Parametrically Dissociating Speech and Nonspeech Perception in the Brain Using fMRI

Candidate brain regions constituting a neural network for preattentive phonetic perception were identified with fMRI and multivariate multiple regression of imaging data. Stimuli contrasted along speech/nonspeech, acoustic, or phonetic complexity (three levels each) and natural/synthetic dimensions. Seven distributed brain regions' activity correlated with speech and speech complexity dimensions, including five left-sided foci [posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), angular gyrus, ventral occipitotemporal cortex, inferior/posterior supramarginal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus (MFG)] and two right-sided foci (posterior STG and anterior insula). Only the left MFG discriminated natural and synthetic speech. The data also supported a parallel rather than serial model of auditory speech and nonspeech perception.     

社会心理学视角下权力理论的发展与比较

权力作为人类社会的基本特征之一, 一直受到社会心理学家的关注, 实证研究成果丰硕, 理论构建也日益完善。首先, 权力从结构变量发展为心理变量, 有外显、内隐之分, 控制感是其核心要素。其次, 社会心理学领域最具代表性的3个权力理论为“接近-抑制理论”、“情境聚焦理论”和“社会距离理论”, 它们的理论基础各异, 关注的现象却存在交集。最后, 未来的权力研究可以从以下3个方向改进：(1)关注文化、动机、自我卷入等因素; (2)区别社会权力和个人权力; (3)融合各领域观点; (4)丰富研究方法, 以促进理论的发展。     

基于认知诊断的被试类比推理测验行为分析

本文在构建被试解题路径模型的基础上,应用多策略多成分潜在特质模型研究被试类比推理测验的行为,精细地分析了被试在类比推理过程中所使用的策略、分析了影响被试类比推理测验策略选择的因素、估计了被试在类比推理测验中所表现的各种能力.     

Spatial Correspondence Learning is Critical for the Sequence Effects of Symbolic Cueing

Attention orienting has been found to be influenced by the previous cueing status in a spatial cueing paradigm. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the cue predictive values or the spatial correspondence learning between cues and targets could influence the sequence effect of symbolic cueing. The findings revealed that the predictive values of arrow or word cues do not lead to different sequence effects, but that visually asymmetrical letter cues, which allow spatial correspondence learning between cues and targets, induce stronger sequence effects than visually symmetrical letter cues. In addition, visually symmetrical directional word cues can induce sequence effects. The results suggest that spatial correspondence learning, although not obligatory, is critical for the sequence effects of symbolic cueing. The findings support the feature‐integration hypothesis, rather than the strategic adjustments account.     

ERP Evidence for the Activation of Syntactic Structure During Comprehension of Lexical Idiom

The present study used event-related potentials to investigate whether the syntactic structure was activated in the comprehension of lexical idioms, and if so, whether it varied as a function of familiarity and semantic transparency. Participants were asked to passively read the “1+2” structural Chinese lexical idioms with each being presented following 3–5 contextual “1+2” (congruent-structure condition) or “2+1” structural Chinese phrases (incongruent-structure condition). The N400 ERP responses showed more positivity in congruent-structure condition relative to incongruent-structure condition in idioms with high familiarity and high semantic transparency, but less positivity in congruent-structure condition in idioms with high familiarity but low semantic transparency, idioms with low familiarity but high semantic transparency, and idioms with low familiarity and low semantic transparency. Our results suggest that syntactic structure, as the unnecessarity of lexical idiomatic words, was nevertheless activated, independent of familiarity and semantic transparency.     

Math-gender stereotypes and career intentions: an application of expectancy–value theory

Exposure to negative math-gender stereotypes undermines the intentions of female college students to engage in careers in the math field, yet the mechanisms by which such stereotypes relate to girls’ career intentions remain unclear. We simultaneously tested multiple mediators in a sample of 186 female students from one high school in central China. Participants completed five questionnaires that measured mathematics-related gender stereotypes, competence beliefs, task value, sexual attraction beliefs and career intentions. The path analysis results indicated that math-gender stereotypes were negatively related to adolescent girls’ career intentions in math fields through negative relationships with students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs, task value and sexual attraction beliefs. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and educational practice.     

阅读障碍儿童汉字认知特点研究

运用多重评估法从760名小学3年级学生中选取了30名阅读与记字困难学生和30名正常学生为被试,分别研究了儿童视觉能力、听知觉能力和字形-音及字形义通道联结能力的识字认知特点。研究结果表明,阅读障碍儿童基本语音辩别能力不存在落后,而在视觉辨别、字形长时记忆、语音短时记忆以及形音和形义联结长时记忆上都存在程度不同的落后。研究还发现,阅读障碍儿童具有对汉字做浅层次机械加工和视觉加工的倾向。     

文章标记对阅读理解困难学生信息保持的促进研究

根据阅读理解困难学生不能合理分配注意资源的特点,设置了文章标记这一能引导注意分配的外在线索,并以高层次的主题信息回忆和低层次的从属信息回忆为指标,考察阅读理解正常与困难学生接受标记影响的不同特点。结果表明:(1)文章标记对于阅读理解正常和困难学生的主题信息的回忆均有显著的促进效果,而对于阅读理解困难者的促进作用更为明显。(2)文章标记只促进了阅读理解困难者的从属信息的回忆,对于阅读正常者来说,文章标记反而有损于对从属信息的回忆。     

Internet gratifications and internet addiction: on the uses and abuses of new media.

Internet addiction has been identified as a pathological behavior, but its symptoms may be found in normal populations, placing it within the scope of conventional theories of media attendance. The present study drew upon fresh conceptualizations of gratifications specific to the Internet to uncover seven gratification factors: Virtual Community, Information Seeking, Aesthetic Experience, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, Personal Status, and Relationship Maintenance. With no parallel in prior research, Virtual Community might be termed a "new" gratification. Virtual Community, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, and Personal Status gratifications accounted for 28% of the variance in Internet Addiction Tendency. The relationship between Internet addiction and gratifications was discussed in terms of the formation of media habits and the distinction between content and process gratifications.     

Stress effects in the hippocampus: synaptic plasticity and memory

It is now well-documented that exposures to uncontrollable (inescapable and unpredictable) stress in adulthood can have profound effects on brain and behavior. Converging lines of evidence from human and animal studies indicate that stress interferes with subsequent performances on a variety of hippocampal-dependent memory tasks. Animal studies further revealed that stress impedes ensuing induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. Because the hippocampus is important for key aspects of memory formation and because LTP has qualities congruent to an information storage mechanism, it is hypothesized that stress-induced modifications in hippocampal plasticity contribute to memory impairments associated with stress. Recent studies provide evidence that the amygdala, a structure important in stress- and emotion-related behaviors, plays a necessary role in the emergence of stress-associated changes in hippocampal LTP and memory. Early life stress also alters hippocampal plasticity and memory in a manner largely consistent with effects of adult stress exposure. This review focuses on endocrine-system-level mechanisms of stress effects in the hippocampus, and how stress, by altering the property of hippocampal plasticity, can subsequently influence hippocampal memory.