走神对中文阅读绩效的影响

选取36名大学生被试,采用探针检测的方法和逐句阅读范式,考察被试阅读中文材料时走神对阅读正确率和阅读时间的影响。结果发现:(1)中文阅读中出现走神的时间占34.80%;(2)走神会影响阅读理解,降低阅读理解正确率;(3)走神会导致阅读时间变慢。这些发现均证实走神对中文阅读绩效有影响,降低阅读理解正确率和减缓阅读时间。     

Trait compassion is associated with the neural substrate of empathy

Individual differences in the personality trait Agreeableness underlie humans’ ability to interpret social cues and coordinate effectively with others. However, previous investigations of the neural basis of Agreeableness have yielded largely inconsistent results. Recent evidence has demonstrated that Agreeableness can be divided into two, correlated subdimensions. Compassion reflects tendencies toward empathy, sympathy, and concern for others, while Politeness reflects tendencies toward compliance and refraining from aggression and exploitation. The present study seeks to clarify the neural substrates of Agreeableness by examining whether structural differences in the brain show distinct associations with Compassion and Politeness. Results of a meta-analysis of fMRI studies examining empathy were used to generate hypotheses about the brain regions and networks that underlie trait Compassion. Results of a large-scale structural neuroimaging investigation (N = 275) were largely consistent with the meta-analysis: Compassion was positively correlated with gray matter volume in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and anterior insula (AI). Further, these differences appear to be associated with Compassion specifically, as opposed to Politeness, suggesting that these two traits have at least partially distinct neuroanatomical substrates.     

Objectivism about Color and Comparative Color Statements. Reply to Hansen*

Nat Hansen builds a new argument for subjectivism about the semantics of color language, based on a potential kind of intersubjective disagreements about comparative color statements. In reply, I note that the disagreements of this kind are merely hypothetical, probably few if actual, and not evidently relevant as test cases for a semantic theory. Furthermore, even if they turned out to be actual and semantically relevant, they would be intuitively unusable by the subjectivist.     

Assessment of Psychopathic Traits in Singaporean Adolescents: Validation of the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD)

There is little knowledge available concerning psychopathic traits in Asian adolescents; a lack of a suitable measurement instrument for assessing psychopathy in Asian societies may account for this. This study aimed to validate a widely used scale in the West — the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) — in Singaporean school-based and at-risk adolescents. Using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), this study examined the two-factor (i.e., grandiose-manipulative/impulsive traits and callous-unemotional traits) and three-factor (i.e., grandiose-manipulative traits, impulsivity, and callous-unemotional traits) models of the APSD in 1027 school-based and 113 at-risk adolescents. School samples are adolescents from three secondary schools, while at-risk samples are adolescents who manifest different types of delinquent behaviors and are either placed in more structured settings or need closer supervision although they have not violated the law. Gender invariance was further tested in the school-based sample by conducting a multigroup CFA. The convergent validity of the APSD was also investigated in the school-based sample. For the school-based adolescents, the APSD revealed that the three-factor model provided a superior fit over the two-factor model and the factorial invariance across gender. Significant relationships between the three dimensions of the APSD and aggression and delinquency support the convergent validity of the APSD. As for the at-risk adolescents, both the two- and three-factor models were acceptable, but the two-factor model was preferred as it was parsimonious and it aligned with the conceptualized characteristics of psychopathic traits. Findings suggest that the APSD is a reliable and sound instrument for measuring psychopathic traits in Asian school-based and at-risk adolescents.     

The Inversion Effect for Chinese Characters is Modulated by Radical Organization

In studies of visual object recognition, strong inversion effects accompany the acquisition of expertise and imply the involvement of configural processing. Chinese literacy results in sensitivity to the orthography of Chinese characters. While there is some evidence that this orthographic sensitivity results in an inversion effect, and thus involves configural processing, that processing might depend on exact orthographic properties. Chinese character recognition is believed to involve a hierarchical process, involving at least two lower levels of representation: strokes and radicals. Radicals are grouped into characters according to certain types of structure, i.e. left–right structure, top–bottom structure, or simple characters with only one radical by itself. These types of radical structures vary in both familiarity, and in hierarchical level (compound versus simple characters). In this study, we investigate whether the hierarchical-level or familiarity of radical-structure has an impact on the magnitude of the inversion effect. Participants were asked to do a matching task on pairs of either upright or inverted characters with all the types of structure. Inversion effects were measured based on both reaction time and response sensitivity. While an inversion effect was observed in all 3 conditions, the magnitude of the inversion effect varied with radical structure, being significantly larger for the most familiar type of structure: characters consisting of 2 radicals organized from left to right. These findings indicate that character recognition involves extraction of configural structure as well as radical processing which play different roles in the processing of compound characters and simple characters.     

Resistance to Cultural Intervention: Formation of Inhibitory Collective and children’s Self-Defensive Regulation in a Chinese School

A sequel to the previous article “Roots of Excellence: The Releasing Effect of Individual Potentials through Educational Cultural Intervention in a Chinese School” (in press), the present study is on the unexpected reversal phenomena in the process of cultural intervention. The goal of the intervention is to construct the dynamics of Jiti (well-organized collective in Chinese) through creative activities to promote students’ development. In the intervention, the releasing effect (Wu et al. 2016) emerged as well, but the teacher’s concern about worsening discipline and academic performance evoked and reinforced his habitual notions and practices of education, turning the joint activities into a way of strengthening discipline. The energy that had been discharging at the beginning of the intervention was inhibited, so that many more problematic behaviors took shape. The whole class formed an inhibitory atmosphere, within which pupils formed self-defensive regulation strategies. By comparing with the productive collective in which intervention was effective and analyzing this unexpected reversal process, we can not only see pupils’ self-construction status in the inhibitory culture but illuminate the formation of the teacher’s resistance to educational and cultural transformation as well. Resistance is originated from teachers not being able to interpret pupils’ inner developmental needs but instead anxious about the ongoing problems.