Does the name-race implicit association test measure racial prejudice?

Research using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) has shown that names labeled as Caucasian elicit more positive associations than names labeled as non-Caucasian. One interpretation of this result is that the IAT measures latent racial prejudice. An alternative explanation is that the result is due to differences in in-group/out-group membership. In this study, we conducted three different IATs: one with same-race Dutch names versus racially charged Moroccan names; one with same-race Dutch names versus racially neutral Finnish names; and one with Moroccan names versus Finnish names. Results showed equivalent effects for the Dutch-Moroccan and Dutch-Finnish IATs, but no effect for the Finnish-Moroccan IAT. This suggests that the name-race IAT-effect is not due to racial prejudice. A diffusion model decomposition indicated that the IAT-effects were caused by changes in speed of information accumulation, response conservativeness, and non-decision time.     

人格与羞怯的关系：中介效应与调节效应

以752名大学生为被试,考察了人格基本维度与羞怯的关系以及社会支持在其中的中介作用和应对方式在其中的调节作用。结果发现：（1）神经质对羞怯有显著的正向作用,外向性对羞怯有显著的负向作用;（2）在外向性、神经质对羞怯的作用中,社会支持起着部分中介作用;（3）外向性对羞怯的负向作用受到自责的调节,神经质对羞怯的正向作用受到求助的调节并且神经质预测羞怯的过程中,社会支持的中介作用也受到求助的调节。     

确立社会主义荣辱观需要消除的"认识误区"

弘扬社会主义荣辱观,需要拿出实际行动,而行动是靠思想来指挥的,如果思想上存在着"认识误区",行动上就不可能动真格,更不可能取得实效.因此,弘扬社会主义荣辱观,当务之急是要消除那些直接影响人们行动的种种"认识误区".     

Exploration in outbred mice covaries with general learning abilities irrespective of stress reactivity, emotionality, and physical attributes

Across multiple learning tasks (that place different sensory, motor, and information processing demands on the animals), we have found that the performance of mice is commonly regulated by a single factor ("general learning") that accounts for 30-40% of the variance across individuals and tasks. Furthermore, individuals' general learning abilities were highly correlated with their propensity to engage in exploration in an open field, a behavior that is potentially stress-inducing. This relationship between exploration in the open field and general learning abilities suggests the possibility that variations in stress sensitivity/responsivity or related emotional responses might directly influence individuals' general learning abilities. Here, the relationship of sensory/motor skills and stress sensitivity/emotionality to animals' general learning abilities were assessed. Outbred (CD-1) mice were tested in a battery of six learning tasks as well as 21 tests of exploratory behavior, sensory/motor function and fitness, emotionality, and stress reactivity. The performances of individual mice were correlated across six learning tasks, and the performance measures of all learning tasks loaded heavily on a single factor (principal component analysis), accounting for 32% of the variability between animals and tasks. Open field exploration and seven additional exploratory behaviors (including those exhibited in an elevated plus maze) also loaded heavily on this same factor, although general activity, sensory/motor responses, physical characteristics, and direct measures of fear did not. In a separate experiment, serum corticosterone levels of mice were elevated in response to a mild environmental stressor (confinement on an elevated platform). Stress-induced corticosterone levels were correlated with behavioral fear responses, but were unsystematically related to individuals' propensity for exploration. In total, these results suggest that although general learning abilities are strongly related to individuals' propensity for exploration, this relationship is not attributable to variations in sensory/motor function or the individuals' physiological or behavioral sensitivity to conditions that promote stress or fear.     

Object attention revisited: identifying mechanisms and boundary conditions

Multiple attributes of a visual array are often more efficiently processed when they are attributes of a single object than when they are attributes of different objects—a pattern reflecting the limitations of object attention. This study used psychophysical methods to evaluate the object attention limitations in the report of attributes (orientation and phase) computed early in visual analysis for spatially separated objects. These limitations had large effects on dual-object report thresholds when different judgments were required for the two objects (orientation for one object and phase for the other), but the effects were small or nonexistent when the same judgment was made about both objects. Judgment consistency reduced or eliminated the expression of object attention deficits. Thus, the deficits in dual-object report reflect both division of attention over objects and the calculation of independent reference or judgment operations. Dual-object deficits, when they occurred, were substantial in displays with external noise masks. Smaller effects were observed in clear displays, even when difficulty was equated by stimulus contrast. Thus, the primary consequence of object attention is the exclusion of external noise, or mask suppression, and enhancement of the stimulus in clear displays is a secondary consequence.     

Uniform connectedness and classical Gestalt principles of perceptual grouping.

We assessed whether uniform connectedness (UC; Palmer & Rock, 1994) operates prior to effects reflecting classical principles of grouping: proximity and similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2, reaction times to discriminate global letters (H vs. E), made up of small circles, were recorded. The small circles were respectively grouped by proximity, similarity of shapes, and by UC. The discrimination of stimuli grouped by similarity was slower than those grouped by proximity, and it was speeded up by the addition of UC. However, the discrimination of stimuli grouped by proximity was unaffected by connecting the local elements. In Experiment 3, similar results occurred in a task requiring discrimination of the orientation of grouped elements, except that the discrimination of stimuli grouped by UC was faster than that of those grouped by weak proximity. Experiment 4 further showed that subjects could respond to letters composed of discriminably separate local elements as fast as to those without separated local elements. The results suggest that grouping by similarity of shapes is perceived slower than grouping by UC, but grouping by proximity can be as fast and efficient as that by UC.     

Psychological Adjustment and Coping Styles of Urban African American High School Students

In a study of African American (n = 208) urban high school students, grade point average (GPA) and specific strategies for coping with day-to-day stressors were found to be significantly related to psychological adjustment. Students who had higher GPAs tended to use family members as a means of solving problems, minimized problems by the use of humor, and used relaxation activities less often were found to have the most positive psychological adjustment, as measured by the index score of the Affects Balance Scale (ABS). Reported negative affect was not found to be significantly influenced by coping style, whereas positive affect was.     

Inverse statistics and misperception of exponential growth

Exponential growth presented by numerical series or graphs is grossly underestimated by human subjects. This misperception was considerably lessened by presenting decreasing functions; this conclusion holds for both numeric and graphic stimuli. In the numerical conditions, about 25% of the subjects performed according to the statistical norm. In contrast with previous results, considerable individual differences with respect to sensitivity for rate of growth were observed. This finding was interpreted in terms of task difficulty: Extrapolation of ascending series is too difficult a task to be discriminative. Extrapolation of descending series is much easier, and may therefore better discriminate among subjects.