一个熟悉的预见声音重新复活

美国已故著名天文学家兼科普作家卡尔·萨根的一系列关于科学和宗教的讲座被重新发掘出来并整理出版,这让萨根重新加入了一场正在进行的关于宗教的辩论。     

Factors predicting success in picture naming in Alzheimer's disease and primary progressive aphasia

The aim of the present study was to determine the predictive value of all important variables in the picture naming performance of 8 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 8 patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The experimental investigation controlled for (i) visual complexity, (ii) name agreement on dominant response, (iii) age of acquisition, (iv) frequency, (v) word length, (vi) concept familiarity, and (vii) category membership. The results of the multiple regression analyses showed that age of acquisition and name agreement were significant for 10/16 subjects. Visual complexity, frequency, familiarity, and category were also significant for four patients respectively. Word length had no effect. These results are at variance with those of series of patients with AD (Gaillard et al., 1998) and with PPA (Lambon Ralph et al., 1998) where concept familiarity was found to be one of the most predictive factors of naming success.     

Neural dissociation of phonological and visual attention span disorders in developmental dyslexia: FMRI evidence from two case reports

A dissociation between phonological and visual attention (VA) span disorders has been reported in dyslexic children. This study investigates whether this cognitively-based dissociation has a neurobiological counterpart through the investigation of two cases of developmental dyslexia. LL showed a phonological disorder but preserved VA span whereas FG exhibited the reverse pattern. During a phonological rhyme judgement task, LL showed decreased activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus whereas this region was activated at the level of the controls in FG. Conversely, during a visual categorization task, FG demonstrated decreased activation of the parietal lobules whereas these regions were activated in LL as in the controls. These contrasted patterns of brain activation thus mirror the cognitive disorders’ dissociation. These findings provide the first evidence for an association between distinct brain mechanisms and distinct cognitive deficits in developmental dyslexia, emphasizing the importance of taking into account the heterogeneity of the reading disorder.     

数学能力与问句位置对小学生数学结构不良应用题表征的影响

对小学四年级高低数学能力学生各40名,呈现问句前置和问句后置两种形式的结构不良应用题,探讨两种被试在问句前置时对应用题的内在表征形式倾向.结果发现,两种被试在问句前置时阅读条件句的总时间比问句后置时显著降低,解题时间显著降低,但高能力被试阅读有关条件句的时间在总阅读时间中的比例显著增高,解答成绩显著提高,而低能力被试相关时间比反而显著下降、解答成绩没有显著提高.这表明,高能力被试建构问题模型与情境模型,而低能力被试只建构问题模型.     

The development and validation of the Relational Self-Esteem Scale

According to the tripartite model of the self (Brewer & Gardner, 1996), the self consists of three aspects: personal, relational, and collective. Correspondingly, individuals can achieve a sense of self-worth through their personal attributes (personal self-esteem), relationship with significant others (relational self-esteem), or social group membership (collective self-esteem). Existing measures on personal and collective self-esteem are available in the literature; however, no scale exists that assesses relational self-esteem. The authors developed a scale to measure individual differences in relational self-esteem and tested it with two samples of Chinese university students. Between and within-network approaches to construct validation were used. The scale showed adequate internal consistency reliability and results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed good fit. It also exhibited meaningful correlations with theoretically relevant constructs in the nomological network. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Assessing short summaries with human judgments procedure and latent semantic analysis in narrative and expository texts

In the present study, we tested a computer-based procedure for assessing very concise summaries (50 words long) of two types of text (narrative and expository) using latent semantic analysis (LSA) in comparison with the judgments of four human experts. LSA was used to estimate semantic similarity using six different methods: four holistic (summary-text, summary-summaries, summary-expert summaries, and pregraded-ungraded summary) and two componential (summary-sentence text and summary-main sentence text). A total of 390 Spanish middle and high school students (14–16 years old) and six experts read a narrative or expository text and later summarized it. The results support the viability of developing a computerized assessment tool using human judgments and LSA, although the correlation between human judgments and LSA was higher in the narrative text than in the expository, and LSA correlated more with human content ratings than with human coherence ratings. Finally, the holistic methods were found to be more reliable than the componential methods analyzed in this study.     

Specific Aptitude Theory Revisited: Is There Incremental Validity for Training Performance?

There has been controversy over the years about whether specific mental abilities increment validity for predicting performance above and beyond the validity for general mental ability (GMA). Despite its appeal, specific aptitude theory has received only sporadic empirical support. Using more exact statistical and measurement methods and a larger data set than previous studies, this study provides further evidence that specific aptitude theory is not tenable with regard to training performance. Across 10 jobs, differential weighting of specific aptitudes and specific aptitude tests were found not to improve the prediction of training performance over the validity of GMA. Implications of this finding for training research and practice are discussed.     

Word‐of‐mouth information processing routes: The mediating role of message and source characteristics

This study investigates word‐of‐mouth (WOM) information processing routes from active WOM seeking behaviour. Employing the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the direct and indirect effects of factors within information processing routes are examined in a credence service context. A deeper exploration of the causal chains of each route was conducted using serial mediation models of message quality and source characteristics. Data were collected in the higher education context from a survey of 509 high school students applying for tertiary study. Findings indicate that active WOM seeking and the serial mediation effects elicit two routes of information processing: central and peripheral. This study is amongst the first to intensively reveal the underlying causal chains of WOM processing and supports the application of ELM theory in WOM research.     

关于高级内隐认知研究方法的一点浅见

本文对加工分离程序应用于高级内隐认知加工的可能性作了论证,并以内隐学习研究为例,进行了实验检验,证明其切实可行.