Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese-English,Spanish-English bilingual,and English monolingual children

How do early bilingual experiences influence children's neural architecture for word processing? Dual language acquisition can yield common influences that may be shared across different bilingual groups, as well as language-specific influences stemming from a given language pairing. To investigate these effects, we examined bilingual English speakers of Chinese or Spanish, and English monolinguals, all raised in the US (N = 152, ages 5–10). Children completed an English morphological word processing task during fNIRS neuroimaging. The findings revealed both language-specific and shared bilingual effects. The language-specific effects were that Chinese and Spanish bilinguals showed principled differences in their neural organization for English lexical morphology. The common bilingual effects shared by the two groups were that in both bilingual groups, increased home language proficiency was associated with stronger left superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation when processing the English word structures that are most dissimilar from the home language. The findings inform theories of language and brain development during the key periods of neural reorganization for learning to read by illuminating experience-based plasticity in linguistically diverse learners.     

Nest box entrance hole size can influence nest site selection and nest defence behaviour in Japanese tits

Animal Cognition - Birds have the ability to assess the risk of predation in their environment and adjust their antipredation strategies based on this risk information. However, whether nest site...     

The mere possession effect of shareable digital coupons: The mediating role of anticipated self-enhancement

Shareable digital coupons have emerged as a new marketing strategy. Prior literature on shareable coupons assumes that shareable coupons can play a role only after they have been shared with others. Surprisingly, we theorize that shareable coupons can come into play as early as when consumers merely possess them, even before consumers share them with others, an effect that precedes the effect of the actual coupon sharing. In this research, we show that the mere possession of shareable digital coupons (not necessarily the actual sharing) is able to induce anticipated self-enhancement among consumers. Hence shareable digital coupons are more effective than non-shareable digital coupons, and the effect is most pronounced among consumers with high image concerns. The higher coupon effectiveness of shareable digital coupons is reflected in consumers' greater urge/intention to acquire the coupon, intention to revisit, willingness to spend, as well as in firm's sales increase when products are promoted with shareable instead of non-shareable digital coupons. Our work contributes to the literature on shareable coupons, the mere possession effects, anticipated self-enhancement, and other-rewarding promotions, and is of important managerial value given the ease with which the shareability feature can be added to coupons.     

自闭症谱系障碍社交动机理论：机制及干预探索

自闭症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD)表现为社会交往困难以及重复刻板兴趣或行为。社交动机理论提出ASD个体是由于社交动机缺乏导致的社交障碍。目前该理论缺乏理论元素及结构关系的系统论证, 及基于此理论的低龄ASD儿童群体的研究证据。本研究拟采用心理实验法、眼动及近红外脑成像技术, 探索低龄ASD儿童早期社交奖赏、社交定向异常眼动标记及眶额叶脑区活动的神经机制。此外, 通过音乐奖赏强化学习的干预方式改善该理论的核心元素(社交奖赏), 观测能否改善ASD儿童的社交动机。本研究的开展有望对该理论进行系统验证, 并形成改善社交行为的潜在干预方案。     

跨期选择的变易程度正向预测中华文化圈国民的自评扛疫成效：亚非欧美大洋洲18国跨国研究

跨期选择是对不同时间点的得失的权衡与选择。伊索寓言《蚂蚁和蚱蜢》假借群居型昆虫的跨期选择偏爱暗喻投资未来的慢策略比只顾眼前的快策略更利于生存。用跨期选择领域通用的语言解读这一寓言便是：选择大而迟选项的蚂蚁比选择小而早选项的蚱蜢更可能扛过严冬而生存下来。为了探索何种跨期选择策略更有助于我们扛过疫情,本研究调查了亚非欧美大洋洲这5大洲18个国家共计26355名受测者对混合得失双结果的跨期选择偏爱,测量了人们平时和疫时跨期选择偏爱的变易程度(2类变易的程度指标),以及人们自评的扛疫成效。跨文化比较结果的主要发现是：不同通货的选择变易程度(指标1)和不同时期的选择变易程度(指标2)能联合预测中国/新加坡文化圈国民的自评扛疫成效;不同时期的选择变易程度(指标2)也可以单独预测印度/马来西亚/菲律宾/尼日利亚文化圈国民的自评扛疫成效;这2类选择偏爱变易的程度指标不能预测其他文化圈国民的自评扛疫成效(或者预测方向和假设相反)。基于易经“穷则变,变则通”的要旨和跨国比较的发现,我们认为：面临历史危机时善于变通的特长抑或成就了中华民族特有的竞争优势;在应对危机时,与中国文化距离越相近的国家或民族抑或也能...     

Rice-farming areas report more anxiety across two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Cultures responded to the COVID-19 pandemic differently. We investigated cultural differences in mental health during the pandemic. We found regional differences in people's reports of anxiety in China over two years from 2020 to 2021 (N = 1186). People in areas with a history of rice farming reported more anxiety than people in wheat-farming areas. Next, we explored more proximal mechanisms that could help link the distal, historical factor of rice farming to people's modern experience of anxiety. Rice areas scored higher on collectivism and tight social norms than wheat areas, and collectivism, rather than norm tightness, mediated the rice-anxiety relationship. These findings advance our understanding of the distal sources of cultural differences, the proximal mechanisms, and mental health problems during the pandemics.     

汉字词特征语义提取的实验研究

本研究运用语义判断的方法,对汉字词特征语义的提取做了初步的探讨,被试是28名大学生。实验结果表明,汉字形声字的义符在汉字词定义特征语义提取中有重要作用,在义符与词义一致时,能加速词的定义特征语义的提取。义符对词的特有特征的语义提取无作用,而特有特征的强度能很好地预测提取时间。本研究还发现,词的熟悉性和该词距其上属的语义距离对词的定义特征的语义提取亦有重要影响。     

四组中国被试的归因在维度上相对位置的评定

本文研究了中国被试对十项归因(心境、技巧、知识、机会、努力、帮助、能力、任务、偏好和运气)在五个维度(基源性、稳定性、控制性、预见性和普遍性)上相对位置的评定。并与钱德拉等人(Cbandler & Spies,1984),用美国被试所得的结果进行了比较。实验结果表明中国被试与美国被试评定的一致性达62%。此外,没有一项归因的评定是在维度的极端等极(1.0-2.0或6.0-7.0)。