The cognitive advantage for one’s own name is not simply familiarity: An eye-tracking study

Eye-tracking technique and visual search task were employed to examine the cognitive advantage for one’s own name and the possible effect of familiarity on this advantage. The results showed that fewer saccades and an earlier start time of first fixations on the target were associated with trials in which participants were asked to search for their own name, as compared to search for personally familiar or famous names. In addition, the results also demonstrated faster response times and higher accuracy in the former kind of trials. Taken together, these findings provide important evidence that one’s own name has the potential to capture attention and that familiarity cannot account for this advantage.     

Prevalence and Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth in Accidentally Injured Patients

This study examined prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic growth in 180 accidentally injured patients of mainland China in their convalescence stage, investigating its relationships with demographic and accidental injury variables, personality, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and coping styles. Our results showed that posttraumatic growth (PTG) presented mostly in the domain of Relating to Others and indicated that PTG was significantly related to marital status, educational level, personality, coping styles, and PTSD symptoms. Avoidance of PTSD symptoms, Openness to experience, and positive coping were significant predictors of PTG. The findings emphasize that when promoting PTG of accidentally injured patients, healthcare providers should facilitate patients utilizing personal resources, understand PTG coexists with PTSD symptoms, and adjust interventions based on the coping styles the patients have adopted.     

Encoding the target or the plausible preview word? The nature of the plausibility preview benefit in reading Chinese

Previous studies have shown that a plausible preview word can facilitate the processing of a target word as compared to an implausible preview word (a plausibility preview benefit effect) when reading Chinese (Yang, Wang, Tong, & Rayner, 2012; Yang, 2013). Regarding the nature of this effect, it is possible that readers processed the meaning of the plausible preview word and did not actually encode the target word (given that the parafoveal preview word lies close to the fovea). The current experiment examined this possibility with three conditions wherein readers received a preview of a target word that was either (1) identical to the target word (identical preview), (2) a plausible continuation of the pre-target text, but the post-target text in the sentence was incompatible with it (initially plausible preview), or (3) not a plausible continuation of the pre-target text, nor compatible with the post-target text (implausible preview). Gaze durations on target words were longer in the initially plausible condition than the identical condition. Overall, the results showed a typical preview benefit, but also implied that readers did not encode the initially plausible preview. Also, a plausibility preview benefit was replicated: gaze durations were longer with implausible previews than the initially plausible ones. Furthermore, late eye movement measures did not reveal differences between the initially plausible and the implausible preview conditions, which argues against the possibility of misreading the plausible preview word as the target word. In sum, these results suggest that a plausible preview word provides benefit in processing the target word as compared to an implausible preview word, and this benefit is only present in early but not late eye movement measures.     

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。     

学龄儿童的情景记忆与心理理论的关系

为考察学龄儿童心理理论与情景记忆的关系,111名小学4-6年级儿童在两周内完成了心理理论(包括二级错误信念、失言和白谎等)和情景记忆(回忆过去"一个星期内"、"一个月内"和"一年内"亲历的具体事件;以及想象将来"一个星期内"、"一个月内"和"一年内"可能发生在自己身上的具体事件)等任务。控制了年龄效应后,线性回归分析发现儿童回忆过去时"谈及他人"、想象将来时"谈及自我"和"谈及他人"与心理理论的认知成分存在显著关联。而儿童回忆过去时"谈及他人"与心理理论的情感成分有显著关联。结果表明,学龄儿童心理理论可以分为认知成分和情感成分,情景记忆与心理理论不同成分的关系存在差异。     

I can’t stop looking at them: Interactive effects of body mass index and weight dissatisfaction on attention towards body shape photographs

Although attentional biases toward body-related information contribute to the etiology and maintenance of body dissatisfaction (BD) and eating disorders (EDs), attentional disengagement in women with BD and EDs is not clear. The present study investigated the association between weight dissatisfaction and attentional disengagement from body-related pictures and the possible moderating effect of body mass index (BMI) on this relation. Two hundred and four undergraduate women engaged in an experiment using a pictorial spatial cueing paradigm including fat/thin bodies and neutral household photos. Partial correlations and simple slopes regression analyses were conducted with attentional disengagement index scores of each category of cues. Findings suggested that independent of BMI, weight dissatisfaction was directly associated with attentional disengagement from both fat and thin pictures. In addition, among women with low and medium BMIs, the more they were dissatisfied with their bodyweight, the more difficulty they had disengaging their attention from fat body pictures.     

The place of words and numbers in psychiatric research

In recent decades, there has been widespread debate in the human and social sciences regarding the compatibility and the relative merits of quantitative and qualitative approaches in research. In psychiatry, depending on disciplines and traditions, objects of study can be represented either in words or using two types of mathematization. In the latter case, the use of mathematics in psychiatry is most often only local, as opposed to global as in the case of classical mechanics. Relationships between these objects of study can in turn be explored in three different ways: 1/ by a hermeneutic process, 2/ using statistics, the most frequent method in psychiatric research today, 3/ using equations, i.e. using mathematical relationships that are formal and deterministic. The 3 ways of representing entities (with language, locally with mathematics or globally with mathematics) and the 3 ways of expressing the relationships between entities (using hermeneutics, statistics or equations) can be combined in a cross-tabulation, and nearly all nine combinations can be described using examples. A typology of this nature may be useful in assessing which epistemological perspectives are currently dominant in a constantly evolving field such as psychiatry, and which other perspectives still need to be developed. It also contributes to undermining the overly simplistic and counterproductive beliefs that accompany the assumption of a Manichean “quantitative/qualitative” dichotomy. Systematic examination of this set of typologies could be useful in indicating new directions for future research beyond the quantitative/qualitative divide.     

两例先天性无痛症患者的心理生理特点研究 Ⅱ.对致痛性强刺激的知觉和反应

本工作对两例先天性无痛症患者对于致痛性强刺激的知觉和反应进行了研究(例1女,10岁,例2男,13岁)。对照组为20例正常儿童,性别和年龄均与患儿相匹配。 结果:1),生活中痛:两例患儿均无(包括痛感觉和痛反应)。2)实验性痛:①痛感觉:两例患儿均无;②“痛”反应:例1有“痛”反应(脉搏和呼吸的变化以及行为反应明显,大致与正常儿童相似)。例2无“痛”反应(脉搏和呼吸的变化轻微,无行为反应,与正常儿童不同)。 由结果看来,先天性无痛症患者似乎可分为两种类型:不完全型(如同例1)和完全型(如同例2)。存在有“痛”反应而无痛感觉的无痛症患者。 本工作结果从另一侧面为痛的两成分学说提供了依据。     

提取练习在记忆保持与迁移中的优势效应：基于认知负荷理论的解释

提取练习比建构概念图更有利于记忆保持和迁移的研究结果尚存在争议。依据认知负荷的3个成分,设计两个实验探究前期知识水平与策略复杂性对以上两种学习策略有效性的影响。结果表明：(1)前期知识水平的主效应不显著,但是与学习策略之间存在交互作用：在提取练习策略条件下,高前期知识水平的被试与低前期知识水平的被试在记忆保持和迁移上的正确率没有显著差异,但是在建构概念图策略条件下,高前期知识水平的被试在记忆保持和迁移上的正确率显著地高于低前期知识水平的被试;(2)当降低概念图的难度后,被试使用建构部分概念图策略产生的认知负荷与使用提取练习策略相比显著降低,并且其在学习阶段学习到的知识量显著地高于使用提取练习策略的结果,但是在最终测试上,其记忆保持与迁移的正确率与使用提取练习策略并没有显著差异,策略的复杂性增加了学习者的额外负荷,但是对策略有效性的发挥却不具有决定性影响。以上结果说明提取练习策略之所以比建构概念图策略更具优势,不是因为其策略本身更易掌握,而是因为其与建构概念图策略相比不受学习者前期知识水平的影响。这意味着认知负荷理论可以很好地解释提取练习在记忆保持与迁移中产生优势效应的内部机制,并进一步证实提取练习与精细编码不同,具有独特的加工机制。     

Timing at the Start of Associative Learning

Some theories of associative learning imply that time plays a fundamental role in the acquisition process. Consistent with these theories, this paper presents evidence that the time from the onset of a conditioned stimulus (CS) until presentation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) is learned very rapidly at the start of training. We report two autoshaping studies and a study on aversive conditioning in goldfish in which we examine timing at the start of conditioning. We also review data from a number of other conditioning preparations, including fear-potentiated startle, appetitive conditioning in rats, and eyeblink conditioning in rabbits, that report conditioned response (CR) timing early in training. Acquisition speed and the very first expressions of conditioned responding often show sensitivity to the time of US presentation. In instances where temporal control is slowly expressed, it is likely due to performance factors, not to slow learning about time. In fact, the learning about time may be a necessary condition for associative learning.