareness have either a positive or no significant influence on SWB, but never a negative influence.     

中国心理学研究的现状与发展——基于第二十二届全国心理学大会的分析

采用Bicomb及SPSS软件对第二十二届全国心理学大会进行统计分析,探讨中国心理学的研究现状及发展趋势。本届会议分为31个专题,共收录1295篇论文摘要,产生42个高频关键词。研究结果表明,中国心理学目前仍处在蓬勃发展期,门类分支较细,研究成果丰硕,研究机构主要以师范类院校及专业研究结构为主; 关键词共词分析发现中国心理学研究具有五个热点领域。未来应进一步做好纵向研究,采用更为先进的研究方法,并结合心理学分支领域的会议来判断中国心理学研究的现状及发展。     

Prosocial Behavior and Subjective Well-Being in School among Elementary School Students: the Mediating Roles of the Satisfaction of Relatedness Needs at School and Self-Esteem

Applied Research in Quality of Life - We examined the multiple mediating effects of the satisfaction of relatedness needs at school and self-esteem in the relation between prosocial behavior and...     

具身道德隐喻映射机制的双向性及其问题——基于具身效应“可重复性危机”的思考

具身认知研究虽已取得令人瞩目的进展,但某些具身效应存在可重复性较低的问题。若长期忽视这一问题,将严重损害心理学的科学性,甚至引发一定程度的“可重复性危机”。本文从道德概念清洁隐喻的两大映射方向出发,基于两大实验类型对相关研究中可能存在的问题因素分别展开分析。未来研究应关注更注重社会互动的组织道德,将道德概念具身隐喻研究引申到现实问题中,并借助认知神经科学技术更全面地考察身体经验、情绪体验和认知加工在道德清洁隐喻加工中的作用。