Selective and nonselective inhibition of competitors in picture naming

The present study examined the relation between nonselective inhibition and selective inhibition in picture naming performance. Nonselective inhibition refers to the ability to suppress any unwanted response, whereas selective inhibition refers to the ability to suppress specific competing responses. The degree of competition in picture naming was manipulated by presenting targets along with distractor words that could be semantically related (e.g., a picture of a dog combined with the word cat) or unrelated (tree) to the picture name. The mean naming response time (RT) was longer in the related than in the unrelated condition, reflecting semantic interference. Delta plot analyses showed that participants with small mean semantic interference effects employed selective inhibition more effectively than did participants with larger semantic interference effects. The participants were also tested on the stop-signal task, which taps nonselective inhibition. Their performance on this task was correlated with their mean naming RT but, importantly, not with the selective inhibition indexed by the delta plot analyses and the magnitude of the semantic interference effect. These results indicate that nonselective inhibition ability and selective inhibition of competitors in picture naming are separable to some extent.     

Effects of Phonetic Similarity in the Identification of Mandarin Tones

Tonal languages differ in how they use phonetic correlates e.g. average pitch height and pitch direction, for tonal contrasts. Thus, native speakers of a tonal language may need to adjust their attention to familiar or unfamiliar phonetic cues when perceiving non-native tones. On the other hand, speakers of a non-tonal language may need to develop sensitivity to tonal correlates absent from their native system. The current study examines and compares five language groups’ perception of two synthesized Mandarin tones: the high level tone and the high falling tone. It aims to examine how listeners from tonal and non-tonal backgrounds identify and categorize acoustically equidistant pitches varying along two phonetic dimensions: pitch onset and slope. Results reveal “universal” perceptual patterns across groups and also tendencies caused by native tonal systems. Our findings confirm that L1 tonal and prosodic systems affect speakers’ sensitivity to novel perceptual cues and their abilities to discern relevant phonetic differences.     

Implicit learning and emotional responses in nine-month-old infants

To study the interplay between motor learning and emotional responses of young infants, we developed a contingent learning paradigm that included two related, difficult, operant tasks. We also coded facial expression to characterise emotional response to learning. In a sample of nine-month-old healthy Chinese infants, 44.7% achieved learning threshold during this challenging arm-conditioning test. Some evidence of learning was observed at the beginning of the second task. The lowest period of negative emotions coincided with the period of maximum movement responses after the initiation of the second task, and movement responses negatively correlated with the frequency of negative emotions. Positive emotions, while generally low throughout the task, increased during peak performance especially for learners. Peak frequency of movement responses was positively correlated with the frequency of positive emotions. Despite the weak evidence of learning this difficult task, our results from the learners would suggest that increasing positive emotions, and perhaps down-regulating negative emotional responses, may be important for improving performance and learning a complex operant task in infancy. Further studies are necessary to determine the role of emotions in learning difficult tasks in infancy.     

评价中心结构效度的多元概化理论分析研究

评价中心技术是现代人事测评的一种主要形式,主要通过多种模拟任务来测评高级管理人才。然而,少有研究能证明它具有理想的结构效度。该研究运用多质多法分析了某金融企业一次真实的评价中心测评项目,发现测评的结构效度并不理想。接着,通过多元概化理论的分析,探讨了结构效度不理想的原因,并指出了评价中心任务与所测维度之间的关系,以及对各维度的测量信度。最后,根据分析结果,探讨了优化评价中心结构效度和提升整体测量信度的途径。     

County-Level Basics of Living Affects Overall Mortality Rate in the United States – 2000

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory proposed that there is a hierarchy of human needs, which range from the basics of survival to creativity. Building from Maslow's idea, this paper examines the first level of human needs and empirically constructs a basics of living (BOL) index for every United States county from 28 candidate factors. The final BOL Index includes nine measures of air, water, and income. This study examined whether county-level health would be poor if the BOL were not met. Findings showed a positive correlation between the BOL index and all cause mortality, the fewer BOL, the worse the all cause mortality. Strikingly, poor BOL is most often found in small jurisdictions (<25,000 population) and less often in larger jurisdictions (>150,000 population). In the mapping of the BOL index, areas of greatest need can be observed and in multivariate modeling, highest overall mortality is regional. The BOL index predicts a substantial amount of variation observed in county overall mortality and is independent of county poverty and quality of life.     

企业员工行为中庸化的特征分析

本研究采用了问卷调查法,对苏州271名企业员工的行为中庸化的特征进行了研究。结果表明：（1）企业员工的行为,总体上是趋向于中庸的;（2）男性员工较女性员工在行为上更倾向于中庸;（3）教育水平高的员工较教育水平低的员工更倾向于中庸;（4）职务水平高的员工较职务水平低的员工更倾向于中庸;（5）企业性质不同、资本来源不同的企业员工,其行为中庸化水平不同。     

樟柳碱对动物分辨学习、记忆行为和电活动的影响

樟柳碱是我国首先提取出的一种生物碱,它的作用和东莨菪碱相似,而其毒性较小,但如过量服用会引起幻觉和认知障碍。本文观察了樟柳碱对大白鼠分辨学习和记忆行为的影响,并探讨樟柳碱对家兔脑皮层的自发和诱发电活动以及脑皮层电图条件反应的影响。其主要结果如下: 樟柳减对大白鼠的分辨学习和记忆有较明显的影响,其主要表现为错误反应增多,反应时延长以及防御性条件反射的出现率低。 樟柳碱能使家兔全皮层出现高振幅慢波,并能使脑皮层电图条件反应受到明显的抑制。     

Saccadic overhead: Information-processing time with and without saccades

Information-processing time was compared for serial and spatially distributed visual presentations with performance measures that permit the separation of total time into its during-display and post-display components. For all subjects, there was a significant saccadic overhead, that is, less time was required with the serial format, which allowed data access without eye movements. However, the magnitude of the overhead decreased as task complexity increased. All subjects were able to exercise some control over the distribution of total processing time, trading off short during-display times with longer post-display times and vice versa.     

儒家"为人处世"之道正负社会功用辨析

孔子对中华民族最大的贡献,是揭示了"道德"这个人之为人的准绳即"君子法",其实是国家治乱的根源.儒家的为人处世之道一是指君子之道,亦即忠诚、孝敬、责任、廉耻,二是指蕴含在礼乐精神之中的处世之道:乐的精神是和,礼的精神是序.作为制度的"礼"因出自自然血亲,戴上了温情脉脉的面纱.无论作为"君子法"的忠、孝、责任与廉耻,还是"处世之道"的礼乐精神,在现实中都是善恶相混,充满内在的矛盾与拮抗.