Neurofeedback training with virtual reality for inattention and impulsiveness.

In this research, the effectiveness of neurofeedback, along with virtual reality (VR), in reducing the level of inattention and impulsiveness was investigated. Twenty-eight male participants, aged 14-18, with social problems, took part in this study. They were separated into three groups: a control group, a VR group, and a non-VR group. The VR and non-VR groups underwent eight sessions of neurofeedback training over 2 weeks, while the control group just waited during the same period. The VR group used a head-mounted display (HMD) and a head tracker, which let them look around the virtual world. Conversely, the non-VR group used only a computer monitor with a fixed viewpoint. All participants performed a continuous performance task (CPT) before and after the complete training session. The results showed that both the VR and non-VR groups achieved better scores in the CPT after the training session, while the control group showed no significant difference. Compared with the other groups, the VR group presented a tendency to get better results, suggesting that immersive VR is applicable to neurofeedback for the rehabilitation of inattention and impulsiveness.     

"[人]在[大场所]"材料范式下观察不到信息整合的原因初探

本研究采用扇效应技术来探求推翻G．A．Radvansky针对其1993年研究结果所作解释的证据。共分为两个分实验。实验1重复Radvansky1993年研究中的实验三,以取得中文材料的基线值,为实验2做准备;实验2通过在材料中使用同样具有可“移动性”的物体的概念(例如快餐车)来探讨“可移动性”是否是“[人]在[大场所]”材料范式下观察不到信息整合的根本原因。结果表明“人的可移动性”不是“[人]在[大场所]”．材料范式下观察不到信息整合的原因。     

Lots to Do or Lots of Ways to Do It? The Role of Mood and Mind‐set on Goal Motivation

This research explores how mood interacts with outcome and implemental mind‐sets to influence motivation to work toward a goal. We propose and demonstrate that being in a positive (vs. neutral) mood increases motivation for those in an outcome mind‐set. Conversely, being in a positive (vs. neutral) mood decreases motivation for those in an implemental mind‐set. We argue that the reason for this is rooted in the role of positive mood on the number of available goal attainment means: Positive (vs. neutral) mood was found to increase the number of accessible goal attainment activities. For those in an outcome mind‐set, the increased number of goal attainment activities increases motivation because more activities are perceived as more available opportunities or strategies that may aid in successful goal attainment. For those in an implemental mind‐set, where one considers detailed steps and processes required for goal completion, motivation is decreased, because availability of more activities increases perceived difficulty of goal execution. Five studies support these hypotheses, showing differences in available activities depending on mood, differences in perceptions of those activities depending on mind‐set, and differences in motivation depending on the interaction of mood and mind‐set.     

Experimental results of affective valence and arousal to avatar's facial expressions.

The objectives of this study were to propose a method of presenting dynamic facial expressions to experimental subjects, in order to investigate human perception of avatar's facial expressions of different levels of emotional intensity. The investigation concerned how perception varies according to the strength of facial expression, as well as according to an avatar's gender. To accomplish these goals, we generated a male and a female virtual avatar with five levels of intensity of happiness and anger using a morphing technique. We then recruited 16 normal healthy subjects and measured each subject's emotional reaction by scoring affective arousal and valence after showing them the avatar's face. Through this study, we were able to investigate human perceptual characteristics evoked by male and female avatars' graduated facial expressions of happiness and anger. In addition, we were able to identify that a virtual avatar's facial expression could affect human emotion in different ways according to the avatar's gender and the intensity of its facial expressions. However, we could also see that virtual faces have some limitations because they are not real, so subjects recognized the expressions well, but were not influenced to the same extent. Although a virtual avatar has some limitations in conveying its emotion using facial expressions, this study is significant in that it shows that a new potential exists to use or manipulate emotional intensity by controlling a virtual avatar's facial expression linearly using a morphing technique. Therefore, it is predicted that this technique may be used for assessing emotional characteristics of humans, and may be of particular benefit for work with people with emotional disorders through a presentation of dynamic expression of various emotional intensities.     

Order Algebras as Models of Linear Logic

The starting point of the present study is the interpretation of intuitionistic linear logic in Petri nets proposed by U. Engberg and G. Winskel. We show that several categories of order algebras provide equivalent interpretations of this logic, and identify the category of the so called strongly coherent quantales arising in these interpretations. The equivalence of the interpretations is intimately related to the categorical facts that the aforementioned categories are connected with each other via adjunctions, and the compositions of the connecting functors with co-domain the category of strongly coherent quantales are dense. In particular, each quantale canonically induces a Petri net, and this association gives rise to an adjunction between the category of quantales and a category whose objects are all Petri nets.     

中介变量、调节变量与协变量——概念、统计检验及其比较

本文在已有研究文献的基础上,集中探讨了中介变量、调节变量和协变量的概念,以及中介效应、调节效应和协变量效应的统计分析方法。随后分别对中介效应和间接效应,调节效应和交互效应进行了辨析,并从测量水平和检验方法等方面对三种统计概念做了比较。     

圭峰宗密对禅宗的判释

宗密将禅宗撮略要旨、顿悟本心的思维方式带入了华严宗,同时又将禅宗置于层层升进、圆融会通于高明之境的华严宗判教的审视之下。宗密判禅宗各派为禅三宗,一代佛教为教三种,以禅配教,将禅宗各派纳入了华严判教的考察范围。宗密认为,空宗与性宗具有十个方面的差异。无论是禅三宗,还是教三种,都有顿有渐,顿、渐既可以就佛的经教言论而论,也可以根据众生的具体修行来说。宗密认定北宗、牛头、洪州等宗为"傍出",而自己承嗣的荷泽宗为禅门正传。他同时继承华严教理和南宗禅法,成为华严教理与禅门宗旨相互融通的桥梁。     

Uniform connectedness and classical gestalt principles of perceptual grouping

We assessed whether uniform connectedness (UC; Palmer & Rock, 1994) operates prior to effects reflecting classical principles of grouping: proximity and similarity. In Experiments 1 and 2, reaction times to discriminate global letters (H vs. E), made up of small circles, were recorded. The small circles were respectively grouped by proximity, similarity of shapes, and by UC. The discrimination of stimuli grouped by similarity was slower than those grouped by proximity, and it was speeded up by the addition of UC. However, the discrimination of stimuli grouped by proxhnity was unaffected by connecting the local elements. In Experiment 3, similar results occurred in a task requiring discrimination of the orientation of grouped elements, except that the discrimination of stimuli grouped by UC was faster than that of those grouped by weak proximity. Experiment 4 further showed that subjects could respond to letters composed of discriminably separate local elements as fast as to those without separated local elements. The results suggest that grouping by similarity of shapes is perceived slower than grouping by UC, but grouping by proximity can be as fast and efficient as that by UC.     

A Dialogue on Racial Melancholia

As Freud's privileged theory of unresolved grief, melancholia presents a compelling framework to conceptualize registers of loss and depression attendant to both psychic and material processes of Asian American immigration, assimilation, and racialization. Freud initially formulates melancholia as a pathological form of individual mourning for lost objects, places, or ideals. However, we propose a concept of melancholia as a depathologized structure of everyday group experience for Asian Americans. We analyze a number of Asian American cultural productions (literature and film) as well as two case histories of university students involving intergenerational conflicts and lost ideals of whiteness, Asianness, home, and language. Exploring these analyses against Klein's notions of lost objects, we propose a more refined theory of good and bad racialized objects. This theory raises the psychic and political difficulties of reinstatement and the mediation of the depressive position for Asian Americans. In addition, this theory suggests that processes of immigration, assimilation, and racialization are neither pathological nor permanent but involve the fluid negotiation between mourning and melancholia. Throughout this essay, we consider methods by which a more speculative approach to psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice might offer a deeper understanding of Asian American mental health issues.     

The effect of brand personality and brand identification on brand loyalty: Applying the theory of social identification

This study investigated the effect of brand personality on brand asset management by using the concept of consumers' identification with a brand. The focus was on one important type of high-technology product, the cellular phone. The authors develop a conceptual framework to explain the effect of brand identification on brand loyalty. The important variables of this framework include the attractiveness of the brand personality, the distinctiveness of the brand personality, the self-expressive value of the brand personality, positive word-of-mouth reports of the brand, and brand loyalty. The empirical results indicated that there are positive relationships between attractiveness, distinctiveness, and self-expressive value of brand personality. These relationships had a statistically significant effect on consumers' identification with a brand. Furthermore, brand identification had a direct effect on word-of-mouth reports and an indirect effect on brand loyalty. The theoretical and managerial implications of the empirical results are presented, and suggestions are made regarding both the limitations of the present study and future directions for research.