Effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory and neurochemistry in middle-aged mice

The present study compared the effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity, and synaptophysin levels in middle-aged male and female mice. Prior to testing, a subset of 18-month-old male and female C57BL/6 mice was housed with two to three toys and a running wheel in the home cage for up to 29 d. Adult mice (7 mo) of both sexes and the remaining middle-aged mice were group (social) housed, but not exposed to enriching objects. After the enrichment period, all mice were tested in a 1-day version of the Morris water maze, in which both spatial and nonspatial memory were assessed. Immediately after testing, the hippocampus and frontoparietal cortex were dissected, and GAD activity and synaptophysin levels were measured. Environmental enrichment reduced the age-related impairment in spatial acquisition and retention; relative to adult social controls, middle-aged enriched mice were unimpaired, whereas middle-aged social controls were impaired. This reduction was similar in middle-aged males and females. Enrichment did not affect cued memory in either sex. Although hippocampal GAD activity was increased by enrichment in males, all other neurochemical measurements were unaffected by enrichment or aging in either sex. These data suggest that environmental enrichment initiated at middle age can reduce age-related impairments in spatial memory in males and females, although the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect remain unknown.     

分段是视频学习的有效方式吗?

教育心理学中的分段原则认为,将视频学习材料分割成几个小片段进行学习的效果更好。以往关于分段的研究通过两个角度的操纵考察了分段在学习中的作用,一方面是交互性角度,学习者自己控制的分段及系统分段;另一方面是结构性角度,分段是在任意时间点划分和有意义时间点上划分。通过对以往研究结果的整理发现,大部分研究证明分段学习相较于连续学习的成绩更好,并且能降低学习者在学习过程中的感知难度, 提高积极的情感状态,但是对心理努力的影响比较微弱。研究者们从事件分割理论和认知负荷理论的视角对分段的效果做出了解释。未来研究需要继续关注分段的边界条件、拓宽研究的范围、探究分段的认知神经基础等不断完善分段原则在教学中的应用。     

From Functional Efficiency to Temporal Efficiency: Multifunctional Products Increase Consumer Impatience

Multifunctional products are ubiquitous in consumers' daily lives. However, scant research has examined whether and how the presence of multifunctional products systematically alters consumer behavior beyond product evaluations and adoption. Across four experiments and three supplementary studies, the authors identify a multifunction-impatience effect. They show that after exposure to multifunctional (vs. single-function) products, consumers are more likely to choose a smaller but sooner (vs. a larger but later) reward (Study 1), report more impatience when waiting for the web search results to load and perceive the loading time as longer (Study 2), and are willing to pay more for expedited shipping (Study 3). The authors further show that the effects occur because multifunctional products activate an efficiency goal among consumers, which renders them less patient (studies 2 and 3). In addition to the regular, “sequential” multifunctional products for which each of the functions has a specific usage situation, the proposed effect also applies to “simultaneous” multifunctional products whose functions operate simultaneously during consumption (Study 4). Taken together, this research broadens the scholarly understanding of the effects of multifunctional products from consumers' responses to these products to the unintended impact of such products on consumer impatience.     

Effects of Father-Adolescent and Mother-Adolescent Relationships on Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Early Adolescents

Parent–adolescent relationships play an important role in protecting adolescents from depressive symptoms. However, there are no consistent conclusions about the extent to which fathers and mothers uniquely contribute to adolescents’ depressive symptoms. The present study aimed to acquire knowledge in this research area in two ways. First, this study separated the potential impacts of father–child and mother–child relationships on depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents. Second, this study used a longitudinal design with nationally representative samples from the China Education Panel Survey. A total of 8794 middle school students in grade 7 completed measures of father–adolescent and mother–adolescent relationships, and depressive symptoms twice (T1 and T2; one-year interval). Results indicated that both positive father–adolescent and mother–adolescent relationships had negative effects on depressive symptoms in female adolescents. However, positive father-adolescent, not mother-adolescent, relationships had a negative effect on depressive symptoms in male adolescents. These findings suggest that positive parent–adolescent relationships could reduce early adolescents’ depressive symptoms, but positive father–adolescent and mother–adolescent relationships might have different protective effects on early adolescents’ depressive symptoms among male and female adolescents in China.

     

Parents’ Attachment Styles and Adolescents’ Regulatory Emotional Self-efficacy: The Mediating Role of Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents in China

Guided by attachment theory, this longitudinal study examined the mediating role of parent-adolescent attachment on the relation between parents’ attachment styles and adolescents’ regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE, including managing negative affect and expressing positive affect). Five hundred seventy-three Chinese junior high school students (46% male; aged 11–14 years, M = 12.76 years, SD = 0.74) completed measures of RESE at T1, parent-adolescent attachment at T2 (six months later), and RESE at T3 (another six months later), while 573 students’ parents (one student only has a parent, 241 fathers and 332 mothers) completed measures of adult attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) at T1. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that father-adolescent attachment mediated the association between fathers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect, while mother-adolescent attachment marginally mediated the relation between mothers’ attachment anxiety and adolescents’ self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative affect and expressing positive affect. These findings suggest that parents’ attachment anxiety could predict their children’s attachment to parents, in turn, impacting their children’s regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

     

An Approach‐Inhibition Model of Employee Silence: The Joint Effects of Personal Sense of Power and Target Openness

When employees consciously withhold potentially important suggestions or concerns from those who may be able to act on that information, it can have serious implications for organizational performance. Yet there is research suggesting that, when faced with the choice of whether or not to raise an issue, employees often choose to remain silent. Our objective in this paper is to expand current theoretical understanding of why employees often remain silent and of situational factors that can lessen this tendency. Drawing on the approach‐inhibition theory of power, we argue that an employee's personal sense that he or she is lacking in power in relation to others at work is a key factor contributing to the decision to remain silent but that this effect is moderated by perceived target openness. We took a multimethod approach, testing these relationships across 3 studies: a laboratory experiment, a survey study of healthcare workers, and a survey study of employees working across a wide range of industries. Our findings suggest that, although silence is indeed rooted in the psychological experience of powerlessness, perceived target openness mitigates this relationship, encouraging employee to speak up when they would not otherwise do so.     

How Do Employees Construe Their Career Success: An improved measure of subjective career success

Subjective career success has long been of interest to scholars because of its importance in the career area. However, the subjective career success literature suffers from the lack of measurement. To fill this void, after reviewing the limitations of the existing instruments, the current study developed a three‐dimensional scale of subjective career success based on the framework of Zhou et al. Three independent studies were conducted using three separate samples (N = 244; N = 411; N = 254) in China to examine the reliability and validity of the developmental scale. The results provided evidence of internal homogeneity, structural validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity of the developed scale. To conclude the study, the limitations of the article and implications for future study were discussed.     

大学生学习动机问卷的初步编制

本研究结合开放式问卷所获资料,在文献研究的基础上建构了大学生学习动机的维度,编制了大学生学习动机问卷,并将之施测于427名大学生。问卷的因素分析结果表明：（1）大学生学习动机归并为求知兴趣、能力追求、声誉获取和利他取向四个维度;（2）自编大学生学习动机问卷的信度和效度指标均达到了心理测量学要求。     

Effect of aspect ratio on the compressive deformation and fracture behaviour of Zr-based bulk metallic glass

The compressive deformation and fracture features of Zr₅₉Cu₂₀Al₁₀Ni₈Ti₃ bulk metallic glassy samples with aspect ratios in the range of 0.67–2.00 have been investigated. The compressive plastic strain of the glass monotonically increases with decreasing aspect ratio, but the maximum strength almost maintains a constant value of 1.77–1.88?GPa. All the compressive shear-band angles are equal to?～40° if modified by the rotation of the primary shear bands.