The dynamic influence of emotional words on sentence comprehension: An ERP study

In the present study, we explored the influence of emotional words on the semantic integration of their following neutral nouns during sentence comprehension. We manipulated the emotionality of verbs and the semantic congruity of their following (neutral) object nouns in sentences. Event-related potentials were recorded to the verbs, which were either negative or neutral, and to the object nouns, which were either semantically congruent or incongruent relative to the preceding contexts. We found an N400 and a P600 effect in response to the semantic congruity of the nouns when they followed the neutral verbs. However, the P600 (but not the N400) semantic congruity effect may have been attenuated when the nouns followed the negative verbs. Meanwhile, the negative verbs elicited a larger P2 and N400 than did the neutral verbs. The results indicate that the attention captured by emotional words impaired reanalysis of the following incongruent information, demonstrating a dynamic influence of emotional words on the semantic processing of following information during sentence comprehension.     

Implicit learning of mappings between forms and metaphorical meanings

Previous research has shown that people can implicitly acquire mappings between word forms and literal meanings (Williams, 2004, Williams, 2005). We argue, from the metaphor-representation and embodiment perspectives, that people can unconsciously establish mappings between word forms and not only literal but also metaphorical meanings. Using Williams’ (2005) paradigm, we found that transfer of form-meaning connections from a concrete domain (space) to an abstract domain (power) was achieved in a metaphor-consistent way without awareness. Our results support the view that unconscious knowledge can be flexibly deployed in an abstract way not previously explored in the implicit learning literature.     

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.     

寺庙生态文化与可持续发展简论——兼论新津老君山旅游开发

寺庙生态文化由自然生态与人文生态两个部分构成.自然生态是指寺庙与其所在自然环境构成的一种生态关系,复有"自然地理取向"与"宗教地理取向"两种形式,从形而下与形而上两方面将寺庙与尘世拉开距离.人文生态是指寺庙与其信众并社会构成的一种生态关系,借助仪式法会、观光朝圣等等活动而在神圣与凡俗之间显现活力,寺庙生态文化的基本原则是寺庙旅游开发恪守的底线.遗憾的是,如老君山等寺庙文化、宗教文化旅游开发并未恪守此一底线.     

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.     

Altered topological patterns of large-scale brain functional networks during passive hyperthermia

In this study, we simulated environmental heat exposure to 18 participants, and obtained functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) data during resting state. Brain functional networks were constructed over a wide range of sparsity threshold according to a prior atlas dividing the whole cerebrum into 90 regions. Results of graph theoretical approaches showed that although brain networks in both normal and hyperthermia conditions exhibited economical small-world property, significant alterations in both global and nodal network metrics were demonstrated during hyperthermia. Specifically, a lower clustering coefficient, maintained shortest path length, a lower small-worldness, a lower mean local efficiency were found, indicating a tendency shift to a randomized network. Additionally, significant alterations in nodal efficiency were found in bilateral gyrus rectus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, bilateral insula, right caudate nucleus, bilateral putamen, left temporal pole of middle temporal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus. In consideration of physiological system changes, we found that the alterations of normalized clustering coefficient, small-worldness, mean normalized local efficiency were significantly correlated with the rectal temperature alteration, but failed to obtain significant correlations with the weight loss. More importantly, behavioral attention network test (ANT) after MRI scanning showed that the ANT effects were altered and correlated with the alterations of some global metrics (normalized shortest path length and normalized global efficiency) and prefrontal nodal efficiency (right dorsolateral superior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus and left orbital inferior frontal gyrus), implying behavioral deficits in executive control effects and maintained alerting and orienting effects during passive hyperthermia. The present study provided the first evidence for human brain functional disorder during passive hyperthermia according to graph theoretical analysis using resting-state fMRI.     

Short-Term Violent Video Game Play by Adolescents Alters Prefrontal Activity During Cognitive Inhibition

Prior research has indicated an association between exposure to violent media and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior, potentially as a result of effects on inhibitory mechanisms. However, the role of violence in video games in modulating subsequent neural activity related to cognitive inhibition has received little attention. To examine short-term effects of playing a violent video game, 45 adolescents were randomly assigned to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes immediately prior to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the fMRI procedure, participants performed a go/no-go task that required them to press a button for each target stimulus and withhold the response for non-target stimuli. Participants who played the violent game demonstrated a lower BOLD response in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) when responses were appropriately inhibited. The DLPFC is involved with executive functioning, including suppression of unwanted thoughts and behaviors. In addition, responses in the DLPFC demonstrated stronger inverse connectivity with precuneus in the nonviolent game players. These results provide evidence that playing a violent video game can modulate prefrontal activity during cognitive inhibition.     

Causal attributions about schizophrenia in families in China: expressed emotion and patient relapse

Previous studies have indicated a robust link between relatives' causal attributions and levels of expressed emotion (EE). However, these studies have primarily been conducted in Western cultures. The current study, conducted in China, examined the spontaneous causal attributions made by 54 relatives of schizophrenia patients during the Camberwell Family Interview. Chinese relatives made few controllable and personal attributions overall. Yet as predicted, highly critical and/or hostile EE relatives attributed patients' negative behaviors to more controllable and personal factors. High EE and controllable attributions positively predicted relapse, whereas personal attributions unexpectedly protected against relapse. EE mediated the effect of controllable, but not personal, attributions on relapse. Relatives' use of a particular Chinese characteristic (narrow-mindedness) was integral to the personal dimension's protective effect.     

Evolved sex differences in the number of partners desired? The long and the short of it

Do men seek more short-term mates than women? Buss and Schmitt (1993) showed a pattern of mean difference in the ideal number of sexual partners men and women desired over various time frames. We replicated these mean sex differences (e.g., ideal number over the next 30 years: Ms = 7.69 and 2.78 for men and women, respectively), but in both data sets the sampling distributions were highly skewed. In Study 1, we found few sex differences in medians across time frames (e.g., ideal number over the next 30 years: Mdn = 1 for both men and women). In Study 2, most college men (98.9%) and women (99.2%) said they wanted to settle down with one mutually exclusive sexual partner at some point in their life, ideally within the next 5 years. Neither medians in number of partners desired overall before settling down (replicating Study 1) nor medians in short-term partners desired before settling down (Mdn = 0) differed significantly by gender. Rather, men and women concurred: Short-term mating is not what humans typically seek.