Orthographic and phonological activation in recognizing Chinese characters

This paper is a contribution to the study of whether visual contact with lexical units in any writing system necessarily arouses their corresponding phonological information. In two experiments it was investigated whether phonological information is automatically activated during the semantic processing of Chinese characters. In these experiments, both using a semantic-categorization task, subjects produced the same proportion of false positive categorization errors and showed the same decision latencies on homophone foils and their non-homophonic controls, thus indicating that phonological information does not seem to affect the semantic task. Experiment 2 further revealed that subjects made more errors and produced longer response times on graphemically similar foils than on the corresponding controls. The absence of phonological effects and the presence of clear effects of visual similarity for Chinese characters in semantic tasks can be taken to indicate that phonological information may not be automatically activated during the processing of meanings of Chinese characters. The present results also cast serious doubts on the hypothesis that phonological activation is a universal principle of lexical processing.     

The attitudes toward rape victims scale: Reliability and validity in a chinese context

Two studies were conducted to assess the cross-cultural applicability of Ward's Attitudes toward Rape Victims Scale (ARVS). In the first study, 202 Chinese college students took the ARVS, the Attitudes toward Women Scale, and the Traditionality-Modernity Factor Scale. Reliability and convergent validity were established for ARVS. In the second study, construct validity of the ARVS was further examined, using the known-group method. The scores of four professional groups were compared. Consistent with previous studies, women showed significantly more favorable attitudes toward the rape victims than men. The findings generally suggest that the ARVS is promising in further cross-cultural research and application.     

Influence of body roll on visually induced sensations of self-tilt and rotation

Illusory self-tilt and illusory self-motion (vection) produced by rotation of a 360 degrees visual scene about the subject's roll axis was measured as a function of the presence or absence of actual rotation of the subject during acceleration of the visual scene. Rotation of the subject to a tilt of 15 degrees was at two levels of acceleration (onset) and with or without a delay between initial rotation and subsequent return (washout) to the vertical position. In one set of conditions, visual motion and subject motion were in opposite directions (concordant) and in another set they were in the same direction (discordant). In two control conditions, the subject was rotated while the visual scene remained stationary. For concordant motion the main effect of body rotation was to reduce the time taken by the subject to indicate self-tilt as compared with the response time to visual motion alone. The magnitude of estimated self-tilt was increased by actual body tilt as could be expected from addition of the perceived actual body tilt and the illusory body tilt induced by visual rotation. This effect of augmented body tilt did not persist after the body was returned to the vertical. The magnitude of vection was not markedly influenced by body rotation and washout. For discordant motion of body and the visual scene, subjects were confused and their responses were very variable, suggesting a nonlinear visual--vestibular interaction.     

如何理解智能光谱的沟通桥梁作用

首先分析了儿童学业成绩与智能发展的关系,接着援引美国的“光谱计划”（Project Spectrum),解释智能光谱（Multiple Intelligences Spectrum)评量跟传统学业成绩（academic achievement)评量有甚么不同之处,继而说明Gardner是如何理解智能光谱的沟通桥梁作用,最后探讨家校可以如何携手合作,利用智能光谱作为适性教育的工具。     

Variable Names and Constant Names in Wittgenstein's Tractatus

In this paper, I argue that the Tractatus classifies names into constant names and variable names. A variable name, via the application of the existential quantifier against the background of picturing, picks out and denotes an unspecified object from the range of objects of the form shown by the relevant variable. A constant name labels an object picked out from a scope of the existential quantifier. I also refute two types of attempts to argue that the Tractarian relation between a name and its meaning is not realist, and to explain why it is more reasonable to hold that it is.     

Cross-linguistic relations between quantifiers and numerals in language acquisition: Evidence from Japanese

A study of 104 Japanese-speaking 2- to 5-year-olds tested the relation between numeral and quantifier acquisition. A first study assessed Japanese children’s comprehension of quantifiers, numerals, and classifiers. Relative to English-speaking counterparts, Japanese children were delayed in numeral comprehension at 2 years of age but showed no difference at 3 and 4 years of age. Also, Japanese 2-year-olds had better comprehension of quantifiers, indicating that their delay was specific to numerals. A second study examined the speech of Japanese and English caregivers to explore the syntactic cues that might affect integer acquisition. Quantifiers and numerals occurred in similar syntactic positions and overlapped to a greater degree in English than in Japanese. Also, Japanese nouns were often dropped, and both quantifiers and numerals exhibited variable positions relative to the nouns they modified. We conclude that syntactic cues in English facilitate bootstrapping numeral meanings from quantifier meanings and that such cues are weaker in classifier languages such as Japanese.     

Comparison of methods for constructing confidence intervals of standardized indirect effects

Mediation models are often used as a means to explain the psychological mechanisms between an independent and a dependent variable in the behavioral and social sciences. A major limitation of the unstandardized indirect effect calculated from raw scores is that it cannot be interpreted as an effect-size measure. In contrast, the standardized indirect effect calculated from standardized scores can be a good candidate as a measure of effect size because it is scale invariant. In the present article, 11 methods for constructing the confidence intervals (CIs) of the standardized indirect effects were evaluated via a computer simulation. These included six Wald CIs, three bootstrap CIs, one likelihood-based CI, and the PRODCLIN CI. The results consistently showed that the percentile bootstrap, the bias-corrected bootstrap, and the likelihood-based approaches had the best coverage probability. Mplus, LISREL, and Mx syntax were included to facilitate the use of these preferred methods in applied settings. Future issues on the use of the standardized indirect effects are discussed.     

Effective group work with delinquents in Hong Kong

The principle of matching services to needs suggests that group work would be most effective when it targets those most in need of the services--delinquents with low involvement with the family and high involvement with friends. Less time with the family indicates a greater need for conventional social control, while more time with friends may entail a greater need for learning social skills in order to resist delinquent peer influences. To address these needs, developmental group work is appropriate for delinquents identified by social workers. The effectiveness of services tend to be contingent upon the delinquents' relationship with family and friends. To test this hypothesis, the present study collected data from 190 delinquents in Hong Kong. It was found that developmental group activities were beneficial to delinquents who spent less time with family and/or more time with friends. For delinquents in general, developmental group activities were helpful in diminishing delinquency. Moreover, the help was significantly greater for delinquents who spent more time with friends.     

Social Innovation and Health-Related Well-Being of Left-Behind Children: Evidence from an Intelligent Robot Project in China

Applied Research in Quality of Life - In China, rural children, compared to their urban counterparts, are disadvantaged by less parental care and limited access to educational resources. This can...