Neural correlates of comprehension and production of nouns and verbs in Chinese

This paper reports a conjunction analysis between semantic relatedness judgment and semantic associate generation of Chinese nouns and verbs with concrete or abstract meanings. The results revealed a verb-specific task-independent region in LpSTG&MTG, and task-dependent activation in a left frontal region in semantic judgment and the left SMG in semantic associate production. The observation of word class effects converged on Yu, Law, Han, Zhu, and Bi (2011), but contrasted with null findings in previous reports using a lexical decision task. While word class effects in the left posterior temporal cortices have been described in previous studies of languages with rich inflectional morphology, the significance of this study lies in its demonstration of the effects in these regions in a language known to have little inflectional morphology. In other words, differential neural responses to nouns and verbs can be observed without confounding from morphosyntactic operations or contrasts between actions and objects.     

Does participation in research lead to changes in attitudes among clinicians? Report on a survey of those involved in a French practice research network

Background/Objective: With increasing awareness of some of the limitations of randomised controlled trials as the ‘gold standard’ of psychotherapy evaluation, researchers at the start of the twenty‐first century have focused on a number of new priorities: developing studies in natural conditions; investigating the psychotherapeutic process to better understand the conditions, causes and mechanisms of change; and reducing the gap between clinicians and researchers. Can these three interrelated objectives be combined? Method: A French psychotherapy practice‐based research network (PRN) is used as a field of research for these issues. A survey was used to investigate the conditions that encouraged the clinicians to participate in the PRN study within the context of clinicians’ general opposition to research. Results: Several elements emerged as the key to clinicians’ positive involvement in research: the methodology implemented (intensive case studies during one year); the choice of measures; the constant attention to the practicalities and the potential contribution of studies to clinical practice; the organisation of work in peer groups; the training methods; the use of new information technologies and the sense of participation in a project that would support the profession. Implications: These elements are briefly discussed in relation to the question of how best to encourage clinicians to engage with research.     

Determinants of Joint Attention in Young Siblings' Play

The nature of joint attention (JA) engagement of 32 sibling pairs (M age older sibling = 55.21 months; M age younger sibling = 19.60 months) was assessed in a free play context. Relations among JA engagement states, both siblings' age, temperament, and language, and older sibling theory of mind were explored. The frequency of coordinated JA was related to features of temperament of both the younger siblings (emotionality) and the older siblings (activity level and sociability). Younger siblings' age was significantly related to siblings' engagement in coordinated JA, whereas the older siblings' age and theory of mind correlated with the frequency of passive JA engagement. Implications regarding the role of partner characteristics in young sibling JA interactions will be discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国背景下农民工创业成长的过程机制

农民工创业研究伴随着寻找创业沃土的渴求而兴起, 有创业意向, 选择正确商业概念来采取行动策略并发展有价值的商业机会使企业成长对任何一个创业者至关重要, 也与国家目前弘扬以创业带动就业的时代主题一致。相比国外创业研究的盛行, 国内对该主题的本土化实证研究尚待加强。经过对以往研究的总结分析, 结合本土化研究取向, 本研究拟采用半结构化访谈、配对成组问卷的现场研究和实验室模拟研究方法, 以行动策略与社会网络理论为基础, 探索变革背景下中国农民工创业成功成长的过程机制, 具体包括三方面研究：(1)从特质因素探讨农民工创业主动性、动态能力和创业效能感对创业意向、机会识别和行动策略的影响; (2)从社会网络和社会资本因素探讨农民工社会资本特征对设定目标、采取行动策略、识别机会的影响,即, 社会资本如何影响农民工的创业成长; (3)农民工创业行动策略对创业绩效的影响。     

Event-related potential practice effects on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT)

Practice can change the nature and quality of a stimulus-response relationship. The current study observed the effects of repeated administration of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) in 12 healthy individuals, in an effort to establish distinct profiles associated with novel and practiced processing. Over four training sessions the mean number of correct responses on this demanding test of attention significantly improved and was approaching ceiling for most task conditions. Behavioural improvements were associated with significantly reduced amplitude of late Processing Negativity, a frontally distributed component of the event-related potential waveform associated with voluntary, limited-capacity activity within higher-order attentional systems. These results suggest that PASAT performance became more efficient as practice seemingly eased the strategic planning and coordination requirements the task places on frontally-mediated executive attention resources. The findings of the current study extend our understanding of the functional and behavioural mechanisms underlying the effects of practice.     

Project DyAdd: Visual attention in adult dyslexia and ADHD

In this study of the project DyAdd, three aspects of visual attention were investigated in adults (18–55 years) with dyslexia (n = 35) or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 22), and in healthy controls (n = 35). Temporal characteristics of visual attention were assessed with Attentional Blink (AB), capacity of visual attention with Multiple Object Tracking (MOT), and spatial aspects of visual attention with Useful Field of View (UFOV) task. Results showed that adults with dyslexia had difficulties performing the AB and UFOV tasks, which were explained by an impaired ability to process dual targets, longer AB recovery time, and deficits in processing rapidly changing visual displays. The ADHD group did not have difficulties in any of the tasks. Further, performance in the visual attention tasks predicted variation in measures of phonological processing and reading when all of the participants were considered together. Thus, difficulties in tasks of visual attention were related to dyslexia and variation of visual attention had a role in the reading ability of the general population.     

Resting EEG in alpha and beta bands predicts individual differences in attentional blink magnitude

Accuracy for a second target (T2) is reduced when it is presented within 500 ms of a first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) - an attentional blink (AB). There are reliable individual differences in the magnitude of the AB. Recent evidence has shown that the attentional approach that an individual typically adopts during a task or in anticipation of a task, as indicated by various measures, predicts individual differences in the AB deficit. It has yet to be observed whether indices of attentional approach when not engaged in a goal-directed task are also relevant to individual differences in the AB. The current studies investigated individual differences in the AB by examining their relationship with attention at rest using quantitative measures of EEG. Greater levels of alpha at rest were associated with larger AB magnitudes, where greater levels of beta at rest were associated with smaller AB magnitudes. Furthermore, individuals with more beta than alpha demonstrated a smaller AB effect than individuals with more alpha than beta. Our results suggest that greater attentional engagement at rest, when not engaged in a goal-directed task, is associated with smaller AB magnitudes.     

Fundamental Questions in Personality

The network perspective represents a novel contribution to personality theory by conceptualising personality traits as emerging from the mutual dependencies between fundamental and causal affective, behavioural, and cognitive components. We argue that incorporating a more nuanced biological and developmental perspective to causality and a more precise approach to affective, behavioural, cognitive and motivational components may serve to enrich the network perspective. Although the graphical approach to modelling personality is aesthetically pleasing, analytic techniques are not yet available to put network models to the (quantitative) test. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does the body talk to the body? The relationship between different body representations while observing others’ body parts

The way human bodies are represented is central in everyday activities. The cognitive system must combine internal, visceral, and somatosensory, signals to external, visually driven information generated from the spatial placement of others’ bodies and the own body in the space. However, how different body representations covertly interact among them when observing human body parts is still unclear. Therefore, we investigated the implicit processing of body parts by manipulating either the body part stimuli’ posture (conditions a and b) or the participants’ response body posture (conditions c, d, and e) in healthy participants (N = 70) using a spatial compatibility task called Sidedness task. The task requires participants to judge the colour of a circle superimposed on a task-irrelevant body part picture. Responses are facilitated when the spatial side of the responding hand corresponds to the spatial code generated by the hand stimulus's position with respect to a body of reference. Results showed that the observation of the task-irrelevant body parts oriented participants’ attention and facilitated responses that were spatial compatible with the spatial position such body parts have within a configural representation of the body structure (i.e., Body Structural Representation) in all the five experimental conditions. Notably, the body part stimuli were mentally attached to the body according to the most comfortable and less awkward postures, following the anatomo-physiological constraints. Moreover, the pattern of the results was not influenced by manipulating the participants’ response postures, suggesting that the automatic and implicit coding of the body part stimuli does not rely on proprioceptive information about one's body (i.e., Body Schema). We propose that the human body's morphometry knowledge is enriched by biomechanical and anatomo-physiological information about the real body movement possibilities. Moreover, we discuss the importance of the automatic orienting of attention based on the sidedness within the context of imitational learning.     

What gaze adds to arrows: Changes in attentional response to gaze versus arrows in childhood and adolescence

From early ages, gaze acts as a cue to infer the interests, behaviours, thoughts and emotions of social partners. Despite sharing attentional properties with other non-social directional stimuli, such as arrows, gaze produces unique effects. A spatial interference task revealed this dissociation. The direction of arrows was identified faster on congruent than on incongruent direction-location trials. Conversely, gaze produced a reversed congruency effect (RCE), with faster identifications on incongruent than congruent trials. To determine the emergence of these gaze-specific attentional mechanisms, 214 Spanish children (4–17 years) divided into 6 age groups, performed the aforementioned task across three experiments. Results showed stimulus-specific developmental trajectories. Whereas the standard effect of arrows was unaffected by age, gaze shifted from an arrow-like effect at age 4 to a gaze-specific RCE at age 12. The orienting mechanisms shared by gaze and arrows are already present in 4-year olds and, throughout childhood, gaze becomes a special social cue with additional attentional properties. Besides orienting attention to a direction, as arrows would do, gaze might orient attention towards a specific object that would be attentionally selected. Such additional components may not fully develop until adolescence. Understanding gaze-specific attentional mechanisms may be crucial for children with atypical socio-cognitive development.