Familiarity increases the number of remembered Pokémon in visual short-term memory

Long-term memory (LTM) can influence many aspects of short-term memory (STM), including increased STM span. However, it is unclear whether LTM enhances the quantitative or qualitative aspect of STM. That is, do we retain a larger number of representations or more precise representations in STM for familiar stimuli than unfamiliar stimuli? This study took advantage of participants’ prior rich multimedia experience with Pokémon, without investing on laboratory training to examine how prior LTM influenced visual STM. In a Pokémon visual STM change detection task, participants remembered more first-generation Pokémon characters that they were more familiar with than recent-generation Pokémon characters that they were less familiar with. No significant difference in memory quality was found when quantitative and qualitative effects of LTM were isolated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses. Critically, these effects were absent in participants who were unfamiliar with first-generation Pokémon. Furthermore, several alternative interpretations were ruled out, including general video-gaming experience, subjective Pokémon preference, and verbal encoding. Together, these results demonstrated a strong link between prior stimulus familiarity in LTM and visual STM storage capacity.     

Dissociations of the number and precision of visual short-term memory representations in change detection

The present study dissociated the number (i.e., quantity) and precision (i.e., quality) of visual short-term memory (STM) representations in change detection using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and experimental manipulations. Across three experiments, participants performed both recognition and recall tests of visual STM using the change-detection task and the continuous color-wheel recall task, respectively. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the estimates of the number and precision of visual STM representations based on the ROC model of change-detection performance were robustly correlated with the corresponding estimates based on the mixture model of continuous-recall performance. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that the experimental manipulation of mnemonic precision using white-noise masking and the experimental manipulation of the number of encoded STM representations using consolidation masking produced selective effects on the corresponding measures of mnemonic precision and the number of encoded STM representations, respectively, in both change-detection and continuous-recall tasks. Altogether, using the individual-differences (Experiment 1) and experimental dissociation (Experiment 2 and 3) approaches, the present study demonstrated the some-or-none nature of visual STM representations across recall and recognition.     

Automatic thoughts as a predictor of internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents: A test of the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis with age effects

The main aim of the current study was to test the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis across internalizing and externalizing problems in Chinese adolescents. The participants consisted of 2,158 adolescents aged 11–19 years from three middle schools, and they completed a number of measures assessing a wide range of automatic thoughts and syndromes related to internalizing and externalizing problems. Multivariate regression analyses demonstrated that thoughts about social threats, personal failure and hostility were the strongest predictors of anxiety, depression, and externalizing problems, respectively. Age was a statistically significant, albeit modest, moderator of the relationship between automatic thoughts about social threat and anxiety. The current study provides support for the cognitive content‐specificity hypothesis in internalizing and externalizing problems in a Chinese sample.     

Reconnaissance des visages d’un autre groupe ethnique : éclairage d’une approche développementale

We are reviewing the recent findings on the Other Race Effect (ORE), which is the difficulty to recognize faces from other race compared to own race faces. Several hypotheses were proposed: negative attitude (Brigham and Malpass, 1985), attentional mechanisms (Chance and Goldstein, 1981), and the contact hypothesis (Brigham et al., 1982) which postulates that the ORE is due to a lack of experience with other race's faces. The contact hypothesis being, of course, modulated by attention and attitude. Valentine (1991 ; Valentine and Endo, 1992) proposes a norm-based coding model in which faces are encoded as vectors according to their deviation from a prototypical average. The resulting dimensions will differ according to the input received with certain salient, individuating dimensions carrying more “weight” than others. Predominant exposure to faces of a specific species, gender, or race early in life will cause the dimensions of one's prototype to become “tuned” towards such faces. The evidence presented support Valentine's model but we are showing that the quality of the contact is crucial in the experience. We are arguing that a developmental approach is necessary to better understand the ORE. Infants are able to process and recognize faces from an early age and several recent studies have found that the ORE can be observed from 9-10 months of age. Experimental results indicate that 6- to 9-months of age represents an important time of transition in the face processing system. If a certain type of face (other races) is not experienced prior to this period, then we appear to lose our ability to discriminate between individual faces within those groups.     

Contrasting the Theory of Planned Behavior With the Value‐Belief‐Norm Model in Explaining Conservation Behavior1

In this paper, we contrast the value‐belief‐norm (VBN) model and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for the first time regarding their ability to explain conservation behavior. The participants represent a convenience sample of 468 university students. Using survey data and adopting previously established compound measures, structural equation analyses revealed a remarkable explanatory power for both theories: TPB's intention accounted for 95% of people's conservation behavior and VBN's personal norms accounted for 64%. Compared to the VBN model, the TPB covered its concepts more fully in terms of proportions of explained variance. More importantly, the fit statistics revealed that only the TPB depicts the relations among its concepts appropriately, whereas the VBN model does not.     

短时间延迟条件下错误记忆的遗忘

两个实验中,使用DRM范式考察了短时间延迟条件下错误记忆的遗忘效应。实验一发现对两种关键项目的错误再认均随着时间延迟（即时、半小时和1个小时）的增加而提高,而在将时间变量由实验一中的被试内设计变为实验二中的被试间设计后,发现对两种关键项目的错误再认随着时间而发生不同的变化,表现为对关键诱饵的错误再认保持稳定而对中关联词的错误再认依然有所提高。说明错误记忆很顽固,一旦产生便很难衰退,当消除了其他干扰因素的潜在影响后,即使是在很短暂的测验时间延迟条件下,它至少是保持稳定的,不会随着时间而发生减弱。此外还发现了关联性和测验情境与测验时间延迟之间的交互影响,表现为对关键诱饵的错误再认受测验时间延迟的影响较小,受测验情境的影响较大;而对中关联词的错误再认则受测验时间延迟的影响较大,受测验情境的影响较小     

存在论的基本问题

唯名论和实在论之间的较量在整个哲学史上占据着重要地位。由于贝克莱、休谟和康德等人的工作,唯名论在哲学上一直处于主导地位。然而,当唯名论进入语言分析后,在处理不同语境的句子的联合这个存在论的基本问题时,给出了无数的讨论,但仍然无法给出让人接受的解决办法。于是,人们另辟新径、提出了偶态分析。美国哲学家普兰廷伽的偶态分析相当完整地解决了唯名论语言分析所遇到的问题。有意思的是,为了说明全部可能世界的存在意义,普兰廷伽不得不引进基督教的全知上帝概念。把普兰廷伽的偶态观念运用在认识论上,隐含着对恩典概念的引进。我们发现,恩典概念是可操作的,而且对存在论讨论是必要的。     

Influence of aging pathways on the evolution of heterogeneous solute-rich features in peak-aged Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloy with a high Mg/Si ratio

We report on a study of the influence of aging pathways on the evolution of solute-rich features in peak-aged Al-Mg-Si-Cu alloys. The concentration and partitioning ratios of Mg, Si and Cu and Mg/Si ratios in the heterogeneous solute-rich features all increase with increasing size, with Si exhibiting the highest partitioning ratio, but notably these ratios change dramatically depending on the aging pathway selected. Accordingly, the short-time age hardening response can be enhanced by promoting both homogeneous and heterogeneous precipitate nucleation, while simultaneous improvements in peak-aged strength and elongation can be attained by a vacancy-assisted aging pathway.