A study of the greater male variability hypothesis in creative thinking in Mainland China: Male superiority exists

This study tested the greater male variability hypothesis in creative thinking with a Chinese student sample in Mainland China. The Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) was administered to 627 Chinese adolescent boys (n = 332) and girls (n = 295). Results using the boy/girl variance ratio (VR) generally supported the hypothesis that boys have greater variability than girls in creativity test performance. However, results using the boy/girl ratios from different regions of the creativity score distribution revealed a pattern of male superiority. While boys significantly outnumbered girls in the higher extremes, girls tended to outnumber boys in the central region and the lower extremes. Results from an analysis of the means lent further support to the findings of male superiority. Plausible explanations for greater male variability and male superiority in Mainland China are proposed. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Age and emotion affect how we look at a face: Visual scan patterns differ for own-age versus other-age emotional faces

We investigated how age of faces and emotion expressed in faces affect young (n=30) and older (n=20) adults’ visual inspection while viewing faces and judging their expressions. Overall, expression identification was better for young than older faces, suggesting that interpreting expressions in young faces is easier than in older faces, even for older participants. Moreover, there were age-group differences in misattributions of expressions, in that young participants were more likely to label disgusted faces as angry, whereas older adults were more likely to label angry faces as disgusted. In addition to effects of emotion expressed in faces, age of faces affected visual inspection of faces: Both young and older participants spent more time looking at own-age than other-age faces, with longer looking at own-age faces predicting better own-age expression identification. Thus, cues used in expression identification may shift as a function of emotion and age of faces, in interaction with age of participants.     

Charting the Developmental Trajectories of Attention and Executive Function in Chinese School-Aged Children

Attention is a complex domain that has reawakened research interest in recent years. There are relatively few studies that have examined age-related changes across different attention subcomponents, such as selection, maintenance, and control, using large samples covering a wide age range. The present study assessed performance in 466 participants in order to identify the ages at which mature performance was reached across differing attention subcomponents. Furthermore, we investigated whether the nature of the attentional demands or task difficulty predicted the age at which stable levels of performance were reached. The results supported the former rather than the latter alternative.     

Waldo reveals cultural differences in return fixations

ABSTRACT

Humans routinely perform visual search towards targets to adapt to the environment. These sequences of ballistic eye movements are shaped by a combination of top–down and bottom–up factors. Recent research documented that human observers display cultural-specific fixation patterns in a range of visual processing tasks. In particular, eye movement strategies extracting information from faces clearly differs between Western Caucasian (WC) and East Asian (EA) observers. However, whether such cultural differences are also present for visual scene processing remains debated. To this aim, we recorded the eye movements of WC and EA observers while they were solving visual search problems parametrically varying in difficulty: Where’s Waldo. Both groups had a comparable familiarity with the Waldo books reaching a comparable level of accuracy in target detection. Both cultural groups also showed a comparable temporal effect on inhibition of return, with longer fixation durations when saccades were performed to a return location compared to other locations. Westerners, however, located Waldo faster than Easterners. Interestingly, this modulation of speed was likely related to differences occurring on the low-level mechanisms of spatial inhibition of return, with EA observers returning more often to previously visited locations than the WC observers. This suboptimal eye movement strategy in the Easterners might be engendered by their cultural perceptual bias consisting in? a greater use of extra-foveal information. Overall, our data point towards the existence of a subtle, but significant difference in the processing of visual scenes across observers from different cultures during active visual search.     

情绪性工作记忆对选择性注意的影响

选取大学本科生33名,采用情绪启动范式与再认范式相结合,要求被试依次完成情绪词识记、目标面孔性别判断及情绪词再认任务,探讨保存于工作记忆中的情绪性刺激对面孔性别判断任务的影响。结果显示:(1)在中性和恐惧情绪启动刺激条件下,被试对目标面孔性别判断的反应时要显著长于悲伤条件。(2)在愉悦情绪启动词条件下,线索提示有效性差异显著;在无效线索提示条件下,启动刺激的不同情绪效价差异显著。(3)对情绪面孔性别与被试性别一致性/非一致性两种条件下反应时对比发现,男、女被试在情绪面孔性别判断任务中均表现出异性相吸效应。综上所述,保存在工作记忆中情绪刺激会对面孔性别的识别产生自上而下的影响。     

小学生工作记忆与推理关系的实验研究

本实验以视觉同时呈现,在形近、音近、义近三种干扰下以再认方法和瑞文渐进推理测验探讨了小学生年级、性别、工作记忆与推理的关系。发现(I)小学生工作记忆与推理能力相关显著。(2)工作记忆和推理能力在小学阶段不存在性别差异。(3)年级和工作记忆是影响小学生推理能力的重要因素,但年级因素对推理能力的作用较工作记忆大。     

中学生知识获得过程是从情景记忆向语义记忆转化的过程

本研究探讨中学生的知识掌握过程。针对2001—2002年度上学期教学内容,对初中二年级学生的四门课程分别进行两次测验。对于每道选择题,学生首先选择正确答案,然后指出记忆的意识状态：记住的、知道的、猜测的。结果发现,学生记忆意识类型的转变(由记住向知道)取决于课程类型、保持时间和学生等级。对于不同课程,学生占优势的意识类型不同,自然学科知道的反应占优势,社会学科记住的反应占优势;优等生知道的反应多于其他学生;随着学习时间的延长,中学生的意识类型发生了由记住向知道的转变,这表明知识掌握过程中,中学生的知识表征发生了由情景记忆向语义记忆的转变。     

汉语语句重音的分类和分布

通过两个独立进行的重音标注实验对汉语语句重音的分类和分布进行了初步探讨。实验l是由60位普通被试参加的音节重音突显度的知觉实验。实验2是由本文三位作者参加的重音类别标注实验,在此实验中语句重音被划分为节奏重音和语义重音。实验2中对于语句重音的分类性标注结果得到了实验l中普通被试对音节重音突显度知觉结果的支持,这说明人们确实能够感知到两种不同类型的重音。实验结果还表明,节奏重音倾向于出现在较大韵律单元内的最末韵律词的末音节上,并且与适当的停延相伴生,语义重音的分布则与语句的韵律结构的关系不大。     

同伴团体对儿童青少年学业成就和社会功能关系的影响

运用同伴评价、教师评估和学校记录等多种渠道收集关于同伴团体、社会功能、同伴接纳以及学业成就的资料,旨在考察同伴团体与儿童青少年学业成就和社会功能的关系。研究发现：绝大多数儿童青少年都有自己的同伴团体。这些同伴团体在学业成就上有很高的同质性。学业成就与社会适应无论在团体内的个体水平还是在团体水平上都密切相关。而且,团体的学业表现是个体学业成就和社会适应间的重要调节因素,表明团体学业规范对个体水平上学业成就与社会功能的关系有增强或是减弱的作用。这项研究再一次证明同伴团体在儿童个体发展中的重要意义。     

德里达对我们究竟意味着什么？——关于10月10日《纽约时报》刊登德里达逝世讣告的风波

通过关于德里达逝世一份意味深长的讣告,2004年10月下旬,以《纽约时报》为载体,引发了一场关于德里达的哲学对我们这个世界究竟意味着什么的讨论.这场讨论的实质在于,德里达的解构精神究竟是一种一味摧毁形而上学的力量,还是通过对这种形而上学传统的分析,指出"一分为二"式的"二元论"的片面性,以致所导致的,从古至今绵延不断的一种固执的思维定式.德里达试图告诉我们,形而上学和古典辩证法传统在把一对和多对范畴相互对应、提升、同化过程中,势必排除或遗漏掉许多可能是更为重要的要素,因为这些要素可能是使事物得以出场和传播的更为真实的方式.解构不是破坏,不是摧毁,不是在消灭一个旧世界的基础上建立一个新世界.应该把解构理解为事物在出场或传播过程中其结构的某种实际上的变形,一种实际效果.