Cross‐national comparisons of attitudes towards suicide and suicidal persons in university students from 12 countries

This paper reports the results of a comparative investigation of attitudes to suicide and suicidal persons in 5,572 university students from 12 countries. Participants filled out two scales measuring attitudes towards suicide and suicidal persons, a measure of psychological distress together with the questions about suicidal behavior. Results showed that the highest suicide acceptance scores were observed in Austrian, UK, Japanese and Saudi Arabian samples and the lowest scores were noted in Tunisian, Turkish, Iranian and Palestinian samples. While the highest social acceptance scores for a suicidal friend were noted in Turkish, US, Italian and Tunisian samples, the lowest scores were seen in Japanese, Saudi Arabian, Palestinian and Jordanian samples. Compared to participants with a suicidal past, those who were never suicidal displayed more internal barriers against suicidal behavior. Men were more accepting of suicide than women but women were more willing to help an imagined suicidal peer. Participants with accepting attitudes towards suicide but rejecting attitudes towards suicidal persons reported more suicidal behavior and psychological distress, and were more often from high suicide rate countries and samples than their counterparts. They are considered to be caught in a fatal trap in which most predominant feelings of suicidality such as hopelessness or helplessness are likely to occur. We conclude that in some societies such as Japan and Saudi Arabia it might be difficult for suicidal individuals to activate and make use of social support systems.     

Visual statistical learning produces implicit and explicit knowledge about temporal order information and scene chunks: Evidence from direct and indirect measures

We examined whether visual statistical learning (VSL) produced implicit and/or explicit knowledge about temporal order information and scene chunks, using a rapid serial visual presentation target detection task and a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) familiarity test as indirect and direct measures of VSL, respectively. In the familiarization phase, participants viewed a visual stream of natural scenes consisting of four triplets (i.e., three images that always appeared in the same order). In the subsequent target detection task, participants were required to detect target items embedded in a stream of 12 images or 12 words representing each natural scene. In the final 2AFC familiarity test, participants observed two test sequences (statistically related triplets vs. unrelated foils) and decided whether the first or second sequence was more familiar based on the familiarization phase. In both test phases, we included the same (forward) and reverse (backward) order of scenes as presented during the familiarization phase to examine whether the expression of VSL was based on temporal order of scenes or scene chunks. The results of the target detection task showed a learning effect for both temporal order in the forward condition and chunks in the backward condition, irrespective of whether stimuli were images or words; in contrast, we did not observe a learning effect in the backward condition for scene images in the familiarity test. Our findings are compatible with a learning mechanism that has both implicit and explicit components based on temporal order information and scene chunks.     

未来自我连续性及其对个体心理和行为的影响

一个人将现在自我和未来自我联系在一起的紧密程度反映了他/她在时间维度上自我连续性的强度, 即未来自我连续性。个体如何看待其现在自我与未来自我之间的连续和一致程度对个体的心理和行为有重要的影响, 特别是在跨期决策、储蓄和消费、学业成就领域、社会行为和健康领域等方面。未来研究可深入探讨未来自我连续性的神经基础及其影响因素, 并进一步拓展未来自我连续性相关的应用研究。     

语言表达方式对自然概念语义提取的影响

采用词和图形的快速分类的方法。研究了语言表达方式对自然概念语义提取的影响。结果表明,概念名称中有上属标记有利于自然概念的语义提取,词的熟悉性和概念距其上属的语义距离对自然概念的语义提取有重要影响。显示了与科学概念的语义提取不同的情况。根据这些结果。作者提出了概念结构和提取的混合模型。     

Psychological adjustment to cancer in a collective culture

We examined the associations between social support, health locus of control, neuroticism, and psychological adjustment (PA) in 152 Hong Kong Chinese patients. Our objective was to assess hypotheses relevant to the cohesive family structure, and the belief in external sources of control that pervade this culture. Use of social support by individuals who reported reliable support, and internal locus of control (ILOC) associated positively, and neuroticism associated negatively with PA. The independent variables accounted for up to 39% of the variance in PA measures. Our findings provide rare information about coping with serious illness in a non‐Western culture. They illustrate the centrality of family relationships in Chinese culture. They suggest that even in a culture where supernatural beliefs are widespread, ILOC relates positively and “chance” beliefs relate negatively to adjustment. Finally they support the importance of controlling for neuroticism in examining stress.     

矩阵完成问题的项目生成研究

依据Embretson提出的认知设计系统方法,设计并编制了矩阵完成问题的项目生成系统,实际生成了矩阵完成问题测验。探讨矩阵测验与瑞文测验的关系,以及认知模型对矩阵问题的难度和区分度的预测能力。结果表明所设计的认知模型对矩阵项目的性能参数有一定的预测能力,生成的矩阵测验与瑞文测验有基本相同的心理测量属性。可以使用该系统生成的矩阵项目来测量被试的抽象推理能力。     

Developing rich and quickly accessed knowledge of an artificial grammar

In contrast to prior research, our results demonstrate that it is possible to acquire rich, highly accurate, and quickly accessed knowledge of an artificial grammar. Across two experiments, we trained participants by using a string-edit task and highlighting relatively low-level (letters), medium-level (chunks), or high-level (structural; i.e., grammar diagram) information to increase the efficiency of grammar acquisition. In both experiments, participants who had structural information available during training generated more highly accurate strings during a cued generation test than did those in other conditions, with equivalent speed. Experiment 2 revealed that structural information enhanced acquisition only when relevant features were highlighted during the task using animation. We suggest that two critical components for producing enhanced performance from provided model-based knowledge involve (1) using the model to acquire experience-based knowledge, rather than using a representation of the model to generate responses, and (2) receiving that knowledge precisely when it is needed during training.     

Do pointing gestures by infants provoke comments from adults?

In the field of developmental psychology, there is speculation that pointing gestures by infants are good precursors of infant language acquisition, and some researchers have found correlations between these pointing gestures and some indices of language acquisition. Infants’ pointing gestures are presumably related to language acquisition because they provoke verbal responses from adults. To test this, seven boys and six girls were observed during free play time in a nursery classroom, and post-pointing and matched-control data were collected. Comparison between these data confirmed that the nursery staff spoke to infants at a significantly earlier stage in post-pointing sequences, compared with control sequences, indicating that pointing gestures elicit verbal responses from adult caregivers.     

文本阅读中背景信息的加工过程：激活与整合

采用移动窗口技术和眼动技术探讨了文本阅读中当前信息跟背景信息的具体加工过程。被试为华南师范大学本科生92名。实验1使用移动窗口技术,计算机屏幕上每次只呈现一个句子,让被试自己按键逐句进行阅读,通过分析不同实验条件下探测词的再认反应时间和不同实验条件下目标句的阅读时间来探讨文本阅读中信息加工的具体过程。实验2使用眼动技术在一种更自然的情境中通过分析不同实验条件下眼动指标的差异来进一步探讨文本阅读中信息加工的具体过程。实验结果表明,文本阅读中背景信息的加工过程包括激活和整合两个阶段,这两个阶段相互独立但又紧密联系,激活是整合发生的前提,有整合必先发生激活,但激活发生后并不一定会发生整合;文本阅读过程中读者阅读时间的延长主要发生在整合阶段