The influence of expertise and of physical complexity on visual short-term memory consolidation

We investigated whether the expertise of a perceiver and the physical complexity of a stimulus influence consolidation of visual short-term memory (VSTM) in a S1-S2 (Stimulus 1-Stimulus 2) change detection task. Consolidation is assumed to make transient perceptual representations in VSTM more durable, and it is investigated by postexposure of a mask shortly after offset of the perceived stimulus (S1; 17 to 483?ms). We presented colours, Chinese characters, pseudocharacters, and novel symbols to novices (Germans) or experts of Chinese language (Chinese readers). Physical complexity was manipulated by the number of strokes. Unfamiliar material was remembered worse than familiar material (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). For novices the absolute VSTM performance was better for physically simple than for complex material, whereas for experts the complexity did not matter-Chinese readers memorized Chinese characters (Experiment 3). Articulatory suppression did not change these effects (Experiment 2). We always observed a strong effect of SOA, but this effect was influenced neither by physical complexity nor by expertise; only the length of the interstimulus interval between S1 and the mask was relevant. This was observed even with short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 100?ms (Experiment 2) and in comparing colours and characters (Experiment 5). However, masks impaired memory if they were presented at the locations of the to-be-memorized items, but not beside them-that is, interference was location-based (Experiment 6). We explain the effect of SOA by the assumption that it takes time to stop encoding of information presented at item locations with the offset of S1. The increasing resistance against interference by irrelevant material appears as consolidation of S1.     

Cognitive behavioral group treatment for Chinese people with depressive symptoms in Hong Kong: participants' perspectives

This study documents the experiences of 20 Chinese people in Hong Kong who participated in group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). They were asked to comment on the aspects of the group content and process that they found to be useful or not useful in dealing with their depressive moods. In general, they reported that the groups helped them gain awareness of their thought and behavioral patterns and learn new cognitive and behavioral strategies. Certain aspects of the group process, however, such as the outpouring of negative emotions, were considered by the participants to be counterproductive to their learning and practice of CBT.     

Spatial Stroop and spatial orienting: the role of onset versus offset cues

The present study investigated whether offset cues have the same attentional consequences in the spatial Stroop effect as onset cues. Experiments 1 and 2 compared the attentional effects of onset–offset cues versus offset cues on the spatial Stroop effect, whereas Experiment 3 compared the attentional effects of onset versus offset cues. Across these experiments, independent of cue type (onset–offset or onset vs. offset) and even at long stimulus-onset asynchrony, attentional cueing did not revert into inhibition of return and was modulated by spatial Stroop with greater cueing effects for incongruent arrow’s direction and position. In addition, onset–offset or onset and offset cues produced comparable cueing effects in the location-direction congruent condition, and onset–offset or onset cues produced greater facilitation than offset cues in the incongruent condition. From a different perspective, peripheral cueing modulated the spatial Stroop effect in the same direction for onset–offset or onset and offset cues, although the reduction in spatial Stroop at cued locations was smaller with offset than with onset–offset or onset cues.     

The distinction between intuition and guessing in the SRT task generation: A reply to Norman and Price

We (Fu, Dienes, & Fu, 2010) investigated the extent to which people could generate sequences of responses based on knowledge acquired from the Serial Reaction Time task, depending on whether it felt subjectively like the response was based on pure guessing, intuition, conscious rules or memories. Norman and Price (2010) argued that in the context of our task, intuition responses were the same as guessing responses. In reply, we argue that not only do subjects apparently claim to be experiencing different phenomenologies when saying intuition versus guess, but also intuition and guess responses are associated with different behaviors. We found that people could control the knowledge when generating responses felt to be based on intuition but not those felt to be pure guessing. We present further evidence here that triplets associated with intuition but not guessing were also processed fluently.     

身体清洁对低龄幼儿选择扩散效应的消除

研究以105名4岁幼儿为被试,采用选择扩散范式的盲选-双选法考察身体清洁能否消除低龄幼儿的选择扩散效应。通过操纵自变量(洗手vs.不洗手),观察幼儿是否出现选择扩散。结果发现,不洗手组的被试出现明显的选择扩散效应,洗手组则没有。说明4岁幼儿已经表现出选择扩散效应,且能通过身体清洁得以消除。除了自我心理学和行为倾向的解释之外,研究结果说明,具身认知可能也是影响选择扩散效应的心理机制。     

无边界职业生涯下职业成功的诱因与机制

职业成功(career success)作为职业生涯研究领域的一个前沿主题, 受到了理论界和实务界的广泛关注。研究主要从职业成功的概念、测量、影响因素、实施效果与作用机制等方面, 对国内外相关研究进行了系统梳理与探讨。未来研究应关注无边界职业生涯时代职业成功、开发中国组织情境下职业成功的概念和测量、基于特质激发理论视角分析职业成功的诱因、基于职业成功观分析职业成功的实施效果、探讨中国本土文化的权变作用。     

儿童对心理特质信息来源的评价

本研究通过两个实验来考察儿童对心理特质信息来源的评价.实验一考察儿童对四种信息来源(自我报告、老师报告、同伴报告和直接观察)的偏好:对于高评价特质而言,所有儿童都更喜欢直接观察而不是自我报告;对于中性特质而言,低年龄组儿童比起直接观察来更喜欢自我报告,而高年龄组儿童则没有显著性差别.实验二是实验一的补充,要求儿童对实验一中所使用的八个心理特质词汇进行评价,进一步验证儿童对自我报告的怀疑的原因:儿童对心理特质词汇理解基本正确,不同年龄组儿童对自我报告的怀疑并不是由于对特质理解的不同造成的.     

同步内隐／外显序列学习：事件相关的fMRI的初步研究

本文利用事件相关fMRI研究探讨对于内隐和外显学习在脑区激活上的差异.实验采用同步内隐/外显学习序列,以有色的形状作为刺激材料.要求被试对于刺激的颜色做选择反应,并在颜色消失后找出形状的内在规则.颜色和图形序列分别采用两个独立的马尔可夫链,即下一个图形的颜色或者形状有70%的可能服从序列规则.行为数据显示被试习得了外显和内隐的规则,fMRI成像主要比较内隐和外显学习在学习过程和知识运用上脑区激活的差异.结果发现,与内隐学习柑比,外显学习在额叶的激活更为显著.而且,内隐学习和外显学习在视觉皮层的激活出现分离,内隐学习中枕叶的激活减弱,而外显学习中枕叶的激活增加.     

小学青年教师社会支持与心理健康的相关研究

目的:探讨小学青年教师社会支持与心理健康之间的关系。方法:采用社会支持评定量表(SSRS)与症状自评量表(SCL-90),对296名小学青年教师进行心理健康、社会支持及其相关调查。结果:发现(1)SCL-90各个因子上小学青年男女教师均无显著差异。(2)在支持利用度得分平均数方面男教师低于女教师,差异达到极其显著的水平(P<0.01)。(3)支持总分的平均得分上男教师也显著低于女教师(P<0.05)。结论:小学青年教师的社会支持与其心理健康水平成正相关,不完善的社会支持与其心理健康水平成负相关。     

Dual learning processes in interactive skill acquisition

Acquisition of interactive skills involves the use of internal and external cues. Experiment 1 showed that when actions were interdependent, learning was effective with and without external cues in the single-task condition but was effective only with the presence of external cues in the dual-task condition. In the dual-task condition, actions closer to the feedback were learned faster than actions farther away but this difference was reversed in the single-task condition. Experiment 2 tested how knowledge acquired in single and dual-task conditions would transfer to a new reward structure. Results confirmed the two forms of learning mediated by the secondary task: A declarative memory encoding process that simultaneously assigned credits to actions and a reinforcement-learning process that slowly propagated credits backward from the feedback. The results showed that both forms of learning were engaged during training, but only at the response selection stage, one form of knowledge may dominate over the other depending on the availability of attentional resources.