Are personality disorders associated with social welfare burden in the United States?

This study examined the association between personality disorders and use of major social welfare services in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 43,093). Social welfare services received and diagnoses of personality, substance use, mood, and anxiety disorders were assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV-version. Analyses quantified the association between personality disorders and forms of public assistance while controlling for numerous confounds. Logistic regression analyses revealed dependent personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and avoidant personality disorder were significantly associated with increased odds of receiving public assistance. In contrast, persons diagnosed with histrionic, schizoid, and obsessive-personality disorder were not significantly more likely to receive any public welfare service. Development of effective prevention and treatment of personality disorders would likely lead to reductions in overall social welfare burden.     

Gender differences in the effects of post-learning emotion on consolidation of item memory and source memory

Item memory and source memory are two integral elements of episodic memory. Although many studies have examined the effect of emotion on item memory, little research has simultaneously taken into account item memory and source memory. In addition, in the majority of previous studies, learning stimuli are used as the source of emotion, making it difficult to understand whether emotion has an effect on encoding or on consolidation of episodic memory. Furthermore, although gender differences exist in neurophysiological responses to emotional stimuli, in many studies gender differences were neglected and this leaves the picture incomplete regarding the effect of emotion on episodic memory. In this study, we examined gender differences in the effects of post-learning emotion on consolidation of item memory and source memory. Participants learned neutral Chinese nouns, took a memory pretest, and were then randomly assigned to three conditions, in which they either watched a 3-min negative video clip, or watched a 3-min positive video clip, or remained calm and relaxed for 3 min. Thirty minutes after the initial learning, participants took a memory posttest. We found that: (1) For females, post-learning negative emotion enhanced consolidation of item memory; however, neither negative emotion nor positive emotion had a significant effect on consolidation of source memory; (2) For males, neither negative nor positive emotion after learning had a significant effect on either item memory or source memory. Possible reasons for the gender differences, as well as the theoretical significance and practical implications of this study were discussed.     

家庭环境、专业满意度与大一新生心理健康的关系

为探究家庭环境和专业满意度对大一新生心理健康水平的影响。通过南京大学2013级3191名大一学生UPI问卷调查,采用回归方程分析家庭环境中的家庭来源地、家庭经济、是否独生子女、家庭环境认知以及专业满意度对大一新生心理健康的影响作用。结果发现,家庭环境因素和专业满意度均显著影响大一新生的心理健康水平。     

不同年级学生词边界划分的发展研究

汉语书写系统中不存在明显的词边界,中文读者对于词的划分存在较大的差异。词意识和词性均是影响这一差异的因素,本研究从发展的角度来探讨这两个因素是如何作用于词边界划分的。实验分别选取三年级、五年级、八年级及高二年级学生完成词切分任务。结果发现:(1)词切分认同率随年级的升高而降低,切分出来的词单元逐渐增大;(2)词切分认同率随年级变化的趋势会因词性的不同而发生变化,助词、形容词前、连词和介词后的切分认同率与总体趋势保持一致,但形容词前、数词、量词和介词前的切分认同率并未随年级的变化而变化。结果表明,词意识对中文读者词切分的影响受到词性的调节。     

Problem representation and solution strategies in solitaire chess

Abstract

Experimental and computer simulation were used to study problem representation, solution strategies, and the relation between the two when solving problems in solitaire chess. Experimental results showed that subjects produced three kinds of problem representations, corresponding to three kinds of solution strategies; namely, trial-and-error, concentration and decomposition. The three different problem representations reflected different cognitive levels achieved by the subjects in structuring the problem and determined which solution strategy the subjects employed. The three kinds of solution strategies exhibited different kinds of selectivity and different degrees of effectiveness.     

Analyzing Longitudinal Item Response Data via the Pairwise Fitting Method

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models can be applied to longitudinal educational surveys where a group of individuals are administered different tests over time with some common items. However, computational problems typically arise as the dimension of the latent variables increases. This is especially true when the latent variable distribution cannot be integrated out analytically, as with MIRT models for binary data. In this article, based on the pseudolikelihood theory, we propose a pairwise modeling strategy to estimate item and population parameters in longitudinal studies. Our pairwise method effectively reduces the dimensionality of the problem and hence is applicable to longitudinal IRT data with high-dimensional latent variables, which are challenging for classical methods. And in the low-dimensional case, our simulation study shows that it performs comparably with the classical methods. We further illustrate the implementation of the pairwise method using a development study of mathematics levels of junior high school students in which the response data are collected from 65 classes of 8 schools from 4 different school districts in China.     

太虚大师对大乘八宗的判摄

太虚大师对大乘八宗产生的条件,尤其是创宗者的"所得自证"进行了分析,从宗教实践的层面揭示了八宗宗义的不同立足点。八宗立足点的不同,以及所针对的学人的差异,使得各自宗义各有侧重。而这种特殊性,并不能掩盖八宗的平等性。总而言之,大乘八宗是特殊而平等,平等而特殊,共同构成一个有机的整体。     

Reasoning about the disclosure of success and failure to friends among children in the United States and China

Children's reasoning about individuals' willingness to disclose their successes and failures was investigated among 194 6- to 11-year-olds in the United States and China. In Study 1, participants showed a valence-matching effect, in which they predicted that individuals would be more likely to disclose their performance to an audience of friends if the friends' level of achievement was similar rather than dissimilar. This effect was weaker among children from China, who were more likely to justify their responses with reference to the implications for learning together or improving future performance. Results of Study 2 suggest that for children from the United States, the disclosure of successful performance to a friend who has performed poorly is seen as implicitly conveying the message "I'm better than you," whereas for children from China the message is "I can help you to do better." Results are interpreted with reference to cultural values and expectations about helping others to learn.     

“三腿一平台”组成的“基因打靶”——评介2007年度诺贝尔医学奖

2007年度诺贝尔医学奖项目——基因打靶,由三腿和一个平台所构成。三条腿分别是转基因学、同源重组和胚胎干细胞,一个平台指的是基因敲除。除了评价这些组成部分以外,还对推迟评奖进行了质疑。     

Solving the credit assignment problem: explicit and implicit learning of action sequences with probabilistic outcomes

In most problem-solving activities, feedback is received at the end of an action sequence. This creates a credit-assignment problem where the learner must associate the feedback with earlier actions, and the interdependencies of actions require the learner to remember past choices of actions. In two studies, we investigated the nature of explicit and implicit learning processes in the credit-assignment problem using a probabilistic sequential choice task with and without a secondary memory task. We found that when explicit learning was dominant, learning was faster to select the better option in their first choices than in the last choices. When implicit reinforcement learning was dominant, learning was faster to select the better option in their last choices than in their first choices. Consistent with the probability-learning and sequence-learning literature, the results show that credit assignment involves two processes: an explicit memory encoding process that requires memory rehearsal and an implicit reinforcement-learning process that propagates credits backwards to previous choices.