Two faces,two languages: An fMRI study of bilingual picture naming

This fMRI study explores how nonlinguistic cues modulate lexical activation in the bilingual brain. We examined the influence of face race on bilingual language production in a picture-naming paradigm. Chinese–English bilinguals were presented with pictures of objects and images of faces (Asian or Caucasian). Participants named the picture in their first or second language (Chinese or English) in separate blocks. Face race and naming language were either congruent (e.g., naming in Chinese when seeing an Asian face) or incongruent (e.g., naming in English when seeing an Asian face). Our results revealed that face cues facilitate naming when the socio-cultural identity of the face is congruent with the naming language. The congruence effects are reflected as effective integration of lexical and facial cues in key brain regions including IFG, MFG, ACC, and caudate. Implications of the findings in light of theories of language processing and cultural priming are discussed.     

Beyond the information given: Infants’ transfer of actions learned through imitation

Five experiments were conducted to investigate infants’ ability to transfer actions learned via imitation to new objects and to examine what components of the original context are critical to such transfer. Infants of 15 months observed an experimenter perform an action with one or two toys and then were offered a novel toy that was not demonstrated for them. In all experiments, infants performed target actions with the novel toy more frequently than infants who were offered the same toy but had seen no prior demonstrations. Infants exhibited transfer even when the specific part to be manipulated looked different across the toys, even when they had not performed the actions with the demonstration toys themselves, even when the actions produced no effects on the demonstrations, and even when the actions were demonstrated with only a single exemplar toy. Transfer was especially robust when infants not only observed but also practiced the target actions on the demonstration trials. Learning action affordances (“means”) seems to be a central aspect of human imitation, and the propensity to apply these learned action affordances in new object contexts may be an important basis for technological innovation and invention.     

Emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task: An ERP study

In this paper, we aimed to verify the emotional facilitation effect in the picture–word interference task using event-related potentials. Twenty-one healthy subjects were asked to categorize the emotional valences of pictures accompanied by emotionally congruent, either centrally or laterally positioned Chinese words. For both the foveal and lateral word presentations, the reaction times were faster compared to the picture-only presentation. Compared to the picture-only presentation, P200 amplitude increased under the foveal word presentation condition and decreased under the lateral word presentation condition, indicating that more attentional resources were required when an accompanying word was in the center of a picture than when the word was in the lateral position. Latency of P300 was shorter in response to picture–word stimuli irrespective of word position, indicating that an emotionally congruent word facilitated the emotional processing of the target picture, which verified the emotional facilitation effect and was consistent with the results in psychology. The late positive component was more positive when the picture–word stimuli were more positive, which reflected the feature of positivity offset. The findings suggest that the time window for an emotional facilitation effect may be limited to processing aspects associated with P300 (i.e., affective evaluation).     

Feature selection for inductive generalization

Judging similarities among objects, events, and experiences is one of the most basic cognitive abilities, allowing us to make predictions and generalizations. The main assumption in similarity judgment is that people selectively attend to salient features of stimuli and judge their similarities on the basis of the common and distinct features of the stimuli. However, it is unclear how people select features from stimuli and how they weigh features. Here, we present a computational method that helps address these questions. Our procedure combines image-processing techniques with a machine-learning algorithm and assesses feature weights that can account for both similarity and categorization judgment data. Our analysis suggests that a small number of local features are particularly important to explain our behavioral data.     

理论的建构与验证:来自社会认同研究的经验(英文)

科学研究的核心在于理论的建构与验证。基于社会认同和群际关系研究的经验,本文提出了建构与验证心理学理论的四步方法:1)选择现象——观察我们身边及周围世界所发生的事件;2)寻找关键共性——厘定不同事件间的共同成份;3)抽象化(理论化)——提取关键共性中潜存的基本心理过程,并将其与已有的或者最新的理论相联系;4)验证假设——利用实验反复地验证理论。以上四个步骤引导着研究者针对现实生活中的社会事件展开科学研究。文章将以等级身份、身份霸权和桥梁身份等研究为例阐明上述方法,同时也提出在社会和人格心理学领域开展系统性研究的准则。     

For whom is parting with possessions more painful? Cultural differences in the endowment effect

The endowment effect--the tendency for owners (potential sellers) to value objects more than potential buyers do--is among the most widely studied judgment and decision-making phenomena. However, the current research is the first to explore whether the effect varies across cultures. Given previously demonstrated cultural differences in self-construals and self-enhancement, we predicted a smaller endowment effect for East Asians compared with Westerners. Two studies involving buyers and sellers of a coffee mug (Study 1a) and a box of chocolates (Study 1b) supported this prediction. Study 2 conceptually replicated this cultural difference by experimentally manipulating independent and interdependent self-construals. Finally, Study 3 provided evidence for an underlying self-enhancement mechanism: Cultural differences emerged when self-object associations were made salient, but disappeared when self-object associations were minimized. Thus, the endowment effect may be influenced by the degree to which independence and self-enhancement (vs. interdependence and self-criticism) are culturally valued or normative.     

儒家德刑观论析

在道德与法律、德治与刑罚的关系问题上,儒家从其仁爱的思想原则出发,主张为政以德,强调社会管理者自身的道德修养;主张德刑兼治、德主刑辅,重德治、轻刑政;主张宽猛相济,先教后刑;主张富而后教,强调社会道德教化,重视道德对人们行为的规范作用。儒家的德刑观在中国社会长期的历史发展中产生了深远的影响,今天仍然可以为我们的道德建设和法制建设提供许多有益的借鉴和启示。     

车文博心理学思想初探

车文博先生是当代中国著名的心理学家,为中国心理学的发展作出了重大贡献.1)推进了中国心理学基本理论的研究,是中国理论心理学科的奠基人之一;2) 推动心理学史的研究,在东、西方心理学史及比较史研究方面均成就斐然;3)重视心理学的实践应用,并积极推进了中国心理学的组织建设与人才培养.     

贝叶斯推理中的情感启发式

该研究通过事件性质、重要程度和主体相关性对贝叶斯推算、判断的影响,探索了贝叶斯推理中的情绪启发式现象,结果表明:1)在贝叶斯推算中,事件重要程度不同,后验概率值的事件性质的主效应显著性不同,事件性质与主体相关性交互作用的显著性不同,但主体相关性的主效应均为不显著;2)在贝叶斯判断中,事件重要程度不同,事件性质和主体相关性在判断上的效果不同;3)在贝叶斯推理中,情绪启发式致使个体的推断结果具有某种系统化的倾向.     

婴儿自我认知发生再探

文章在纵向研究基础上,通过横向设计,采用实验室实验、情境观察和母亲访谈相结合的方法考察213名14～24个月婴儿自我认知(视觉和言语方面)的发生.结果表明:1)婴儿自我认知在15～24个月间发生,自我认知能力逐渐出现,随年龄增长而发展.2)视觉自我认知一般发生于第17个月;视觉自我认知无显著的性别差异.3)言语自我认知一般发生于第21个月;男婴言语自我认知获得时间晚于女婴,但在获得言语自我认知后,婴儿言语自我认知无性别差异.4)视觉自我认知对言语自我认知有正向预测作用,视觉自我认知发生早的婴儿,言语自我认知发生的也早.