媒体多任务的效用：听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合的实验证据

采用心理旋转范式和词汇判断范式,探讨媒体多任务经验不同者在听觉信息干扰和视听信息整合情境下对图形一致性和真假词的判断表现。结果发现：（1）以判断图形一致性为实验任务,在无声和低音干扰条件下,低经验组的正确率均显著高于高经验组,两组的反应时差异均不显著;在高音干扰条件下,高经验组的反应时显著短于低经验组,正确率则没有显著差异。（2）以真假词判断为实验任务,对真词进行判断,在三种听觉条件下,高经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时最短,与低经验组无显著差异,但正确率显著高于低经验组,与另两种听觉条件没有显著差异;低经验组在语音匹配条件下的反应时显著长于另两种听觉条件,正确率则显著高于无声条件,与不匹配条件差异不显著。对假词的判断,低经验组在三种听觉条件下的反应时均显著短于高经验组,正确率与高经验组均无显著差异。研究表明,媒体多任务经验丰富者相比经验缺乏者受到任务无关的纯短高音干扰的影响要小,在需要视听通道语义整合的加工中具有一定的优势。     

数字媒体使用与心理健康的理论争议和研究证据

采用系统综述的方法对数字媒体使用与心理健康的不同关系类型做了详细梳理并总结了争议的原因。结果发现,目前理论上的争议可归纳为四大类：负相关、正相关、不相关以及U形关系。研究结果不一致的原因可能与数字媒体的使用性质、心理健康的内涵、研究的取向和设计形式以及被试群体有关。该结果有助于从宏观上把握数字媒体使用与心理健康的研究动态并批判性地看待既有研究结果。未来应将数字媒体使用做精细化区分并加强实验研究准确揭示因果关系,以便厘清该领域的争论。

     

Crones, Dirty Old Men, Sexy Seniors: Representations of the Sexuality of Older Persons

The representations of the sexuality of older persons in American society are neither flattering nor accurate. Often what is presented is filled with confusion, uncertainty, and contradictions. Sexuality of old people, like sexuality of adolescents, frightens most adults in between. Evidence suggests hope that in popular culture, conventional representations of sexless older people are finally undergoing a change. The popular literature aimed at elderly or midlife audiences increasingly portrays older persons as healthy, vigorous, and not unattractive. Since in the popular mind attractiveness and sexuality are believed to be closely linked, this change signals an increased willingness to credit old people who are aging well (i.e., who look and act young) with being sexually interested and probably active.     

学习支持对儿童在多媒体语境中学习英语词汇的影响

该研究旨在考察中文翻译与主题提示两种学习支持对儿童在多媒体语境中学习英语词汇的作用,为此设计了三种学习条件：无支持条件、中文翻译条件和中文翻译 主题提示条件。对学龄初期儿童在上述三种学习条件下学习英语词汇的过程和结果进行的考察和分析表明：儿童在无支持条件下的学习效果较差;中文翻译可以明显促进儿童对语句的理解,但无法提高儿童对目标词的掌握;中文翻译 主题提示条件下儿童对单词语义的掌握最好,他们表现出了较多的跟读行为,并更倾向于认为学习任务较为容易。     

诱发的积极情绪会促进多媒体学习吗?

近来, 教育心理学领域开始关注情绪因素对多媒体学习的影响, 其中诱发情绪逐渐成为研究者关注的指导设计形式。已有研究主要通过外部情绪诱发和内部情绪设计来考察诱发的积极情绪在学习过程中的作用, 并发现外部情绪诱发和内部情绪设计能够成功诱发积极情绪, 但由于情绪诱发方式的多样性和多媒体学习过程的复杂性, 诱发的积极情绪对学习效果的促进作用比较微弱。综述发现, 7项涉及外部情绪诱发的实验在学习结果上产生的效应量中值分别为d_保持 = -0.25, d_理解 = 0.04, d_迁移 = 0.30; 14项涉及内部情绪设计的实验在学习结果上产生的效应量中值分别为d_保持 = 0.27, d_理解 = 0.36, d_迁移 = 0.29。诱发的情绪对学习过程的主观体验影响很小。多媒体学习认知情感理论认为诱发的积极情绪会通过动机的中介作用进而促进学习; 相反, 认知负荷理论认为诱发的积极情绪会增加学习者的外在认知负荷从而阻碍学习。未来研究仍需关注情绪的操纵方法、效果评定以及潜在调节变量的作用等。     

Motivated aggressiveness perpetuated by exposure to aggressive films and reduced by exposure to nonaggressive films

Under conditions of both minimal and extreme initial provocation, the effect of exposure to neutral vs aggressive films on subsequent aggressive behavior was assessed relative to a no-exposure condition. Excitatory changes were also recorded. Under minimal provocation, communication conditions were found to have no differential effect on aggressive behavior. Under extreme provocation, relative to the no-exposure condition the neutral film significantly reduced subsequent aggression, whereas the aggressive film reduced it to an insignificant degree only. The excitatory changes observed in the extreme-provocation conditions coincided with these differences in aggressive behavior. The findings, obviously countercathartic, were interpreted as inconsistent with the proposition that filmed aggression elicits aggressive behavior. Bandura's reasoning on attentional shift was modified to account for the data. An alternative explanation was developed from considerations of the aggression-modifying effect of residual excitation.     

Brutality of assault in political cartoons affecting humor appreciation

Political cartoons depicting a presidential candidate undergoing an aggressive assault were manipulated to assess the effect on humor appreciation of variations in the degree of brutality of the aggressive tactics (minimal, intermediate, extreme). The identity of the depicted candidate (Richard Nixon vs George McGovern) was also manipulated. Humor-appreciation ratings were given to these cartoons by student subjects during the week preceding the 1972 presidential elections. Attitudes toward the depicted candidates were assessed in a postexperimental questionnaire. Neither degree of brutality nor affect toward the victim exerted a significant main effect, but a significant transverse interaction between the two variables was observed. When the assault involved minimal levels of brutality, the victimization of a rejected candidate was appreciated significantly more than that of a favored one; when intermediate levels of brutality were depicted, assaults against rejected candidates did not differ appreciably from attacks upon favored candidates in the level of mirth they elicited; when the brutality was extreme, aggression against rejected candidates was appreciated less than assaults against favored candidates, although nonsignificantly so. Of the various theoretical notions which were advanced to predict the results, a rationale involving the decoder's motivation to favor or object to the manner in which the aggressive agent is characterized as well as his motivation to enjoy or dislike the communication's projected outcome was considered to account best for the findings.     

Recognition and Reform in Nordic Fiction: Jonas Gardell and Jussi Valtonen

While contemporary Scandinavian literature continues to discuss the problems of welfare state and social justice, it increasingly turns its attention to minority issues, multiculturalism, and the impact of digitalization. Jonas Gardell's HIV/AIDS trilogy Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (Never wipe tears without gloves) highlights the family relations in the Swedish gay community. Jussi Valtonen's He eivät tiedä mitä tekevät (They do not know what they do) deals with the dystopias of social media and the power of global software companies. Religion and theology play a significant role in the works of both Gardell and Valtonen.     

A New Culture of Learning: Digital Storytelling and Faith Formation

How has the “new culture of learning” begun to transform us, and in what ways might the faith formation practices of religious communities be impacted by the shift? Recent research funded by the MacArthur Foundation lays an empirical basis for recognizing shifts in learning brought about by widespread access to digital technologies. The implications of that research, in turn, pose widespread challenges to the work of faith formation in contemporary communities of faith. Communicative theologies may be best poised to engage these challenges through the practices of digital storytelling.