Imageability,age of acquisition,and frequency factors in acronym comprehension

In spite of their unusual orthographic and phonological form, acronyms (e.g., BBC, HIV, NATO) can become familiar to the reader, and their meaning can be accessed well enough that they are understood. The factors in semantic access for acronym stimuli were assessed using a word association task. Two analyses examined the time taken to generate a word association response to acronym cues. Responses were recorded more quickly to cues that elicited a large proportion of semantic responses, and those that were high in associative strength. Participants were shown to be faster to respond to cues which were imageable or early acquired. Frequency was not a significant predictor of word association responses. Implications for theories of lexical organisation are discussed.     

Perceived product instrumentality: the process of scale purification and validation

Perceived product instrumentality (PPI) is a new construct that is proposed as a key process component of a general model of family purchasing behaviour. PPI reflects the degree to which consumers, apprehended as actors of social roles, deem a product to be helpful, facilitative of role performance, compatible with role identity and congruent with the self‐concept. The objective of this paper is threefold: (1) assess the PPI unidimensionality and reliability; (2) purify the PPI scale, and (3) assess its validity. First, a pilot survey was administered to a convenience sample of men and women, who filled in four identical lists of 33 items tapping their attitudes towards durables, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted on each set to explore the overall pattern of the items relationships. Five try‐out pools of different sizes (33, 28, 15, 13 and 9 items) were involved in the analysis. The 15‐item scale was retained. Secondly, a large‐scale survey was administered to 500 couples as part of an extensive research involving comprehensive model testing. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the whole sample for reliability and unidimensionality assessment. At times, the analysis is done on men's and women's sub‐samples separately in order to account for eventual differences among both populations. Thirdly, confirmatory factor was conducted, splitting the sample into two random halves: the generation sample and the validation sample. The first half served for the PPI scales purification. In this case, PPI was posited as the latent variable and the scale items were posited as the manifest ones. The second served to validate the PPI theory in a system's framework: PPI was posited as a latent dependent variable while other role orientations variables were posited as latent independent variables. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Probability, logic and the cognitive foundations of rational belief

Since Pascal introduced the idea of mathematical probability in the 17th century discussions of uncertainty and “rational” belief have been dogged by philosophical and technical disputes. Furthermore, the last quarter century has seen an explosion of new questions and ideas, stimulated by developments in the computer and cognitive sciences. Competing ideas about probability are often driven by different intuitions about the nature of belief that arise from the needs of different domains (e.g., economics, management theory, engineering, medicine, the life sciences etc). Taking medicine as our focus we develop three lines of argument (historical, practical and cognitive) that suggest that traditional views of probability cannot accommodate all the competing demands and diverse constraints that arise in complex real-world domains. A model of uncertain reasoning based on a form of logical argumentation appears to unify many diverse ideas. The model has precursors in informal discussions of argumentation due to Toulmin, and the notion of logical probability advocated by Keynes, but recent developments in artificial intelligence and cognitive science suggest ways of resolving epistemological and technical issues that they could not address.     

中学生知识获得过程是从情景记忆向语义记忆转化的过程

本研究探讨中学生的知识掌握过程。针对2001—2002年度上学期教学内容,对初中二年级学生的四门课程分别进行两次测验。对于每道选择题,学生首先选择正确答案,然后指出记忆的意识状态：记住的、知道的、猜测的。结果发现,学生记忆意识类型的转变(由记住向知道)取决于课程类型、保持时间和学生等级。对于不同课程,学生占优势的意识类型不同,自然学科知道的反应占优势,社会学科记住的反应占优势;优等生知道的反应多于其他学生;随着学习时间的延长,中学生的意识类型发生了由记住向知道的转变,这表明知识掌握过程中,中学生的知识表征发生了由情景记忆向语义记忆的转变。     

Examining the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematics Performance: An Instructional Hierarchy Perspective

This study investigated the relationship between mathematics anxiety, fluency, and error rates in basic mathematical operations among college students. College students were assigned to one of two groups (high anxiety or low anxiety) based on results from the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Anxiety Scale (FSMAS). Both groups were then presented with timed tests in basic mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and linear equations). Results suggested that the higher mathematics anxiety group had significantly lower fluency levels across all mathematical operations tests. However, there were no significant differences in error rates between the two groups across any of the probes suggesting that mathematics anxiety is more related to higher levels of learning than to the initial acquisition stage of learning. Discussion focuses on a) stages of learning and their potential relationship to mathematics anxiety, b) the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics performance, and c) directions for future research.     

The link between knowledge and remembering in Alzheimer’s disease

Current research on the influence of cognitive support (e.g., activation of task-relevant prior knowledge, item organizability, retrieval cues) on episodic remembering in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is reviewed. Examining the effects of cognitive support on memory may shed light on the relationship between knowledge and remembering, and also provides relevant information pertaining to the development of cognitive intervention procedures. A series of studies from our own and other laboratories reveal a number of interesting empirical regularities. First, AD results in problems in utilizing cognitive support for improving memory. Conceivably, this reduction in cognitive reserve capacity is due to both the overall severity of the episodic memory impairment in AD, as well as to dementia-related deficits in the semantic network that guides encoding and retrieval of information. Nevertheless, AD patients are able to utilize cognitive support in episodic memory tasks, although they typically need more support than their healthy aged counterparts to show memory facilitation. Specifically, it is critical to provide support at both encoding and retrieval in order to demonstrate performance gains in AD. Moreover, successful utilization of retrieval support in this disease is most likely to occur when the encoding requirements force the individual to engage in elaborative cognitive activity (e.g., generation of task-relevant knowledge, categorical organization). Finally, a reduction in cognitive reserve capacity occurs later in the pathogenesis of AD than a generalized episodic memory impairment. This observation reflects the insidious nature of AD, and suggests that the transition from normal aging to AD may be continuous rather than discrete.     

Frames of reference in spatial language acquisition

Languages differ in how they encode spatial frames of reference. It is unknown how children acquire the particular frame-of-reference terms in their language (e.g., left/right, north/south). The present paper uses a word-learning paradigm to investigate 4-year-old English-speaking children’s acquisition of such terms. In Part I, with five experiments, we contrasted children’s acquisition of novel word pairs meaning left-right and north-south to examine their initial hypotheses and the relative ease of learning the meanings of these terms. Children interpreted ambiguous spatial terms as having environment-based meanings akin to north and south, and they readily learned and generalized north-south meanings. These studies provide the first direct evidence that children invoke geocentric representations in spatial language acquisition. However, the studies leave unanswered how children ultimately acquire “left” and “right.” In Part II, with three more experiments, we investigated why children struggle to master body-based frame-of-reference words. Children successfully learned “left” and “right” when the novel words were systematically introduced on their own bodies and extended these words to novel (intrinsic and relative) uses; however, they had difficulty learning to talk about the left and right sides of a doll. This difficulty was paralleled in identifying the left and right sides of the doll in a non-linguistic memory task. In contrast, children had no difficulties learning to label the front and back sides of a doll. These studies begin to paint a detailed account of the acquisition of spatial terms in English, and provide insights into the origins of diverse spatial reference frames in the world’s languages.     

认知重评阻断条件化恐惧记忆的习得与表达——对恐惧反应的长程抑制作用

情绪调节是人类特有的、并能有效控制个体情绪反应的行为方式,认知重评是其中最有效的调节策略之一。恐惧记忆是参与情绪障碍形成的重要病理机制,且已习得的恐惧反应难消退、易复发。为了考察认知重评能否起到长久抑制恐惧反应的效应,本研究利用条件化恐惧范式,第一天进行条件化恐惧习得训练,并在习得后间隔24 h及31天进行恐惧记忆的表达及自发恢复测试。实验1中,随机将被试分为两组,要求其在恐惧习得过程中进行认知重评或自然感受;在实验2,同样随机将被试分为两组,但要求其在恐惧记忆表达过程中进行认知重评或自然感受。结果发现,习得阶段进行认知重评显著降低了恐惧记忆的习得、表达及自发恢复过程中的SCR水平。同样,表达阶段进行认知重评也降低了此阶段的恐惧水平,且显著抑制了恐惧记忆的自发恢复。结果提示,在面对应激时,个体如果能够成功地利用想象进行认知重评,就有可能避免应激事件对个体的心理或精神造成伤害。     

Instructor and student knowledge of study strategies

Students' self-reported study skills and beliefs are often inconsistent with empirically supported (ES) study strategies. However, little is known regarding instructors' beliefs about study skills and if such beliefs differ from those of students. In the current study, we surveyed college students' and instructors' knowledge of study strategies and had both groups evaluate the efficacy of learning strategies described in six learning scenarios. Results from the survey indicated that students frequently reported engaging in methods of studying that were not optimal for learning. Instructors' responses to the survey indicated that they endorsed a number of effective study skills but also held several beliefs inconsistent with research in learning and memory (e.g., learning styles). Further, results from the learning scenarios measure indicated that instructors were moderately more likely than students to endorse ES learning strategies. Collectively, these data suggest that instructors exhibited better knowledge of effective study skills than students, although the difference was small. We discuss several notable findings and argue for the improvement of both students' and instructors' study skill knowledge.