Electrical conductivity of Nd and Ce co-doped Gd2Zr2O7 ceramics

In this study, (Gd_{1? x} Nd _x )₂(Zr_{1? x} Ce _x )₂O₇ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) ceramics have been prepared by pressureless sintering at 1973 K to investigate the influence of Nd and Ce co-doping on their electrical conductivity. The electrical conductivity of the ceramics was investigated by impedance spectroscopy measurements from 723 to 1173 K over the frequency range of 20 Hz to 2 MHz in air. The measured values obey the Arrhenius relation. For each composition, the grain conductivity gradually increases with increasing temperature from 723 to 1173 K. At a given temperature, it gradually decreases with increasing neodymium and cerium contents from x = 0 to 0.3; thereafter, the grain conductivity exhibits a slight increase with further increasing neodymium and cerium contents up to x = 0.5.     

Burnout and its relations with basic psychological needs and motivation among athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivesThe present study is a review on studies about the relationships between the three basic psychological needs/motivational regulations (i.e., amotivation, controlled regulation, extrinsic autonomous regulation, and intrinsic motivation) and burnout.DesignA systematic review and meta-analysis.MethodStudies were identified through five electronic databases and manual search using combinations of three groups of keywords. Three inclusion criteria were then used to screen the searched articles.ResultsEighteen studies met the inclusion criteria and these studies varied considerably in terms of their study characteristics (e.g., characteristics of participants, study designs, and outcome measures). The results also showed that the three basic psychological needs, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic autonomous regulation, and amotivation had small to large effects on predicting global burnout and its three dimensions. However, controlled regulation showed no or weak correlations with the burnout subscales.ConclusionsSelf-determination theory was generally supported in explaining athlete burnout.     

Mapping the time course of the positive classification advantage: An ERP study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the time course of the positive advantage in the expression classification of faces by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Although neutral faces were classified more quickly than either happy or sad faces, a significant positive classification advantage (PCA)—that is, faster classification for happy than for sad faces—was found. For ERP data, as compared with sad faces, happy faces elicited a smaller N170 and a larger posterior N2 component. The P3 was modulated by facial expressions with higher amplitudes and shorter latencies for both happy and neutral stimuli than for sad stimuli, and the reaction times were significantly correlated with the amplitude and latency of the P3. Overall, these data showed robust PCA in expression classification, starting when the stimulus has been recognized as a face revealed by the N170 component.     

Dynamic orientation cues decrease the viewpoint cost of mental rotation

Mental rotation, as a covert simulation of motor rotation, could benefit from spatial updating of object representations. We are interested in what kind of visual cue could trigger spatial updating. Three experiments were conducted to examine the effect of dynamic and static orientation cues on mental rotation, using a sequential matching task with three-dimensional novel objects presented in different views. Experiment 1 showed that a rotating orientation cue with constant speed reduced viewpoint costs in mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended this effect with a varied-speed rotating orientation cue. However, no such benefit was observed with a static orientation cue in Experiment 3. These findings indicated that a visually continuous orientation cue is sufficient to elicit spatial updating in mental rotation. Furthermore, there may be differences in the underlying mechanisms of spatial updating on the basis of constant-speed rotating cues and varied-speed rotating cues.     

Effects of divided attention and social categorization on the own-race bias in face recognition

Perceivers remember own-race faces more accurately than other-race faces (i.e., Own-Race Bias). In the current experiments, we manipulated participants' attentional resources and social group membership to explore their influence on own and other-race face recognition memory. In Experiment 1, Chinese participants viewed own-race and Caucasian faces, and between-subjects we manipulated whether participants attention was divided during face encoding. We found that divided attention eliminated the Own-Race Bias in memory due to a reduction of memory accuracy for own-race faces, implicating that attention allocation plays a role in creating the bias. In Experiment 2, Chinese participants completed an ostensible personality test. Some participants were informed that their personality traits were most commonly found in Caucasian (i.e., other-race) individuals, resulting in these participants sharing a group membership with other-race targets. In contrast, other participants were not told anything about the personality test, resulting in the default own-race group membership. The participants encoded the faces for a subsequent recognition memory test either with or without performing a concurrent arithmetic distracting task. Results showed that other-race group membership and reducing attention during encoding independently eliminated the typical Own-Race Bias in face memory. The implications of these findings on perceptual-expertise and social-categorization models are discussed.     

Waldo reveals cultural differences in return fixations

ABSTRACT

Humans routinely perform visual search towards targets to adapt to the environment. These sequences of ballistic eye movements are shaped by a combination of top–down and bottom–up factors. Recent research documented that human observers display cultural-specific fixation patterns in a range of visual processing tasks. In particular, eye movement strategies extracting information from faces clearly differs between Western Caucasian (WC) and East Asian (EA) observers. However, whether such cultural differences are also present for visual scene processing remains debated. To this aim, we recorded the eye movements of WC and EA observers while they were solving visual search problems parametrically varying in difficulty: Where’s Waldo. Both groups had a comparable familiarity with the Waldo books reaching a comparable level of accuracy in target detection. Both cultural groups also showed a comparable temporal effect on inhibition of return, with longer fixation durations when saccades were performed to a return location compared to other locations. Westerners, however, located Waldo faster than Easterners. Interestingly, this modulation of speed was likely related to differences occurring on the low-level mechanisms of spatial inhibition of return, with EA observers returning more often to previously visited locations than the WC observers. This suboptimal eye movement strategy in the Easterners might be engendered by their cultural perceptual bias consisting in? a greater use of extra-foveal information. Overall, our data point towards the existence of a subtle, but significant difference in the processing of visual scenes across observers from different cultures during active visual search.     

The role of religion in moderating the impact of life events on material life goals: some evidence in support of terror management theory

How would religion and a life event carrying an existential threat (LEET) jointly impact a person's life goals of becoming wealthy and successful in one's career? Goal reprioritisation, socioemotional selectivity, and gerotranscendence theories predict a shift away from material goals following a LEET, independent of the effect of religion. However, terror management theory (TMT) predicts that the effect of death thoughts depends on one's prevailing cultural values. As religion can be regarded as a culture, it is possible that Christians' and non-believers' material life goals would be differentially altered by LEET. Data from 1259 young Chinese adults reveal no main effect of LEET, but a strong effect of religion. Moreover, there was an interaction effect between LEET and religion on material life goals: LEET weakened material goals for Christians but not for non-believers. These findings suggest that TMT is more suitable than the other theories for predicting life goal changes.     

生存加工的编码和提取双重优势效应:ERP证据

生存加工比控制条件有更好的记忆表现,产生稳定的记忆优势,这就是记忆生存优势.已有研究多采用行为学实验验证了此现象的存在,但没有确定该优势发生在记忆的何种阶段.本研究采用ERP技术和“间接学习-再认”实验范式,比较被试在生存情境、迁徙情境和愉悦判断中对词汇编码和提取过程的记忆加工,结果发现:在500-700ms时间段,生存情境的相继记忆效应显著大于迁徙情境和愉悦判断:在400-600ms时间段,生存情境的新旧效应显著大于迁徙情境和愉悦判断.表明生存加工具有编码和提取双重优势.     

汉语母语与英语母语学生英语语音意识发展趋势的比较研究

对汉语母语学生与英语母语学生英语语音意识的发展趋势进行了对比。294名汉语母语学生和109名英语母语学生参加了音节意识任务、首尾音意识任务和音位意识任务测试。研究结果表明：（1）汉语母语学生与英语母语学生发展趋势并不相同：汉语学生英语语音意识发展的迅速期为小学初期,之后发展缓慢;英语母语学生音节意识和首尾音意识随着年级的增长而增长,但音位意识则表现出不规则的变化趋势;（2）随着汉语母语学生年龄的增长,他们与英语母语学生英语语音意识之间的差距并未缩小。     

流动儿童疏离感的特点及其与应对方式、学校态度的关系

采取整群抽样的方法,对成都及重庆两地591名流动儿童和272名城市儿童进行问卷调查,考察流动儿童疏离感的特点及其与应对方式和学校态度的关系。结果发现:(1)流动儿童疏离感各维度显著高于城市儿童;流动初中生的疏离感显著高于流动小学生,且男生的疏离感显著高于女生;(2)流动儿童疏离感的三个维度之间存在显著差异,其中社会疏离感最高,其次是环境疏离感,人际疏离感最低;(3)流动儿童疏离感对学校喜欢有显著的负向影响,而对学校回避有显著的正向影响;应对方式在流动儿童疏离感对学校态度的影响中起着部分中介作用。