Enhancement on the faceted growth and the coarsening of the MnBi primary phase during the directional solidification under a high magnetic field

The effect of a high magnetic field on the morphology of the MnBi primary phase during the directional solidification has been investigated experimentally and the results show that an application of a high magnetic field has enhanced the faceted growth and the coarsening of the MnBi primary phase. This may be attributed to the effect of a high magnetic field on the diffusion of the solute Mn and the growth anisotropy of the MnBi crystal.     

自尊的遗传性:来自双生子研究的证据

自尊是个体差异的一个重要方面,迄今已有许多研究从行为遗传学角度探讨自尊个体差异的来源。通过梳理现有关于自尊的双生子研究,发现:1)自尊有中等的遗传度,其个体差异来自遗传和非共享环境;2)遗传对自尊的稳定性有较大作用;3)自尊与认知、情感的联系主要源自共同的遗传基础。总之,遗传对自尊具有重要影响。未来双生子研究可拓展到自尊波动性、内隐自尊等领域,并考虑极端人群的遗传特异性和文化对自尊遗传性的影响。     

文化产品研究——文化心理学的独特视角

作为行为研究的重要补充,文化产品研究在文化心理学领域发挥了重要的作用.文化产品研究主要采用内容分析的方法,可以揭示不同时空下文化本身、人们的心理与行为的特征.中国未来的心理学研究可以利用文化产品来研究揭示不同民族、不同国家的文化和心理差异,以及近几十年社会巨变对中国人的和行为的影响,最终促进国家进步、人民幸福、社会和谐.     

杏仁核对感觉刺激的情绪性加工:自动化过程和注意调控过程的整合

利用有限的认知资源应对多变的环境刺激,选择性注意和情绪加工一个重要的共同机制是优先化关键信息的加工。尽管情绪性刺激(特别是威胁刺激)能够影响注意资源的分配,但一些关键脑区(如杏仁核)的对情绪性刺激的加工是自动化过程还是受到注意调节一直是个有争议的问题。最新的结合高时间分辨率和高空间分辨率的神经生理记录研究表明,情绪加工的重要核团,杏仁核,对情绪性刺激的加工包含早期快速的不依赖于注意资源和认知加工负荷的自动化加工成分和晚期受到额-顶叶皮层自上而下的注意调控成分,这种功能整合证实杏仁核情绪性加工存在并行的皮层下和皮层通路。     

The influence of visual short-term memory on size perception

We show that perceived size of visual stimuli can be altered by matches between the contents of visual short-term memory and stimuli in the scene. Observers were presented with a colour cue (to hold in working memory or to merely identify) and subsequently had to indicate which of the two different-coloured objects presented simultaneously on the screen appeared bigger (or smaller). One of the two objects for size judgements had the same colour as the cue (matching stimulus) and the other did not (mismatching stimulus). Perceived object size was decreased by the reappearance of the recently seen cue, as there were more size judgement errors on trials where the matching stimulus was physically bigger (relative to the mismatching stimulus) than on trials where the matching stimulus was physically smaller. The effect occurred regardless of whether the visual cue was actively maintained in working memory or was merely identified. The effect was unlikely generated by the allocation of attention, because shifting attention to a visual stimulus actually increased its perceived size. The findings suggest that visual short-term memory, whether explicit or implicit, can decrease the perceived size of subsequent visual stimuli.     

Multisensory self‐motion encoding in parietal cortex

Navigation through the environment requires the brain to process a number of incoming sensory signals, such as visual optical flow on the retina and motion information originating from the vestibular organs. In addition, tactile as well as auditory signals can help to disambiguate the continuous stream of incoming information and determining the signals resulting from one's own set of motion. In this review I will focus on the cortical processing of motion information in one subregion of the posterior parietal cortex, i.e., the ventral intraparietal area (VIP). I will review (1) electrophysiological data from single cell recordings in the awake macaque showing how self‐motion signals across different sensory modalities are represented within this area and (2) data from fMRI recordings in normal human subjects providing evidence for the existence of a functionally equivalent area of macaque area VIP in the human cortex.     

Ethical Considerations for Volunteer Recruitment of Visual Prosthesis Trials

With the development of visual prostheses research from the engineering phase to clinical trials, volunteer recruitment for the early visual prosthesis trials needs to be carefully considered. In this article, we mainly discuss several issues related to volunteer recruitment that had posed serious challenges to the visual prosthesis trials, such as low rates of participants, high expectations and underlying motivations to participate in the visual prosthesis trials as well as the importance of informed consent. When recruiting volunteers for visual prosthesis implants, it is critical that the visual prosthesis researchers should not only take into account the patient’s expectations and motivations, but also make the patients fully aware of the possible benefits and risks involved with their participation, and help patients establish realistic expectations for the early phase of visual prosthesis implantation. Based on these considerations to the challenges, eligible volunteers may be recruited in the preliminary stages of visual prosthesis trials.     

Local/foreign status,cultural background,and organizational citizenship behaviour: A study among foreign and local workers in The Netherlands

A study in Singapore (Ang et al., 2003 Ang, S., van Dyne, L. and Begley, T. M. 2003. The employment relationship of foreign workers versus local employees: A field study of organizational justice, job satisfaction, performance, and OCB. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24: 561–583. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found that foreign employees displayed a lower tendency to engage in Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) than their local counterparts. The explanation was that foreign employees often experience their employment relation as more disadvantageous. The present study attempted to investigate possible differences in OCB between foreign and local workers in The Netherlands. In addition, it aimed to ascertain what role the cultural dimension of “individualism–collectivism” plays in this connection. Contrasting the expectations, the foreign employees reported a higher propensity to pursue OCB than local workers. The difference in behaviour could not be explained by cultural differences. It was argued that economic and personal motives of foreign workers might have affected the self-reports of their organizational behaviour.     

A neural autopilot theory of habit: Evidence from consumer purchases and social media use

This article applies a two-process “neural autopilot” model to field data. The autopilot model hypothesizes that habitual choice occurs when the reward from a behavior has low numerical “doubt” (i.e., reward prediction errors are small). The model toggles between repeating a previous choice (habit) when doubt is low and making a goal-directed choice when doubt is high. The model has ingredients established in animal learning and cognitive neuroscience and is simple enough to make nonobvious predictions. In two empirical applications, we fit the model to field data on purchases of canned tuna and posting on the Chinese social media site Weibo. This style of modeling is called “structural” because there is a theoretical model of how different variables influence choices by agents (the “structure”), which tightly restricts how hidden variables lead to observed choices. There is empirical support for the model, more strongly for tuna purchases than for Weibo posting, relative to a baseline “reduced-form” model in which current choices are correlated with past choices without a mechanistic (structural) explanation. An interesting set of predictions can also be derived about how consumers react to different kinds of changes in prices and qualities of goods (this is called “counterfactual analysis”).     

消费者厌腻感的生成机理、诱发因素及缓解策略

厌腻感是指消费者对连续或过量消费同一产品或服务的效用感、享乐感或满意度下降, 负面感知逐步抑制正面感知的主观情绪体验。为缓解或防止厌腻感的产生, 消费者会采取品牌转换、多样化寻求、控制消费周期等行为, 因此厌腻感已成为企业或店铺培养顾客忠诚的主要障碍。国外文献分别从厌腻感的生成过程、功能反应、知觉状态和属性感知等方面, 划分厌腻类型; 剖析了厌腻感生成的享乐适应、边际效用递减、认知失调以及最佳刺激水平等理论原理及机理; 探讨了生理厌腻感和心理厌腻感生成的诱发因素及影响效应; 验证了外部因素和个体因素的调节作用; 同时探讨了消费者缓解或防止厌腻感的主要策略及行为反应。最后对现有文献的研究思路、特点和不足进行了评述, 提出了未来研究方向。