Effects of experience on fetal voice recognition

Abstract - The ability of human fetuses to recognize their own mother's voice was examined. Sixty term fetuses were assigned to one of two conditions during which they were exposed to a tape recording of their mother or a female stranger reading a passage. Voice stimuli were delivered through a loudspeaker held approximately 10 cm above the maternal abdomen and played at an average of 95 dB SPL. Each condition consisted of three 2-min periods: no stimulus, voice (mother or stranger), and no stimulus. Fetal heart rate increased in response to the mother's voice and decreased in response to the stranger's; both responses were sustained for 4 min. The finding of differential behavior in response to a familiar versus a novel voice provides evidence that experience influences fetal voice processing. It supports an epigenetic model of speech perception, presuming an interaction between genetic expression of neural development and species-specific experience.     

Maternal question-asking behavior to Taiwanese children with Down syndrome and with no disability

To study maternal question-asking of Taiwanese children during free play and at meal time each mother-child dyad was videotaped at home. The mothers of children with Down syndrome asked more questions across different types of question during free play, at meal time, and for the sum of these two. Although no group difference was found for producing each type of question during free play, these 20 mothers asked more directive questions at meal time. Combined conditions analysis showed they used more directive questions and fewer requests for clarification than the 20 mothers of children with no disability.     

时间记忆层次网络模型的实验检验

实验采用分类性实验材料,使被试在对词单项目加工时形成较清晰的群集,进而形成时间组块,目的在于对时间记忆层次网络进行直接检验。其中时序判断用反时间时和正确率两种反应指标,时距估计用再现和口头估计两种方法。结果发现,时间信息记忆既存在层次网络的特征,又存在线性结构的特征。     

Religious goodness and political rightness: Toward a reflective equilibrium beyond liberalism and communitarianism

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Burger or yogurt? Indulgent consumption in impression management contexts

We conducted three studies to investigate indulgent choice in settings with and without impression management by public–private manipulation with evaluation. Study 1 showed that the participants were less indulgent under public scrutiny due to the employment of impression management. Study 2 focused on the impression management context to test the moderate effect of self‐consciousness in two impression managed contexts. Study 3 focused on context without impression management to test the moderate effects of self‐awareness on choices. We found that depending on differences in primed personality, individuals tended to make choices other than those they favoured privately when anticipating that others might form impressions of them based on the decisions made. The findings of all three studies support our basic prediction that people are less indulgent under impression management and suggest that people tend to manage their impression by eating healthier (less indulgently) in public.     

Cocaine-but not methamphetamine-associated memory requires de novo protein synthesis

Context-induced drug craving and continuous drug use manifest the critical roles of specific memory episodes associated with the drug use experiences. Drug-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) in C57BL/6J mouse model, in this regard, is an appropriate behavioral paradigm to study such drug use-associated memories. Requirement of protein synthesis in various forms of long-term memory formation and storage has been phylogenetically demonstrated. This study was undertaken to study the requirement of protein synthesis in the learning and memory aspect of the conditioned place preference induced by cocaine and methamphetamine, two abused drugs of choice in local area. Since pCREB has been documented as a candidate substrate for mediating the drug-induced neuroadaptation, the pCREB level in hippocampus, nucleus accumbens, and prefrontal cortex was examined for its potential participation in the formation of CPP caused by these psychostimulants. We found that cocaine (2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg/dose)-induced CPP was abolished by the pretreatment of anisomycin (50 mg/kg/dose), a protein synthesis inhibitor, whereas methamphetamine (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/dose)-induced CPP was not affected by the anisomycin pretreatment. Likewise, cocaine-induced CPP was mitigated by another protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide (15 mg/kg/injection) pretreatment, whereas methamphetamine-induced CPP remained intact by such pretreatment. Moreover, anisomycin treatment 2h after each drug-place pairing disrupted the cocaine-induced CPP, whereas the same treatment did not affect methamphetamine-induced CPP. An increase of accumbal pCREB level was found to associate with the learning phase of cocaine, but not with the learning phase of methamphetamine. We further found that intraaccumbal CREB antisense oligodeoxynucleotide infusion diminished cocaine-induced CPP, whereas did not affect the methamphetamine-induced CPP. Taken together, these data suggest that protein synthesis and accumbal CREB phosphorylation are essential for the learning and consolidation of the cocaine-induced CPP, whereas methamphetamine-induced CPP may be unrelated to the synthesis of new proteins.     

关于中国心理健康服务体系建设的若干问题

从我国心理健康服务的基本模式、技术体系、服务主体、教育培训、管理监督等五个方面回顾了我国心理健康服务体系的现状。近二、三十年来,我国心理健康服务体系从无到有,发展迅速,但也存在若干亟待解决的问题:服务的技术体系不完善,心理服务的从业机构和个人良莠不齐、总体水平偏低,从业人员的教育培训、从业人员和机构的资质认证缺乏有效的监督管理机制等。目前我国的心理健康服务体系难以适应社会对心理健康服务的需求。需要立足国情,借鉴外国的成功经验并结合我国传统文化,以扎实的研究和细致的工作来完善我国的心理健康服务体系。     

目前国内常用心理健康量表的回顾与反思

对国内近10多年来常被用于评鉴心理健康的7大类量表的分析结果表明,我国常用心理健康评估工具具有逐年增加、从单纯引进转向创造性地自编、自编量表的内容从学习与人格向多领域延伸、自编量表的方法从不完全到完全的特点。已编制出一些信效度较高的量表,但是仍存在一些问题。存在的主要问题是量表的信效度较低、自编量表有低水平重复现象、测量积极心理的量表少。     

中学优、差生目标设置效果的实验研究

从时间管理倾向和目标设置的有关理论出发,设计了两个实验任务,考察了中学优、差生目标设置的效果。结果发现,中学优、差生在目标设置效果上存在一定差异。在简单任务上,中学优差生在完成任务的时间和准确率上均不存在显著差异;在复杂任务上,二者都存在显著差异,优生好于差生。研究还发现,在完成任务的时间上,目标设置对中学优生和差生的影响具有一致性,复杂任务明确目标的成绩明显好于不明确目标的成绩。     

中国人的群体参照记忆效应

在自我参照效应范式中加入参照认同群体加工任务,比较了中国被试在参照中国人和参照美国人进行记忆加工时的再认率及“记得”与“知道”判断的成绩。两项实验结果一致表明,参照中国人加工的再认成绩显著高于参照美国人,表明记忆加工的认同群体参照效应,而在“记得”与“知道”指标上并无差异;参照中国人加工的再认成绩和“记得”判断成绩显著低于自我参照加工。根据个体自我、关系自我和集体自我的分类方法,自我参照效应反映了个体自我对于记忆加工的影响,群体参照效应则主要反映了集体自我的影响