回忆准备就绪程度的判断发展

实验采用 3× 3× 2 (年龄 ,材料 ,性别 )三因素混合实验设计 ,按照学习成绩好、中、差分层随机选取小二、初二、大二被试各 18名 ,其中男女各半 ,选用三种不同的实验材料 ,对被试回忆准备就绪程度的判断发展进行了实验研究 ,得到结论如下 :回忆准备就绪程度的判断准确性随年龄增长而提高 ;回忆准备就绪程度的判断的发展总体上与材料难度无关 ;回忆准备就绪程度的判断发展总体上的性别差异不显著 ;回忆准备就绪程度的判断水平与记忆成绩之间有较高正相关。     

The Color-Vision Approach to Emotional Space: Cortical Evoked Potential Data

A framework for accounting for emotional phenomena proposed by Sokolov and Boucsein (2000) employs conceptual dimensions that parallel those of hue, brightness, and saturation in color vision. The approach that employs the concepts of emotional quality. intensity, and saturation has been supported by psychophysical emotional scaling data gathered from a few trained observers. We report cortical evoked potential data obtained during the change between different emotions expressed in schematic faces. Twenty-five subjects (13 male, 12 female) were presented with a positive, a negative, and a neutral computer-generated face with random interstimulus intervals in a within-subjects design, together with four meaningful and four meaningless control stimuli made up from the same elements. Frontal, central, parietal, and temporal ERPs were recorded from each hemisphere. Statistically significant outcomes in the P300 and N200 range support the potential fruitfulness of the proposed color-vision-model-based approach to human emotional space.     

The variance theory of the mirror effect in recognition memory

The mirror effect refers to a rather general empirical finding showing that, for two classes of stimuli, the class with the higher hit rates also has a lower false alarm rate. In this article, a parsimonious theory is proposed to account for the mirror effect regarding, specifically, high- and low-frequency items and the associated receiver-operating curves. The theory is implemented in a recurrent network in which one layer represents items and the other represents contexts. It is shown that the frequency mirror effect is found in this simple network if the decision is based on counting the number of active nodes in such a way that performance is optimal or near optimal. The optimal performance requires that the number of active nodes is low, only nodes active in the encoded representation are counted, the activation threshold is set between the old and the new distributions, and normalization is based on the variance of the input. Owing to the interference caused by encoding the to-be-recognized item in several preexperimental contexts, the variance of the input to the context layer is greater for highthan for low-frequency items, which yields lower hit rates and higher false alarm rates for high- than for low-frequency items. Although initially the theory was proposed to account for the mirror effect with respect to word frequency, subsequent simulations have shown that the theory also accounts for strength-based mirror effects within a list and between lists. In this case, consistent with experimental data, the variance theory suggests that focusing attention to the more difficult class within a list affects the hit rate, but not the false alarm rate and not the standard deviations of the underlying density, leading to no mirror effect.     

Burnout and duration of service among Chinese voluntary workers

A survey study conducted among 226 Chinese voluntary workers in Hong Kong showed that satisfaction with voluntary work, integration into the voluntary institution, and burnout syndromes contributed to volunteers' expected duration of service. Regression analyses also showed that different sets of variables predicted different spans of expected duration of service. Work satisfaction was the most salient predictor for expected duration of service from six months to ten years. Lack of personal accomplishment predicted expected duration of service for six to twelve months, whereas emotional exhaustion and depersonalization influenced volunteers' expectation to continue in the service for five to ten years.     

Beyond the gambling paradigm: internal controllability in decision-making.

Much research within decision-making has used the standard gambling paradigm, where decision outcomes depend only on chance. Many real life decisions, however, imply personal control over decision outcomes. This paper addressed the question of how internal controllability influences decision-making. Internal controllability is assumed (i) to enhance unrealistic optimism and (ii) to result in a better cost:benefit ratio. Both tendencies support each other and predict an enhanced attractiveness for internal and controllable choice options. Participants read a scenario and made a decision afterwards. Results supported the prediction: decision-makers take the option they can personally control. This finding widens the narrow perspective inherent in much previous research based on the gambling paradigm.