Contrasting off-line segmentation decisions with on-line word segmentation during reading

In two experiments, we investigated the correspondences between off-line word segmentation and on-line segmentation processing during Chinese reading. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to read sentences which contained critical four-character strings, and then, they were required to segment the same sentences into words in a later off-line word segmentation task. For each item, participants were split into 1-word segmenters (who segmented four-character strings as a single word) and 2-word segmenters (who segmented four-character strings as 2 two-character words). Thus, we split participants into two groups (1-word segmenters and 2-word segmenters) according to their off-line segmentation bias. The data analysis showed no reliable group effect on all the measures. In order to avoid the heterogeneity of participants and stimuli in Experiment 1, two groups of participants (1-word segmenters and 2-word segmenters) and three types of critical four-character string (1-word strings, ambiguous strings, and 2-word strings) were identified in a norming study in Experiment 2. Participants were required to read sentences containing these critical strings. There was no reliable group effect in Experiment 2, as was the case in Experiment 1. However, in Experiment 2, participants spent less time and made fewer fixations on 1-word strings compared to ambiguous and 2-word strings. These results indicate that the off-line word segmentation preferences do not necessarily reflect on-line word segmentation processing during Chinese reading and that Chinese readers exhibit flexibility such that word, or multiple constituent, segmentation commitments are made on-line.     

中小学生阅读不同配图课文的眼动研究

使用ASL-4200R型眼动仪,采用3×2×2的三因素混合设计,对77名中小学生阅读不同配图课文进行了考察。结果表明:(1)中小学生阅读不同配图难度课文的阅读成绩、阅读时间等阅读理解指标,以及注视频率、注视点持续时间和眼跳距离等眼动指标具有明显的年龄特征;(2)中小学生阅读不同配图课文的阅读成绩、阅读时间和阅读速度等阅读理解指标,以及注视次数和回视次数等眼动指标具有显著差异,示意图组显著优于实景图组;(3)中小学生阅读不同难度课文的注视频率和回视次数对阅读过程有非常显著的影响,易课文显著优于难课文。     

The Daily Motivators: Positive Work Events,Psychological Needs Satisfaction,and Work Engagement

This study examines the motivational effects of daily positive work events. Drawing on self-determination theory, we investigated the motivational mechanism of two clusters of commonly encountered positive work events—achievement and recognition events—from a within-person perspective. Specifically, we argue that achievement events and recognition events influence subsequent work engagement through satisfying different psychological needs. We tested our model using experience-sampling data from 200 full-time employees over eight workdays. As hypothesised, after controlling for positive affect as an additional mediator, both achievement and recognition events had positive effects on work engagement through psychological needs satisfaction. The results also revealed that achievement and recognition work events had differentiated effects in satisfying different psychological needs. These results shed light on the motivational function of positive work events above and beyond the affective mechanism and explicate the processes through which different types of positive work events relate to work engagement.     

Internet gratifications and internet addiction: on the uses and abuses of new media.

Internet addiction has been identified as a pathological behavior, but its symptoms may be found in normal populations, placing it within the scope of conventional theories of media attendance. The present study drew upon fresh conceptualizations of gratifications specific to the Internet to uncover seven gratification factors: Virtual Community, Information Seeking, Aesthetic Experience, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, Personal Status, and Relationship Maintenance. With no parallel in prior research, Virtual Community might be termed a "new" gratification. Virtual Community, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, and Personal Status gratifications accounted for 28% of the variance in Internet Addiction Tendency. The relationship between Internet addiction and gratifications was discussed in terms of the formation of media habits and the distinction between content and process gratifications.     

Stress effects in the hippocampus: synaptic plasticity and memory

It is now well-documented that exposures to uncontrollable (inescapable and unpredictable) stress in adulthood can have profound effects on brain and behavior. Converging lines of evidence from human and animal studies indicate that stress interferes with subsequent performances on a variety of hippocampal-dependent memory tasks. Animal studies further revealed that stress impedes ensuing induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. Because the hippocampus is important for key aspects of memory formation and because LTP has qualities congruent to an information storage mechanism, it is hypothesized that stress-induced modifications in hippocampal plasticity contribute to memory impairments associated with stress. Recent studies provide evidence that the amygdala, a structure important in stress- and emotion-related behaviors, plays a necessary role in the emergence of stress-associated changes in hippocampal LTP and memory. Early life stress also alters hippocampal plasticity and memory in a manner largely consistent with effects of adult stress exposure. This review focuses on endocrine-system-level mechanisms of stress effects in the hippocampus, and how stress, by altering the property of hippocampal plasticity, can subsequently influence hippocampal memory.     

Hyperspecificity in visual implicit learning: learning of spatial layout is contingent on item identity

Humans conduct visual search faster when the same display is presented for a 2nd time, showing implicit learning of repeated displays. This study examines whether learning of a spatial layout transfers to other layouts that are occupied by items of new shapes or colors. The authors show that spatial context learning is sometimes contingent on item identity. For example, when the training session included some trials with black items and other trials with white items, learning of the spatial layout became specific to the trained color--no transfer was seen when items were in a new color during testing. However, when the training session included only trials in black (or white), learning transferred to displays with a new color. Similar results held when items changed shapes after training. The authors conclude that implicit visual learning is sensitive to trial context and that spatial context learning can be identity contingent.     

Predictive validity of a multidisciplinary model of reemployment success

The authors propose a multidisciplinary model of the predictors of reemployment and test its predictive validity for explaining reemployment success. Predictor variables from the fields of economics, sociology, and psychology are incorporated into the model. Reemployment success is conceptualized as a construct consisting of unemployment insurance exhaustion and reemployment speed, and for reemployed persons, job improvement, job-organization fit, and intention to leave the new job. Direct, mediated, and moderated relationships were hypothesized and tested, clarifying the role of the variables in the reemployment process and outcome. The authors' proposal and examination of a multidisciplinary model of reemployment success contributes to a literature that has not tended to adequately cross disciplinary boundaries.     

Evolution of disability in late 19th century America: Civil War pensions for Union Army veterans with musculoskeletal conditions

This article examines the evolution of musculoskeletal (MSK) disability and its impact on mortality and work patterns in the late 19th century in America, in the context of the Civil War disability policy scheme. The study was conducted on 17,702 Union Army (UA) Civil War veterans. Of these, 10,789 were examined and diagnosed with major MSK conditions, rheumatism, sciatica, and spinal curvature, between 1862 and 1907. Analyses examine MSK (i) prevalence rates by birth cohort and age group; (ii) fatality rates as compared with other disabilities; (iii) risk rates by occupation type; and (iv) lifespan for MSK patients. MSK conditions are commonly claimed disabilities within the Civil War data set, with prevalence rates increasing with age. Regression studies show that working in clerical and professional (relative to manual labor) occupations decreases the likelihood of being examined for and diagnosed with MSK conditions. MSK patients examined at older ages tended to have longer lifespan than those examined at younger ages. The findings suggest that changes in age, environmental, and occupational conditions during the late 19th century affected MSK condition prevalence and the average lifespan of MSK patients. Implications for contemporary disability policy are discussed.     

Linking sight and sound: fMRI evidence of primary auditory cortex activation during visual word recognition

We describe two studies that used repetition priming paradigms to investigate brain activity during the reading of single words. Functional magnetic resonance images were collected during a visual lexical decision task in which nonword stimuli were manipulated with regard to phonological properties and compared to genuine English words. We observed a region in left-hemisphere primary auditory cortex linked to a repetition priming effect. The priming effect activity was observed only for stimuli that sound like known words; moreover, this region was sensitive to strategic task differences. Thus, a brain region involved in the most basic aspects of auditory processing appears to be engaged in reading even when there is no environmental oral or auditory component.