Relation-Centred Ethics in Confucius and Aquinas

In recent years, it has become a popular trend for the scholars in comparative philosophy to interpret Confucian moral theory by means of Aristotelian virtue ethics. However, this interpretation overlooks the relation-centred characteristics of Confucian ethics that is lacking in Aristotelian ethics. In this article, I will argue that there is relation-based ethics in the Western tradition—the ethics of Thomas Aquinas. By examining Aquinas's theory of love, I will show the relational characteristics of his ethics. I will use Aquinas's theory of love to interpret three important points of Confucian ethics: filial reverence and material support are both integral parts of xiao孝 (filial piety); the importance of remonstration for xiao; and the symmetrical features of Confucius's virtues.     

A Comparison of American and Nepalese Children's Concepts of Freedom of Choice and Social Constraint

Recent work has shown that preschool‐aged children and adults understand freedom of choice regardless of culture, but that adults across cultures differ in perceiving social obligations as constraints on action. To investigate the development of these cultural differences and universalities, we interviewed school‐aged children (4–11) in Nepal and the United States regarding beliefs about people's freedom of choice and constraint to follow preferences, perform impossible acts, and break social obligations. Children across cultures and ages universally endorsed the choice to follow preferences but not to perform impossible acts. Age and culture effects also emerged: Young children in both cultures viewed social obligations as constraints on action, but American children did so less as they aged. These findings suggest that while basic notions of free choice are universal, recognitions of social obligations as constraints on action may be culturally learned.     

含有新算符的代数运算规则学习的有效样例设计

为了探索含有新算符的代数运算规则学习的有效样例设计方式,分别采用“转换标记法”和“解释法”设计“指-对数转换”运算和对数运算的样例,考察了初中三年级学生代数运算规则样例学习的迁移效果。结果显示：(1)采用“转换标记法”设计的样例可以明显提高“指-对数转换”规则样例学习的迁移效果;(2)采用“解释法”设计的运算样例,能够明显促进“对数运算规则”的样例学习迁移效果,并与被试的基础知识有关。     

Gender and emotion in everyday event memory

While women often recall more detailed and socially oriented event memories than men, it is not clear at which stage of remembering such gender differences emerge. This study investigated this question in a sample of young adults (N=60). A random sampling method was used where participants received a text message three times a day during a 1-week period and were asked to record as soon as they read the message what was happening during the past 30 minutes. At the end of the week they received a surprise memory test for the events that they had recorded. Compared with men, women recorded a greater number of event details at the encoding phase and provided more detailed and accurate memories at the delayed recall, although there was no gender difference in the forgetting function during retention. Gender difference in the social orientation of memory was not apparent until recall. In addition the effects of emotion intensity and valence were observed on the detailedness, accuracy, and content of memory. The findings shed new light on the mechanisms underlying gender differences in episodic memory.     

Narrative organisation at encoding facilitated children's long-term episodic memory

This study examined the effect of narrative organisation at encoding on long-term episodic memory in a sample of five- to seven-year-old children (N = 113). At an initial interview, children were asked to narrate a story from a picture book. Six months later, they were interviewed again and asked to recall the story and answer a series of direct questions about the story. Children who initially encoded more information in narrative and produced more complete, complex, cohesive and coherent narratives remembered the story in greater detail and accuracy following the six-month interval, independent of age and verbal skills. The relation between narrative organisation and memory was consistent across culture and gender. These findings provide new insight into the critical role of narrative in episodic memory.     

At the Interface of Ethnicity and Recent Immigration: Family Functioning of Chinese with School-Age Children in Canada

This study examined the family functioning of recent Chinese immigrants living in Canada in terms of its status and those socio-ecological factors that influence it. Recent immigration has resulted in an increasingly large number of residents in Canada and the US who represent both an immigrant and an ethnic minority status. Among such residents are Chinese immigrants. Because of the potentially large number of school-age children who are part of these families, the family functioning of the new Chinese immigrants with school-age children would be important for the children’s development. This study therefore compared 112 Chinese families who recently immigrated to Canada with 90 Caucasian non-immigrant families. Scales were administered to the families to measure various aspects of family functioning. The results showed that the Chinese immigrants experienced a lower degree of family cohesion. Their socio-ecological factors were both similar and different from the non-immigrants, with a lower degree of social support and certain differences in child-rearing practices than the non-immigrants. Social support and child-rearing practices were differentially related to different dimensions of family functioning. However, these relationships were not entirely unique to the immigrants. The results have increased our understanding of immigrants and may contribute to the provision of effective support for immigrants. Implications are suggested for community support for immigrants and for further research.     

Research Productivity and Performance of Journals in the Creativity Sciences: A Bibliometric Analysis

A bibliometric approach was employed to analyze the research productivity and performance of creativity studies between 1965 and 2012. A dataset was constructed using all publications and citations retrieved from four key journals that publish creativity research: Journal of Creative Behavior (JCB), Gifted Child Quarterly (GCQ), Creativity Research Journal (CRJ), and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (PACA). Major findings in this study include: (a) During the study period, the four journals have published 1,891 articles on creativity and they have been cited 11,709 times; (b) the impact factors of the four journals increased from lower than .50 in 2002 to over 1.0 in 2012; in 2012 PACA had the highest impact factor, followed by CRJ; (c) JCB published the most creativity papers and CRJ had the most citations; (d) about a third of the articles published in the four journals have never been cited. Implications for the field of creativity are discussed.     

奖励影响注意选择的认知加工机制

奖励不仅能够塑造行为, 也能影响个体的内部心理过程。在注意选择过程中, 与奖励联结的刺激能够吸引注意资源。当目标刺激与奖励联结时, 能够易化注意选择过程; 当分心刺激与奖励联结时, 能够阻碍注意选择过程。可见, 奖励从不同角度对注意选择产生影响。奖励对注意选择的影响可能有其特有的认知机制, 并且奖励对注意的捕获效应受到许多因素的调节, 如奖励预测、工作记忆容量、人格特质及刺激的新异性。未来的研究应该尝试将奖励影响注意选择的研究成果应用于不良注意偏向临床干预的实践领域。     

遗传因素在风险决策加工中的作用

风险决策是指个体对不同选项及其概率进行权衡之后做出决定的过程。它是一个复杂的加工过程, 需要平衡奖赏选项的诱惑和损失选项的忧虑。风险决策能力是人脑最重要的高级功能之一。在现实生活中, 风险决策能力具有非常大的个体差异, 而遗传和环境各自都在其中起着关键的作用。在这篇文章中, 我们首先综述近年来风险决策研究领域中探讨遗传影响风险决策加工的研究, 包括双生子研究与分子遗传学研究。在介绍分子遗传学研究时, 按照基因所属神经递质系统, 分别介绍了多巴胺递质系统相关基因(如COMT、DAT等)、五羟色胺递质系统相关基因(如SLC6A4、TPH1等)和其他基因(如BDNF)对风险决策能力个体差异的影响。随后, 我们探讨了环境对风险决策个体差异的影响, 以及基因-环境交互作用对风险决策个体差异的影响。接下来, 我们介绍了将脑的结构与功能作为内表型来考察基因和环境对风险决策个体差异的影响的最新进展。在文章的最后, 我们指出今后对风险决策个体差异的研究应该同时考虑遗传和环境, 并考察脑的结构和功能在其中的中介作用。     

心理学视角下社交网络用户个体行为分析

以社交网络的典型代表Facebook为例, 以社交网络用户个体行为为着眼点, 从个体使用社交网络的动机、社交网络用户个体行为的主要表现及其影响因素和结果变量四个方面, 梳理国外心理学领域有关社交网络的最新研究成果。今后研究可以在社交网络用户个体行为的测量、样本代表性、线上和线下社交网络的交互作用、具体人格特质变量的预测作用以及对社交网络功能的动态考察等方面推进已有研究。