Traits and stories: links between dispositional and narrative features of personality

Dispositional traits and life narratives represent two different levels of personality that have not previously been empirically linked. The current study tested five hypotheses connecting Big-Five traits to life-narrative indices of emotional tone, theme, and structure. Students (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) completed a self-report measure of the Big-Five traits and provided extended written accounts of either ten (students) or eight (adults) key life-narrative scenes, including life high points, low points, and turning points. Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion (e.g., friendship, caring for others), and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts. Contrary to prediction, however, Conscientiousness was not consistently associated with themes of agency (e.g., achievement, self-mastery) and Extraversion was unrelated to positive narrative tone. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary research and theorizing on the narrative study of lives and the relation of narrative research in personality to more conventional, trait-based approaches.     

Psychophysiological mediators of caregiver stress and differential cognitive decline

The authors examined relationships between chronic stress and cognitive decline and whether such relationships were mediated by psychophysiological factors. Ninety-six caregivers of spouses with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were compared with 95 similar noncaregiver spouses. All were free of diabetes. Although the groups started similarly, over 2 years caregivers declined by a small but significant amount (1 raw score point and 4 percentile points, each p<.05) on Shipley Vocabulary. In contrast, noncaregivers did not change. Higher hostile attribution (beta=-.09; p<.05) and metabolic risk (beta=-.10; p<.05) in caregivers mediated the cognitive decline. This is the first study of cognitive decline and mediators in caregivers. This work has implications for caregiver and care-recipient health and for research on cognition, psychophysiology, diabetes, and AD.     

弱智儿童在上课时和自由活动时的行为表现

研究了４１名弱智儿童。采用时间样本的方法收集材料,以期从动态角度了解弱智儿童在上课时和自由活动时的行为表现。按园别和智力落后程度两个方面对被试在上课时的８大类行为和自由活动时的７大类行为进行了分析。结果发现：班级人数、不同教学方法和智力落后程度与弱智儿童的行为表现有关。还对收集材料的方法、园别和智力落后程度与弱智儿童的行为表现的关系、高频率的自娱活动等,进行了讨论。最后,根据研究结果对教师提出了教学建议。     

关于闪光盲的研究——Ⅱ 短暂强闪光对中心视觉恢复时间的影响

在暗适应条件下对11名正常视力的男性受试者测定了进入眼内的闪光能量与恢复时间的关系。当闪光时间为0.1—5毫秒,积分亮度为0.07—1.69熙提秒时,人眼辨别一6’视角的蓝道环缺口所需的恢复时间仅取决于亮度和曝光时间的乘积,即Bloch律成立。文章并对防闪光盲护目镜应具的关闭时间进行了讨论。     

智力落后儿童用左、右手抓物的实验研究

本研究旨在探讨智力落后儿童在实验情景下用手抓物的方式、及其与大脑侧偏化的关系。结果表明:(1)智力落后儿童混用手情况多。被试在取物时,使用左手或右手次数的比率平均约为1:2,相当于1—2岁正常儿童用左、右手取物的比率;(2)性别与年龄对落后儿童用手方式无明显影响;(3)病情等级对用手方式有明显影响:轻度智力落后儿童使用左、右手的比率大于中、重度智力落后儿童的同样比率;(4)智力落后儿童抓物的线索在四个实验中不完全相同:实验Ⅰ至Ⅲ的线索为位置(近手),实验Ⅳ为对实验用具的喜爱;(5)在混用手与大脑侧偏化(或优势脑未分化)不完善之间,可能有直接关系。此问题尚需进一步研究。     

The effect of the physical versus mental presence of a high-powered person on consumers' healthy food choices

Consumers make distinct food choices when they see versus when they think about a powerful person. This research identifies two scenarios involving the presence of a high-powered other, physical presence versus mental presence, and examines the effect of the physical and mental presence of a high-powered other on consumers' healthy food choices. Conducting six experiments, we show that the physical presence of a high-powered other increases one's self-enhancement motivation and leads to healthier food choices, while the mental presence of a high-powered other increases one's perceived constraints and leads to unhealthy food choices. We also find that interpersonal closeness moderates the positive effect of the physical presence of a high-powered other on healthy food choices but does not moderate the negative effect of the mental presence of a high-powered other on healthy food choices.     

Looking more masculine among females: Spatial context modulates gender perception of face and biological motion

Perception of visual information highly depends on spatial context. For instance, perception of a low-level visual feature, such as orientation, can be shifted away from its surrounding context, exhibiting a simultaneous contrast effect. Although previous studies have demonstrated the adaptation aftereffect of gender, a high-level visual feature, it remains largely unknown whether gender perception can also be shaped by a simultaneously presented context. In the present study, we found that the gender perception of a central face or a point-light walker was repelled away from the gender of its surrounding faces or walkers. A norm-based opponent model of lateral inhibition, which accounts for the adaptation aftereffect of high-level features, can also excellently fit the simultaneous contrast effect. But different from the reported contextual effect of low-level features, the simultaneous contrast effect of gender cannot be observed when the centre and the surrounding stimuli are from different categories, or when the surrounding stimuli are suppressed from awareness. These findings on one hand reveal a resemblance between the simultaneous contrast effect and the adaptation aftereffect of high-level features, on the other hand highlight different biological mechanisms underlying the contextual effects of low- and high-level visual features.     

Smartphone use and daily cognitive failures: A critical examination using a daily diary approach with objective smartphone measures

While smartphones have brought many benefits and conveniences to users, there is continuing debate regarding their potential negative consequences on everyday cognition such as daily cognitive failures. A few cross-sectional studies have found positive associations between smartphone use and cognitive failures. However, several research gaps remain, such as the use of cross-sectional designs, confounds related to stable individual differences, the lack of validity in self-report measures of smartphone use, memory biases in retrospective self-reports, and the lack of differentiation between smartphone checking and smartphone screen time. To simultaneously address the aforementioned shortcomings, the current study examined the within-person associations between various objective indicators of smartphone use and daily cognitive failures using a 7-day daily diary study. Multilevel modelling revealed that smartphone checking, but not total smartphone screen time, predicted a greater occurrence of daily cognitive failures at the within-person level. Surprisingly, we also found negative within-person associations between smartphone screen time for social- and tools-related applications and daily cognitive failures, suggesting that some types of smartphone use may temporarily benefit one's cognitive functioning. This finding demonstrates the importance of studying the specific functions of smartphone use and their differential cognitive consequences, as well as highlights the complex relations between smartphone use and cognition.     

Blunted reward responsiveness prospectively predicts emotional distress when exposed to a naturalistic stressor

Both stress and blunted reward responsiveness have been identified as core risk factors of depression. Whether blunted reward responsiveness increases psychological vulnerability to real-life stress from a dynamic perspective (from stress reactivity to recovery) has not been investigated. By utilizing a real-world stressful event (i.e. the final examination), this study aimed to explore the role of reward responsiveness in the stress-emotional distress relationship during stress reactivity and recovery phases. We followed 57 undergraduates with three assessments, from six weeks before examination weeks (T1, baseline), one day before the examinations (T2) to two weeks after the examinations (T3), therefore, covering stress reactivity (T1 to T2) and recovery (T2 to T3) phases. At baseline, reward responsiveness was measured as the Reward Positivity (RewP) in the doors task. Stress and emotional distress (anxiety and depression) were reported at T1, T2 and T3 to capture their dynamic changes. Results showed that self-report stress levels significantly increased from T1 to T2 (stress reactivity phase) and decreased from T2 to T3 (stress recovery phase). Furthermore, blunted reward responsiveness at baseline prospectively predicted emotional distress during the stress reactivity phase but not the recovery phase. Specifically, during the stress reactivity phase, higher perceived stress was associated with greater anxiety and depression only in participants with relatively smaller residual RewP amplitudes but not in participants with relatively larger residual RewP amplitudes. Our study demonstrated that a blunted reward responsiveness is a vulnerable factor of depression, especially when exposed to stress. Our findings provide insights into prevention and intervention for stress-related disturbance.