Capturing and evaluating blinks from video-based eyetrackers

Blinks are related to several emotional states, and the present report describes a simple, reliable way to measure blinks from the video stream of an eye obtained during eyetracking, where the source of the eye video is a video camera attached to a head-mounted eyetracker. Computer vision techniques are employed to determine the moments that a blink starts and ends, for the purpose of calculating blink frequency and duration. The video is first processed to show blocks of eyelid and pupil movements, and is then analyzed for blink starts and ends. The moment of a blink start is reported when the eyelid starts to move quickly, exceeding a predetermined threshold. The end of a blink arises when the pupil size increases by less than a separate threshold. We observed several different blink patterns from different subjects, and our algorithm was designed to work for all of these patterns. We evaluated our algorithm by manually measuring the true blinks of five different subjects while they were eyetracked. To test the sensitivity and specificity of the algorithm, we employed a series of threshold values to plot the receiver operating characteristic curves. Using the best thresholds, we achieved excellent sensitivity (>90 %) and specificity (>99 %) over the five subjects. Potential applications of this research include real-time, nonintrusive, continuous and automated measurements of mental workload and other emotional states related to blink rates and durations.     

Nonselective access of English phonology in bi-scriptal Chinese–Korean visual word recognition

This study investigated the phonological processes with bilingual readers of Korean and Chinese. Three types of same–different matching between the prime and target were compared. The critical point was on whether the phonological information of English was activated automatically in a semantic judgment task involving only Korean and Chinese. The results showed that the latency of the conditions (S+P?, S?P? and S?P+) was significantly different; latencies in the S?P+ condition where there is no semantic but with phonological relations were slower than in the S?P? condition where there are neither semantic nor phonological relations. The implication for phonological recoding was discussed.     

Objective assessment of the functional role of spike train correlations using information measures

The functional role of correlations between neuronal spike trains remains strongly debated. This debate partly stems from the lack of a standardized analysis technique capable of accurately quantifying the role of correlations in stimulus encoding. We believe that information theoretic measures may represent an objective method for analysing the functional role of neuronal correlations. Here we show that information analysis of pairs of spike trains allows the information content present in the firing rate to be disambiguated from any extra information that may be present in the temporal relationships of the two spike trains. We validate and illustrate the method by applying it to simulated data with variable degrees of known synchrony, and by applying it to recordings from pairs of sites in the primary visual cortex of anaesthetized cats. We discuss the importance of information theoretic analysis in elucidating the neuronal mechanisms underlying object identification.     

家庭功能与大学生情绪表达性、孤独感的关系

通过问卷调查法和结构方程模型分析技术,探讨家庭功能与大学生情绪表达性、孤独感之间的关系,以及家庭功能的作用机制,即家庭功能能否通过情绪表达影响大学生孤独感。结果发现:(1)家庭功能对大学生情绪表达性、孤独感有显著预测作用,家庭亲密度或适应性水平高的大学生更倾向具有高的情绪表达性,更少的体验到亲情、爱情以及社交孤独感;(2)情绪表达性对大学生社交孤独感具有一定的预测作用,即大学生越乐于表达情绪,其社交孤独感就越少;(3)家庭功能既直接对社交孤独感产生影响,又通过情绪表达性间接影响社交孤独感,即情绪表达性在家庭功能与社交孤独感之间起部分中介作用。     

消费者厌腻感的生成机理、诱发因素及缓解策略

厌腻感是指消费者对连续或过量消费同一产品或服务的效用感、享乐感或满意度下降, 负面感知逐步抑制正面感知的主观情绪体验。为缓解或防止厌腻感的产生, 消费者会采取品牌转换、多样化寻求、控制消费周期等行为, 因此厌腻感已成为企业或店铺培养顾客忠诚的主要障碍。国外文献分别从厌腻感的生成过程、功能反应、知觉状态和属性感知等方面, 划分厌腻类型; 剖析了厌腻感生成的享乐适应、边际效用递减、认知失调以及最佳刺激水平等理论原理及机理; 探讨了生理厌腻感和心理厌腻感生成的诱发因素及影响效应; 验证了外部因素和个体因素的调节作用; 同时探讨了消费者缓解或防止厌腻感的主要策略及行为反应。最后对现有文献的研究思路、特点和不足进行了评述, 提出了未来研究方向。     

当代情绪发展理论述评

本文从情绪的定义、情绪发展的实质、情绪在个体发展中的作用等方面,评述了当代比较有影响的情绪发展理论不同的情绪发展观。这些情绪发展理论有生物观点、机能主义观点、认知观点、组织观点和社会文化观点。     

Comparative research on individual modernity of adolescents between town and countryside in China

A test of 300 young students on individual modernity in China was carried out. The results indicated that there was a significant difference in individual modernity between the students from town and those from the countryside, as well as between males and females. There were also differences in individual modernity between each two of the levels of education. The students from town were more modern than those from the countryside. The males were more traditional than the females. With the rising educational level, the students' traditionality will decrease and modernity will increase.     

中国证券投资者的投资行为与个性特征

本研究采用综合性行为金融学手段,探索证券投资者的一般行为特征、心理特征以及行为特征和心理特征之间的关系。本实验首先采用访谈法对专业人士进行访谈,了解投资者的基本心理结构、一般的行为方式以及对证券市场的信息进行加工、决策的主要因素。在访谈基础上编制调查问卷,在全国7个城市(北京、上海、深圳、武汉、成都、西安和沈阳)对1063名投资者进行了问卷调查,从心理学角度对中国证券投资者的行为与心理特征进行了分析。结果表明：中国股市还是一个政策市,投资者对所投资对象的了解程度越高,掌握的投资知识越多,以及具备较高的独立性和自我效能,盈利的可能性越大。     

双陈述任务下演绎推理的错觉

研究了双陈述任务下的复合命题推理和三段论推理的错觉。被试为暨南大学本科生60名。使用冠有“只有一个陈述是正确的”作为限制条件的双陈述推理任务。实验1为纯命题任务,实验2为角色化任务。t检验的结果表明被试只考虑了正确的陈述,却忽略了错误的陈述而出现推理的错觉。结果支持了心理模型理论中的正面表征原则,初步提出正反信息转换机制的观点。