“神医”现象的剖析

当前“神医”并非罕见,他们常施展浑身解数,或给自己戴上自制的各种“高帽”、“大帽”、什么“国标抗癌协会主席;或假借名人、甚或政界要人的提携,多少沾点余光;或让身世充满着曲折离奇的迷露,对于“神医”的泛滥,当务 急是对全民进行破除迷信、崇尚宾教育,提高全慢旗的心理素质。     

医疗事故处理法律亟待统一规范

目前在我国医疗工作的实践中,医疗纠纷呈上升趋势。然而,解决和处理医疗纠纷与医疗事故的法律、法规尚不移规范统一。随着我国法制的逐步健全,法律,法规的不断完善,医疗事故处理的法律亟待统一规范,以利于全社会遵法,守法,执法的实现。     

Weakening the robustness of perspective: Evidence for a modified theory of compensation in picture perception

Viewed from the center of projection, a perspective picture presents the pictorial depth information of a scene. Knowing the center of projection, one can reconstruct the depicted scene. Assuming another viewpoint is the center of projection will cause one to reconstruct a transformed scene. Despite these transformations, we appreciate pictures from other viewpoints. The compensation hypothesis states that the visible picture surface allows observers to compensate for transformations by locating the center of projection and experiencing pictorial space from there. We show that observers neither completely compensate for nor experience transformations of space as geometry would predict. We propose a modified compensation hypothesis according to which different degrees of visibility of the picture surface invoke different degrees of compensation.     

Bidirectional semantic associations between social power and weight

Two experiments were conducted to examine bidirectional semantic associations between power and weight using a priming paradigm. Bidirectionality in the relationship between power and weight was demonstrated, utilising tasks that were identical except that the orders in which the stimuli were presented were reversed. In Experiment 1, an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a priming stimulus, and a scale that appeared in equilibrium with a pair of power words was used as a target stimulus. In Experiment 2, a scale with a pair of words that appeared in equilibrium was used as a priming stimulus, and an empty scale leaning either leftward or rightward was used as a target stimulus. We identified interaction effects between power and weight in both experiments. Associations between power and weight provide evidence for both conceptual metaphor views and evolutionary theory. The bidirectionality of metaphorical effects is in line with the strong version of metaphoric structuring. Both language and experiential correlations play important roles in the development of the mapping between power and weight.     

The Ability of Face Viewpoint Transformation Remains Immature at Age of 12: Evidence from Recognition of Faces with Different Familiarity in Children

Children are immature in face recognition, particularly in face configural decoding. This study examines the developmental difference of face recognition in another mechanism: viewpoint transformation processing. Adults and sixth‐grade children were instructed to match a series of one‐tone black face silhouettes to their corresponding front‐view faces. This task involves sophisticated calculation in pictorial information, precise viewpoint transformation, and most probably a 3‐D face representation. The results showed that although the performances were well above chance level in the recognition of familiar faces, for children, they were at chance level in the recognition of unfamiliar faces. The results indicate that children, at least to the age of about 12 years, are still immature in the processing of face viewpoint transformation compared to adults.     

Childhood abuse in Chinese patients with borderline personality disorder

This study examined (1) the relative prevalence of childhood abuse and other pathological childhood experiences in China reported by outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), with other personality disorders, and without personality disorders; and, (2) whether the primary predictors of BPD in North America are associated with the development of BPD in China. The childhood experiences of 203 outpatients with BPD, 109 outpatients with other personality disorders, and 70 outpatients without Axis II diagnoses were assessed with the Chinese version of the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q). Patients with BPD reported significantly more physical, emotional, and sexual abuse than either comparison group. Four types of childhood experiences were significant predictors of BPD: maternal neglect, paternal antipathy, sexual abuse, and maternal physical abuse. The findings suggest that maternal physical abuse is as strong a predictor of BPD in China as sexual abuse, a finding not replicated in North America.     

Differential trajectories of age-related changes in components of executive and memory processes

Several studies have demonstrated age-related declines in general executive function and memory. In this study, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal age effects in more specific cognitive processes that constitute executive function and memory. We postulated that, whereas some components of executive and memory functions would show age differences and longitudinal declines, other specific abilities would be maintained or even improve with repeated testing. In a sample of individuals ≥55 years old from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, we found longitudinal declines in inhibition, manipulation, semantic retrieval, phonological retrieval, switching, and long-term memory over a maximum of 14 years follow-up. In contrast, abstraction, capacity, chunking, discrimination, and short-term memory were maintained or even improved longitudinally, probably due in part to repeated testing. Moreover, whereas several different abilities were correlated across participants' cross-sectional performance, longitudinal changes in performance showed more heterogeneous trajectories. Finally, compared with cross-sectional performance, longitudinal trajectories showed better distinction between participants with and those without later cognitive impairment. These results show that longitudinal cognitive aging of executive and memory functions is not a uniform process but a heterogeneous one and suggest that certain executive and memory functions remain stable despite age-related declines in other component processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation

Eight studies with data from 2316 students are presented describing the development and preliminary validation of the Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale (PAPS), a brief measure with two subscales: Worry About Imperfection and Hope For Perfection. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the measure’s two-dimensional structure. Moreover, correlation analyses provided first evidence for the two subscales’ differential validity: Worry About Imperfection showed negative correlations with positive self-perceptions of one’s appearance (e.g., appearance self-esteem) and positive correlations with maladaptive concerns aspects of perfectionism, physical appearance concerns (e.g., body image disturbances), and body weight control whereas Hope For Perfection showed positive correlations with positive striving aspects of perfectionism, positive self-perceptions, and impression management. In addition, all PAPS scores showed high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and temporal stability (test-retest). Overall the findings suggest that the PAPS is a reliable and valid instrument to assess positive and negative aspects of physical appearance perfectionism.     

Brief Exposure to Misinformation Can Lead to Long‐Term False Memories

Do false memories last? And do they last as long as true ones? This study investigated whether experimentally created false memories would persist for an extended period (one and a half years). A large number of subjects (N = 342) participated in a standard three‐stage misinformation procedure (saw the event slides, read the narrations with misinformation, and then took the memory tests). The initial tests showed that misinformation led to a significant amount of false memory. One and a half years later, the participants were tested again. About half of the misinformation false memory persisted, which was the same rate as for true memory. These results strongly suggest that brief exposure to misinformation can lead to long‐term false memory and that the strength of memory trace was similar for true and false memories. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

玛雅历法和2012年预言

本文详细介绍分析了玛雅"长数"历法中对2012年的"预言"以及相关的几种玛雅历法。玛雅各种历法的产生和运用都和玛雅创世神话及宗教信仰直接相关。文中列举了玛雅纪念碑和手抄本中的历史记载。从玛雅历法的循环性质可以得出结论:2012年12月23日并非玛雅人预告的"世界末日",而仅仅是一个记日历法中一个循环期的结束和另一个循环期的开始。