Karma or Immortality: Can Religion Influence Space‐Time Mappings?

People implicitly associate the “past” and “future” with “front” and “back” in their minds according to their cultural attitudes toward time. As the temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) proposes, future‐oriented people tend to think about time according to the future‐in‐front mapping, whereas past‐oriented people tend to think about time according to the past‐in‐front mapping (de la Fuente, Santiago, Román, Dumitrache, & Casasanto, 2014). Whereas previous studies have demonstrated that culture exerts an important influence on people's implicit spatializations of time, we focus specifically on religion, a prominent layer of culture, as potential additional influence on space‐time mappings. In Experiment 1 and 2, we observed a difference between the two religious groups, with Buddhists being more past‐focused and more frequently conceptualizing the past as ahead of them and the future as behind them, and Taoists more future‐focused and exhibiting the opposite space‐time mapping. In Experiment 3, we administered a religion prime, in which Buddhists were randomly assigned to visualize the picture of the Buddhas of the Past (Buddha Dipamkara) or the Future (Buddha Maitreya). Results showed that the pictorial icon of Dipamkara increased participants' tendency to conceptualize the past as in front of them. In contrast, the pictorial icon of Maitreya caused a dramatic increase in the rate of future‐in‐front responses. In Experiment 4, the causal effect of religion on implicit space‐time mappings was replicated in atheists. Taken together, these findings provide converging evidence for the hypothesized causal role of religion for temporal focus in determining space‐time mappings.     

Efficacy of the Wilbarger Therapressure Program™ to Modulate Arousal in Women with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Pilot Study Using Salivary Cortisol and Behavioral Measures

This pilot study assesses the efficacy of using the Wilbarger Therapressure Program? to modulate the arousal and influence the sensory symptoms seen in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder. Salivary cortisol and behavioral measures were used in this single subject design study of four women with post-traumatic stress disorder. Significant positive changes were seen in three of the four the women. The exception was one woman whose post-traumatic stress disorder resulted from blast injuries.     

The Effects of Contact with Asians and Asian Americans on White American College Students: Attitudes, Awareness of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Adjustment

On the basis of acculturation theory, explicating mutual influences between different cultural or ethnic groups coming into contact, this study focused "on the other side of acculturation" theory by examining the effects of intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans on the psychosocial experiences of White American college students. Participants (N = 315), undergraduates attending a public university located within the state of Massachusetts, completed a survey that assessed demographic and personal characteristics, acculturation (extent of intercultural contact with Asian people and Asian cultures), attitudes towards Asians and Asian Americans, awareness of institutional discrimination and blatant racial issues, and psychological distress. Results indicated that White American students' intercultural contact with Asians and Asian Americans contributed significant variance to the prediction of their attitudes towards this ethnic group and awareness of discrimination and racial issues, but not to psychological distress. This study provides implications for understanding mutual acculturative influences between different ethnic groups in the United States.     

融合中的变化:传统史学与中国佛教方志的发展

中国佛教方志是复杂的融合体,它既具有强烈的佛教文化情结,也有中国传统文化的痕迹,其中尤以传统史学的影响更为深远。本文从中国佛教方志的发展与分期、传统史学对中国佛教方志的影响、传统史家对中国佛教方志的态度三方面探讨传统史学与中国佛教方志发展之间的关系。     

内群偏私：自我锚定还是社会认同？

以往关于内群偏私的研究大多采用社会认同理论（social identityt heory）做解释。近期,自我锚定（self-anchoring principle）原理被证实可用于解释内群偏私的原因。基于中国人及美国人在内群偏私的目的、方法上的不同,我们采用最小群体范式,验证这两种理论在中国大学生上的适用性。410名大学生（其中前测94名）在互联网上完成以认知能力评估为名的实验,实验控制反馈类型,要求参与者对自身、内群及外群在不同维度上评分。实验证明内群偏私存在;分化理论成立;采用演绎策略时,个体评价与内群评价的差异显著小于个体采用归纳策略时两者的差异,符合社会认同理论的假设。     

异常反应模式的识别和分类

通过对Drasgow等人的个人适合指标l2公式的再分解,发现该指标也属于残差型类的指标。特别是和Tatsuoka的广义个人适合指标ξ指标具有类似的数学结构,除符号相反外,不同之处仅是公式中加权项。其次,该研究定义了任意两个异常反应对象的类似度,在此基础上试用多维标度法对异常反应模式进行再分类。结果说明分类是有效、实用的。     

When Arousal Influences Ad Evaluation and Valence Does Not (and Vice Versa)

This research examines, across 2 studies, the interplay between the valence and arousal components of affective states and the affective tone of a target ad. In the first study, music was used to induce a pleasant or unpleasant mood, while controlling for arousal. Participants were subsequently exposed to an ad that either had a positive‐affective tone or was ambiguous in its affective tone. As predicted, the valence of the affective state colored the evaluation of the ad in a mood‐congruent direction, but this coloring effect occurred only when the ad had an ambiguous‐affective tone. In the second study, the target ad had a clear positive or negative affective tone, and the valence and arousal dimensions of the mood state were manipulated independently. As predicted, the arousal dimension, but not the valence dimension, influenced ad evaluation. Ad evaluations were more polarized in the direction of the ad's affective tone under high arousal than under low arousal. This effect was more pronounced for self‐referent evaluations (e.g., “I like the ad”) than for object‐referent evaluations (e.g., “The ad is good”), favoring an attributional explanation—the excitation transfer hypothesis—over an attention‐narrowing explanation—the dynamic complexity hypothesis. Taken together, the results of the 2 studies stress the important contingency of the affective tone of the ad, when examining the effects of the valence and arousal dimensions of a person's affective state on ad evaluation. The results also provide additional insights into how and when affect serves as information in judgment processes.     

杏仁体与情绪及感觉功能的关系

近来研究表明杏仁体与感觉、情绪和记忆关系密切。对恐惧条件反射的研究发现杏仁体是情绪活动的关键性结构;导致恐惧条件反射的细胞及分子机制研究征实杏仁体具有情绪学习与记忆机能;杏仁体在向中感觉信息的筛选和凋制中具有显著作用和重要意义。本文将综述这方面的进展。     

6～12岁儿童脑电α波频率分布特点与信息加工速度的关系

本研究以 2 2 8名 6～ 12岁儿童为研究对象 ,采用脑电波超慢涨落分析技术 (简称ET) ,重点探讨了与认知功能有关的α波 ( 8～ 13Hz)的分布特点。研究结果表明 :①α波在全脑 12个脑区的比率 ,因频率成分不同而表现出不同的分布特点 ;②α波在左右对称脑区的分布比率也因频率不同而表现出不同的左右脑优势。除左前颞叶的平均频率显著大于右前颞叶外 ,其他左右脑对称区域的平均频率的差异均不显著。α波平均频率的从高到低依次为枕叶、中央区、顶叶、左前颞叶、后颞叶、额叶、右前颞叶 ;③信息加工速度与α波的关系并不明显 ,快组和慢组被试的 6种频率 ( 8～13Hz)α波的比率均无显著性差异