The ontogeny of cumulative culture: Individual toddlers vary in faithful imitation and goal emulation

The success of human culture depends on early emerging mechanisms of social learning, which include the ability to acquire opaque cultural knowledge through faithful imitation, as well as the ability to advance culture through flexible discovery of new means to goal attainment. This study explores whether this mixture of faithful imitation and goal emulation is based in part on individual differences which emerge early in ontogeny. Experimental measurements and parental reports were collected for a group of 2‐year‐old children (N = 48, age = 23–32 months) on their imitative behavior as well as other aspects of cognitive and social development. Results revealed individual differences in children's imitative behavior across trials and tasks which were best characterized by a model that included two behavioral routines; one corresponding to faithful imitation, and one to goal emulation. Moreover, individual differences in faithful imitation and goal emulation were correlated with individual differences in theory of mind, prosocial behavior, and temperament. These findings were discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the mechanisms of social learning, ontogeny of cumulative culture, and the benefit of analyzing individual differences for developmental experiments.     

Seeking harmony in Chinese families: A dyadic analysis on Chinese parent‒child relations

Based on Leung, Koch, and Lu’s (2002) dualistic harmony model, we examined the relations of two harmony‐seeking behaviors—harmony enhancement and disintegration avoidance—to family functioning among 177 Hong Kong Chinese adolescent?parent dyads. Structural equation modeling results showed that adolescent‐rated harmony enhancement was positively related to adolescent‐rated family functioning whereas parent‐rated harmony enhancement was positively related to parent‐rated family functioning. Disintegration avoidance, however, was not related to family functioning in the two samples. Furthermore, no significant cross‐path association between harmony‐seeking behaviors and family functioning was identified, meaning that the harmony‐seeking behaviors of adolescents and their parents did not relate to each other’s perception of family functioning. Implications of these findings to our understanding of family in Chinese culture are discussed.     

人类性别加工的认知神经机制

性别信息是人类重要的生物和社会属性, 对性别快速而准确的识别对人类的生存和繁衍具有重要意义。人类的性别加工具有自动化、刻板化以及不对称性等特点, 并受性别加工主体、其他性别信息、社会类别信息以及高级认知调节的影响。聚焦于面孔和声音这两个性别信息的主要来源, 综述了性别加工的行为和神经机制研究, 并提出了两阶段性别加工模型, 早期阶段为对性别信息物理属性的特异性加工, 晚期阶段为对抽象性别信息的一般性加工。未来的研究可以重点关注性别加工的系统性研究、性别分类和机器学习、以及性别的二相性问题等方面。     

中小学生正念注意觉知与心理健康：情绪调节和积极重评的跨时间中介作用

本研究探讨中小学生正念注意觉知的发展及其与心理健康的关系,并考察情绪调节和积极重评在其中起到的中介作用。研究采用追踪设计,来自江西地区两所小学(4到6年级)和两所中学(7到9年级)的共1251名学生(男生691人,女生560人)在间隔半年的两个时间点分别填写了测量正念注意觉知、心理健康(生活满意度、抑郁、焦虑、学业压力)、情绪调节以及积极重评的问卷。结果表明：(1)中学生正念注意觉知显著低于小学生;(2)中小学生正念注意觉知与两个时间点的情绪调节、积极重评及心理健康均显著相关;(3)跨时间点中介效应检验结果表明,在中小学生正念注意觉知和各心理健康变量的关系中,情绪调节中介效应均显著,积极重评中介效应均不显著。结论：中小学生正念注意觉知与心理健康密切相关,正念注意觉知通过情绪调节能力间接作用于中小学生心理健康。     

论《管子》的富民思想

《管子》的富民思想是齐国强盛的主要思想根源。它以对人性的认识作为哲学基础,以对民众巨大力量的认识为现实考虑,在实践层面具体演化为行之有效的富民治国方略。《管子》的富民思想体现了“以人为本”的理念,这不仅对秦汉及后世统治者的治国思想有着重大影响,而且对于我们今天的社会经济发展有着重要的借鉴价值。     

Temporary employees in Singapore: what drives them?

In this study the authors provide an empirical analysis of the job attitudes and behavior of temporary workers in Singapore, compiling and categorizing the various reasons individuals choose temporary jobs, in an effort to provide a clear and comprehensive understanding of why people choose this work arrangement. A profile of temporary employees showed that job attitudes are affected by the importance of the various reasons given for being a temporary worker. This exploratory study provides a foundation on which more complex relationships between these variables can be examined.     

An attempt to discriminate different types of executive functions in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

This study examined the roles of the phonological working memory and the central executive in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test by altering the materials and the procedure of the task and using a dual-task design, in which cognitive abilities of normal participants were manipulated by performance of the secondary tasks selectively taxing the phonological loop or the central executive. The present study used three novel versions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, namely the WCST-4 stimuli, the WCST-12-stimuli, and the WCST-12-stimuli-box, in all of which the participants were given the exact sorting criterion. So the tasks did not involve processes such as maintenance of inferences about the sorting criterion which would require phonological memory load. However, the tasks were assumed to require the executive process of response inhibition. In the WCST-4-stimuli condition no change was made to the WCST materials. In the other two conditions, relying on the assumption that the three-dimensional nature of the cards triggers inappropriate responses, unidimensional stimulus cards were used instead of the four normal three-dimensional WCST stimulus cards. The difference between these two conditions was that, in the WCST-12-stimuli-box condition, boxes were used to conceal the response cards previously sorted. The results supported Dunbar and Sussman's (1995) argument that some executive processes in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test require the use of phonological store, and the present design was able to differentiate the type of executive functions that do not involve the use of a phonological loop from the ones that do. In addition, the results concerning manipulations of the visual aspects of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test suggest that the three-dimensional nature of the WCST stimulus cards leads to an increase in the number of inappropriate responses produced with the executive secondary task interference.     

An exploratory study on the career anchors of educators in Singapore.

In this exploratory study, the authors adopted an empirical approach to determine the various primary career anchors possessed by Singapore educators, the impact of the degree of congruency between teaching and the career anchors on intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, and turnover intentions. A number of hypotheses were supported and provided the 1st step in understanding this group of important individuals who nuture the future generation of human capital for the workplace.     

Dichotic Perception of Mandarin Tones by Chinese and American Listeners

The dichotic perception of Mandarin tones by native and nonnative listeners was examined in order to investigate the lateralization of lexical tone. Twenty American listeners with no tone language background and 20 Chinese listeners were asked to identify dichotically presented tone pairs by identifying which tone they heard in each ear. For the Chinese listeners, 57% of the total errors occurred via the left ear, indicating a significant right ear advantage. However, the American listeners revealed no significant ear preference, with 48% of the errors attributable to the left ear. These results indicated that Mandarin tones are predominantly processed in the left hemisphere by native Mandarin speakers, whereas they are bilaterally processed by American English speakers with no prior tone experience. The results also suggest that the left hemisphere superiority for native Mandarin tone processing is similar to native processing of other tone languages.     

消费者抱怨行为的比较

不满意购买发生以后,消费者可能采取的抱怨方式并不相同。通过对冰箱、空调和洗衣机行业2966位消费者的问卷调查,采用单因素多变量方差分析方法对消费者抱怨行为进行比较研究,发现直接抱怨的消费者在品牌形象感知、满意度和再次购买倾向上都显著地高于负面口碑和沉默抵制的消费者。继而,运用认知心理学理论对抱怨行为方式的选择及影响进行解释,并指出企业应该鼓励消费者进行直接抱怨。