回溯式时距估计的计时机制

回溯式时距估计是以记忆为主要成分, 且事后才知要对两个相继事件之间的间隔时间或某一事件持续时间的长短进行估计。可分为近时和远时的回溯式时距估计, 两者的计时机制与记忆有关, 但各有侧重：前者侧重短时或长时记忆, 直接证据来源于即时回忆单一或多个认知任务以估计时间, 间接证据则聚焦于物理、生理、心理因素的影响; 后者侧重自传体记忆, 可从问卷或访谈的测量方式以及主客体特征的影响两个方面来寻找证据。今后需以整合的观点深入探究回溯式时距估计的计时机制, 拓展回溯式时距估计行为测量的研究, 并开展对回溯式时距估计神经生物学基础的探讨。     

不同飞机座舱噪声水平条件下双重听觉信号强度增量的研究

本研究用绝对辨认法与信号清晰度和响度适宜性主观评价测试了60、70和 80dB(A)三种噪声水平下与言语通讯同时呈现的高优先权音调信号的最小强度增量要求。研究结果表明 :在本实验设置的强度范围内 ,音调信号的辨认正确性主要取决于信号的相对强度 ;而音调信号的清晰度和响度适宜性与信号的绝对强度和相对强度都有关。对于采用信号强度自动增益控制的告警系统 ,这是一个值得注意的问题。     

The duality of selection: excitatory and inhibitory processes in auditory selective attention

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measurements were made in an auditory selective-attention paradigm, both before and after a series of inhibition or discrimination training sessions. The presence of distractors caused poor perceptual sensitivity, weak P3 responses, conservative responding, and slow reaction times relative to baseline. Distraction prompted a frontal enhancement of ERP components occurring 100-250 ms after the onset of attended signals (N1, P2, and N2). Training ameliorated behavioral interference from distraction. Participants receiving inhibition training acquired improved inhibitory processing of distractors, an effect that peaked 200 ms after distractor onset. In a proposed model, distinct excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms work interactively to maintain sensitivity to environmental change in the face of disruption from the contextual integration of irrelevant events.     

Neural circuitry underlying perception of duration depends on language experience

Thai, a language which exhibits a phonemic opposition in vowel length, allows us to compare temporal patterns in linguistic and nonlinguistic contexts. Functional MRI data were collected from Thai and English subjects in a speeded-response, selective attention paradigm as they performed same/different judgments of vowel duration and consonants (Thai speech) and hum duration (nonspeech). Activation occurred predominantly in left inferior prefrontal cortex in both speech tasks for the Thai group, but only in the consonant task for the English group. The Thai group exhibited activation in the left mid superior temporal gyrus in both speech tasks; the English group in the posterior superior temporal gyrus bilaterally. In the hum duration task, peak activation was observed bilaterally in prefrontal cortex for both groups. These crosslinguistic data demonstrate that encoding of complex auditory signals is influenced by their functional role in a particular language.     

Predicting intergroup bias: the interactive effects of implicit theory and social identity

This research sought to integrate the implicit theory approach and the social identity approach to understanding biases in intergroup judgment. The authors hypothesized that a belief in fixed human character would be associated with negative bias and prejudice against a maligned group regardless of the perceiver's social identity. By contrast, a belief in malleable human character would allow the perceiver's social identity to guide intergroup perception, such that a common ingroup identity that includes the maligned group would be associated with less negative bias and prejudice against the maligned group than would an exclusive identity. To test these hypotheses, a correlational study was conducted in the context of the Hong Kong 1997 political transition to examine Hong Kong Chinese's perceptions of Chinese Mainlanders, and an experimental study was conducted in the United States to examine Asian Americans' perception of African Americans. Results from both studies supported the authors' predictions.     

Robust Bayesian growth curve modelling using conditional medians

Growth curve models have been widely used to analyse longitudinal data in social and behavioural sciences. Although growth curve models with normality assumptions are relatively easy to estimate, practical data are rarely normal. Failing to account for non-normal data may lead to unreliable model estimation and misleading statistical inference. In this work, we propose a robust approach for growth curve modelling using conditional medians that are less sensitive to outlying observations. Bayesian methods are applied for model estimation and inference. Based on the existing work on Bayesian quantile regression using asymmetric Laplace distributions, we use asymmetric Laplace distributions to convert the problem of estimating a median growth curve model into a problem of obtaining the maximum likelihood estimator for a transformed model. Monte Carlo simulation studies have been conducted to evaluate the numerical performance of the proposed approach with data containing outliers or leverage observations. The results show that the proposed approach yields more accurate and efficient parameter estimates than traditional growth curve modelling. We illustrate the application of our robust approach using conditional medians based on a real data set from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project.     

Religious Geography and County‐Level Sex Ratios in China

The sex ratio at birth in China is highly imbalanced in favor of boys. Past research on sex ratios in China emphasizes economic factors for their weakening effect on the Confucian tradition of son preference. Research in the sociology of religion suggests that religious geography may affect sex ratios through the spill‐over of religious teachings to those living in areas dominated by a religious tradition. To assess this linkage, we investigate the relationship between religious geography and county‐level child sex ratios using the 2000 China Population Census and the 2004 China Economic Census, the most complete and recent data available on religious presence in China. Applying spatial analyses of 2,685 counties (over 90% of all counties), we find that counties with a greater presence of Daoist temples have more imbalanced (male‐biased) sex ratios, whereas a greater presence of Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques is associated with less imbalanced sex ratios.     

基于未感染者与感染者双重视角的艾滋病污名

艾滋病污名由公众污名和自我污名两部分构成。前者指公众所持有的对艾滋病和艾滋病感染者的偏见、刻板印象和歧视; 后者指艾滋病感染者感知到的来自公众的偏见、刻板印象和歧视, 并由此产生的负面自我认知。测量主要从未感染者和感染者两个层面展开。艾滋病的公众污名与自我污名广泛存在于个人、家庭、医疗、媒体等诸多领域, 阻碍艾滋病的有效防治并损害社会平等。减少艾滋病污名的干预既需要消除公众的偏见、刻板印象和歧视, 改善社会环境; 也需要感染者自我的心理健康和治疗意愿, 提升生活质量。未来应该从未感染者和感染者的双重视角出发, 对其相互作用机制、测量工具、干预措施及连带污名等进行深入研究。     

Internal Diversity Among “Spiritual But Not Religious” Adolescents in the United States: A Person-Centered Examination Using Latent Class Analysis

Americans who self-identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) have increased in recent years. Existing studies of American religion often assume the SBNR as a homogeneous group. Recently some scholars suggest they are not all the same. Instead, SBNR people may differ in the pattern of religious practice, attitude, and affection. This study examines the heterogeneity of the SBNR using a person-centered approach of latent class analysis. We first identified four distinct types of SBNR adolescents in the Wave 2 data of the National Survey of Youth and Religion. Then, we explored how subgroups changed their religious identity over time by tracking them in Wave 3 data.