Disordered gambling as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the South Oaks Gambling Screen: evidence for a common etiologic structure

In a previous article, we demonstrated in a large twin study that disordered gambling (DG), as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV), ran in families, that about half of the variation in liability for DG was due to familial factors, and that all of this was explained by shared genetic rather than shared environmental influences (Slutske, Zhu, Meier, & Martin, 2010). The purpose of the present study is to extend this work to include an alternative conceptualization of DG that is provided by the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) item set in order to (a) compare the magnitude of the familial resemblance obtained when using the two definitions of DG (based on the DSM-IV and the SOGS), (b) examine the extent to which the 2 definitions tap the same underlying sources of genetic and environmental variation, and (c) examine whether the same results will be obtained among men and women. The results of bivariate twin model-fitting analyses suggested that DG, as defined by the DSM-IV and the SOGS, substantially overlapped at the etiologic level among both men and women, which supports the construct validity of both the DSM and the SOGS conceptualizations of DG. This study highlights the utility of twin studies for appraising the validity of the diagnostic nomenclature.     

Mimicry and helping behavior: an evaluation of mimicry on explicit helping request

Research found that mimicry behavior led to increased helping behavior toward the mimicker and is associated with higher positive evaluation of the mimicker. Furthermore, studies on helping behavior focused only on implicit helping behavior, whereas no experimental study on explicit helping request was tested. An experiment was carried out in which a female student-confederate mimicked or not mimicked a participant during a discussion about paintings and, after that, solicited the participant for a written feedback about an essay. It was found that mimicry increased compliance to the confederate's request.     

The effect of women's suggestive clothing on men's behavior and judgment: a field study

Numerous studies have shown that men overestimate the sexual intent of women based on their clothing style; however, this hypothesis has not been assessed empirically in a natural setting. This small field study measured the time it took for men to approach two female confederates sitting in a tavern, one wearing suggestive clothes and one wearing more conservative clothes. The behavior of 108 men was observed over 54 periods on 16 different nights in two different taverns. The time it took for the men to approach after initial eye contact was significantly shorter in the suggestive clothing condition. The men were also asked by male confederates to rate the likelihood of having a date with the women, and having sex on the first date. The men rated their chances to have a date and to have sex significantly higher in the suggestive clothing condition. Results are discussed with respect to men's possible misinterpretation that women's clothing indicates sexual interest, and the risks associated with the misinterpretation.     

When distractors and to-be-remembered items compete for the control of action: a new perspective on serial memory for spatial information

In serial memory for spatial information, performance is impaired when distractors are interpolated between to-be-remembered (TBR) stimuli (Tremblay, Nicholls, Parmentier, & Jones, 2005). The so-called sandwich effect, combined with the use of eye tracking, served as a tool for examining the role of the oculomotor system in serial memory for spatial information. Participants had to recall the order in which sequences of TBR locations were presented. In some trials, to-be-ignored blue dots were presented after each TBR location. Our results show that response locations shift toward the location of the distractors, and this deviation is related to the eye movement deviation toward the distractor location. These results suggest that TBR and to-be-ignored locations are encoded onto a common map that could lie within the oculomotor system. Interference in memory for spatial information is interpreted in light of a model of oculomotor behavior (Godijn & Theeuwes, 2002b).     

Loneliness and Suicidal Risk in Young Adults: Does Believing in a Changeable Future Help Minimize Suicidal Risk Among the Lonely?

This study examined loneliness and future orientation as predictors of suicidal risk, namely, depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, in a sample of 228 college students (54 males and 174 females). Results of regression analyses indicated that loneliness was a significant predictor of both indices of suicidal risk. The inclusion of future orientation was found to significantly augment the prediction model of both depressive symptoms and suicide ideation, even after accounting for loneliness. Noteworthy, beyond loneliness and future orientation, the Loneliness × Future Orientation interaction term was found to further augment both prediction models of suicidal risk. Consistent with the notion that future orientation is an important buffer of suicidal risk, among lonely students, those with high future orientation, compared to low future orientation, were found to report significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Some implications of the present findings for studying both risk and protective factors associated with suicidal risk in young adults are discussed.     

Distinctiveness in serial memory for spatial information

Several studies have shown that recall performance depends on the extent to which an item differs from other items in a sequence (the distinctiveness effect; see, e.g., Kelley & Nairne, 2001). Distinctiveness effects, however, have been demonstrated mainly in the verbal domain. The present study extends distinctiveness effects to the spatial domain. In two experiments, participants recalled the order in which series of spatially located dots had been presented. Item discriminability was varied within the sequence by manipulating the duration of the interval inserted between the presentation of the dots (Experiment 1) and the perceptual characteristics of the stimuli (Experiment 2). The results showed that these manipulations in the spatial domain produce distinctiveness effects similar to those observed with verbal material (see, e.g., Neath & Crowder, 1990) and suggest that distinctiveness models of memory should take into account the processing of spatial information.     

对物理概念图填图试题的应用研究

文章详细介绍了物理概念图填图试题的出题样式和评分的具体方法,并对物理概念图填图试题的难度、区分度、信度和效度进行了检验,计算了物理概念图填图试题与传统物理题型共同组成的期末物理测验的信度。研究表明物理概念图填图试题的得分与传统测验题型的得分呈显著正相关,物理概念图填图试题的得分对传统测验题型的得分有显著的预测力。     

The Facilitative Effects of Ambiguous Figures on Creative Solution

Empirical studies of creativity emphasize the importance of ambiguity advantage in idea generation and creative problem‐solving. This study examined whether ambiguous figures could directly induce a mind‐set that would transfer to the creative problem‐solving. In Experiment 1, we examined whether presentation of ambiguous figures would influence participants' performance in alternative uses tasks, and the results showed that prior exposure to ambiguous figures significantly enhanced participants' performance in the dimension of fluency, flexibility, and originality than those exposed to non‐ambiguous figures; in general uses tasks, there were no significant difference in the reaction time and originality between the ambiguous figure condition and non‐ambiguous figure condition. In Experiment 2, the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative thinking was further examined with creative story generation tasks that demand more mental effort and increased cognitive load. Results showed that creativity of stories generated in ambiguous figure condition was scored significantly higher than those in non‐ambiguous figure condition. The current research extends our understanding of the facilitative effect of ambiguous figures on creative problem‐solving.     

Revisiting evidence for modularity and functional equivalence across verbal and spatial domains in memory

The authors revisited evidence in favor of modularity and of functional equivalence between the processing of verbal and spatial information in short-term memory. This was done by investigating the patterns of intrusions, omissions, transpositions, and fill-ins in verbal and spatial serial recall and order reconstruction tasks under control, articulatory suppression, and spatial tapping conditions. The authors observed that when tasks were fully equated, all patterns of errors were equivalent between the verbal and spatial domains. Moreover, articulatory suppression interfered more with the verbal memory tasks than with the spatial memory tasks. This interference was mostly due to an increase of omissions and transpositions. Similarly, tapping was more disruptive of spatial memory than of verbal memory tasks and affected primarily the number of omissions and transpositions. The patterns of errors and their interaction with interference are discussed in light of the predominant approaches to modeling memory and provide a rich set of data for modeling efforts.     

从僧睿《大品经序》看今存汉文佛典用语

僧睿所撰<大品经序>介绍了鸠摩罗什翻译<摩诃般若波罗蜜经>的一些情况,指出鸠摩罗什译出此经后在翻译<大智度论>的过程中继续修改此经,并以9对词语为例谈及鸠摩罗什翻译及修订此经时所作的语言创新.但是,僧睿<大品经序>的记载同今存相关汉文佛典的实际用语并不完全一致,它同僧祐<出三藏记集>的相关记载也有出入.调查表明,同为鸠摩罗什主译而成的<摩诃般若波罗蜜经>和<大智度论>部分用语彼此有别,今本<摩诃般若波罗蜜经>有可能并非鸠摩罗什心目中的最后定稿;诸多材料显示,今存汉译佛典和中土佛教撰述都有可能在传抄过程中失真.