Memory skills mediating superior memory in a world-class memorist

Laboratory studies have investigated how individuals with normal memory spans attained digit spans over 80 digits after hundreds of hours of practice. Experimental analyses of their memory skills suggested that their attained memory spans were constrained by the encoding time, for the time needed will increase if the length of digit sequences to be memorised becomes longer. These constraints seemed to be violated by a world-class memorist, Feng Wang (FW), who won the World Memory Championship by recalling 300 digits presented at 1 digit/s. In several studies we examined FW’s memory skills underlying his exceptional performance. First FW reproduced his superior memory span of 200 digits under laboratory condition, and we obtained his retrospective reports describing his encoding/retrieval processes (Experiment 1). Further experiments used self-paced memorisation to identify temporal characteristics of encoding of digits in 4-digit clusters (Experiment 2), and explored memory encoding at presentation speeds much faster than 1 digit/s (Experiment 3). FW’s superiority over previous digit span experts is explained by his acquisition of well-known mnemonic techniques and his training that focused on rapid memorisation. His memory performance supports the feasibility of acquiring memory skills for improved working memory based on storage in long-term memory.     

小学儿童学习时间分配决策水平的发展

利用自由回忆,线索回忆和再认三种提取方式,以儿童任务难度预见（EOL）的判断等级与学习时间分配之间的G相关值作为指标,考察了小学儿童学习时间分配决策水平的发展过程。小学2、4、6年级儿童和成人大学生(作为对照)参与本研究,每个年龄组各24人。主要研究结果表明：（1）总体而言,小学各年级儿童,其学习时间分配的决策都受对任务难度预见等级的制约,对EOL判断等级越高的项目,分配的学习时间越长,说明小学儿童具有一定程度的学习时间分配的决策能力;（2）在自由回忆条件下,小学4年级和小学6年级儿童对EOL的判断等级与学习时间之间的G相关值差异显著,表明儿童的决策水平由小学4年级到小学6年级表现出快速发展的趋势;（3）在线索回忆的条件下,小学2年级和4年级儿童G相关值有显著差异,表明决策水平由小学2年级到小学4年级之间有快速发展的趋势;（4）在再认的条件下,小学各年龄儿童学习时间分配的决策水平没有显著性差异,表明再认条件下小学阶段的决策水平进步不显著;（5）在三种提取方式下,小学儿童对任务难度预见判断等级与首次学习时间之间的G相关值都不同程度地低于与总的学习时间之间的相关值。这说明小学儿童在反复学习的过程中在不断调整自己的学习时间分配,调整的程度有随年龄增长而加大的趋势。小学6年级儿童在任务难度预见判断等级与学习时间之间的G相关值已接近成人水平。     

社会认知基本维度对现实威胁感知的作用研究

个体感知中表达性优先于能动性,但群体感知中表达性和能动性的作用仍存在争议,两个研究探索表达性和能动性特质在对外群体现实威胁感知中的作用。研究1选用成人被试,采用问卷调查法考察表达性和能动性特质与现实威胁感的关系,发现表达性和能动性特质都能预测现实威胁感,表达性特质越低,能动性特质越高,现实威胁感越强。研究2采用最简群体范式,通过实验法操纵表达性和能动性特质,发现外群体表达性特质越低,能动性特质越高,其现实威胁感越强。两个研究共同说明,表达性和能动性特质在对外群体的现实威胁感知中起到重要作用。     

Developing cultural differences in face processing

Perception and eye movements are affected by culture. Adults from Eastern societies (e.g. China) display a disposition to process information holistically, whereas individuals from Western societies (e.g. Britain) process information analytically. Recently, this pattern of cultural differences has been extended to face processing. Adults from Eastern cultures fixate centrally towards the nose when learning and recognizing faces, whereas adults from Western societies spread fixations across the eye and mouth regions. Although light has been shed on how adults can fixate different areas yet achieve comparable recognition accuracy, the reason why such divergent strategies exist is less certain. Although some argue that culture shapes strategies across development, little direct evidence exists to support this claim. Additionally, it has long been claimed that face recognition in early childhood is largely reliant upon external rather than internal face features, yet recent studies have challenged this theory. To address these issues, we tested children aged 7-12 years of age from the UK and China with an old/new face recognition paradigm while simultaneously recording their eye movements. Both populations displayed patterns of fixations that were consistent with adults from their respective cultural groups, which 'strengthened' across development as qualified by a pattern classifier analysis. Altogether, these observations suggest that cultural forces may indeed be responsible for shaping eye movements from early childhood. Furthermore, fixations made by both cultural groups almost exclusively landed on internal face regions, suggesting that these features, and not external features, are universally used to achieve face recognition in childhood.     

合作学习研究的综述

合作学习(cooperative learning)是目前世界上许多国家都普遍采用的一种富有创意和实效的教学理论与策略体系。文章主要阐述了合作学习的概念、类型、方法,及理论。最后,指出我国合作学习研究出现的问题和未来展望。文章认为强化实验研究、探讨与课堂教学相结合的研究,及重视教师在合作学习的作用是今后该领域发展的主要方向。     

道家哲学对现代医学的启示

一、现代医学模式转型自20世纪后半叶以来,由于现代社会和医学实践的长足进展,使人类的疾病谱和死亡谱发生了根本变化。比如中国在20世纪前半叶,居于前四位的疾病是呼吸系统疾病、急性传染病、结核病和消化系统疾病,死亡率最高的也是这四种疾病;20世纪后半叶,居于头四位的疾病则是脑血管病、心脏病、恶性肿瘤和呼吸系统疾病,死亡率最高的也是这四种疾病。由于中国和世界疾病谱和死亡谱的根本变化,使传统的西方生物学医学模式不得不被现代的“生物—心理—社会”医学模式所代替,开始由单一的生物模式向综合性的医学模式转变,这是人类医学健康…     

儿童程序性元记忆的发展

元记忆包括陈述性元记忆和程序性元记忆。程序性元记忆是对记忆过程的监测和控制。本文从发展的角度对程序性元记忆新近的研究进展进行了回顾。(1)几种记忆监测的发展速度和趋势不尽相同。(2)记忆控制发展较晚。(3)对今后的研究趋势进行了预测。     

人脸特征信息反转效应的实验研究

结构信息和特征信息的研究是近年来人脸认知的热点,特征信息是否存在反转效应不同的理论对此有不同的看法。通过对平均人脸特征信息阈限的研究,发现:平均人脸特征信息的阈限具有明显的反转效应;特征信息的识别难度是决定特征信息的识别是否出现反转效应的重要因素。研究支持整体假设,认为成人是将人脸作为一个整体进行认知的。     

人脸单维结构信息变化对人脸认知影响研究

本研究采用熟悉人脸和平均人脸照片作为实验材料对人脸结构信息单维变化对人脸认知影响进行了系统的研究。结果表明:(1)随着人脸结构信息的改变,被试对人脸正确辨认的变化趋势可分为不变区、快速增长区、高原区三个区域。(2)熟悉人脸结构信息单维变化的认知阈限值:眼睛移动为0.19°视角;鼻子移动为0.24°视角;嘴巴移动为0.20°视角。平均人脸分别为:眼睛移动为0.15°视角;鼻子移动为0.16°视角;嘴巴移动为0.16°视角。(3)在人脸单维结构信息变化的各维度上,平均人脸的认知阈限值要小于熟悉人脸的认知阈限值。