Aging of theory of mind: The influence of educational level and cognitive processing

Previous studies of theory of mind (ToM) in old age have provided mixed results. We predicted that educational level and cognitive processing are two factors influencing the pattern of the aging of ToM. To test this hypothesis, a younger group who received higher education (mean age 20.46 years), an older group with an education level equal to that of the young group (mean age 76.29 years), and an older group with less education (mean age 73.52 years) were recruited. ToM tasks included the following tests: the second‐order false‐belief task, the faux‐pas task, the eyes test, and tests of fundamental aspects of cognitive function that included two background tests (memory span and processing speed) and three subcomponents of executive function (inhibition, updating, and shifting). We found that the younger group and the older group with equally high education outperformed the older group with less education in false‐belief and faux‐pas tasks. However, there was no significant difference between the two former groups. The three groups of participants performed equivalently in the eyes test as well as in control tasks (false‐belief control question, faux‐pas control question, faux‐pas control story, and Eyes Test control task). The younger group outperformed the other two groups in the cognitive processing tasks. Mediation analyses showed that difficulties in inhibition, memory span, and processing speed mediated the age differences in false‐belief reasoning. Also, the variables of inhibition, updating, memory span, and processing speed mediated age‐related variance in faux‐pas. Discussion focused on the links between ToM aging, educational level, and cognitive processing.     

《悟真篇》修炼金丹略说

《悟真篇》是中国道教内丹修炼著作中的重要经典。历代以来对它的解读多由其它经典的汇注或解读者所得的传授展开,很少能完全按照《悟真篇》文本本身来解读。本文试图在全面搜集《悟真篇》同类诗句的基础上,以《悟真篇》自身解读自身的理路,整理出《悟真篇》基本的修炼框架,对《悟真篇》提供一种新的解读。     

Understanding Middle School Students’ Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life: An Expectancy-Value Perspective

Assessing and promoting physical activity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) have become major public health issues, but little is known regarding HRQOL and its relation with physical activity in adolescents. This study attempted to examine relationships among middle school students’ motivation, physical activity, and HRQOL by using the expectancy-value model as a theoretical framework. Participants were 282 middle school students who responded to a previously validated inventory assessing their motivation, physical activity, and HRQOL. Correlation analyses revealed that expectancy-related beliefs and task values were positively related to physical activity and HRQOL. Physical activity was positively associated with physical, emotional, and social functioning of HRQOL. Regression analyses showed a significant relationship between increasing expectancy-related beliefs and increasing degrees of HRQOL. This research line is promising in that it can provide useful information regarding the translation of theory to practice in influencing adolescents’ physical activity and HRQOL.     

Online monitoring of the social presence effects in a two‐person‐like driving video game using near‐infrared spectroscopy

We examined how a friend's presence affects a performer's prefrontal activation in daily‐life activities using two wireless portable near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) devices. Participants played a driving video game either solely in the single group or with a friend in the paired group. The two groups (single and paired) were subdivided according to their game proficiency (low and high). The NIRS data demonstrated a significant interaction of group by proficiency. Low‐proficiency players in the paired group showed lower activation than those in the single group, but high‐proficiency players did not. In the paired group, high‐proficiency players showed higher activation than low‐proficiency players, but not in the single group. These results suggest that NIRS detects social presence effects in everyday situations: decreasing prefrontal activation in low‐proficiency performers due to tension reduction and increasing prefrontal activation in high‐proficiency performers due to increased arousal.     

Experiential Marketing and Marketing Experience: An Empirical Study of the Influence of Summer Boot Camp on Military Propensity

The purpose of this study was to examine how experiential marketing may influence military propensity via the Summer Boot Camp (SBC), a 5-day quasi–training camp for high school and college students run by the Taiwan military. A survey of 1,102 participants was conducted using questionnaires. The findings indicate that a satisfactory SBC experience leads to a higher degree of perceived experiential value, which in turn triggers favorable behavioral intentions regarding the military in terms of supporting national defense, recommending the SBC to relatives and friends, and visiting regional recruiting centers. Further, perceived experiential value plays an important mediator role for experiencing a military propensity by exerting a significant indirect influence. However, the influence resulting from a good experience and value is not sufficient to motivate participants to actually go to enlist. Implications for recruiting efforts are discussed in terms of designing effective experience marketing.     

Chasing vs. stalking: interrupting the perception of animacy

Visual experience involves not only physical features such as color and shape, but also higher-level properties such as animacy and goal-directedness. Perceiving animacy is an inherently dynamic experience, in part because agents' goal-directed behavior may be frequently in flux-unlike many of their physical properties. How does the visual system maintain and update representations of agents' animate and goal-directed behavior over time and motion? The present study explored this question in the context of a particularly salient form of perceived animacy: chasing, in which one shape (the "wolf") pursues another shape (the "sheep"). Here the participants themselves controlled the movement of the sheep, and the perception of chasing was assessed in terms of their ability to avoid being caught by the wolf-which looked identical to many moving distractors, and so could be identified only by its motion. The wolf's pursuit was frequently interrupted by periods in which it was static, jiggling in place, or moving randomly (amidst distractors that behaved similarly). Only the latter condition greatly impaired the detection of chasing-and only when the random motion was grouped into temporally extended chunks. These results reveal (1) how the detection of chasing is determined by the character and temporal grouping (rather than just the brute amount) of "pursuit" over time; and (2) how these temporal dynamics can lead the visual system to either construct or actively reject interpretations of chasing.     

垂直等值的应用及最新发展述评

由于实际的需求,垂直等值方法在近些年来迅速发展。但从垂直等值方法的整个过程来看,包括垂直等值的选用、双向细目编制、发展性量尺的构建、程序的选择和结果的报告,仍存在大量有待解决的问题。同时,随着其他测量方法的发展与进步,垂直等值与之相结合从而获得了进一步的完善。综观之,垂直等值方法的发展与完善,一方面依赖于各种模型和参数估计方法的改进与创新,另一方面还依赖于研究者对学业发展本质的不断深入认识。     

阿奎那灵魂学说的立场与方法

阿奎那的灵魂学说虽然从理性辩护主义的立场,调和了亚里士多德关于"灵魂是肉体的形式和现实性"的定义和古代教父关于"灵魂是不朽的精神实体"的论断,但它并非一个将哲学和神学无原则地掺和在一起的理论体系,而是通过意义辨析的方法对前人思想做出了创造性发展。在此过程中,基督教信仰赋予了他的学说以许多独特的内容和积极的影响。     

Hearing others’ pain: neural activity related to empathy

The human voice is one of the principal conveyers of social and affective communication. Recent neuroimaging studies have suggested that observing pain in others activates neural representations similar to those from the first-hand experience of pain; however, studies on pain expressions in the auditory channel are lacking. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to examine brain responses to emotional exclamations of others’ pain. The control condition comprised positive (e.g., laughing) or negative (e.g., snoring) stimuli of the human voice that were not associated with pain and suffering. Compared to these control stimuli, pain-related exclamations elicited increased activation in the superior and middle temporal gyri, left insula, secondary somatosensory cortices, thalamus, and right cerebellum, as well as deactivation in the anterior cingulate cortex. The left anterior insular and thalamic activations correlated significantly with the Empathic Concern subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Thus, the brain regions involved in hearing others’ pain are similar to those activated in the empathic processing of visual stimuli. Additionally, the findings emphasise the modulating role of interindividual differences in affective empathy.