非平衡双语者Stroop效应的时间进程

运用Stroop任务的SOA范式,考察中-英双语者干扰和易化效应的时间进程及程度,比较双语者认知控制和词汇通达的差异。结果发现,在中文条件下,干扰效应的峰值发生在SOA为-200ms时,在英文条件下,最大的干扰效应发生在SOA为-300 ms时,由此可见,干扰效应时间出现了负转换。在英文条件下,-400ms SOA引发了最大的易化效应,而中文条件下最大的易化效应发生在-300ms SOA。该研究表明,双语者没有表现出认知优势,在Stroop任务中受到了词汇通达的影响。     

知觉时长对恢复性环境的恢复性效果的影响

基于注意恢复理论探讨恢复性环境的即时恢复效果、知觉时间对恢复性环境的恢复性效果的影响、以及恢复性环境恢复效果的意识加工机制等问题。实验1对恢复性环境图片的恢复性效果进行评估,筛选恢复性环境的刺激材料;实验2基于前后测范式采用视觉搜索任务作为实验任务,以进一步验证图片的恢复性效果和实验任务的有效性;实验3采用实验组和对照组的实验范式选取三种不同知觉时长,以验证知觉时间对恢复性环境恢复性效果的影响。研究结果发现:呈现恢复性环境图片组成绩好于不呈现恢复性环境图片组;对恢复性环境图片的知觉时间越长恢复性效果越好。     

A distributed intercortical processing of binocular rivalry: psychophysical evidence

When dissimilar visual scenes are viewed dichoptically, the observer perceives several different representations of the scene over time. To reveal that a distributed intercortical network mediates this phenomenon of binocular rivalry, we used a Kanizsa square-like display consisting of four pairs of color-rivalry-inducing elements. We found that when all four dominant elements had the same color, regardless of whether they were from the same or different eyes, the visual system ably integrated them into a larger subjective surface. Once formed, the same-colored subjective surface enjoyed a relatively longer predominance than mixed-colored patterns. During rivalry alternation, this same-colored surface was more likely to be replaced by a complementary same-colored surface, rather than by mixed-colored patterns (cohesive effect). Further, surface integration, which is mainly an extrastriate cortical function, was stronger when the same eye viewed the same-colored rivalry stimuli. Since the eye-of-origin signature is explicitly represented in V1, these findings together suggest that rivalry is processed along a distributed network including V1 and the extrastriate cortices.     

Perceptual space in the dark affected by the intrinsic bias of the visual system

Correct judgment of egocentric/absolute distance in the intermediate distance range requires both the angular declination below the horizon and ground-surface information being represented accurately. This requirement can be met in the light environment but not in the dark, where the ground surface is invisible and hence cannot be represented accurately. We previously showed that a target in the dark is judged at the intersection of the projection line from the eye to the target that defines the angular declination below the horizon and an implicit surface. The implicit surface can be approximated as a slant surface with its far end slanted toward the frontoparallel plane. We hypothesize that the implicit slant surface reflects the intrinsic bias of the visual system and helps to define the perceptual space. Accordingly, we conducted two experiments in the dark to further elucidate the characteristics of the implicit slant surface. In the first experiment we measured the egocentric location of a dimly lit target on, or above, the ground, using the blind-walking-gesturing paradigm. Our results reveal that the judged target locations could be fitted by a line (surface), which indicates an intrinsic bias with a geographical slant of about 12.4 degrees. In the second experiment, with an exocentric/relative-distance task, we measured the judged ratio of aspect ratio of a fluorescent L-shaped target. Using trigonometric analysis, we found that the judged ratio of aspect ratio can be accounted for by assuming that the L-shaped target was perceived on an implicit slant surface with an average geographical slant of 14.4 degrees. That the data from the two experiments with different tasks can be fitted by implicit slant surfaces suggests that the intrinsic bias has a role in determining perceived space in the dark. The possible contribution of the intrinsic bias to representing the ground surface and its impact on space perception in the light environment are also discussed.     

Binocular rivalry and surface-boundary processing

Theoretical and empirical studies show that the visual system relies on boundary contours and surface features (e.g. textures) to represent 3-D surfaces. When the surface to be represented has little texture information, or has a periodic texture pattern (grating), the boundary contour information assumes a larger weight in representing the surface. Adopting the premise that the mechanisms of 3-D surface representation also determine binocular rivalry perception, the current paper focuses on whether boundary contours have a similar role in binocular rivalry. In experiment 1, we tested the prediction that the visual system prefers selecting an image/figure defined by boundary contours for rivalry dominance. We designed a binocular rivalry stimulus wherein one half-image has a boundary contour defined by a grating disk on a background with an orthogonal grating orientation. The other half-image consists solely of the (same orientation) grating background without the grating disk, ie no boundary contour. Confirming our prediction, the predominance for the half-image with the grating disk is approximately 90%, despite the fact that the grating disk corresponds to an area with orthogonal grating in the fellow eye. The advantage of the grating disk is dramatically reduced to about 50% predominance when a boundary contour is added to the background-only half-image at the location corresponding to the grating disk. We attribute this reduced advantage to the formation of a corresponding binocular boundary contour. In experiment 2 the grating background was substituted by a random-dot background in a similar stimulus design. We found that the perceptual salience of the corresponding binocular boundary contours extracted by the interocular matching process is an important factor in determining the dynamics of binocular rivalry. Experiment 3 showed that vertical lines with uneven thickness and spacing as the background reduce the contribution of the monocular boundary contour of the grating disk in binocular rivalry, possibly through the formation of binocular boundary contours between the local edges (vertical components) of the vertical lines and the corresponding grating disk.     

Effects of hippocampal injections of a novel ligand selective for the alpha 5 beta 2 gamma 2 subunits of the GABA/benzodiazepine receptor on Pavlovian conditioning

Benzodiazepine pharmacology has led to greater insight into the neural mechanisms underlying learning and anxiety. The synthesis of new compounds capable of modulating responses produced by these receptors has been made possible by the development of an isoform model of the GABA(A)/benzodiazepine receptor complex. In the current experiment, rats were pretreated with several concentrations of the novel ligand RY024 (an alpha 5 beta 2 gamma 2 -selective benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist) in the hippocampus and were trained in a Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm. RY024 independently produced fear-related behavior prior to training and, at the highest concentration, decreased the strength of conditioning observed 24 h after training. These data provide further evidence for the involvement of hippocampal GABA(A)/benzodiazepine receptors in learning and anxiety.     

Elderly suicide in China

The rise in suicide rate among elderly people in China in recent years is noteworthy and may be associated with the increasing poverty of elderly people and the lack of social resources allocated to providing them with needed services to ensure their health and mental well-being.     

空间、权力与知识:福柯的地理学转向

福柯是将空间议题置于社会理论架构之中的关键人物之一,本文评述福柯关于知识、权力与空间之间的互动关系的论述,从而展现福柯地理学转向的基本理论脉络。     

The Machines Take Over: A Comparison of Various Supervised Learning Approaches for Automated Scoring of Divergent Thinking Tasks

Traditionally, researchers employ human raters for scoring responses to creative thinking tasks. Apart from the associated costs this approach entails two potential risks. First, human raters can be subjective in their scoring behavior (inter-rater-variance). Second, individual raters are prone to inconsistent scoring patterns (intra-rater-variance). In light of these issues, we present an approach for automated scoring of Divergent Thinking (DT) Tasks. We implemented a pipeline aiming to generate accurate rating predictions for DT responses using text mining and machine learning methods. Based on two existing data sets from two different laboratories, we constructed several prediction models incorporating features representing meta information of the response or features engineered from the response’s word embeddings that were obtained using pre-trained GloVe and Word2Vec word vector spaces. Out of these features, word embeddings and features derived from them proved to be particularly effective. Overall, longer responses tended to achieve higher ratings as well as responses that were semantically distant from the stimulus object. In our comparison of three state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, Random Forest and XGBoost tended to slightly outperform the Support Vector Regression.     

父母亲职压力与儿童对立违抗行为的关系:一项交叉滞后分析

采用亲职压力量表和对立违抗行为表现评估表调查了来自北京、山东和云南三地14所小学有ODD(oppositional defiant disorder)行为表现的301名儿童及其父母。通过为期两年的追踪研究,采用交叉滞后分析探讨了父母亲职压力与儿童的ODD行为之间的关系。结果发现:(1)在第一年和第二年的数据中,父母亲职压力和儿童的ODD行为表现均存在显著正相关;(2)第一年和第二年的父母亲职压力得分显著正相关,同样,两年的儿童ODD行为表现得分也显著正相关;(3)交叉滞后分析发现,对于有ODD行为表现的男孩来说,其父母第一年的亲职压力能预测他们第二年的ODD行为表现,但对于有ODD行为表现的女孩来说,其父母第一年的亲职压力并不能预测她们第二年的ODD行为表现;而不管是男孩,还是女孩,第一年的ODD行为表现都不能预测第二年的父母亲职压力。研究结果揭示出男孩父母的亲职压力可预测男孩的ODD行为表现,而不论是男孩或女孩的ODD行为表现都不能预测其父母亲职压力,说明父母亲职压力可能是男孩ODD行为表现的影响因素。