Affective bias in visual working memory is associated with capacity

How does the affective nature of task stimuli modulate working memory (WM)? This study investigates whether WM maintains emotional information in a biased manner to meet the motivational principle of approaching positivity and avoiding negativity by retaining more approach-related positive content over avoidance-related negative content. This bias may exist regardless of individual differences in WM functionality, as indexed by WM capacity (overall bias hypothesis). Alternatively, this bias may be contingent on WM capacity (capacity-based hypothesis), in which a better WM system may be more likely to reveal an adaptive bias. In two experiments, participants performed change localisation tasks with emotional and non-emotional stimuli to estimate the number of items that they could retain for each of those stimuli. Although participants did not seem to remember one type of emotional content (e.g. happy faces) better than the other type of emotional content (e.g. sad faces), there was a significant correlation between WM capacity and affective bias. Specifically, participants with higher WM capacity for non-emotional stimuli (colours or line-drawing symbols) tended to maintain more happy faces over sad faces. These findings demonstrated the presence of a “built-in” affective bias in WM as a function of its systematic limitations, favouring the capacity-based hypothesis.     

How Incidental Confidence Influences Self‐Interested Behaviors: A Double‐Edged Sword

The present research investigates how incidental confidence influences self‐interested behaviors. It is well established that being in a psychological state of lower confidence causes people to experience psychological aversion that they are motivated to reduce. We study the transfer effect of confidence; people strive to compensate for lower confidence in one domain by obtaining higher status in other unrelated domains. Prior research has linked money with status and suggested that money can increase confidence. Building on this research, we proposed and showed in four experiments that lower incidental confidence increased self‐interested behaviors that brought financial gains. Drawing on research on competitive altruism, we also predicted and found that when altruism, rather than money, was seen as the primary source of status, the effect of incidental confidence reversed such that lower incidental confidence decreased self‐interested behaviors. Data ruled out alternative explanations and provided consistent evidence for the proposed compensatory mechanism. We also discussed theoretical and practical implications of the present research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unable to be a Human Being in Front of Other People: A Qualitative Study of Self-Isolation Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in China

In China, acute stigma accompanying an HIV diagnosis can lead to self-isolation. In a cultural setting where family relationships are highly valued and contribute critically to well-being, such self-isolation can thwart HIV self-management and engagement in medical care, and so heighten risk for health disparities. To understand this phenomenon, we conducted individual in-depth interviews with 34 persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLwHA) in Shanghai and Beijing. Inductive content analysis revealed a range of forms of self-isolation motivation, beliefs, and behaviors influenced by: 1) internalized stigma and desire to avoid discrimination; 2) HIV-related factors such as HIV knowledge and disease progression; and 3) familial factors such as a sense of responsibility and family members’ reactions. Based on a proposed framework centering on dialectical family influences (whereby PLwHA are pushed away from, yet pulled toward the family fold), implications for provision of multidisciplinary care in medical settings are considered, including culturally appropriate strategies to decrease health disparities.     

跨文化心理学的困境与出路

跨文化心理学经历了四十多年的发展,积累大量丰富经验的同时,也暴露了它自身的不足。比如研究前提与研究目标相矛盾的问题;研究者的立场问题;研究方法及结果的效度问题等等。然而,21世纪为跨文化心理学的完善和发展心理学提供了广阔的空间,跨文化心理学又在对心理现象和行为进行多层次多角度的考察分析中成长。     

面孔情绪下3～8岁儿童时距知觉的实验研究

新近研究结合日趋成熟的标量计时模型及神经学相关依据提出,情绪诱发的生理唤醒会加长主观时距,而注意唤醒会缩短主观时距,且各自有不同的发生特点。本研究选取3、5、8岁被试,系统探讨了800～3200ms范围内,儿童在高兴和生气两种面孔表情刺激下的时距知觉特点,并以中性面孔表情作为参照。研究发现:(1)3～8岁儿童都已具备明显的时距知觉,但时间敏感度随年龄的增加而提高;(2)3～8岁儿童时距判断均会受到情绪的干扰,情绪刺激下的主观时距长于中性刺激下的主观时距;(3)3～8岁儿童生气表情下的主观时距长于高兴表情下的主观时距,生理唤醒效应作用更为明显。     

不同情绪诱发方法有效性的比较研究

采用自我报告和生理反馈法,从强度、纯度、时间进程三方面考察图片、音乐、电影和回忆四种常用情绪诱发方法诱发出的高兴、激动、悲伤和恐惧四种不同维度的情绪的有效性。得出结论：（1）总体上,音乐诱发情绪的强度最高,图片最低;在积极情绪中,音乐诱发的强度普遍较高,图片较低;消极情绪中,回忆诱发的强度普遍较高,音乐较低。（2）音乐诱发情绪的纯度较高,图片较低。（3）效价和激活度不同,情绪的时间进程不同,高兴能持续将近1分钟,激动能持续2分30秒,悲伤能持续1分30秒,而恐惧能持续2分钟。     

人类疼痛表情研究进展

疼痛表情是人类疼痛表达的行为方式之一,具有重要的生存适应和社会交流价值。疼痛表情研究应当遵循行为观察方法,基于面部运动编码系统（Facial Action Coding System, FACS）的表情编码有助于疼痛表情的量化分析。年龄、性别、社会因素、文化背景等多种因素会影响疼痛表情表达,使疼痛表情在不同个体之间表现出共性和个性并存的特性。在不断改进研究方法的基础上,未来可对疼痛表情的生理心理机制作出更多阐述,并有望建立完备的人类疼痛表情信息库。     

Audiovisual sentence recognition not predicted by susceptibility to the McGurk effect

In noisy situations, visual information plays a critical role in the success of speech communication: listeners are better able to understand speech when they can see the speaker. Visual influence on auditory speech perception is also observed in the McGurk effect, in which discrepant visual information alters listeners’ auditory perception of a spoken syllable. When hearing /ba/ while seeing a person saying /ga/, for example, listeners may report hearing /da/. Because these two phenomena have been assumed to arise from a common integration mechanism, the McGurk effect has often been used as a measure of audiovisual integration in speech perception. In this study, we test whether this assumed relationship exists within individual listeners. We measured participants’ susceptibility to the McGurk illusion as well as their ability to identify sentences in noise across a range of signal-to-noise ratios in audio-only and audiovisual modalities. Our results do not show a relationship between listeners’ McGurk susceptibility and their ability to use visual cues to understand spoken sentences in noise, suggesting that McGurk susceptibility may not be a valid measure of audiovisual integration in everyday speech processing.     

《晏子春秋》战国中后期成书说补证——从一组常用词的演变着眼

词汇是语言三要素中最活跃的因素,它比语音、语法更能反映时代变化,通过考察《晏子春秋》中的＂酣、履、睡、布衣、诚信、夫子、枯槁、身体、声名、树木、学问＂等常用词所体现出的时代特征,足以为前人关于《晏子》成书于战国中后期的论断提供语言史上的有力支持。