Emotionally conditioning the target-speech voice enhances recognition of the target speech under “cocktail-party” listening conditions

Under a noisy “cocktail-party” listening condition with multiple people talking, listeners can use various perceptual/cognitive unmasking cues to improve recognition of the target speech against informational speech-on-speech masking. One potential unmasking cue is the emotion expressed in a speech voice, by means of certain acoustical features. However, it was unclear whether emotionally conditioning a target-speech voice that has none of the typical acoustical features of emotions (i.e., an emotionally neutral voice) can be used by listeners for enhancing target-speech recognition under speech-on-speech masking conditions. In this study we examined the recognition of target speech against a two-talker speech masker both before and after the emotionally neutral target voice was paired with a loud female screaming sound that has a marked negative emotional valence. The results showed that recognition of the target speech (especially the first keyword in a target sentence) was significantly improved by emotionally conditioning the target speaker’s voice. Moreover, the emotional unmasking effect was independent of the unmasking effect of the perceived spatial separation between the target speech and the masker. Also, (skin conductance) electrodermal responses became stronger after emotional learning when the target speech and masker were perceptually co-located, suggesting an increase of listening efforts when the target speech was informationally masked. These results indicate that emotionally conditioning the target speaker’s voice does not change the acoustical parameters of the target-speech stimuli, but the emotionally conditioned vocal features can be used as cues for unmasking target speech.     

排名列表项目展示方式对于项目评价的极化效应

排名列表是帮助消费者快速识别品牌或产品优劣的手段。研究基于空间隐喻理论, 探究排名列表的不同展示方式(垂直vs水平)对消费者列表项目评价的极化影响及作用机制。通过5个实验发现: 消费者对于垂直排名列表相比水平排名列表中的项目具有更大的评价极化效应, 并且验证了项目感知差异在上述关系中的中介作用, 即垂直排名列表的评价极化效应是由个体较高的排名列表项目感知差异所驱动的。此外, 当属性可评估性较低时, 才会出现不同列表项目的评价极化效应; 相反, 当排名列表项目属性可评估性较高时, 该评价极化效应消失。     

工作记忆模型的第四个组成部分——情景缓冲器

工作记忆的提出迄今已有30多年的历史了,随着实验方法和技术的发展对工作记忆的研究取得了很大的突破,但在很多问题上仍存在争议,特别是在工作记忆与长时记忆、语音回路与视空间模板的联结上的解释还有许多不足.基于此,Baddeley于2000年提出了工作记忆模型的第四个组成部分--情景缓冲器(episodic buffer).情景缓冲器是一个容量有限的暂时贮存多种编码信息的装置,它受中央执行系统的控制,而中央执行系统能够通过意识觉察从存贮中提取信息,反映信息,在必要的时候能够修正信息.新的工作记忆模型更加完整,更加有解释力.     

伊斯兰人权与全球化

伊斯兰人权学说的自觉解读,其形成、发展,与全球化对伊斯兰世界的影响息息相关。在现代社会的发展中,伊斯兰人权思想经历了从伊斯兰世界所共同认可的“最低人权”,向普遍人权发展的过程,伦理维度在逐渐扩张。伊斯兰人权思想的法典化,是其在全球化过程中发展的基本态势。在人权的普遍性成为国际人权的主要问题时,伊斯兰人权的文化相对性,其权利观中所强调的注重个人义务,注重社会弱者的权利,注重家庭和社会平衡的思想,对国际人权全球伦理构建具有重要意义。     

语义距离半球效应的ERP研究

以通过视觉通路呈现的汉语双字词为实验材料,操纵启动词与目标词的语义距离。在词汇决定实验中记录ERP,发现：（1）除N300外,P240亦对语义距离敏感,它可能是一种与语义加工有关的新的ERP成分;（2）P240在头皮中央偏左的部位较早出现,但在头皮右侧波幅较大;（3）N300和P240都不存在语义距离的半球效应,该结果没有证实右脑更专擅远距离语义加工的假设,表明使用汉语与使用拼音文字的脑机制存在差异。     

教材内容的情感性分析及其处理策略

人们对教材的教学心理学分析研究相对较少,仅有的也多囿于认知维度。奥苏贝尔在其意义学习理论框架下研究了教材的意义性及其学习条件问题,并提出了著名的处理教材内容的先行组织者策略,然其研究仍属认知维度。其实,教材也是构成教学中情感现象的一个重要源点,对其进行情感性分析研究,将有助于从情感维度系统优化教学。故本文对教材内容进行较系统的情感分析,归纳为蕴涵显性、隐性、悟性和中性情感因素的四大类,并在教学实验     

家庭社会经济地位对流动儿童认知能力的影响:父母教养方式的中介作用

以北京市某小学三、四年级的133名流动儿童和129名非流动儿童为被试,采用问卷和行为实验的方法,探讨家庭社会经济地位对流动儿童认知能力的影响,以及父母教养方式在其中的中介作用。结果发现：（1）流动儿童的工作记忆、元认知能力显著低于非流动儿童,家庭社会经济地位较非流动儿童更低,父母教养方式更消极;（2）流动儿童家庭社会经济地位与元认知显著正相关,父母教养方式中多个维度与元认知显著相关,而只有母亲过度干涉与保护与注意力显著负相关;（3）在流动儿童中,父亲情感温暖与理解部分中介家庭社会经济地位对儿童元认知的影响,效应量为30%。     

Can you forgive? It depends on how happy you are

This paper examined how individual group status and happiness influence forgiveness. In Study 1, happiness was treated as a trait difference: highly happy people, compared with very unhappy people, were found to be more willing to forgive murderers. More important, an interaction effect between happiness and group status on forgiveness was found, that is, highly happy people tended to be more forgiving when either ingroup or outgroup members were killed; unhappy people, however, tended to be less forgiving about murder when ingroup rather than outgroup members were killed. In Study 2, happiness was treated as an emotional state difference: happiness, rather than sadness, was found to bring greater forgiveness. Moreover, consistent with the interaction effect displayed in Study 1, happy participants tended to forgive more when ingroup or outgroup members were hurt; sad participants tended to forgive less when ingroup members rather than outgroup members were hurt. Implications for connections between happiness, group membership, and forgiveness are discussed.     

Talking about others facilitates theory of mind in Chinese preschoolers

A longitudinal study and a training study were conducted to show that simply referring to others facilitated theory of mind (ToM) development in Chinese children. In Study 1, 3- to 4-year-old Chinese children (N = 52) were tested on ToM and autobiographical memory (AM). One year later, in the group of children who initially failed the false belief tasks, only those who increased their references to others in AM recall passed the tasks. In Study 2, Chinese preschoolers who were trained to talk about others through storytelling showed improvement in their ToM performance. These findings suggest alternative pathways for ToM development in non-Euro-American context.     

论敬畏生命与生命伦理共同体

随着生命科技的迅猛发展,人类社会面临着前所未有的风险,已有的伦理学理论已不能时当代生命科技发展带来的问题给出满意的回答,生命伦理亟须理论创新.以敬畏生命为基本伦理观念,从人类的共同利益出发,在达成差异共识的基础上,构建当代生命伦理共同体,是解决当代生命科技发展带来的一系列新问题、构建和谐社会的可能路径之一.