Does attitude acquisition in evaluative conditioning without explicit CS-US memory reflect implicit misattribution of affect?

Research that dissociates different types of processes within a given task using a processing tree approach suggests that attitudes may be acquired through evaluative conditioning in the absence of explicit encoding of CS-US pairings in memory. This research distinguishes explicit memory for the CS-US pairings from CS-liking acquired without encoding of CS-US pairs in explicit memory. It has been suggested that the latter effect may be due to an implicit misattribution process that is assumed to operate when US evocativeness is low. In the present research, the latter assumption was supported neither by two high-powered experiments nor by complementary meta-analytic evidence, whereas evocativeness exerted an influence on explicit memory. This pattern of findings is inconsistent with the view that CS-liking acquired without encoding of CS-US pairs in explicit memory reflects an implicit misattribution process at learning. Hence, the underlying learning process is awaiting further empirical scrutiny.     

Can infants be "taught" to attend to a new physical variable in an event category? The case of height in covering events

As they observe or produce events, infants identify variables that help them predict outcomes in each category of events. How do infants identify a new variable? An explanation-based learning (EBL) account suggests three essential steps: (1) observing contrastive outcomes relevant to the variable; (2) discovering the conditions associated with these outcomes; and (3) generating an explanation for the condition-outcome regularity discovered. In Experiments 1-3, 9-month-old infants watched events designed to "teach" them the variable height in covering events. After watching these events, designed in accord with the EBL account, the infants detected a height violation in a covering event, three months earlier than they ordinarily would have. In Experiments 4-6, the "teaching" events were modified to remove one of the EBL steps, and the infants no longer detected the height violation. The present findings thus support the EBL account and help specify the processes by which infants acquire their physical knowledge.     

The cross-linguistic categorization of everyday events: a study of cutting and breaking

The cross-linguistic investigation of semantic categories has a long history, spanning many disciplines and covering many domains. But the extent to which semantic categories are universal or language-specific remains highly controversial. Focusing on the domain of events involving material destruction (“cutting and breaking” events, for short), this study investigates how speakers of different languages implicitly categorize such events through the verbs they use to talk about them. Speakers of 28 typologically, genetically and geographically diverse languages were asked to describe the events shown in a set of videoclips, and the distribution of their verbs across the events was analyzed with multivariate statistics. The results show that there is considerable agreement across languages in the dimensions along which cutting and breaking events are distinguished, although there is variation in the number of categories and the placement of their boundaries. This suggests that there are strong constraints in human event categorization, and that variation is played out within a restricted semantic space.     

家电销售人员胜任特征模型建构

本研究旨在探讨优秀家电销售人员应具备的胜任特征。首先通过对20名家电销售人员的行为事件访谈,初步构建了家电销售人员胜任特征模型;然后通过对20例顾客与家电销售人员的互动进行自然观察,进而对所建构的模型加以验证。研究表明,家电销售人员胜任特征模型共包括9项:成就导向、主动性、学习发展、影响力、洞察力、服务意识、可信赖、情绪稳定性以及产品知识。     

国有中型制造业中层管理者胜任特征模型的构建研究

研究采用质性研究和量化研究相结合的方法,对国有中型制造业中层管理者的胜任特征进行了系统、深入的研究,由3个部分构成。研究1采用行为事件访谈技术、德尔菲法、核检表法初步建立起包含17项胜任特征,聚为6个胜任特征群的模型;研究2对模型的内部结构探索验证,发现七因素模型比六因素模型更稳定;研究3采用聚类和层次分析法获得模型的系统权重。研究为胜任特征模型的研究提供了理论支持和应用指导。     

Chinese character recognition in mirror reading: evidence from event-related potential

As is well known, mirror reading in language requires recognition of words and letters in mirror-reversed pattern compared with normal reading, and the cognitive mechanism underlying the mirror reading may involve two critical processes: visuospatial transformation and linguistic regulation. Chinese characters, different from English, are characterized by some unique features in orthography and spelling. Using ERP techniques, the present study investigated neural correlates underlying the mirror reading of Chinese characters, and whether the cognitive processes underlying the recognition of mirrored Chinese characters is different from those of alphabetic words. Twelve native Chinese speakers participated in the experiment, during which they were instructed to make an animal/nonanimal distinction. The stimuli varied with the word category (animal vs nonanimal) and presentation format (normal vs mirror-reversed). The data analyses focused on three aspects: the reaction times (RT) for Chinese words of normal and mirror-reversed formats, peak latencies, and peak amplitudes of ERP components elicited by mirror-reversed and normal Chinese words. The results from implicit reading provide evidence for a mirror-reversed effect. The behavioural data showed that mirror-reversed words were more difficult to identify than normal words, with RTs delayed for mirror-reversed words over normal words. Moreover, a clear N2 component, with maximal activity occurring at 200-250ms interval (N2), was more negative for mirror-reversed words than for normal words at posterior regions. However, there were no latency differences between normal and mirror-reversed words. The occipital N2 might be closely related to abstract word form representation. Larger N2 amplitude in response to mirror-reversed Chinese words is interpreted as reflecting visuospatial transformation in order to compensate for impaired word form analysis. The result of no N2 latency delay indicated that word form analysis and visuospatial transformation might be processed in parallel.     

树的神话的象征意义及其心理分析探索

世界各民族都有一些有关树木的神话传说,在这些故事中,渗透着丰富而又深刻的心理分析思想。本文以荣格的心理分析理论为基础,通过介绍世界各民族有关世界树的神话,探索树的象征意义及其作为一种原型意象所传达的无意识的信息,并与古今释梦理论相结合,阐述树及其神话的临床心理分析意义。     

Spatial versus tree representations of proximity data

In this paper we investigated two of the most common representations of proximities, two-dimensional euclidean planes and additive trees. Our purpose was to develop guidelines for comparing these representations, and to discover properties that could help diagnose which representation is more appropriate for a given set of data. In a simulation study, artificial data generated either by a plane or by a tree were scaled using procedures for fitting either a plane (KYST) or a tree (ADDTREE). As expected, the appropriate model fit the data better than the inappropriate model for all noise levels. Furthermore, the two models were roughly comparable: for all noise levels, KYST accounted for plane data about as well as ADDTREE accounted for tree data. Two properties of the data proved useful in distinguishing between the models: the skewness of the distribution of distances, and the proportion of elongated triangles, which measures departures from the ultrametric inequality, Applications of KYST and ADDTREE to some twenty sets of real data, collected by other investigators, showed that most of these data could be classified clearly as favoring either a tree or a two-dimensional representation.A portable PASCAL program implementing the Sattath and Tversky [1977] ADDTREE algorithm is available from J. Corter, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.     

Event justice and social entity justice: A cross-lagged analysis

IntroductionThe life of organizations is punctuated by a wide range of managerial decisions (e.g., hiring and selection procedure, performance appraisal, new working methods). Facing such events, employees evaluate the fairness of the situation experienced (event justice). They can also examine the fairness demonstrated by a specific entity, such as the organization or the supervisor (social entity justice). So far, little is known about how justice judgments about events vs. entities are related to each other, especially in a context of organizational change.ObjectiveBuilding on decision-making and organizational justice literature, we investigate the directionality of the causal relationships between event justice and social entity justice within a context of organizational change in a Belgian company (a significant reorganization at the level of the organization chart resulting in different changes for employees).MethodsWe used two samples (team leaders and executives) and realized a cross-lagged panel analysis with two measurement times.ResultsThe study shows that, in both samples, employees’ fairness perceptions about their organization (social entity justice) influence their interpretation of the fairness of subsequent events involving the organization (event justice).ConclusionBuilding and fostering a climate of justice is therefore of primary importance to organizations, since global fairness perceptions about the organization may help employees to perceive a specific event, such as an organizational change, as being fair.