Does g variance change in adulthood? Testing the age de-differentiation hypothesis across sex

In the last decade, changes in the structure of intelligence across the life-span has become a central topic in the research on human intelligence. One of the main hypotheses that has arisen to account for such changes has been the age de-differentiation hypothesis [Balinsky, Genetic Psychology Monographs 23 1941, 191]. It predicts an increase in the importance of g, and a decrease in the number and importance of the lower-order abilities from early maturity to senescence. Despite of the research effort to test this hypothesis, no study has ever been conducted controlling by sex. For that purpose, males and females of the Spanish standardisation sample of the WAIS-III were analysed separately. Results show that the importance of g does not change with age irrespective of sex. Thus, the age de-differentiation hypothesis is rejected for both males and females. The indifferentiation hypothesis is supported as a more appropriate view of the changes in the structure of intelligence across adulthood.     

模板理论与限制调节理论的比较研究

直接针对专家记忆优势效应的理论主要有两个,模板理论和限制调节理论。模板理论认为,专家记忆优势效应是由于专家将许多模板存储于长时记忆中;而限制调节理论认为,专家记忆优势效应是由于专家能够抽取与目标关联的限制来建构刺激物。文章以中国象棋为实验材料．对两个理论进行了比较,实验结果否定了限制调节理论。     

Attributional style and depressive symptoms in adolescents: an examination of the role of various indicators of cognitive vulnerability

This study focuses on the hopelessness theory to explain depressive symptoms in adolescents. The aim is to assess which dimensions of the attributional style (causal attribution, attribution of consequences, implications for the self, total score, and weakest link score) better moderate the impact of negative events on the increase of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, 856 Spanish adolescents (449 girls and 407 boys, ages between 14 and 17 years) were assessed at the beginning of the school year and at follow-up 6 months later. They completed measures of depressogenic cognitive style [Hankin, B. L., & Abramson, L. Y. (2002). Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression in adolescents: Reliability, validity, and gender differences. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 31, 491-504], negative life events, and depressive symptoms. The results show that only the dimension of attribution of stable and global causes moderated the impact of the negative events on the increase of depression at follow-up. The results are discussed in terms of the meaning of the weakest link score and the construct of attributional style from a developmental perspective.     

A blast from the past: The terror management function of nostalgia

According to terror management theory, people turn to meaning-providing structures to cope with the knowledge of inevitable mortality. Recent theory and research suggest that nostalgia is a meaning-providing resource and thus may serve such an existential function. The current research tests and supports this idea. In Experiments 1 and 2, nostalgia proneness was measured and mortality salience manipulated. In Experiment 1, when mortality was salient, the more prone to nostalgia participants were, the more they perceived life to be meaningful. In Experiment 2, when mortality was salient, the more prone to nostalgia participants were, the less death thoughts were accessible. In Experiment 3, nostalgia and mortality salience were manipulated. It was found that nostalgia buffered the effects of mortality salience on death-thought accessibility.     

How do shy people expand their social networks? Using social surrogates as a strategy to expand one's network

The authors examined the use of social surrogates by shy people to expand their social network when entering a new environment, following Bradshaw's social surrogate hypothesis. The authors conducted a panel survey of 70 friendship pairs of students 7 months after they entered university. The results revealed that when a friend acted as a surrogate, the shy students extended their joint networks more. In contrast, not-shy students extended their networks regardless of whether a friend acted as a surrogate. These results indicate that even shy people can adjust indirectly to new social circumstances because they can expand their social networks by using a close friend as a surrogate.     

Cultural group perception enhances sense of agency in a multicultural society

Group, which involves collective actions for achieving shared goals, can be conceptually understood as an important source of agency and control. The current research investigated whether group identity salience can enhance sense of agency within the individual. Specifically, we examined whether an activated cultural group identity, through presenting different types of cultural photographs in a predictable way, would facilitate people's sense of agency by using an implicit method, namely, intentional binding effect paradigm. Experiment 1a found that an activated cultural group identity enhanced the sense of agency. Next, Experiment 1b replicated the findings by recruiting a different ethnic group in the same society. Experiment 2 explored what may affect the intensity of induced sense of agency and found that perceived representativeness of the presented cultural stimuli was positively correlated with the intensity of induced sense of agency. Finally, Experiment 3 explored whether ethnic minority and majority groups would demonstrate different intensity of agency when their cultural identity was activated. The results showed that the sense of agency induced by the mainstream cultural stimuli was greater than that induced by the foreign cultural photographs. These patterns were not different between the two ethnic groups. Taken together, these findings reflected the dynamic nature of cultural identity construction in a multicultural society.     

Right- and left-wing prejudice toward dissimilar groups in cultural and economic domains

According to recent studies, people on both the political right and left show prejudice toward groups whose beliefs are in conflict with their own. This prediction applies to both cultural and economic dimensions of political beliefs. In three studies (N = 499) we demonstrate that people on both the cultural and economic right and left show negative attitudes toward groups on the other side of the given spectrum and that underlying this effect is the perception of value violation. In two out of three studies, we manipulated the extremity of target worldviews to further explore the causal chain between political beliefs, the perception of value violation, and prejudice. Our results showed a high degree of symmetry between the political left and right in their attitudes toward groups with dissimilar beliefs. However, although people on both sides of the political spectrum show prejudice toward each other, people on the cultural and economic right seem to be more sensitive to value violations than people on the left.     

A method for increasing empirical discriminability and eliminating top‐row preference in photo arrays

It is important to consider the two parameters of signal detection theory, discriminability and response bias, when evaluating eyewitness identification from simultaneous lineups. On the basis of the diagnostic feature‐detection hypothesis, we tested a method for increasing discriminability that encourages eyewitnesses to carefully rank each lineup member based on match to their memory for a perpetrator. This procedure increased empirical discriminability and also eliminated a response bias that is largely overlooked in the literature: Participants were biased to choose from the top row of the six‐pack (2 × 3) lineup commonly used in the United States. We argue that suspect position in the simultaneous lineup is an important variable to consider for researchers and the criminal justice system. We also encourage researchers to test the ranking procedure to determine if such a simple set of instructions could be utilized by police to help eyewitnesses correctly sort innocent versus guilty suspects.     

赌博游戏中的near-miss效应

near-miss效应是指在赌博中, 与一般的输钱和赢钱相比, “几乎赢(near-miss)”的输钱会诱发个体更高的生理唤醒和更强的赌博动机, 从而导致个体持续赌博的一种现象, 是导致赌博成瘾的主要诱因之一。针对这种现象的研究范式大致有三种：老虎机/类老虎机任务、轮盘任务和刮刮乐彩票任务。这种现象的理论解释目前主要有认知曲解假说、控制幻觉理论和受挫假说。near-miss效应的脑机制和病理研究才刚刚起步, 所涉及到的脑功能区域主要包括脑岛、腹侧纹状体等。未来的研究应在near-miss效应发生机制的理论模型建构、研究范式多样化、研究技术多模态化、病理机制和临床干预等方面进一步展开。     

不同熟练度双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应：来自行为和ERP的证据

为研究语言对知觉的影响作用, 行为实验采用视觉搜索范式研究蒙汉双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应; 为进一步考察语言影响知觉的脑机制, 脑电实验采用Oddball范式研究蒙汉双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应。行为实验和脑电研究结果都发现, 在区分蒙古语中qinker和huhe色时, 低汉语水平的蒙汉双语者比高汉语水平者产生更强的颜色范畴效应, 蒙汉双语者的汉语水平影响颜色范畴知觉, 双语者所习得的第二语言范畴可以改变双语者母语的范畴, 语言能影响知觉的前注意阶段, 本研究支持了Spair-Whorf假设。