The anchoring effect in metamemory monitoring

Judgments about future memory performance (metamemory judgments) are known to be susceptible to illusions and bias. Here we asked whether metamemory judgments are affected, like many other forms of judgment, by numerical anchors. Experiment 1 confirmed previous research showing an effect of informative anchors (e.g., past peer performance) on metamemory monitoring. In four further experiments, we then explored the effects of uninformative anchors. All of the experiments obtained significant anchoring effects on metamemory monitoring; in contrast, the anchors had no effect on recall itself. We also explored the anchoring effect on metamemory control (restudy choices) in Experiment 4. The results suggested that anchors can affect metamemory monitoring, which in turn affects metamemory control. The present research reveals that informative and, more importantly, uninformative numbers that have no influence on recall itself can bias metamemory judgments. On the basis of the current theoretical understanding of the anchoring effect and metamemory monitoring, these results offer insight into the processes that trigger metacognitive biases.     

图形规则性对客体和空间工作记忆存储的影响

采用单探测变化检测范式,考察了单维度特征图形在视觉客体和视觉空间工作记忆中的存储机制,并对这两种视觉工作记忆的容量进行测定。结果显示,在客体工作记忆中,规则图形的记忆成绩显著高于不规则图形,但在空间工作记忆中,这两种图形的记忆成绩无显著差异;空间工作记忆的存储容量显著大于客体工作记忆容量,分别为4-5个位置和3-4个客体。这表明,图形规则性影响了客体工作记忆的存储但不影响空间工作记忆的存储,由单维度特征组成的图形在客体工作记忆中是以特征为单元储存,而在空间工作记忆中是以整合方式储存。     

高校校长变革型领导行为的测量及其对教师组织承诺的影响

通过文献检索及对43名高校校长及其直接下属的访谈,经专家讨论,编制了中国高校校长变革型领导行为量表。515份数据的探索性因素分析和461份数据的验证性因素分析结果表明,中国高校校长的变革型领导行为是五因素结构,即德行垂范、关怀激发、愿景激励、领导魅力、团结协作。问卷具有良好的信效度。回归分析结果表明,高校校长的变革型领导行为对教师组织承诺具有正向影响,其中,教师的内部动机与学校的组织氛围对二者的关系具有完全中介作用。     

Social identity,attribution, and emotion: Comparisons of Americans,Korean Americans,and Koreans

The social identity of another person, in addition to the social identity of self, can be an important factor affecting the types of attribution judgments and emotions that individuals indicate for the other person. In April 2007, the perpetrator of the shooting incident on the Virginia Tech University campus was identified as a person who emigrated to the USA from Korea at a young age. The current study compared non‐Korean Americans, Korean Americans, Koreans in the USA, and Koreans in Korea in terms of their attributions and emotions concerning the perpetrator and the shooting incident. Participants were asked to indicate (1) the extent to which they attributed the cause of the incident to either American society or the perpetrator, (2) their emotions (e.g., upset), and (3) the extent to which they categorized the perpetrator as an American, a Korean American, or a Korean. The results indicated that non‐Korean Americans were most likely to attribute the cause of the incident to the perpetrator as opposed to American society. Non‐Korean Americans, Korean Americans, and Koreans in the United States had more negative emotions (e.g., unhappy, sad, and upset) about the incident than Koreans in Korea did. The results also indicated that individuals differed in their attributions and emotions depending on how they categorized the perpetrator. For example, categorizing the perpetrator as being a Korean was positively related to Americans’ tendency to hold the perpetrator responsible, while categorizing the perpetrator as being an American was negatively related to the tendency to hold the perpetrator responsible among Koreans in Korea. The findings may imply that social identity theory, intergroup emotion theory, and cultural orientations (e.g., individualism and collectivism) can provide insights into people's reactions to a tragic incident.     

Characteristics of Unintentional Movements by a Multijoint Effector

The authors explored the phenomenon of unintentional changes in the equilibrium state of a multijoint effector produced by transient changes in the external force. The subjects performed a position-holding task against a constant force produced by a robot and were instructed not to intervene voluntarily with movements produced by changes in the robot force. The robot produced a smooth force increase leading to a hand movement, followed by a dwell time. Then, the force dropped to its initial value leading to hand movement toward the initial position, but the hand stopped short of the initial position. The undershoot magnitude increased linearly with the peak hand displacement and exponentially with dwell time (time constant of about 1 s). For long dwell times, the hand stopped at about half the total distance to the initial position. The authors interpret the results as consequences of a drift of the referent hand coordinate. Our results provide support for back-coupling between the referent and actual body configurations during multijoint actions and produce the first quantitative analysis of this phenomenon. This mechanism can also explain the phenomena of slacking and force drop after turning visual feedback off during accurate force production task.     

Gender Differences in Coping Styles of Chinese Military Officers Undergoing Intensive Training

This study investigated gender differences in anxiety and coping styles under the stress of intense military training. We surveyed Chinese female (n = 470) and male (n = 379) military officers who were surveyed during the third month of a 10-month intensive training program. Results indicated that state and trait anxiety were highly correlated in both women and men. In general, female officers had higher levels of anxiety, greater negative coping tendencies, and less perceived self-efficacy than their male counterparts. When compared with the norm, both women and men had significantly more positive coping strategies. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed factors that influenced male and female state anxiety. Avoidance, which was chosen by women more often than men, in general was less useful for female officers. The most common positive coping style for female officers was problem solving, whereas for men it was help seeking. We suggested that even female officers with lower mental health levels than their male counterparts made active cognitive changes to their coping styles when undergoing intense military training.     

Nanocrystallization effect on the surface electron work function of copper and its corrosion behaviour

The effect of grain size at micro- and nanoscale on the surface electron stability of copper as reflected by the electron work function (EWF) was investigated. In the ambient environment, the surface reactivity increases with decreasing grain size in the micron range, but decreases when entering the nanometre range. When in a solution with associated passivation, grain refinement enhances resistance to corrosion. However, the situation is reversed when no passivation is involved. In the former case, the improved surface stability and corrosion behaviour caused by nanocrystallization can be attributed to the formation of a more protective passive film. In the latter case, nanocrystallization accelerates material dissolution resulting from enhanced activity of surface electrons at high-density grain boundaries. The correlation between EWF and the corrosion behaviour, as well as the mechanisms involved, are discussed.     

A new highly ordered Al-Ni-Ru decagonal quasicrystal with 1.6 nm periodicity

A new decagonal quasicrystal (the D phase) with a period of about 1.6 nm was found to form in conventionally solidified and heat-treated Al₇₅Ni₁₅Ru₁₀ alloys. The electron diffraction patterns of the Al-Ni-Ru D phase exhibit a large number of quite sharp diffraction spots located at precise decagonal symmetry positions, indicating a highly ordered decagonal quasicrystal with a long-range quasiperiodic correlation. The D phase is formed with a composition close to Al₇₄Ni₁₅Ru₁₁, as determined by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. By means of high-resolution electron microscopy, the structural features of the Al-Ni-Ru D phase, which are obviously different from that of the Al-Pd D phase (a typical decagonal quasicrystal with 1.6 nm periodicity reported previously), have been revealed.     

Elastic modelling of periodic composites with particle interactions

The mechanical properties of periodic composites containing identical spherical particles are investigated using the principles of micromechanics and homogenization procedures. The averaged strain and stress fields are derived in terms of an eight-particle interaction. The effective elasticity with the cubic symmetry tensor is explicitly obtained. If the interaction term is dropped, then one recovers the conventional Mori–Tanaka model. With further approximations, the dilute model and the self-consistent model can also be obtained within the proposed framework. It is observed that the particle interactions make no contribution to the effective bulk modulus, a result that is consistent with other models and experiments for composites with cubic lattices.