ICT Adoption,Individual Income and Psychological Health of Rural Farmers in China

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This paper examines the joint effects of the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and individual income on farmers’...     

On the regress problem of deciding how to decide

Any decision is made in some way or another. Which way? (Have I worked out enough alternatives to choose from? Which decision rule to apply?) That is a higher-order decision problem, to be dealt with in some way or other. Which way? That is an even higher-order decision problem. There seems to be a regress of decision problems toward higher and higher orders. But in daily life we stop moving to higher-order decision problems—stop the regress—at some finite point. The regress problem of deciding how to decide is the problem of explaining what would make it rational to stop the regress. I will give a new solution in the present paper. The result suggests a new way of looking at standard Bayesian theory and the more recent theory of adaptive rationality.     

Age-related differences in the distractor previewing effect with schematic faces of emotions

Young and older adults searched for a unique face in a set of three schematic faces and identified a secondary feature of the target. The faces could be negative, positive, or neutral. Young adults were slower and less accurate in searching for a negative face among neutral faces when they had previewed a display of negative faces than when they had previewed neutral faces, indicating an emotional distractor previewing effect (DPE), but this effect was eliminated with inverted faces. The DPE is an index of inter-trial inhibition to keep attention away from previewed, non-target information. Older adults also showed such an emotional DPE, but it was present with both upright and inverted faces. These results show that, in general, both young and old participants are sensitive to trial history, yet the different patterns of results suggest that these two groups remember and use different types of perceptual information when searching through emotional faces.     

Intentions are mental states

Richard Scheer has recently argued against what he calls the ‘mental state’ theory of intentions. He argues that versions of this theory fail to account for various characteristics of intention. In this essay we reply to Scheer's criticisms and argue that intentions are mental states.     

Ends Over Means: Self-Affirmation Strengthens Attitudinal and Weakens Perceived Control Effects on Behavioral Intention

ABSTRACT

Self-affirmation research suggests that allowing people to affirm important values can improve acceptance of health messages. However, how self-affirmation improves message acceptance is not fully understood. Integrating construal level theory and reasoned action theory, this research tested two hypotheses: first, self-affirmation affects the abstractness of how people construe behavioral choices, and second, self-affirmation influences the associations between intention and its key determinants. Data were obtained from two studies on sunscreen use and flossing (n = 123 college students, and n = 294 adults). Our findings confirmed that self-affirmation induced abstract, high level construals of behaviors in terms of ends rather than means, and that self-affirmation strengthened the impact of attitude on intention and weakened the impact of perceived control.     

跨视听通道的错误记忆ERP新旧效应研究

Smith和Hunt于1998年首次采用DRM范式提出了错误记忆通道效应,即视觉学习通道较之听觉学习通道会降低错误再认或错误回忆,这不仅引发了一系列关于错误记忆通道效应的研究,而且提出了许多关于错误记忆通道效应产生机制的不同观点。本实验采用DRM范式,运用ERP技术,考察了视觉与听觉通道在提取阶段的错误记忆新旧效应,以从更深层面认识错误记忆的内在加工机制。结果发现,视觉与听觉通道在300-500ms和500-700ms两个时间窗都发现了ERP新旧效应,但在脑区位置以及错误记忆的新旧效应方面存在差异,这表明视觉通道与听觉通道在提取阶段的新旧效应存在不同的脑神经活动,不同学习通道在提取阶段的监测加工差异在导致错误记忆通道效应方面起着非常重要的作用。     

记忆汉字和英语单词的差异脑区研究

通过英文词和汉字的记忆实验,探讨储存和提取不同阶段汉字与英文的脑加工差异。采用经典的"学习-再认"实验范式,8名大学生进行英文与汉字记忆和再认测验,fMRI采集数据,AFNI软件进行预处理、多元回归及ANOVA组分析统计语言差异。结果显示:汉字记忆减英文记忆激活右扣带回;英文记忆减汉字记忆激活右颞上回(BA38)、左扣带回(BA31)、左小脑扁桃体。汉字再认减英文再认的差异脑区为小脑扁桃体、左颞上回。英文再认减汉字再认在0.05水平上没有脑区差异。汉字记忆激活左侧梭状回、右舌回、左顶上小叶、左额下回;英文记忆激活右舌回、左内侧前额叶、左中央前回、左额中回。汉字再认激活左枕下回、左顶下小叶、右额下回、左额中回、右豆状核、左小脑扁桃体、左颞上回、右内侧前额叶。英文再认激活右舌回、左额上回、左顶下小叶、额下回、左中央前回、右顶上小叶、豆状核、右侧尾状核、左中央后回、左侧丘脑。本研究发现:(1)记忆的差异性统计激活颞叶,表明颞叶是记忆存储脑区;(2)学习和记忆阶段有额叶、顶叶激活,表明这些脑区参与文字加工;(3)英文再认比汉字再认激活更多脑区,花费更多的脑资源。     

Causal uncertainty and metacognitive inferences about goal attainment

These four studies investigated G. Weary and J. A. Edwards’ (1996) hypothesis that causal uncertainty feelings serve as input to perceivers regarding the adequacy of their causal knowledge and thus determine the amount of processing accorded a given task. Participants worked on a task until they had satisfied an assigned stop rule. In three experiments, high causally uncertain people processed more information under a sufficiency of information rule and less under an enjoyment rule, whereas low causally uncertain people generally did not differentiate between the rules. In the last experiment, low causally uncertain people exhibited a similar pattern to the chronic causally uncertain individuals in the first experiments, but only after their causal uncertainty beliefs and feelings had been primed.     

Negative emotional outcomes impair older adults’ reversal learning

In a typical reversal-learning experiment, one learns stimulus–outcome contingencies that then switch without warning. For instance, participants might have to repeatedly choose between two faces, one of which yields points whereas the other does not, with a reversal at some point in which face yields points. The current study examined age differences in the effects of outcome type on reversal learning. In the first experiment, the participants’ task was either to select the person who would be in a better mood or to select the person who would yield more points. Reversals in which face was the correct option occurred several times. Older adults did worse in blocks in which the correct response was to select the person who would not be angry than in blocks in which the correct response was to select the person who would smile. Younger adults did not show a difference by emotional valence. In the second study, the negative condition was switched to have the same format as the positive condition (to select who will be angry). Again, older adults did worse with negative than positive outcomes, whereas younger adults did not show a difference by emotional valence. A third experiment replicated the lack of valence effects in younger adults with a harder probabilistic reversal-learning task. In the first two experiments, older adults performed about as well as younger adults in the positive conditions but performed worse in the negative conditions. These findings suggest that negative emotional outcomes selectively impair older adults’ reversal learning.     

Students’ Metacomprehension Knowledge: Components that Predict Comprehension Performance

In the present study, we assessed students’ metacomprehension knowledge and examined the components of knowledge most related to comprehension of expository texts. We used the Revised Metacomprehension Scale (RMCS) to investigate the relations between students’ metacomprehension knowledge and comprehension performance. Students who evaluated and regulated their understanding by using explanatory strategies (adjusting to difficult material and identifying and making connections across main points) performed better on a comprehension test than those who relied on the use of external aids. Use of explanatory strategies was positively related to comprehension performance, particularly for students with poorer evaluation and regulation skills. Results suggest that the RMCS is effective at assessing students’ ability to both evaluate and regulate their understanding and can help identify effective strategies for increasing comprehension performance.