Assessment of Major Life Events for Hong Kong Adolescents: The Chinese Adolescent Life Event Scale

Previous Chinese research on adolescent life stress adopted life event scales that were directly translated from Western measures. To address the methodological and cultural issues overlooked by the import approach, the present research aimed at constructing a life event scale for Hong Kong adolescents. Study 1 was conducted to congregate items for the Chinese Adolescent Life Event Scale (CALES). The CALES contains 44 items derived from 618 Hong Kong adolescents. Study 2 revealed adequate test–retest reliability and criterion-related validity for the CALES. Moreover, the CALES yielded stronger relationships with depression than did the translated life event measures. Results suggest that the CALES is appropriate for assessing life events for Hong Kong adolescents. Both unique features of the CALES and life events found only in the translated measures are examined. Implications for Chinese research on life stress are discussed.     

《管子》忠思想研究

忠,是中国传统政治文化的重要内容之一。在"忠"思想发展史上,《管子》的贡献就在于对前人"忠"思想做了批判总结,并以儒家思想为基本出发点,对"忠"做了新的界定,使得原本内涵相当丰富的"忠"思想在这里开始出现围绕"君"之事进行定向思考的倾向,从而为未来"忠=忠君"做了理论上的准备。     

双任务干扰的注意资源限制机制:来自汉字笔画数效应的证据

该研究的两个实验采用心理不应期范式,探讨了重叠任务情境下双任务的相互干扰机制。实验中被试相继完成高低音的辨别任务(T1)和汉字外在特征(颜色或笔画数)的任务判断(T2),T1和T2间采用变化的SOA。结果发现:(1)T1的反应选择导致T2的加工成绩大幅下降,PRP效应非常显著。(2)当T1占据中枢瓶颈时,T2和T1在中枢瓶颈中并行得到加工并导致T1的加工效率显著下降。(3)由于注意资源的有限性,具有自动激活特征的汉字同样受瓶颈机制的限制。只要存在对注意资源的二次分配就会存在瓶颈的调节机制。     

Two asymmetries governing neural and mental timing

Mental timing studies may be influenced by powerful cognitive illusions that can produce an asymmetry in their rate of progress relative to neuronal timing studies. Both types of timing research are also governed by a temporal asymmetry, expressed by the fact that the direction of causation must follow time's arrow. Here we refresh our earlier suggestion that the temporal asymmetry offers promise as a means of timing mental activities. We update our earlier analysis of Libet's data within this framework. Then we consider the surprises which often occur on those rare occasions when neural timing experiments parallel mental timing work exactly. Together, these surprises and asymmetries prescribe a relentlessly meticulous and fully transparent exposition of timing methods, terms, and concepts which shuns plausible narratives, even when buttressed by rigorous formal models, unless guided by opposite empirical evidence.     

A review of teen-tot programs: comprehensive clinical care for young parents and their children

Comprehensive clinical programs for teenage mothers and their children, also known as teen-tot programs, have been a promising intervention to improve outcomes of teenage childbearing and parenting. However, much remains unknown regarding the efficacy of such programs. We reviewed four published evaluations of programs that provided medical care, counseling, contraception, guidance for parenting, and assistance with staying in school. The evaluations reported moderate success in preventing repeat pregnancies, helping teen mothers continue their education, and improving teen and infant health over 6 to 18 months. However, the evaluations had limitations that may have reduced or accentuated observed effectiveness. Teen-tot programs will continue to face the challenges of sustaining adequate long-term interventions and evaluations, and reducing the high attrition rate among program participants. It is concluded that increased support and funding for teen-tot programs and more complete evaluations are warranted.     

Chunking mechanisms in human learning

Pioneering work in the 1940s and 1950s suggested that the concept of 'chunking' might be important in many processes of perception, learning and cognition in humans and animals. We summarize here the major sources of evidence for chunking mechanisms, and consider how such mechanisms have been implemented in computational models of the learning process. We distinguish two forms of chunking: the first deliberate, under strategic control, and goal-oriented; the second automatic, continuous, and linked to perceptual processes. Recent work with discrimination-network computational models of long- and short-term memory (EPAM/CHREST) has produced a diverse range of applications of perceptual chunking. We focus on recent successes in verbal learning, expert memory, language acquisition and learning multiple representations, to illustrate the implementation and use of chunking mechanisms within contemporary models of human learning.     

An event-related potential evaluation of involuntary attentional shifts in young and older adults

Involuntary shifts in attention to irrelevant stimuli were studied in elderly and young volunteers during a dichotic-listening task. Event-related potentials and behavioral measures were recorded. Volunteers heard pairs of tones presented with 2 different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). To-be-ignored tones were presented to the left ear, followed by to-be-attended tones to the right ear. Left-ear tones were a frequent standard (700 Hz) and an infrequent small (650 Hz) and large (500 Hz) deviant. Right-ear tones (1500 Hz) were presented with 2 equiprobable intensities. Volunteers responded to the lower intensity stimulus. Behavioral performance was impaired at the short SOA when to-be-ignored large deviants preceded to-be-attended targets, but more so for the elderly volunteers. Large deviants also elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a for both age groups. It was concluded that the more impaired behavioral performance observed for the elderly was due to greater sensitivity to output from the MMN system by a frontal lobe system responsible for the maintenance of attentional focus.     

Attributional Style and Personality as Predictors of Happiness and Mental Health

This paper contains two studies which set out to examine to what extent attributional style (internal, stable, global) and personality traits predicted happiness and psychiatric symptoms in a normal, non-clinical, population of young people in their early twenties. Two hundred and three participants completed five questionnaires: the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) (version one & version two), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Oxford Happiness Inventory, and Langner 22-Item Measure. Sample 1 (n = 120) completed ASQ version one (in both positive and negative situations) and sample 2 (n = 83) completed ASQ version two (in expanded negative situations). Regressional analysis showed that ASQ (in both versions) was the significant predictor of happiness and mental health accounting for 20% to 38% of variances. The ASQ was significantly associated with extraversion and neuroticism. Further, with happiness and mental health as dependent variables and attributional style, personality traits, and demographic variables as independent variables respectively, extraversion and attributional stability (in positive situations) were the significant predictors of happiness accounting for 59% of the total variance whilst neuroticism and psychoticism were the significant predictors of mental health accounting for 53% of the total variance. The results indicated that optimistic attributional style in positive situations was a stronger predictor of self-reported happiness than mental health and pessimistic attributional style in negative situations was a predictor of both happiness and mental health. Extraverts tended to have optimistic explanatory style for positive outcomes whereas neurotics tended to have pessimistic explanatory style for negative outcomes.     

When is a cause the "same"? Coherent generalization across contexts

Two competing psychological approaches to causal learning make different predictions regarding what aspect of perceived causality is generalized across contexts. Two experiments tested these predictions. In one experiment, the task required a judgment regarding the existence of a simple causal relation; in the other, the task required a judgment regarding the existence of an interaction between a candidate cause and unobserved background causes. The task materials did not mention assessments of causal strength. Results indicate that causal power (Cartwright, 1989; Cheng, 1997) is the mental construct that people carry from one context to another.     

制度反腐:问题、依据与原则

本文以党的十七大精神为指导,运用马克思主义的立场、观点和方法,立足我国当前实际,对目前反腐制度存在的不足、制度反腐的可能与应当遵循的原则进行了深入探讨.