Association of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphism and academic achievement in a Chinese cohort

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a methylation enzyme that catalyzes the degradation pathway and inactivation of dopamine. It is accepted widely as being involved in the modulation of dopaminergic physiology and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. The COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with variation in COMT activity. COMT 158Met allele may be advantageous for PFC-related cognitive abilities; however, it is also associated with increased anxiety, depression, and emotional vulnerability in response to stress or educational adversity. We hypothesized that the COMT polymorphism might be associated with academic performance. In this study, 779 Taiwanese tenth-grade volunteers were recruited. Scores from the Basic Competency Test (BCT), an annual national competitive entrance examination, were used to evaluate academic performance. The results indicated that students bearing homozygous for the Met allele tended to perform more poorly in all BCT subtests as compared to the other groups. In particular, the former performed significantly more poorly in the science and social science subtests. These findings provide evidence that affective factors might overwhelm cognitive abilities in high-stake tests like the BCT.     

Labels as features (not names) for infant categorization: a neurocomputational approach

A substantial body of experimental evidence has demonstrated that labels have an impact on infant categorization processes. Yet little is known regarding the nature of the mechanisms by which this effect is achieved. We distinguish between two competing accounts: supervised name-based categorization and unsupervised feature-based categorization. We describe a neurocomputational model of infant visual categorization, based on self-organizing maps, that implements the unsupervised feature-based approach. The model successfully reproduces experiments demonstrating the impact of labeling on infant visual categorization reported in Plunkett, Hu, and Cohen (2008) . It mimics infant behavior in both the familiarization and testing phases of the procedure, using a training regime that involves only single presentations of each stimulus and using just 24 participant networks per experiment. The model predicts that the observed behavior in infants is due to a transient form of learning that might lead to the emergence of hierarchically organized categorical structure and that the impact of labels on categorization is influenced by the perceived similarity and the sequence in which the objects are presented. The results suggest that early in development, say before 12 months old, labels need not act as invitations to form categories nor highlight the commonalities between objects, but they may play a more mundane but nevertheless powerful role as additional features that are processed in the same fashion as other features that characterize objects and object categories.     

中国道教学院2009届乾道班和坤道班毕业典礼分别在青城山和衡山举行

6月21日上午,中国道教学院2009届乾道班毕业典礼在青城山道教学院隆重举行.出席典礼的领导和嘉宾有:国家宗教局四司副司长张剑,中国道教协会副会长、中国道教学院副院长张继禹,中国道教协会副会长、四川省道教协会会长唐诚青,四川省委统战部副部长、省宗教局局长王增建,成都市有关领导,中国道教协会副秘书长王炳旸,中国道教协会副秘书长、青城山道教学院院长张明心,四川省道教协会秘书长杨大明,以及四川大学宗教研究所、四川省社科院的代表.     

改革开放30年来道德教育发展特点概述

社会主义道德建设的过程也是道德教育发展的过程。30年来,随着改革开放的推进和中国社会的发展变化,道德教育的发展也呈现出与时代步伐共同演进的特点:逐渐形成从运动式的道德教育到形成规范的道德教育体系;坚持爱国主义教育为道德教育的主线;从社会道德教育到个人品德教育与社会道德教育相统一;道德教育从精英教育向公民教育转变;利用现代媒体和社会活动开展道德教育。     

小学1~4年级学生思维能力测验的初步编制

编制了“小学1~4年级学生思维能力测验”,该测验有文字、数字、图形三种测试材料,包括比较分类、归纳推理、演绎推理、空间认知、类比推理、抽象概括6个分测验。793名1~4年级小学生参加了测试,结果表明该测验难度适中、区分度较好、信度和效度较高。     

大学生学习适应量表的编制

对当代大学生学习适应问题进行了深入分析,在有关研究的基础上,探讨了当代大学生学习适应的主要因素,并编制一套适合当代大学生学习适应的测验。对四类院校918名大学生进行了施测,对调查数据进行了探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析。探索性因素分析结果表明,大学生学习适应的主要因素包括学习动机、教学模式、学习能力、学习态度、环境因素等5个方面;验证性因素分析结果表明,所提取的5个因素与构想模型拟合较好,测验具有较好的信、效度     

返回抑制的容量研究：回顾与展望

返回抑制是指当注意返回到先前注意过的位置或客体时人们的反应变慢的一种抑制现象。自20世纪90年代中期以来,越来越多的返回抑制研究开始关注最多能在多少个线索化位置上观测到返回抑制效应,即返回抑制的容量问题。文章着重从序列线索化和同时线索化两方面介绍了当前返回抑制容量研究的主要成果,总结了该领域研究的特点及存在的问题,并对未来研究方向予以展望     

工作不安全感的研究现状与展望

工作不安全感反映了一种雇员对工作或工作重要特性受到威胁时的感知和担忧。从上世纪80年代以来,它已逐步成为西方组织行为及职业心理健康研究领域中的一个重要构念。文章从5种视角厘清工作不安全感内涵及研究中存在的混淆之处,对其测量工具、研究取向进行介绍,并对有关其前因、后果和调节变量的实证研究成果进行系统性的总结,在此基础上指出未来研究的方向：（1）亟待开发统一的测量工具;（2）在区分组织情境的条件下开展更细化的研究;（3）对前因及后果的细致探索;（4）加强对调节变量的研究;（5）纵向研究的需要;（6）跨文化比较研究。     

青少年自我描述归类与人格维度特点

对青少年自我描述的内容进行归类时发现,依据不同的归类标准会得到不同的人格结构。500多名青少年学生提供了620个不同的对自我的描述,除9个项目属于对身体和家庭状况的描述外,所有的人格特征既可以归属到中国青少年人格结构的19个二级因素,又可以归属到西方大五人格结构的30个层面。这一结果表明,外显的人格特征分类无法准确表达人格结构的实际构成,人格结构的确定还需要实证评定及对内隐结构的探索。文中还讨论了心理学研究中国化（本土化）的思路与策略。     

基于比较视野下当代大学生性心理与教育的研究

在从比较的视野对国内学者针对不同性别、不同专业、不同学校类型等的大学生性心理特点以及中外高校大学生性教育的历史与现状、性教育的对象、性教育的内容与形式、性教育的队伍、性教育的成效等差异进行分析、对比研究的基础上,从中获得启示和借鉴,以推动我国高校对当代大学生性教育的有效开展。