Face recognition is affected by similarity in spatial frequency range to a greater degree than within-category object recognition

Previous studies have suggested that face identification is more sensitive to variations in spatial frequency content than object recognition, but none have compared how sensitive the 2 processes are to variations in spatial frequency overlap (SFO). The authors tested face and object matching accuracy under varying SFO conditions. Their results showed that object recognition was more robust to SFO variations than face recognition and that the vulnerability of faces was not due to reliance on configural processing. They suggest that variations in sensitivity to SFO help explain the vulnerability of face recognition to changes in image format and the lack of a middle-frequency advantage in object recognition.     

The Effects of Early English Learning on Auditory Perception of English Minimal Pairs by Taiwan University Students

Auditory perception of English minimal pairs was tested with or without noise background. Each subject was interviewed after the test to collect information regarding their early experience on learning English as a foreign language. This study was designed to examine the differential effects of learning English at three age-starting points and two learning durations. This study hopes to determine how childhood experience of English learning (which is not mandatory in public elementary schools) has affected the auditory competence of university students in distinguishing English minimal pairs. Results showed that age effects were salient only under condition of noise background. Without the interference of background noise, most subjects performed well enough to obliterate any potential differences.     

Credentialism Across Creeds: Clergy Education and Stratification in Protestant Denominations

In this paper, we explore how Protestant denominations use education to stratify their pastors among lower and higher income jobs and how this use of education intersects with gender. We assume that reliance on education as anindication of job qualification ultimately reflects accommodation to secular norms and hypothesize that it will be practiced most strongly in theologically liberal contexts. Next, we hypothesize that women will benefit from education more than men, a pattern that is typical of secular labor markets. And we predict that education will have a stronger effect on income in denominations where regional clergy administrators have influence in matching pastors to jobs. Data are taken from the 1994 "Ordained Women and Men Study"and consist of career information on clergy in fifteen denominations. Contrary to expectations, clergy degrees have a stronger effect on income in conservative than in liberal denominations. We further find that women clergy receive lower income returns to their degrees in denominations requiring a Master of Divinity for ordination but receive higher returns in the others. Finally, results show that seminary prestige is more beneficial in denominations where pastors are hired directly by congregations rather than placed in congregations by regional clergy administrators.     

The usefulness of distinguishing between a defensive and a nondefensive external locus of control

The study's purpose was to determine whether a distinction can be made between individuals adopting an external locus of control as a defense and those adopting the orientation because it reflects their life experience. It was hypothesized that the two groups differ in the amount of personal responsibility they accept for task outcomes. Internals and externals were identified and then further designated as high or low in action taking. Among externals, a high action-taking score implied defensiveness. Subjects randomly received either success or failure feedback on a presumed task of interpersonal sensitivity. Defensive externals varied their causal attributions as a function of outcome, whereas nondefensive externals did not (p < .05). The distinction between defensive and nondefensive external control was thus supported.     

墨子的兼爱理想与世界和谐的构建

墨子提出的“天下之人皆相爱”理想,虽然没有实现,但一直是人类追求的目标。在全球一体化和现代化的今天,面对日益盛行的个人主义和民族利己主义或国家至上主义,面对一切湮没在利害关系之中的无情无爱世界,面对各种犯罪、恐怖活动和局部战争,以墨子的兼爱理想为旗帜,建立“强不执弱,众不动寡,富不侮贫,贵不敖(傲)贱,诈不欺愚”的制约机制,构建动态的世界和谐,已经成为当代人类和世界各国面临的重大而紧迫的任务。本文试图阐述墨子的兼爱思想对构建当代世界和谐的意义。     

Moving from cognition to behavior: What the research says

In 1994, R. G. Lord and P. E. Levy proposed a variant of control theory that incorporated human information processing principles. The current article evaluates the empirical evidence for their propositions and updates the theory by considering contemporary research on information processing. Considerable support drawing from diverse literatures was found for propositions concerning the activation of goal-relevant information, the inhibition of goal-irrelevant information, and the consequences of goal completion. These effects were verified by meta-analytic analyses, which also supported the meaningfulness of such effects on the basis of their unstandardized magnitudes. The authors conclude by proposing new directions for this version of control theory by invoking recent theorizing on goal emergence and the importance of velocity and acceleration information for goal striving and by reviewing research in cognitive neuroscience.     

The Influence of Masculinity and Femininity in Different Advertising Processing Contexts: An Accessibility Perspective

The accessibility of self-rated masculinity and femininity is proposed to vary as a function of individual differences, product types, and affective states. In turn, enhanced accessibility of masculinity or femininity should increase the influence of masculine or feminine ad-self congruency on advertisement evaluations. Results of two experiments showed that, for individuals whose masculinity or femininity was chronically accessible, congruency between ad portrayals and self-ratings on these dimensions predicted more positive attitudes toward the advertisement. Moreover, product types and affective states altered the degree of influence that masculine or feminine ad-self congruency exerted on advertisement evaluations. Finally, individuals high in masculinity were found to rely more on product function beliefs when evaluating advertised brands.     

态度测量的新进展:二值概率展开模型及一般形式

态度测量主要应用两种模型:累进型与展开型。目前国内的相关研究主要针对累进型模型。文章在回顾累进型模型的基础上,介绍了当前国际研究最为前沿的一种新的态度测量模型———二值概率展开模型,并详细阐述了该模型的一般数学表达式。     

Backward conditioning: mediation by the context

The information acquired in backward conditioning (i.e., outcome-->cue) was assessed in 3 Pavlovian lick-suppression experiments with water-deprived rats as subjects. Experiment 1 confirmed previous research that few outcome-->cue pairings made the cue into a conditioned excitor and additionally showed that massive posttraining extinction of the training context attenuated a backward-trained cue's excitatory value. Experiment 2 found that many outcome-->cue pairings made the cue into a conditioned inhibitor and that the same context manipulation attenuated this inhibitory value. Experiment 3 confirmed the observations of Experiments 1 and 2 and demonstrated that these effects of context extinction were specific to backward-trained cues conditioned in the extinguished context. These results are interpreted in terms of cue-->context and context-->outcome associations.