Stereotype activation is unintentional: Behavioural and event‐related potenials evidence

In this study, a priming Stroop paradigm was used to determine whether stereotype activation is unintentional. Priming conditions (priming/no‐priming) and the relationship between priming and target (consistent/inconsistent/no‐relation) were the independent variables; accuracy, reaction time and N400 amplitude were used as dependent variables. The reaction time revealed that stereotype activation is, to some extent, unintentional. Furthermore, the event‐related potenial (ERP) results showed that N400 amplitude was larger for inconsistent conditions than for consistent conditions. This result supported the notion that stereotype activation is an unintentional and automatic process.     

Guns and gospel: a critical examination of Christian missions in China

This article focuses on the British attempt to enter China, the role of the East India Company, the opium trade and the ensuing war (1839–1842). It examines the missionaries’ ambivalent attitudes towards the opium trade and wars, which vacillated between silence, conniving and condemnation. From the missionaries’ point of view, everything was calculated towards furthering the Great Commission (Matt. 28.18–20), and so most Christians at that time did not think it was odd that opium trading and gospel preaching could be endorsed in the same treaty. Opium traffickers and Christian preachers may make strange bedfellows but, in this case, they supported the unequal treaties that Britain imposed on China for different reasons.     

Counterintuitive Religious Ideas and Metaphoric Thinking: An Event‐Related Brain Potential Study

It has been shown that counterintuitive ideas from mythological and religious texts are more acceptable than other (non‐religious) world knowledge violations. In the present experiment we explored whether this relates to the way they are interpreted (literal vs. metaphorical). Participants were presented with verification questions that referred to either the literal or a metaphorical meaning of the sentence previously read (counterintuitive religious, counterintuitive non‐religious and intuitive), in a block‐wise design. Both behavioral and electrophysiological results converged. At variance to the literal interpretation of the sentences, the induced metaphorical interpretation specifically facilitated the integration (N400 amplitude decrease) of religious counterintuitions, whereas the semantic processing of non‐religious counterintuitions was not affected by the interpretation mode. We suggest that religious ideas tend to operate like other instances of figurative language, such as metaphors, facilitating their acceptability despite their counterintuitive nature.     

语篇语境对句子理解的影响：来自N400的证据

N400作为语义违反的特异性ERP组分,其波幅反映了语义整合加工过程的难度,因此可将其作为研究语篇语境意义建构过程的一项重要指标。语篇语境可分为语言语境和非语言语境。前人一系列基于语篇水平的N400研究表明,从语义的角度上看,语言语境对句子理解具有制约和协调作用,其机制涉及词汇语义启动、场景适宜性、文字内容信息以及因果推理等方面;非语言语境对句子理解具有制约和补充作用,但其机制尚不明确。两种不同来源的语义信息在实时理解中是同时得到加工的     

双语即时切换下非目标语言语音和语义的激活状态

本研究采用双语即时切换范式, 探讨非熟练中英双语者在对目标语言(启动词)语音或语义的加工过程中非目标语言的激活状态。实验1设置了与启动词的翻译对等词存在语音相关或无关的两类配对词, 要求被试进行语音判断任务, 结果表明, 不论哪种切换条件, 两类配对词在反应时和P200成分上都没有差异, 说明目标语言在语音加工过程中非目标语言的语音层面没有得到自动激活, 从而没有产生启动效应。实验2则设置了语义相关和无关配对词, 并进行语义判断任务, 结果在两种切换条件下都发现明显的语义启动效应及N400差异, 说明非目标语言在语义层面上有得到自动激活, 但激活的程度表现出切换方向上的不一致, L1-L2切换下的语义启动量要明显大于L2-L1, 并且L1-L2的N400差异主要表现在前部脑区, 持续时间更久, 而L2-L1的N400差异主要表现在后部脑区, 但持续时间较短, 表明对于非熟练的双语者来说, 不同切换方向下对共享语义表征的激活加工是不一样的。     

任务与字频对汉字情绪启动反转效应的影响

本研究使用ERP技术对比了效价判断与真假字判断两种任务形式下的汉字情绪启动效应。结果发现,在效价判断任务中高频目标字出现情绪启动的反转效应,效价不一致比一致条件下反应时短,诱发了较大的P200;低频目标字出现情绪启动的一致性效应,效价一致比不一致条件下反应时短,诱发了较大的P200与N400。真假字判断任务中高频和低频目标字均出现情绪启动的一致性效应。情绪启动的反转效应依赖于刺激材料的可通达性与注意导向,启动字与目标字的反应竞争关系导致了情绪启动的反转效应。     

句子阅读理解过程中句意的建构时间

一般语言学理论认为, 在句子阅读理解过程中, 句子意义建构是基于词汇语义整合的, 其反映在N400之上, 开始于词语呈现后约250 ms。然而, 近年关于语义P600效应的研究却提示句意建构可能存在多通道或方式, 读者甚至可能在N400反映的加工出现之前就已建立了初步句意。为探明在句子阅读理解过程中是否存在比N400反映的加工更早的句意建构, 以及如果存在这样的句意建构, 其是从何时开始的, 本研究开展了四个实验。实验1发现被试在句末双字词呈现200 ms后已将其联系到上文语义表征而建立了句意, 提示句意建构开始于N400反映的加工出现之前。实验2与3进一步发现, 读者开始建立句意的时间约在句末词呈现了150 ms之时。实验4排除了实验1~3效应的其他一些可能解释, 提升了实验1~3结果的可靠性。总体上, 本研究提示：在句子阅读理解过程中, 读者在句末双字词呈现了约150 ms之时就已建立了句意; 可能存在比N400反映的加工更早的句意建构。     

刻板印象激活的无意图性及其大脑神经活动特征

采用启动Stroop范式, 对刻板印象激活的无意图性及其大脑神经活动特征进行了探讨。操纵了启动和“无启动”条件以及与启动所激活的刻板印象一致、冲突和无关的3类靶子词, 记录了36名大学生被试对靶子词进行颜色判别的行为反应和脑电图(EEG, electroencephalogram)。结果发现：(1)“无启动”条件下对3类靶子的反应时基本一致; 启动条件下对一致靶子做出颜色判别的反应时显著快于对冲突靶子的, 对无关靶子的反应时介于两者之间。(2)“无启动”条件下无关靶子诱发的N400波幅最大--显著大于一致和冲突靶子诱发的, 后两者诱发的N400无差异; 启动条件下一致靶子诱发的N400波幅显著小于冲突和无关靶子诱发的N400波幅, 无关靶子诱发的N400波幅也小于冲突靶子诱发的N400波幅。这表明刻板印象激活是一个发生在知觉后加工阶段的具有无意图性的自动化加工过程, 刻板印象激活效应具有抑制冲突信息加工同时促进一致信息加工的“双刃剑”模式, N400可以作为考察这一认知过程特征的电生理学指标。     

Paid Work and Domestic Labor in Disadvantaged Communities on the Outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon

This article explored the association between economic activity and the contribution to domestic labor in a Middle Eastern society. Analyses were carried out on cross-sectional survey data from 5,998 individuals, aged between 18 and 64 years, in three poor communities in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon. Domestic labor was evaluated with a composite index that takes into account both the type of task performed and the level of involvement. Housework categories included core household chores, care giving, financial management, home management, and home/car maintenance. Results showed that women continue to do most of the domestic labor in the three communities. However, women’s load of domestic labor decreased as they joined the labor market, whereas men’s contribution to domestic labor increased with involvement in paid work. Relatively speaking, the difference in contribution to housework between house members engaged and not engaged in paid labor was much higher for women than it was for men.     

Forming and reacting to overall fairness: A cross-cultural comparison

This study compared the cross-cultural formation and reactions toward overall fairness perception of employees from the US, China, Korea, and Japan. Distributive justice was related to overall fairness less strongly for Americans and Japanese than for Chinese and Koreans. In contrast, interactional justice was related to overall fairness more strongly for Americans and Japanese than for Chinese and Koreans. As expected, materialism seems to provide a coherent account of these cultural differences. In addition, overall fairness showed a stronger effect on turnover intention for Americans than for Chinese and Koreans. For job satisfaction, the effect of overall fairness was stronger for Americans than for Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese. Power distance seems to provide an adequate account of these cultural differences.