Synchrony effects in automatic and controlled retrieval

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified by changes in response speed between a practice phase with rapid retrieval and an implicit memory test phase. Performance based on controlled retrieval (shown by slowdown participants) showed more priming at peak than at off-peak times of day, a finding confirmed in Experiment 2, in which the participants were given intentional retrieval instructions when the materials switched. In contrast, performance based on automatic retrieval (shown by nonslowdown participants) did not differ across peak and off-peak times. The finding suggests a robust synchrony effect in controlled retrieval, but not in automatic retrieval, which does not appear to vary across the day.     

Touch screen assays of behavioural flexibility and error characteristics in Eastern grey squirrels (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sciurus carolinensis</Emphasis>)

Behavioural flexibility allows animals to adjust their behaviours according to changing environmental demands. Such flexibility is frequently assessed by the discrimination–reversal learning task. We examined grey squirrels’ behavioural flexibility, using a simultaneous colour discrimination–reversal learning task on a touch screen. Squirrels were trained to select their non-preferred colour in the discrimination phase, and their preferred colour was rewarded in a subsequent reversal phase. We used error rates to divide learning in each phase into three stages (perseveration, chance level and ‘learned’) and examined response inhibition and head-switching during each stage. We found consistent behavioural patterns were associated with each learning stage: in the perseveration stage, at the beginning of each training phase, squirrels showed comparable response latencies to correct and incorrect stimuli, along with a low level of head-switching. They quickly overcame perseveration, typically in one to three training blocks. In the chance-level stage, response latencies to both stimuli were low, but during initial discrimination squirrels showed more head-switches than in the previous stage. This suggests that squirrels were learning the current reward contingency by responding rapidly to a stimulus, but with increased attention to both stimuli. In the learned stage, response latencies to the correct stimulus and the number of head-switches were at their highest, whereas incorrect response latencies were at their lowest, and differed significantly from correct response latencies. These results suggest increased response inhibition and attention allowed the squirrels to minimise errors. They also suggest that errors in the ‘learned’ stage were related to impulsive emission of the pre-potent or previously learned responses.     

心理契约履行和组织公民行为之间的关系研究

本研究在对159名在职人员的调查的基础上,比较全面地考察了心理契约的内容,并对心理契约实际履行情况带来的影响做了研究。结果发现：不同心理契约履行水平下,员工的组织公民行为存在显著差异。因此,我们可以认为如果要提高员工的组织公民行为,组织应该最大程度地履行员工的心理契约。这反映了员工与组织之间互惠交换关系的本质。另外,不同内容的心理契约履行带来的组织公民行为的提高,具体表现在不同方面。     

中国道教协会2009年第二次会长扩大会议在京召开

9月24日上午,国家宗教局王作安局长等一行来到中围道教协会,亲切看望慰问协会负责人并举行了座谈。中国道教协会会长任法融,副会长张继禹、黄信阳,副秘书长张立光、袁志鸿、孙同昌、冯正伟、李兆彩、王炳旸等出席了座谈会。     

记忆搜索速度对短时记忆一生发展的影响研究

以横断研究方法探讨一生发展中搜索速度对短时记忆容量的影响。以记忆广度任务和斯腾伯格任务分别测量6~70岁被试短时记忆容量与记忆搜索速度。结果发现:记忆广度在16岁达到最高峰,以后开始下降;一生的不同阶段,斯腾伯格任务中成功搜索的加工过程基本一致,但搜索速度一直在发展;搜索速度可能是贯穿短时记忆发展一生的影响因素。     

左右半球在语篇理解中的协同作用

通过2例一侧颞叶损伤患者研究了一侧颞叶损伤及两侧半球的协同作用对语篇理解的影响,并探讨了发生此种影响的可能机制。结果表明一侧颞叶的损伤将导致患者语篇水平的理解障碍及语言推理能力的下降;提示语篇理解需双侧半球的协同作用,而推理能力下降可能是引发语篇理解障碍的原因之一。     

Emotional context at learning systematically biases memory for facial information

Emotion influences memory in many ways. For example, when a mood-dependent processing shift is operative, happy moods promote global processing and sad moods direct attention to local features of complex visual stimuli. We hypothesized that an emotional context associated with to-be-learned facial stimuli could preferentially promote global or local processing. At learning, faces with neutral expressions were paired with a narrative providing either a happy or a sad context. At test, faces were presented in an upright or inverted orientation, emphasizing configural or analytical processing, respectively. A recognition advantage was found for upright faces learned in happy contexts relative to those in sad contexts, whereas recognition was better for inverted faces learned in sad contexts than for those in happy contexts. We thus infer that a positive emotional context prompted more effective storage of holistic, configural, or global facial information, whereas a negative emotional context prompted relatively more effective storage of local or feature-based facial information     

句子先提述的参与者在可提取性上的优势现象

下述五个实验就汉语句子成分（包括句子的参与者及其动作）的提述次序对其可提取性的影响进行了研究,结果表明：（１）句子先提述的参与者比后提述的参与者容易被提取,提述的次序对参与者的可提取性有明显影响。（２）先提述参与者的这种优势与句子呈现的方式有一定的关系。（３）在系列呈现的条件下,先提述参与者的易提取性与探测词呈现的延迟间隔有关。（４）在系列呈现的条件下,参与者以名词形式出现时,被试的反应速度较快,而参与者以名字的形式出现时,反应则较慢;在同时呈现的条件下这种差异基本消失。（５）句子参与者的行动（即句子的动词）的提述次序对其可提取性也有明显的影响,说明提述次序对句子成分的可提取性的影响,不只限于句子参与者本身。     

非药物成瘾的遗传学和神经生物学机制研究述评

非药物成瘾又称“非物质相关性成瘾”或“行为成瘾”。特征性表现包括对成瘾对象的渴望、受损的冲动控制、对成瘾对象的耐受、撤退反应和高复发率等。目前发现的非药物成瘾类型包括病理性赌博、网络成瘾、购物成瘾、游戏成瘾、性瘾以及贪食等。非药物成瘾与药物成瘾在症状学上表现出很高的相似性且具有较高的共病率, 提示二者之间可能存在着共同的发病机制。从遗传学和神经生物学的角度探讨非药物成瘾的机制具有重要的理论价值和临床应用价值。家庭研究和双生子研究发现, 男性的病理性赌博和贪食障碍具有中度以上的遗传度。分子遗传学研究发现, 单胺能神经递质相关基因, 如5-羟色胺转运体基因、多巴胺受体基因和单胺氧化酶A基因等, 与非药物成瘾有关。神经影像学研究发现, 非药物成瘾者脑内负责奖赏,线索加工和冲动控制的神经通路活动性异于正常对照。未来研究需要进一步从多个角度入手, 探讨非药物成瘾与药物成瘾的共性和特性。     

Presentism and the Notion of Existence

The aim of this paper is to make presentism a dynamic view of reality by basing it on a notion of dynamic existence, that is, on a notion of existence which has a dynamic character. The paper shows that both of the notions of existence which are used in metaphysical theories of time (in presentism and eternalism) have a static character and, while such a notion is useful for eternalists, it is useless for presentists if they want to make their view able to remain in agreement with our everyday experience and self-consistent. It is demonstrated that both empirical and theoretical arguments indicate that the presentist should replace the notion of this static existence with the notion of a dynamic existence and that this maneuver allows the presentist to treat his/her existential thesis as equivalent to the thesis that time flows. Not only does this strategy allow us to express presentism in a simple, homogenous way which remains in agreement with our experience, but also permits us to solve some of the difficult problems which presentism faces, such as, for example, the objection of triviality and the question about the rate of time passage. Moreover, such an approach to presentism allows us to solve fundamental metaphysical problems concerning time such as the problem of the openness of the future and the fixity of the past, direction of causation, and relations between presentism and persistence through time by endurance.