n-back任务下视觉工作记忆负荷研究

实验采用n-back范式,考察了视觉工作记忆负荷与反应时、辨别力和主观评价的关系,以及空间位置记忆负荷与图形记忆负荷的差异。结果发现,随着记忆负荷的增大,反应时延长,辨别力降低,主观负荷提高。视觉图形记忆任务的负荷水平高于视觉空间位置记忆任务的负荷水平;同时也为视觉图形记忆和视觉空间记忆具有不同的加工过程提供了证据。     

Reproducibility and a unifying explanation: Lessons from the shape bias

The goal of science is to advance our understanding of particular phenomena. However, in the field of development, the phenomena of interest are complex, multifaceted, and change over time. Here, we use three decades of research on the shape bias to argue that while replication is clearly an important part of the scientific process, integration across the findings of many studies that include variations in procedure is also critical to create a coherent understanding of the thoughts and behaviors of young children. The “shape bias,” or the tendency to generalize a novel label to novel objects of the same shape, is a reliable and robust behavioral finding and has been shown to predict future vocabulary growth and possible language disorders. Despite the robustness of the phenomenon, the way in which the shape bias is defined and tested has varied across studies and laboratories. The current review argues that differences in performance that come from even seemingly minor changes to the participants or task can offer critical insight to underlying mechanisms, and that working to incorporate data from multiple labs is an important way to reveal how task variation and a child’s individual pathway creates behavior—a key issue for understanding developmental phenomena.     

AN ANALYSIS OF A GROUP TEACHING PROCEDURE FOR PERSONS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

This study evaluated whether a concurrent group teaching procedure, in which all students respond simultaneously, could be used for persons with moderate or severe mental retardation. The teaching procedure used was the Task Demonstration Model, a program based on stimulus-control research and the fading techniques of behavioral psychology. Three teachers and three groups of students participated. Results showed that the teachers increased their rates of questions and instructions, positive feedback, and use of functional materials, but they reduced their rate of prompts to almost zero. Students increased their percentage and rate of correct responding as well as their engaged time. In addition, maladaptive responding, for which there were never any direct consequences, decreased from 45% to 10% for 8 of the 14 students. Results are discussed primarily in two areas: (a) changing stimulus control from teacher prompts to critical elements of the items being taught, and (b) reasons for the reduction of maladaptive behavior for 8 of the subjects.     

Implicit achievement motive limits the impact of task difficulty on effort-related cardiovascular response

In contrast to the motive literature, motivational intensity theory predicts that the implicit achievement motive (nAch) should only exert an indirect impact on effort by limiting the impact of task difficulty. To contrast these two views, sixty-eight participants with a low or high nAch performed an easy or difficult arithmetic task. Effort was assessed using cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). Supporting motivational intensity theory’s view, PEP response was low in both easy-task conditions but stronger in the high-nAch group than in the low-nAch group in the difficult task. These findings suggest that nAch exerts an indirect effect on effort investment by setting the maximally justified effort instead of directly determining the amount of effort that is invested to satisfy the motive.     

Creating a qualitative typology of electric vehicle driving: EV journey-making mapped in a chronological framework

‘Range anxiety’ is considered a barrier to market acceptance of electric vehicles (EVs), but perceptions of inadequate recharging infrastructure and limited battery range may be part of a more complex set of consumer concerns; experiences and practices of existing EV drivers – with reference to wider transport and energy systems – need to be understood in greater detail. Qualitative material from semi-structured interviews [n = 88] is used to formulate a chronological Typology of Electric Vehicle Driving which synthesises drivers’ decisions, actions and dynamic considerations before, during and after a journey. The typology outlines and tabulates spatio-temporal elements specific to driving an EV; describes adaptations and compromises in household routines and travel habits; draws out how or when drivers engage with external digital information sources – i.e. smartphone apps, social media – during journey-making; plots their intervention in behavioural changes; and could inform development of infrastructure, tools or services, policy or interventions to support EV uptake.     

初中生风险决策表现的认知建模分析:自尊及性别的影响

选取山东省某初中308名学生,采用爱荷华博弈任务,使用“效用-固着”模型对决策包含的动机、认知、反应心理过程进行认知建模分析,探究自尊水平和性别对初中生风险决策表现的影响。结果发现,初中生的风险决策表现不佳,对损失不敏感。在控制年级的影响后,分层回归分析表明:(1)自尊水平和性别对决策的动机过程的影响存在交互作用,男生无论自尊高低对收益都较为关注,女生中高自尊者更加关注收益。(2)决策成绩不存在显著的性别差异,但男生更多选择有着较高损失值的不利选项,而女生更多选择损失频率较低的有利选项。(3)自尊的影响主要体现在动机和认知过程,高自尊水平者在动机过程中更多表现出对损失的规避,在认知过程中更多地考虑维持之前的决策选择。     

中性抽象词和具体词情绪信息获得的差异

采用词汇迫选学习范式考察不同类型词汇获得情绪信息的认知机制。结果发现：（1）在迫选过程中与积极图片匹配的具体词汇喜好度显著高于与消极图片匹配的喜好度,而抽象词学习并未表现出这样的效应。（2）积极图片下被选择词汇的喜好度显著高于未被选择词汇的喜好度,而消极图片下被选择词汇与未被选择词汇的喜好度差异不显著。该结果表明具体词相较于抽象词更易获得相应情绪信息,积极情绪比消极情绪信息更易被习得。     

Effects of stimulus features and instruction on response coding,selection, and inhibition: Evidence from repetition effects under task switching

The coding of stimuli and responses is crucial for human behaviour. Here, we focused primarily on the response codes (or response categories). As a method, we applied a combined dual-task and task-switch paradigm with a fixed task-to-hand mapping. Usually, negative effects (i.e., costs) are observed for response category repetitions under task switching. However, in several previous studies it has been proposed that such repetition effects do not occur, if the stimulus categories (e.g., “odd” if digits have to be classified according to their parity feature) are unequivocally mapped to specific responses. Our aim was to test this hypothesis. In the present experiments, we were able to distinguish between three different types of possible response codes. The results show that the participants generally code their responses according to abstract response features (left/right, or index/middle finger). Moreover, the spatial codes were preferred over the finger-type codes even if the instructions stressed the latter. This preference, though, seemed to result from a stimulus–response feature overlap, so that the spatial response categories were primed by the respective stimulus features. If there was no such overlap, the instructions determined which type of response code was involved in response selection and inhibition.     

Minimizing the influence of recoding in the Implicit Association Test: The Recoding-Free Implicit Association Test (IAT-RF)

Recoding processes can influence the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) in a way that impedes an unequivocal interpretation of the resulting compatibility effects. We present a modified version of the IAT that aims to eliminate recoding, the IAT-RF (short for “IAT–recoding free”). In the IAT-RF, compatible and incompatible assignments of categories to responses switch randomly between trials within a single experimental block. Abandoning an extended sequence of consistent category–response mappings undermines recoding processes in the IAT-RF. Two experiments reveal that the IAT-RF is capable of assessing compatibility effects between the nominally defined categories of the task and effectively prevents recoding. By enforcing a processing of the stimuli in terms of their task-relevant category membership, the IAT-RF eliminates the confounding of compatibility effects with task switch costs and becomes immune against biased selections of stimuli.     

Task-defined associations are mode specific for selection of relevant dimension but mode independent for selection of location mapping

When compatible and incompatible mappings of a location-relevant task are mixed, or a location-relevant task is mixed with a task for which stimulus location is irrelevant, the benefit of the compatible mapping is eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for location words. Two experiments examined the influence of presenting the location information for the mixed conditions in different stimulus modes (physical location or word). Experiment 1 showed that the effects of mixing location-relevant and location-irrelevant tasks on the spatial compatibility and Simon effects are reduced when the location information is presented in different modes for the two tasks. Experiment 2 showed, in contrast, that the mode distinction had little influence on the effects of mixed compatible and incompatible mappings for location-relevant tasks: The compatibility effect was eliminated for physical locations and enhanced for words, as when there is no mode distinction. Thus, when location is relevant for one task and colour for the other, the task-defined associations of locations to responses are mode specific, but when location is relevant for both tasks, the associations are mode independent.