Terror salience and punishment: Does terror salience induce threat to social order?

In recent times, international terrorism has become one of the most serious concerns of the modern Western world. As a consequence, the risk and fear of terrorism is more salient in people’s minds (i.e. terror salience), which is supposed to affect behavioral responses in our society. The present research suggests that increased punishment of violations of criminal laws is one societal reaction to increased terror salience. It was consistently shown that increased terror salience, induced by either varying the temporal distance from the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005 (Study 1), by vignettes in the form of newspaper articles manipulating the expected terror risk (Study 2), or by pictures of recent terrorist attacks (Studies 3 and 4), significantly increased the punishment assigned to a violation of criminal laws that was completely unrelated to terror (i.e. car theft and rape). Finally, Study 4 revealed that (a) the effect of terror salience on punishment is indeed due to increased perception of threat to social order and (b) that this effect cannot be explained by the general negative nature of the stimulus material employed in this study.     

Do Chinese and English speakers think about time differently? Failure of replicating Boroditsky (2001)

English uses the horizontal spatial metaphors to express time (e.g., the good days ahead of us). Chinese also uses the vertical metaphors (e.g., 'the month above' to mean last month). Do Chinese speakers, then, think about time in a different way than English speakers? Boroditsky [Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22] claimed that they do, and went on to conclude that 'language is a powerful tool in shaping habitual thought about abstract domains' (such as time). By estimating the frequency of usage, we found that Chinese speakers actually use the horizontal spatial metaphors more often than the vertical metaphors. This offered no logical ground for Boroditsky's claim. We were also unable to replicate her experiments in four different attempts. We conclude that Chinese speakers do not think about time in a different way than English speakers just because Chinese also uses the vertical spatial metaphors to express time.     

The evidence rejects the expertise hypothesis: reply to Gauthier & Bukach

In Robbins, R. & McKone, E. (2006). No face-like processing for object-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks. Cognition this issue, we showed face-like holistic/configural processing does not occur for objects-of-expertise on standard paradigms including inversion, part-whole, part-in-configurally-transformed-whole, and the standard composite task. In this reply to the discussion by Gauthier, I., & Bukach, C. (2006). Should we reject the expertise hypothesis? Cognition, this issue, we focus on several issues: the fact that they do not dispute our review of previous data; the strength of null effects obtained from multiple studies and paradigms; the evidence for domain-specificity of the neural substrate supporting face processing; the difference between the expertise hypothesis (as a theory about the origin of face processing) and studies of how experience affects object processing in general; and the problems with G&B's proposed alteration to the standard composite paradigm. We argue that overwhelming evidence suggests the expertise hypothesis should be put to rest so that researchers can focus on what the origin of "special" processing for faces actually is, and investigate the many interesting changes to object recognition that do occur with experience.     

当代西方语篇阅读信息加工过程理论的分歧与整合

当代西方语篇阅读研究过程中产生了多种理论与模式,它们试图对读者阅读过程的信息加工过程做出解释。文章从发展的角度介绍了建构主义理论、最低限度假设理论和记忆基础的文本加工观的历程、基本假设和实证研究,从中可以看出各种理论派别的分歧与整合的趋势。     

中国人人格结构的确认与形容词评定结果

中西方的人格结构既存在相似性,又有明显的差异性。该研究根据杨国枢和王登峰探讨中国人人格结构的“大七”模型时所用的中文人格特质形容词表,经过化简,由410个形容词压缩为273个;并扩大了被试量,由原来的733人（项目与人数比为1:1.8）扩大为1511人（项目与人数比为1:5.5）。采用相同的评定方法、评定程序和统计方法,得到了完全相同的人格结构。采用另外的样本进行的验证性因素分析也确认了中国人人格的七因素结构。由此揭示了中国人的人格结构及其与西方理论的差异,为系统研究中国人的人格特点和编制测量量表奠定了扎实的基础。文中还比较了大学生被试和社会人士在各个因素上的分数差异。     

自陈量表式测验应用IRT的可行性

对采用5级评分Likert式测题的情感能力量表的分析表明,各分量表项目都有较好的模型-数据拟合性,而且显示了参数估计的不变性,及与CTT参数的关联性。这些都表明Likert量表应用IRT模型的假设条件得到了满足,即IRT应用是可行的。研究还表明IRT能对测量精度进行更精确的估计。     

人格结构的中西方差异与中国人的人格特点

该文旨在通过对中西方人格结构的比较和分析揭示文化与人格结构的关系,并探寻中国人人格结构的文化意义。根据词汇学假设进行的中西方人格结构的研究结果表明,人格结构的形成是建立在对行为归类的基础之上的,中西方人格结构的差异最直接的原因就在于中西方对行为归类的差别。中国文化比较强调整体性、联系性以及评价性是造成中国人与西方人行为归类差异的原因,而更深层次的原因则是中西方文化中对人性看法的差异。中国人人格量表有着比较理想的预测效度,而且与西方大五人格量表相比更高的预测效度,这些均表明中国人人格结构的合理性。文中还提出了进一步研究的展望     

未来工作自我清晰度对主动职业行为的影响——一个有调节的中介模型

基于主动性行为模型和生涯建构理论探讨未来工作自我清晰度对主动职业行为的影响机制。采用主动职业行为量表、未来工作自我清晰度量表、生涯适应力量表、同事支持量表对广深两地13所民营企业的195名员工进行调查分析。结果显示:(1)未来工作自我清晰度影响主动职业行为;(2)生涯适应力在其中起到部分中介作用;(3)同事支持在中介模型的前半路径起到调节作用。     

非目标工作记忆表征下颜色关联和抽象关联的注意捕获和抑制

采用工作记忆—视觉搜索双任务范式,探讨在非目标工作记忆表征下,颜色关联和抽象关联干扰子的注意捕获和抑制现象。实验一结果发现,颜色关联干扰子在快速反应阶段捕获注意,随后被成功抑制;抽象关联干扰子仍能捕获注意。实验二消除知觉凸显后,结果发现颜色关联条件的抑制消失,干扰子重新捕获注意。结果表明,有效抑制策略受不同关联干扰子加工先后顺序的影响,选择性抑制颜色关联干扰子,而颜色特征的凸显有助于抑制策略形成。     

The anatomy of an insult: Popular derogatory terms connote important individual differences in Agreeableness/Antagonism

In the current series of studies, we investigate the psychosocial connotations of common insults. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated the most frequently used insults to denigrate men and women (asshole, dick, bitch), and generated trait profiles that can be considered prototypical of each insult. In Studies 3 and 4, we examined how these insults are relevant to other key indicators of interpersonal functioning, including aggression, social information processing, personality disorders, and substance use. We also gathered thin-slice and informant reports. Each of the insults was associated with trait Antagonism, as well as other behaviors that comprise Antagonism’s nomological network (e.g., bullying, psychopathy, etc.). Results are discussed in terms of the importance of everyday language to psychological research.