Affective bias in visual working memory is associated with capacity

How does the affective nature of task stimuli modulate working memory (WM)? This study investigates whether WM maintains emotional information in a biased manner to meet the motivational principle of approaching positivity and avoiding negativity by retaining more approach-related positive content over avoidance-related negative content. This bias may exist regardless of individual differences in WM functionality, as indexed by WM capacity (overall bias hypothesis). Alternatively, this bias may be contingent on WM capacity (capacity-based hypothesis), in which a better WM system may be more likely to reveal an adaptive bias. In two experiments, participants performed change localisation tasks with emotional and non-emotional stimuli to estimate the number of items that they could retain for each of those stimuli. Although participants did not seem to remember one type of emotional content (e.g. happy faces) better than the other type of emotional content (e.g. sad faces), there was a significant correlation between WM capacity and affective bias. Specifically, participants with higher WM capacity for non-emotional stimuli (colours or line-drawing symbols) tended to maintain more happy faces over sad faces. These findings demonstrated the presence of a “built-in” affective bias in WM as a function of its systematic limitations, favouring the capacity-based hypothesis.     

父母教育观念类型对幼儿个性相关特质发展的影响

通过对大连地区6所幼儿园400名3￣6岁幼儿父母教育观念的问卷调查及教师对幼儿个性的测评,探讨了父母教育观念类型对幼儿个性相关特质发展的影响。结果显示:(1)运用聚类分析法,可将幼儿父母教育观念分为三类:积极型、不协调型和低标准型;(2)各种教育观念对幼儿个性发展存在着不同的影响。积极型有利于幼儿个性的发展,不协调型与低标准型不利幼儿个性的发展。     

Impaired directed forgetting in abstinent heroin addicts

Drug-related memories persist long into abstinence and are potent elicitors of drug craving and relapse. We report two experiments examining whether heroin-dependent individuals are impaired in intentionally suppressing drug-related memories. Experiment 1 adopted the Item paradigm where addicts and healthy controls were presented with a list of words each followed by a remember or forget cue. Experiment 2 adopted the List paradigm where they studied one list of items and were then split into a remember group and a forget group. Both groups studied a second list, except that the forget group was told to forget the first list. Compared with controls, addicts showed a reduced directed forgetting effect in the Item method and a total absence of one measure of directed forgetting in the List method (List 2 benefits). Results indicate that heroin addicts are impaired in directed forgetting and that the deficits are likely associated with memory encoding as opposed to retrieval. Possible problems include reduced ability in actively suppressing/stopping encoding of irrelevant information into memory or inability in changing/resetting encoding strategies. In neither experiment did the addicts show any differential directed forgetting effects between drug-related words and neutral words, indicating the generic nature of their intentional forgetting deficits.     

The impact of emotional expressions on children’s trust judgments

Research on the development of selective trust has shown that young children do not indiscriminately trust all potential informants. They are likely to seek and endorse information from individuals who have proven competent or benign in the past. However, research on trust among adults raises the possibility that children might also be influenced by the emotions expressed by potential informants. In particular, they might trust individuals expressing more positive emotion. Indeed, young children’s trust in particular informants based on their past behaviour might be undermined by their currently expressed emotions. To examine this possibility, we tested the selective trust of fifty 4- and 5-year-olds in two steps. We first confirmed that children are likely to invest more trust in individuals expressing more positive emotion. We then showed that even if children have already formed an impression of two potential informants based on their behavioural record, their choices about whose claims to trust are markedly influenced by the degree of positive emotion currently expressed by the two informants. By implication, the facial emotions expressed by potential informants can undermine young children’s selective trust based on the behavioural record of those informants.     

内隐联想测验：信度、效度及原理

内隐联想测验（Implicit Association Test）是一种评估个体对两个概念的自动化联系强度的间接测量方法,近年来被广泛应用于内隐社会认知研究。有很多证据显示,较之于外显测验,IAT能为研究提供更多新的信息,但其信度、效度指标都有待改善,而且不同学者对其测验原理仍有不同解释。因此,研究者对IAT的应用及对其结果的解释需持谨慎态度。另外,文章还简单介绍了IAT数据处理的新方法和一些IAT的变式。     

中枢白细胞介素-1在应激升压反应中的作用

分别在乌拉坦麻醉及清醒的雄性SD大鼠观察到：(1)脑室注射IL-113出现升压效应,(2)条件恐惧应激刺激、足电击及脑室注射IL-1β诱发的升压反应均被脑室注射0．5pg的白细胞介素-1拮抗剂IL-1ra明显衰减;(3)静脉注射0．5μgIL-1ra对足电击引起的升压反应无明显影响。以上结果提示中枢IL-1介导条件恐惧应激刺激、及足电击诱发的升压反应。     

应激的缓冲器：人格坚韧性

过去30年来,关注身心保健和组织行为的心理学家都对人格心理学中的一个概念发生了兴趣,就是人格坚韧性（hardiness）,大量实证研究证明人格坚韧性可以有效地缓解生活应激给人们带来的身心不适,并有助于提高人们在各领域的工作表现。该文在回顾西方以往研究的基础上,介绍这一概念,以及这方面研究的不足之处,并提出在中国开展此项研究的思路。作为整体人格结构的一部分,人格坚韧性应该从人格“大五”或“大七”结构中探索。在中国已有研究发现,人格“大七”维度对身心健康有不同的影响,哪些维度构成人格坚韧性,这些问题有待进一步的研究     

Numerosity discrimination in deep neural networks: Initial competence,developmental refinement and experience statistics

Both humans and non‐human animals exhibit sensitivity to the approximate number of items in a visual array, as indexed by their performance in numerosity discrimination tasks, and even neonates can detect changes in numerosity. These findings are often interpreted as evidence for an innate ‘number sense’. However, recent simulation work has challenged this view by showing that human‐like sensitivity to numerosity can emerge in deep neural networks that build an internal model of the sensory data. This emergentist perspective posits a central role for experience in shaping our number sense and might explain why numerical acuity progressively increases over the course of development. Here we substantiate this hypothesis by introducing a progressive unsupervised deep learning algorithm, which allows us to model the development of numerical acuity through experience. We also investigate how the statistical distribution of numerical and non‐numerical features in natural environments affects the emergence of numerosity representations in the computational model. Our simulations show that deep networks can exhibit numerosity sensitivity prior to any training, as well as a progressive developmental refinement that is modulated by the statistical structure of the learning environment. To validate our simulations, we offer a refinement to the quantitative characterization of the developmental patterns observed in human children. Overall, our findings suggest that it may not be necessary to assume that animals are endowed with a dedicated system for processing numerosity, since domain‐general learning mechanisms can capture key characteristics others have attributed to an evolutionarily specialized number system.     

中学生的情绪智力、社会问题解决技能对其师生关系的影响

为了考察中学生师生关系现状,并探讨中学生的情绪智力、社会问题解决技能与师生关系之间的内在联系,本研究采用《中学生情绪智力量表》、《中学生社会问题解决技能量表》和《中学生师生关系量表》对2172名中学生进行调查。结果发现：（1）中学生的师生关系的总体状况良好,且存在显著的年级和性别差异：初一、高一年级的师生关系好于初二、高二年级。在亲密性和支持性方面,不存在显著的性别差异,在冲突性方面,男生显著高于女生,在满意感方面,女生显著高于男生。（2）情绪智力的不同维度对中学生师生关系的预测作用各不一样。情绪感知对师生关系的亲密性具有显著的负向预测作用,对师生关系的冲突性具有显著的正向预测作用。情绪运用、理解和管理都能够显著预测师生关系,其中情绪运用对师生关系的亲密性、支持性和满意度的预测作用最为突出,情绪管理对师生冲突的负向预测作用最强。（3）社会问题解决技能在中学生情绪智力与师生关系之间起部分中介作用。