Rare targets are less susceptible to attention capture once detection has begun

Rare or low probability targets are detected more slowly and/ or less accurately than higher probability counterparts. Various proposals have implicated perceptual and response-based processes in this deficit. Recent evidence, however, suggests that it is attentional in nature, with low probability targets requiring more attentional resources than high probability ones to detect. This difference in attentional requirements, in turn, suggests the possibility that low and high probability targets may have different susceptibilities to attention capture, which is also known to be resource-dependent. Supporting this hypothesis, we found that, once attentional resources have begun to be engaged by detection processes, low, but not high, probability targets have a reduced susceptibility to capture. Our findings speak to several issues. First, they indicate that the likelihood of attention capture occurring when a given task-relevant stimulus is being processed is dependent, to some extent, on how said stimulus is represented within mental task sets. Second, they provide added support for the idea that the behavioural deficit associated with low probability targets is attention-based. Finally, the current data point to reduced top-down biasing of target templates as a likely mechanism underlying the attentional locus of the deficit in question.     

Predicting Short‐Term Remembering as Boundedly Optimal Strategy Choice

It is known that, on average, people adapt their choice of memory strategy to the subjective utility of interaction. What is not known is whether an individual's choices are boundedly optimal. Two experiments are reported that test the hypothesis that an individual's decisions about the distribution of remembering between internal and external resources are boundedly optimal where optimality is defined relative to experience, cognitive constraints, and reward. The theory makes predictions that are tested against data, not fitted to it. The experiments use a no‐choice/choice utility learning paradigm where the no‐choice phase is used to elicit a profile of each participant's performance across the strategy space and the choice phase is used to test predicted choices within this space. They show that the majority of individuals select strategies that are boundedly optimal. Further, individual differences in what people choose to do are successfully predicted by the analysis. Two issues are discussed: (a) the performance of the minority of participants who did not find boundedly optimal adaptations, and (b) the possibility that individuals anticipate what, with practice, will become a bounded optimal strategy, rather than what is boundedly optimal during training.     

Use of positive interventions: Does neuroticism moderate the sustainability of their effects on happiness?

Previous research indicates that performing positive activities boosts happiness. The present studies examined whether neuroticism would moderate the sustainability of the effects of positive activities on happiness. Study 1 showed that the effects of counting blessings/kindness daily for seven days lasted a week after participants stopped performing the activity, but only for low-neuroticism individuals (who reported increased happiness) and not high-neuroticism individuals. However, a week post-intervention, gratitude-/kindness-listing participants were more likely to choose an amusing rather than a sad film, regardless of neuroticism differences. This suggests that behavioral choice is more sensitive to positive intervention effects than self-reported happiness. In Study 2, high-neuroticism individuals who occasionally visualized and wrote about their best possible selves over three weeks were happier than their counterparts in the control condition. The present research illustrates that although neuroticism moderates the sustainability of positive intervention effects, encouraging continuance of positive activities may produce more lasting effects.     

Effects of Gender,Socioeconomic Status,and Early Academic Performance on Postsecondary Educational Choice

National data were used to study the effects of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and 4 types of eighth‐grade academic performance on postsecondary educational choices at late adolescence. Educational choices were classified by predominant Holland type (R, I, A, S, E, C). Gender had strongest independent influences on educational choice. Gender also interacted with SES and academic performance. Relationships between SES and educational choice were stronger for women than for men. For women, eighth‐grade reading scores were the strongest predictor of educational choice, whereas for men, mathematics scores were the strongest predictor. Implications for theory and counseling practice are discussed.     

先天性红-绿色觉异常者的非彩色表色色差辨别研究

该文就先天性红－绿色觉异常者对非彩色系表色色差的辨别展开了研究。结果表明,先天性红－绿色觉异常者色差识别的量值△Ｅ随目视评价的等级不同而异;先天性红－绿色觉异常者与色党正常者在非彩色表色辨别上存在一定的差异;同一明度等级上、下限的变化对先天性红－绿色觉异常者的非彩色表色辨别存在影响,这种影响与明度的级别有关。     

Conversation as a resource for influence: evidence for prototypical arguments and social identification processes

Members of eight single‐sex groups each consisting of three pro‐ and three anti‐capital punishment adherents discussed their views for 30 minutes, and afterwards individually rated ingroup and outgroup members on social influence ranking, prototypicality, and social attractiveness. From the intragroup hypothesis that speaking turns are a resource for influence (Ng & Bradac, 1993), we predicted and found that turns were correlated strongly with influence in the intergroup context. Further, using self‐categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985), we hypothesized that social identity processes would interact with turns, especially with turns obtained through interruptions. Interruptions encoded in prototypical utterances were more strongly correlated with social influence and prototypicality, but not social attraction, than interruptions encoded in non‐prototypical utterances. Further, interruption attempts enacted in prototypical utterances were found to be more likely to be successful than unsuccessful in obtaining turns, while those enacted in non‐prototypical utterances were more likely to be unsuccessful than successful. Additionally, interruption turns were longer when enacted in prototypical over non‐prototypical utterances. Overall, the findings suggest that the power/influence of language is interactively organized and constructed around salient self‐categorizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生控制信念及其与人际信任的关系

以290名大学生为被试,采用量表法考察其控制信念和人际信任的特点及两变量之间的关系。结果表明,（1）被试的认知控制信念得分最高,情感控制最低,直接控制和间接控制信念得分居中;且控制信念得分存在显著性别和生源地差异,女生的认知控制和情感控制得分都高于男生,农村生源学生的间接控制信念得分显著低于城市生源学生;（2）被试人际信任得分较低,且不存在性别和生源地差异;（3）控制信念与人际信任的关系因被试性别和生源地的不同而有差异,对于女生和农村生源大学生来说,直接控制、认知控制信念得分越高,人际信任得分也越高;而对     

Comparing mand training and other instructional methods to teach a foreign language

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of mand, tact, and native‐to‐foreign (NFI) and foreign‐to‐native (FNI) intraverbal training on the acquisition of a foreign language. We used a multiple‐baseline design across participants with an embedded adapted alternating treatments design to compare the effects of mand training, tact training, NFI training, and FNI training on the acquisition rate of Chinese words in four typically developing adults. We also examined the emergence of untrained foreign language responses for each training condition. Data for 3 out of the 4 participants suggest that mand training was the most efficient training procedure with respect to acquisition rate. The greatest amount of emergent responding was observed for the mand and tact training conditions.     

儿童青少年正念量表(CAMM)在中国青少年群体中的信效度检验

目的:检验儿童青少年正念量表(CAMM)在中国青少年群体中应用的信效度,为青少年正念研究提供科学工具。方法:选取310名中学生(样本1)进行条目分析和探索性因素分析,再选取309名中学生(样本2)进行验证性因素分析、效标效度、增量效度和信度分析。结果:中文版CAMM抽取2个因素最为合适,并具有良好的结构效度、效标效度、增量效度及较高的信度。结论:中文版CAMM具有良好的心理测量学指标,可以在中国青少年群体中使用。