Broadcasting of violence on Spanish television: a quantitative panorama

A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain) was carried out using a novel method that randomly selects fragments of delimited duration from TV broadcasts. The device selects acts of aggression shown in those TV extracts, and classifies them according to their type. There was a high incidence of aggressive acts, especially physical (particularly leading to death), in TV fiction: films, serials and promos. The device also allowed examination of the prominence of aggression in children's programs, as well as showing minimal variation in the number of aggressive acts over screened time intervals. The pattern of the collected data suggests that the broadcasting of violence on TV emphasizes the conflicting elements of social reality, reproducing it in fiction, news reports and children's shows. Aggr. Behav. 32:137–145. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

On the Metaphysics of Linguistics

Mind–body dualism has rarely been an issue in the generative study of mind; Chomsky himself has long claimed it to be incoherent and unformulable. We first present and defend this negative argument but then suggest that the generative enterprise may license a rather novel and internalist view of the mind and its place in nature, different from all of, (i) the commonly assumed functionalist metaphysics of generative linguistics, (ii) physicalism, and (iii) Chomsky’s negative stance. Our argument departs from the empirical observation that the linguistic mind gives rise to hierarchies of semantic complexity that we argue (only) follow from constraints of an essentially mathematical kind. We assume that the faculty of language tightly correlates with the mathematical capacity both formally and in evolution, the latter plausibly arising as an abstraction from the former, as a kind of specialized output. On this basis, and since the semantic hierarchies in question are mirrored in the syntactic complexity of the expression involved, we posit the existence of a higher-dimensional syntax structured on the model of the hierarchy of numbers, in order to explain the semantic facts in question. If so, syntax does not have a physicalist interpretation any more than the hierarchy of number-theoretic spaces does.     

论社会主义市场经济条件下的社会公正观

本文通过对中西社会公正理论得失的探讨,阐述社会主义市场经济体制下社会公正观的基本内容。建构与社会主义市场经济相适应的社会公正观,既要尊重市场经济的一般规律,又要坚持社会主义的基本制度和原则,并达到二者之间的有机结合。     

Repetition costs in word identification: evaluating a stimulus–response integration account

Stimulus repetition facilitates performance in many experimental contexts. However, an episodic approach to interpreting repetition effects suggests that repetition effects should depend on how stimuli are encoded. In Experiments 1-3, stimulus repetition in a word identification task led to a cost rather than a benefit in performance, but only when the prime was presented for a relatively long duration. One account of these results is that long prime durations allow integration between stimulus and response codes to occur, which in turn can interfere with responding to a following identical target. In Experiment 4, a stimulus intensity based episodic specificity effect that was insensitive to the proportion of repeated trials supported this stimulus-response integration account.     

Semantic priming effects from single words in a lexical decision task

The present research examines the semantic priming effects of a centrally presented single prime word to which participants were instructed to either "attend and remember" or "ignore". The prime word was followed by a central probe target on which the participants made a lexical decision task. The main variables manipulated across experiments were prime duration (50 or 100 ms), the presence or absence of a mask following the prime, and the presence (or absence) and type of distractor stimulus (random set of consonants or pseudowords) on the probe display. There was a consistent interaction between the instructions and the semantic priming effects. Relative to the "attend and remember" instruction, an "ignore" instruction produced reduced positive priming from single primes presented for 100 ms, irrespective of the presence or absence of a prime mask, and regardless of whether the probe target was presented with or without distractors. Additionally, reliable negative priming was found from ignored primes presented for briefer durations (50 ms) and immediately followed by a mask. Methodological and theoretical implications of the present findings for the extant negative priming literature are discussed.     

Distress in response to emotional and sexual infidelity: evidence of evolved gender differences in Spanish students

The authors studied gender differences in response to hypothetical infidelity in Spanish students. Using a forced-choice methodology, the authors asked a sample of 266 participants to indicate which kind of infidelity would be more distressing: emotional or sexual. Men were significantly more distressed by sexual infidelity than were women, and women were significantly more distressed by emotional infidelity than were men. Results supported the hypothesis that particular infidelity types, which resemble adaptive problems that human beings faced in the past, contribute to the psychology of jealousy. The results are consistent with previous cross-cultural research.     

Computer speech-based remediation for reading disabilities: the size of spelling-to-sound unit in a transparent orthography

This study was designed to assess the effects of four reading-training procedures for children with reading disabilities (RD) in a transparent orthography, with the aim of examining the effects of different spelling-to-sound units in computer speech-based reading. We selected a sample of 83 Spanish children aged between 7 years 1 month and 10 years 6 months (M = 105.2, SD = 7.8) whose pseudoword reading performance was below the 25th percentile and IQ > 90. The participants were randomly assigned to five groups: (a) the whole-word training group (WW) (n = 17), (b) the syllable training group (S)(n = 16), (c) the onset-rime training group (OR) (n = 17), (d) the phoneme training group (P) (n = 15), and (e) the untrained control group (n = 18). Children were pre- and post-tested in word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and orthographic and phonological tasks. The results indicate that experimental groups who participated in the phoneme and syllable conditions improved their word recognition in comparison with the control group. In addition, dyslexics who participated in the phoneme, syllable, and onset-rime conditions made a greater number of requests during computer-based word reading under conditions that required extensive phonological computation (low frequency words and long words). Reading time, however, was greater for long words in the phoneme group during computer-based reading. These results suggest the importance of training phonological processes in improving word decoding in children with dyslexia who learn in a consistent orthography.     

轻度认知损伤的语义记忆研究述评

轻度认知损伤（Mild cognitive impairment,MCI）是介于正常老化与痴呆之间的过渡阶段,表现为与年龄和教育程度不相称的认知功能减退。本文回顾了近期有关MCI语义记忆的研究,分析比较了各研究的实验任务及结果,得出MCI患者存在一定程度的由多种原因造成的语义记忆损伤,语义记忆测验对MCI的早期筛查和转归预测有重要作用。最后指出将来的研究需要将包括语义记忆成分在内的多种认知测验相结合,以便及早发现有可能发展为痴呆的危险个体并开展相应干预。     

流动儿童家庭环境的特点及其对生活满意度的影响

以北京市1018名流动儿童和447名城市儿童为调查对象,采用家庭生活环境调查问卷、家庭功能问卷、学生多维生活领域满意度量表和学生总体生活满意度量表,考察流动儿童家庭环境的特点及其对生活满意度的影响。结果表明:(1)流动儿童的家庭经济状况和家庭功能均显著差于城市儿童。(2)父亲从事体力类工作显著负向预测流动儿童的环境满意度;家庭生活指数显著正向预测流动儿童的家庭、环境满意度及总体生活满意度;家庭居住的社区环境显著正向预测流动儿童的家庭和环境满意度。(3)家庭亲密度显著正向预测流动儿童的家庭、环境满意度和总体生活满意度,家庭的适应性显著正向预测其家庭满意度。     

ES、iNOS及bFGF在桥本氏甲状腺炎中表达的研究

采用S-P法检测17例HT患者甲状腺组织切除标本和9例正常甲状腺组织标本中ES、iNOS及bFGF的表达并分析其之间的相关性,以探讨三者在HT发生发展中的作用。结果HT组中ES、iNOS及bFGF的表达程度均明显高于正常组（P均〈0.05）,其中ES与bFGF表达无显著相关性（P〉0.05）,ES与iNOS、bFGF与iNOS的表达均呈显著正相关（r=0.531,r=0.723,P均〈0.05）。结论为在HT中,高表达的ES、iNOS及bFGF在其发生和发展中可能具有重要作用,为研究其病理生理变化和发病机理提供了理论依据。