无关声音效应研究述评

无关声音效应是在对注意与记忆进行研究时所发现的一个现象,有益于探讨噪音等无关声音刺激对个体认知过程、工作绩效及身心健康的影响作用。在简要回顾ISE现象的界定与理论解释争论的基础上,重点从对刺激强度不同的ISE现象之理论分析、应用价值及一些相关的近期研究方面作了介绍,从对ISE现象的理论解释、无关声音刺激的选取、研究方法的综合使用、ISE现象中的个体差异等方面做了展望。     

Testing the representation of time in reference memory in the bisection and the generalization task: the utility of a developmental approach

This study examined the effect of the variability of representation of durations in reference memory on temporal discrimination performance in children aged 5 and 8 years as well as in adults using a bisection (Experiment 1) and a generalization task (Experiment 2). In each task, the participants were familiarized before the blocks of tested trials with either the same referent duration values (fixed condition) or a distribution of referent duration values, with a mean equal to the referent durations used in the fixed condition and a .20 coefficient of variation (variable condition). The results showed that the sensitivity to duration was lower in the variable than in the fixed condition in the children and, to a lesser extent, in the adults. The modelling of the data indicated that this effect was due to the increase in the variability of the representation of durations in reference memory, but also to changes in the decisional processes.     

Scalar timing in temporal generalization in children with short and long stimulus durations.

This experiment investigated temporal generalization performance in children aged 3, 5, and 8 years by using auditory stimulus durations where the standard was 0.4 s or 4.0 s, and non-standard stimuli were spaced linearly around the standard. At all ages, generalization gradients superimposed well when plotted on the same relative scale, indicating conformity to scalar timing. Whatever the standard duration used, the principal developmental changes were the increasing steepness of the generalization gradient with increasing age and a shift from symmetrical gradients, in the 3- and 5-year-olds, to adult-like asymmetrical gradients in the 8-year-olds.     

Parental and family predictors of behavior problems in inner-city black children

Studied contributions of maternal psychological distress, family stress load, maternal and family risk factors, and family coping strategies in predicting behavior problems in 441 inner-city black primary-grade children. Results indicated maternal psychological distress and high family stress load were associated with high child behavior problems. Family coping strategies offered no protection against risk, while coping with life difficulties by reframing them was detrimental to child behavioral adjustment. Active help-seeking strategies (i.e., family mobilization, acquiring social supports) served to moderate the effects of maternal psychological distress and family risk attributes for boys, but exacerbated the effects of dysfunctional maternal social and psychiatric histories for girls. Implications for understanding vulnerability and resilience in inner-city black children and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Scheduled running wheel activity indexes the specificity of pharmacological anorexia.

Nondeprived male Sprague-Dawley rats that were given scheduled access to running wheels for 60 min daily ran immediately and energetically. Intraperitoneal injections of 400 micrograms/kg pancreatic glucagon and 0.15 microgram/kg cholecystokinin octapeptide had no effect on scheduled running, but significantly inhibited feeding when the rats were offered condensed milk instead of access to the running wheels. This is consistent with the hypothesized function of these peptides as postprandial satiety signals. In contrast, 0.5 mg/kg amphetamine and 75 microM/kg LiCl, which produced similar degrees of anorexia, inhibited running by about 50%. Amphetamine, but neither peptide, also inhibited water drinking and disrupted the behavioral sequence of postprandial satiety. The distance run during scheduled running tests was inversely related to body weight, but the patterns of the drugs' effects were not altered by baseline running differences. Scheduled wheel running is a robust consummatory behavior that appears to provide a relatively valid, simple, and sensitive test of the behavioral specificity of pharmacological anorexia.     

DEGRÉ DE CONTACT ET STRESS ACCULTURATIF DANS LE PROCESSUS D'ADAPTATION DES RÉFUGIÉS AFRICAINS

This study examines some aspects of the adaptive process of African refugees taking up residence in Quebec city, a rather culturally homogenous area. Considering that acculturative stress and degree of contact and participation with the host society are strong indicators of one's adjustment to a new culture, the main hypothesis is that the more contact and participation one establishes with the host society, the less acculturative stress he will report. Out of 62 subjects who voluntarily accepted to participate in the study, 57 were retained for analysis. Results reveal no significant relationship between stress and contact. Multiple regression analyses used to determine the significant predictor variables indicate that age and length of stay explain 19.5% of the total variance for stress while length of stay, sex and adaptive options explain 44% of the total variance for contact. These results tend to demonstrate that, for African refugees, degree of contact is a better indicator of adaptation than stress.     

Effects of post-trial administration of naloxone and beta-endorphin on shock-induced fighting in rats

To study the involvement of endogenous opioid peptides in the development of shock-induced fighting, naloxone (2 mg/kg) or beta-endorphin (10 micrograms/kg) was administered subcutaneously immediately after the session and during nine consecutive daily sessions to rats repeatedly exposed to electric shocks. beta-Endorphin blocked the development of shock-induced fighting while naloxone facilitated it but only when shock-induced fighting occurred at a low rate. The effects of beta-endorphin were time dependent since when beta-endorphin was injected 90 min after the shock session instead of immediately after, its impairing effect disappeared. In addition, naloxone blocked the impairment produced by beta-endorphin. Differential postsession treatment of each member of pairs of rats with naloxone and beta-endorphin resulted in a higher probability of rats treated with naloxone to be dominant over rats treated with beta-endorphin in the test situation. These results are discussed in relation with the possible involvement of endogenous opioids in the modulation of the physiological consequences of defensive behavioral responses to shock.     

A Multitrait-multimethod examination of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)

Recently, certain Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) scales have seen increasing usage for the measurement of DSM-III personality disorders. The current study sought to identify the convergent and discriminant validity of these two sets of scales for this purpose. In general, the results indicated significant convergence across the two instruments. However, better convergent validity was found for scales representing those DSM-III disorders which are most consistent with the typology upon which the MCMI was based. In particular, convergent and discriminant validity results were poorest for Compulsive, Antisocial, and Passive-Aggressive personality scales.     

Effects of Communication Expectancies,Actual Communication,and Expectancy Disconfirmation on Evaluations of Communicators and Their Communication Behavior

The current investigation addressed (a) the perseverance of preinteraction expectancies in the face of actual communication behavior, (b) the separate effects of personal attribute and communication expectancies, and (c) the role of expectancy confirmation or disconfirmation on postinteraction evaluations. Participant perceivers were induced to hold positive or negative expectancies regarding a target partner's general personal attributes and specific communication behavior prior to a problem-solving discussion. They then interacted with a confederate target who communicated in a pleasant, involved fashion or its opposite, after which perceivers evaluated target personal attributes and communication behavior. All three hypotheses received at least partial support. Preinteractional expectancies, especially personal attribute ones, caused perceivers to evaluate targets and their communication behavior differently, with negatively valenced expectancies serving as negative violations. Relative to a pleasant, involved communication style, unpleasant, uninvolved communication was less expected and evaluated negatively, thus functioning as a negative violation; it also reduced credibility, attraction, and perceived rewardingness of the target. Finally, disconfirmatory communication altered target evaluations relative to confirmatory communication, especially for high-valence targets. These results lend support to the premises and predictions of expectancy violations theory.