Association of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphism and academic achievement in a Chinese cohort

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a methylation enzyme that catalyzes the degradation pathway and inactivation of dopamine. It is accepted widely as being involved in the modulation of dopaminergic physiology and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. The COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with variation in COMT activity. COMT 158Met allele may be advantageous for PFC-related cognitive abilities; however, it is also associated with increased anxiety, depression, and emotional vulnerability in response to stress or educational adversity. We hypothesized that the COMT polymorphism might be associated with academic performance. In this study, 779 Taiwanese tenth-grade volunteers were recruited. Scores from the Basic Competency Test (BCT), an annual national competitive entrance examination, were used to evaluate academic performance. The results indicated that students bearing homozygous for the Met allele tended to perform more poorly in all BCT subtests as compared to the other groups. In particular, the former performed significantly more poorly in the science and social science subtests. These findings provide evidence that affective factors might overwhelm cognitive abilities in high-stake tests like the BCT.     

Labels as features (not names) for infant categorization: a neurocomputational approach

A substantial body of experimental evidence has demonstrated that labels have an impact on infant categorization processes. Yet little is known regarding the nature of the mechanisms by which this effect is achieved. We distinguish between two competing accounts: supervised name-based categorization and unsupervised feature-based categorization. We describe a neurocomputational model of infant visual categorization, based on self-organizing maps, that implements the unsupervised feature-based approach. The model successfully reproduces experiments demonstrating the impact of labeling on infant visual categorization reported in Plunkett, Hu, and Cohen (2008) . It mimics infant behavior in both the familiarization and testing phases of the procedure, using a training regime that involves only single presentations of each stimulus and using just 24 participant networks per experiment. The model predicts that the observed behavior in infants is due to a transient form of learning that might lead to the emergence of hierarchically organized categorical structure and that the impact of labels on categorization is influenced by the perceived similarity and the sequence in which the objects are presented. The results suggest that early in development, say before 12 months old, labels need not act as invitations to form categories nor highlight the commonalities between objects, but they may play a more mundane but nevertheless powerful role as additional features that are processed in the same fashion as other features that characterize objects and object categories.     

中国道教学院2009届乾道班和坤道班毕业典礼分别在青城山和衡山举行

6月21日上午,中国道教学院2009届乾道班毕业典礼在青城山道教学院隆重举行.出席典礼的领导和嘉宾有:国家宗教局四司副司长张剑,中国道教协会副会长、中国道教学院副院长张继禹,中国道教协会副会长、四川省道教协会会长唐诚青,四川省委统战部副部长、省宗教局局长王增建,成都市有关领导,中国道教协会副秘书长王炳旸,中国道教协会副秘书长、青城山道教学院院长张明心,四川省道教协会秘书长杨大明,以及四川大学宗教研究所、四川省社科院的代表.     

返回抑制的容量研究：回顾与展望

返回抑制是指当注意返回到先前注意过的位置或客体时人们的反应变慢的一种抑制现象。自20世纪90年代中期以来,越来越多的返回抑制研究开始关注最多能在多少个线索化位置上观测到返回抑制效应,即返回抑制的容量问题。文章着重从序列线索化和同时线索化两方面介绍了当前返回抑制容量研究的主要成果,总结了该领域研究的特点及存在的问题,并对未来研究方向予以展望     

基于比较视野下当代大学生性心理与教育的研究

在从比较的视野对国内学者针对不同性别、不同专业、不同学校类型等的大学生性心理特点以及中外高校大学生性教育的历史与现状、性教育的对象、性教育的内容与形式、性教育的队伍、性教育的成效等差异进行分析、对比研究的基础上,从中获得启示和借鉴,以推动我国高校对当代大学生性教育的有效开展。     

触觉空间精确性与触觉神经元密度相关联的验证

本研究应用栅栏定向任务,通过对小学一年级儿童和大学生的触觉敏感性的比较,验证触觉敏感性与神经元密度的关系。结果表明：对较大的易于分辨的刺激,成人可以完成得较好,而对较细小的难于分辨的刺激,儿童成绩更好。本研究验证了高感受单元密度对应较强的触觉敏感性的假设。     

THOG问题的演译结构及其非Wason-Brooks判定方法

本文探讨THOG问题的演绎结构及其非Wason-Brooks判断方法,据于Wason-Brooks判断程序和THOG问题逻辑结构的分析导致如下结论：1．Wason-BrooksTHOG判定方法并非判定THOG的唯一方法;2、被试选择那一种演绎判定模式取决于被试如何对原问题进行等效表征转换;3．判断失败可能意味着被试存在短时记忆容量障碍或者等效表征转换障碍。     

应激对中国地鼠糖尿病发生的影响

研究实验性应激、情绪性、笼架水平在中国地鼠糖尿病发生中的作用强度及其交互作用,以确定中国地鼠糖尿病发生危险因素。结果表明实验性应激(震动、旋转合并限制)能促使中国地鼠血糖水平显著升高,糖尿病发病率增加,发病年龄提前;高情绪性中国地鼠,随着实验时间延长,其发病率也逐渐升高,并稳定在一定水平;析因方差分析提示,实验性应激与动物情绪性的交互作用对实验后中国地鼠的血糖变化起主要作用。     

Effects of retention intervals on the magnitude of optokinetic rotation-induced taste aversions.

This study investigated the effects of different retention intervals on the magnitude of optokinetic rotation-induced conditioned taste aversions in humans. Two experiments were conducted. In Exp. 1, 20 subjects were divided into two groups, a CS-UCS group in which drinking soybean milk was paired with optokinetic rotation-induced gastric illness and a CS-Only group in which drinking soybean milk was not paired with optokinetic rotation. Analysis indicated that two days after pairing soybean milk drinking with optokinetic rotation, the subjects in the CS-UCS group had significantly reduced palatability ratings of soybean milk and lower consumption of soybean milk than those in the CS-Only group. In Exp. 2, 40 subjects were divided into four CS-UCS groups with 1-day, 3-day, 5 day, and 10-day retention intervals between the session of pairing soybean milk with optokinetic rotation and the session of retasting soybean milk. Analysis yielded no significant differences among four groups on palatability of soybean milk and consumption of soybean milk in the retasting session. It is concluded that optokinetic rotation is an effective unconditioned stimulus for conditioned taste aversions formation and that the aversion has a retention period of at least 10 days.     

跨学科概念图创作能力与科学创造力的关系

采用科学领域的跨学科概念图创作任务, 探讨了跨学科概念图创作能力与科学创造力的关系。研究发现：（1）跨学科概念图创作能力与科学创造力显著正相关;（2）概念图创作的命题、交叉连接与创造力的流畅性、独创性、灵活性显著相关;交叉连接与独创性显著相关;（3）跨学科概念图创作能力的个体差异表现在科学创造力的各个方面。研究表明,跨学科概念图创作任务与科学创造力测验考察了学习者相似的心理能力;跨学科概念图创作不仅可以用于促进跨学科信息整合和知识建构,还可以作为理解学习者创造性思维能力的有效工具