Diencephalic damage decreases hippocampal acetylcholine release during spontaneous alternation testing

A rodent model of diencephalic amnesia, pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency (PTD), was used to investigate diencephalic-hippocampal interactions. Acetylcholine (ACh) release, a marker of memory-related activation, was measured in the hippocampus of PTD-treated and control rats prior to, during, and after spontaneous alternation test. During behavioral testing, all animals displayed increases in ACh release. However, both the percent increase of ACh release during spontaneous alternation testing and the alternation scores were higher in control rats relative to PTD-treated rats. Thus, when rats are tested on a task with demands dependent on the hippocampus, it appears that the hippocampus is not fully activated after diencephalic damage.     

Visual perspective taking for avatars in a Simon task

In modern digital applications, users often interact with virtual representations of themselves or others, called avatars. We examined how these avatars and their perspectives influence stimulus–response compatibility in a Simon task. Participants responded to light/dark blue stimuli with left/right key presses in the presence of a task-irrelevant avatar. Changes in stimulus–response compatibility were used to quantify changes in the mental representation of the task and perspective taking toward this avatar. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that perspective taking for an avatar occurred in orthogonal stimulus–response mappings, causing a compatibility effect from the avatar’s point of view. In the following two experiments we introduced a larger variety of angular disparities between the participant and avatar. In Experiment 3, the Simon effect with lateralized stimulus positions remained largely unaffected by the avatar, pointing toward an absence of perspective taking. In Experiment 4, after avatar hand movements were added in order to strengthen the participants’ sense of agency over the avatar, a spatial compatibility effect from the avatar’s perspective was observed again, and hints of the selective use of perspective taking on a trial-by-trial basis were found. Overall, the results indicate that users can incorporate the perspective of an avatar into their mental representation of a situation, even when this perspective is unnecessary to complete a task, but that certain contextual requirements have to be met.     

Somatosensory processing in the biological relatives of schizophrenia patients: a signal detection analysis of two-point discrimination

This study examined 2-point discrimination performance in 1 st-degree biological relatives (n = 39) of individuals with schizophrenia and normal adult control participants (n = 30) recruited from the community. They completed an objective 2-point discrimination task, adapted for use with a signal detection approach to permit separation of discriminability (i.e., sensitivity, d') from response bias/ criterion (or motivation, lnbeta). Relatives revealed poorer performance on the d' index compared with controls. The 2 groups did not differ on lnbeta, suggesting a genuine difference in sensitivity but not response bias. The sensitivity deficit might reflect decreased spatial acuity and/or impaired intensity cue processing of tactile stimuli. Poor performance on the d' index was most closely associated with 2 schizotypic features, namely "odd beliefs/magical thinking."     

Cultural variations in optimistic and pessimistic bias: do Easterners really expect the worst and Westerners really expect the best when predicting future life events?

The authors compared levels of optimistic and pessimistic bias in the prediction of positive and negative life events between European Americans and Japanese. Study 1 showed that European Americans compared with Japanese were more likely to predict positive events to occur to self than to others. The opposite pattern emerged in the prediction of negative events. Study 2 replicated these cultural differences. Furthermore, positive associations emerged between predictions and occurrence of life events 2 months later for both European Americans and Japanese. Across both studies, results of within-groups analyses indicated that both groups expected negative events to be more likely to occur to others than to self (optimistic bias). In addition, Japanese expected positive events to be more likely to occur to others than to self (pessimistic bias). However, European Americans failed to show the expected optimistic bias for positive events.     

论学习的基本类型与教学设计──学习双机制理论的教学模式

本文阐述了学习的双机制理论关于学习的基本机制的观点,根据该学习理论对知识分类进行了新的划分,并分析了不同类型知识学习的信息加工过程与特点,然后提出了课堂学习与教学的“七阶段模型”及相应的教学设计。     

心算加工年老化及其机制研究

以１７２名２０－７９岁成人为被式对心算加工的年老化过程及其机制进行了研究。任务为连续减法心算,依难度分为５种：１０００－１,１０００－３,１０００－１３及１０００－１７。结果表明,年龄与心算难度存在明显的交互作用,且随着年龄增加,不同难度心算效率均以幂函数形式降低。     

心算活动机制的研究

心算是一种重要的思维活动,是认知心理学的研究主题之一。心算活动具有明显的问题大小效应,其加工过程与工作记忆和长时记忆存在密切关系。此外,对心算的加工机制进行跨学科（认知心理学、神经科学等）的综合研究,是今后心算研究的主要方向。     

心算加工年老化及其机制研究

以172名20－79岁成人为被试对心算加工的年老化过程及其机制进行了研究。任务为连续减法心算,依难度分为5种：1000－1、1000－3、1000－7、1000－13及1000－17。结果表明,年龄与心算难度存在明显的交互作用,且随着年龄增加,不同难度心算效率均以幂函数形式降低。结构方程建模分析发现心算加工年老化过程存在两个中介作用因子,即速度因子和非速度因子,且速度因子对非速度因子存在明显的正效应。     

阅读保持的类比结构映射效应研究

探讨文章阅读过程中类比结构映射效应与共同元素效应对阅读信息保持的迁移作用,包括两个实验,实验Ｉ探讨前阅读的源文章与目标文章在结构上与命题上的共同性对目标文章信息保持的迁移效果,结果表明,前后阅读文献的结构共同目标文章的保持有显著的促进作用,命题共同的促进作用不显著,实验２进一步探讨在源文章与目标文章结构或命题有共同性的情况下,提示与否对目标文章的信息保持效果的影响作用,结果证明,有两种情况下,提示     

Knowledge level learning and the power law: A soar model of skill acquisition in scheduling

Zusammenfassung. Das hier vorgestellte Modell lernt graduell, Planungsaufgaben aus der Klasse der Maschinenbelegungsprobleme (job-shop-scheduling problems) zu lösen. Mit Hilfe des Chunking-Mechanismus von Soar wird episodisches Wissen über die Belegungsreihenfolge von Aufträgen auf Maschinen memoriert. Bei der Entwicklung des Modells wurden zahlreiche qualitative (z. B. Transfereffekte) und quantitative Befunde (z. B. Bearbeitungszeiten) aus einer früheren empirischen Untersuchung berücksichtigt. In einer Validierungsstudie wurden dieselben Aufgaben von 14 Probanden und dem Modell bearbeitet. Die Passung von Simulationsdaten und empirischen Ergebnissen fiel insgesamt gut aus. Allerdings löst das Modell die Aufgaben schneller und zeigt auch einen etwas besseren Lernverlauf als die Probanden. Das Modell liefert eine Erklärung für das Rauschen, das typischerweise bei Bearbeitungszeiten zu beobachten ist: es handelt sich um erworbenes Wissen, das mehr oder weniger gut und auch unterschiedlich häufig auf neue Situationen übertragen wird. Der Lernverlauf der Probanden entspricht nur für aggregierte Daten einer Potenzfunktion (power law). Der vorgestellte Mechanismus zeigt, wie ein symbolisches Modell der Informationsverarbeitung graduelle Verhaltensänderungen generiert und wie der offensichtliche Erwerb allgemeiner Prozeduren ohne explizites Lernen von deklarativen Regeln erfolgen kann. Es wird nahegelegt, daß es sich hier um die Modellierung einer Form impliziten Lernens handelt. Summary. The model presented here gradually learns how to perform a job-shop scheduling task. It uses Soar's chunking mechanism to acquire episodic memories about the order to schedule jobs. The model was based on many qualitative (e.g., transfer effects) and quantitative (e.g., solution time) regularities found in previously collected data. The model was tested with new data where scheduling tasks were given to the model and to 14 subjects. The model generally fit these data with the restrictions that the model performs the task (in simulated time) faster than the subjects, and its performance improves somewhat more quickly than the subjects' performance. The model provides an explanation of the noise typically found in problem solving times - it is the result of learning actual pieces of knowledge that transfer more or less to new situations but rarely by an average amount. Only when the data are averaged (i.e., over subjects) does the smooth power law appear. This mechanism demonstrates how symbolic models can exhibit a gradual change in behavior and how the apparent acquisition of general procedures can be performed without resorting to explicit declarative rule generation. We suggest that this may represent a type of implicit learning.