不同熟练类型双语者情绪Stroop中的自动化情绪通达

采用情绪Stroop范式探讨3种不同熟练类型双语者在L1(The first language,简称L1)和L2(The second language,简称L2)条件下的自动化情绪通达。实验设计为2(L1和L2)×3(全面熟练双语者、阅读型熟练双语者和听说型熟练双语者)×3(积极词、消极词和中性词)的混合设计,记录3组被试对词汇颜色判断的反应时和错误率。结果:(1)全面熟练双语者和阅读型熟练双语者在L1和L2条件下对情绪词汇颜色命名的反应时显著大于中性词汇;(2)听说型熟练双语者在L1条件下对情绪词汇颜色命名的反应时大于中性词汇,而L2条件下3种词汇并无差异。结论:(1)全面熟练双语者在L1和L2条件下均出现了自动化情绪通达;阅读型熟练双语者在L1和L2条件下也出现了自动化情绪通达;(2)听说型熟练双语者在L2条件下没有达到自动化情绪通达,其情绪联结性弱于L1条件。不同语言习得类型的熟练双语者在情绪Stroop任务中情绪自动化通达的表现是不同的。     

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors of the ventral tegmental area are involved in mediating morphine-state-dependent learning

In the present study, the possible role of nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptors of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) on morphine-state-dependent learning was studied in adult male Wistar rats. As a model of memory, a step-through type passive avoidance task was used. All animals were bilaterally implanted with chronic cannulae in the VTA, trained using a 1 mA foot shock, and tested 24 h after training to measure step-through latency. Post-training subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of morphine (0.5–5 mg/kg) dose-dependently reduced the step-through latency, showing morphine-induced amnesia. Amnesia induced by post-training morphine was significantly reversed by pre-test administration of morphine (2.5–5 mg/kg, s.c.) and induced morphine-state-dependent learning. Pre-test injection of nicotine (0.25–1 μg/rat) into the VTA plus an ineffective dose of morphine (0.5 mg/kg) significantly restored the memory retrieval. It should be noted that pre-test intra-VTA injection of the same doses of nicotine (0.25–1 μg/rat) alone cannot affect memory retention. Furthermore, pre-test intra-VTA injection of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist, mecamylamine (1–3 μg/rat) 5 min before the administration of morphine (5 mg/kg, s.c.) dose-dependently inhibited morphine-state-dependent learning. Pre-test injection of the higher dose of mecamylamine (3 μg/rat) into the VTA by itself decreased the step-through latency and induced amnesia. On the other hand, mecamylamine (0.5 and 1 μg/rat, intra-VTA) reversed the effect of nicotine on morphine response. The results indicate that nACh receptors in the VTA participate in the modulation of morphine-induced recovery of memory, on the test day.     

Attention and cognitive control: unfolding the dichotic listening story

In this article we present a theoretical approach to cognitive control and attention modulation, as well as review studies related to such a view, using an auditory task based on dichotic presentations of simple consonant-vowel syllables. The reviewed work comes out of joint research efforts by the 'Attention-node' at the 'Nordic Center of Excellence in Cognitive Control'. We suggest a new way of defining degrees of cognitive control based on systematically varying the stimulus intensity of the right or left ear dichotic stimulus, thus parametrically varying the degree of stimulus interference and conflict when assessing the amount of cognitive control necessary to resolve the interference. We first present an overview and review of previous studies using the so-called "forced-attention" dichotic listening paradigm. We then present behavioral and neuroimaging data to explore the suggested cognitive control model, with examples from normal adults, clinical and special ability groups.     

Raiding the inarticulate: The internal analytic setting and listening beyond countertransference

The analytic setting exists not only externally but also internally as a structure in the mind of the analyst. The internal analytic setting constitutes an area of the analyst's mind where reality is defined by unconscious symbolic meaning. Clinical examples illustrate how a secure internal setting allows flexibility in the external setting without sacrifice of its analytic quality. The internal setting can help analysts listen inwardly to themselves in a way that is free-floating with regard to their internal processes. This points beyond usual ideas of countertransference. An analytic encounter may stir up elements that belong to the analyst's psyche which, rather than impeding the analysis, can actively enrich it. Seamus Heaney's writings evoke comparisons between listening to poems and listening to patients, and a week in a patient's analysis is described in relation to these themes.     

Manual motor reaction while being absorbed into popular music

In three experiments, we investigated the behavioral consequences of being absorbed into music on performance in a concurrent task. We tested two competing hypotheses: Based on a cognitive load account, captivation of attention by the music and state absorption might slow down reactions in the decisional task. Alternatively, music could induce spontaneous motor activity, and being absorbed in music might result in a more autonomous, flow-driven behavior with quicker motor reactions. Participants performed a simple, visual, two-alternative forced-choice task while listening to popular musical excerpts. Subsequently, they rated their subjective experience using a short questionnaire. We presented music in four tempo categories (between 80 and 140 BPM) to account for a potential effect of tempo and an interaction between tempo and absorption. In Experiment 1, absorption was related to decreased reaction times (RTs) in the visual task. This effect was small, as expected in this setting, but replicable in Experiment 2. There was no effect of the music’s tempo on RTs but a tendency of mind wandering to relate to task performance. After slightly changing the study setting in Experiment 3, flow predicted decreased RTs, but absorption alone — as part of the flow construct — did not predict RTs. To sum up, we demonstrated that being absorbed in music can have the behavioral consequence of speeded manual reactions in specific task contexts, and people seem to integrate the music into an active, flow-driven and therefore enhanced performance. However, shown relations depend on task settings, and a systematic study of context is necessary to understand how induced states and their measurement contribute to the findings.     

Electrophysiological evidence for modulation of lexical processing after repetitive exposure to foreign phonotactic rules

In two experiments we investigate how repeated exposure to native and non-native phonotactic regularities alters the N400, an event-related potential related to lexico-semantic access. Participants underwent a Passive Listening (Experiment 1) or a Categorization Training (Experiment 2) for monosyllabic pseudowords over 3 days. During Passive Listening participants solely listened to the stimuli while for Categorization Training they learned to assign items to two arbitrary categories by feedback. Notably, this task did not rely on phonotactic regularities. Before training, N400 was larger for legal compared to illegal items. Over the 3-day exposure Passive Listening yielded a significant decrease in N400-amplitude for illegal pseudowords, however, this effect was abolished and partially inverted by the Categorization Training. We suggest the decrease in N400-amplitude indicates more efficient discrimination between native and non-native pseudowords since only the former are potential lexical candidates. On the contrary, Categorization Training introduces a ‘protosemantic’ context overriding prelexical selection processes.     

The uses of humor in life,neurosis and in psychotherapy: Part 1

Abstract

Joy and sadness, the comic and the tragic, making jokes and telling jokes, have been known in life, literature, the theater, and art since the dawn of civilization. Following in the footsteps of classical antiquity, Freud added to the philosophical analysis of humor the insights offered by the psychoanalytic method. The bridge was the cathartic method of treating neuroses, where discharge of affect was one of the foundations of technique, and the cathartic, or discharge, function of humor. Freud's analysis of humor, that “A joke … is the most social of all mental functions that aim at a yield of pleasure” introduces Freud's first explicit formulation of an interpersonal approach to the human situation in health and disorder.     

Gender differences in remembering and inferring spatial distances

The abilities of males and females to make spatial inferences were compared. Spatial inference is concerned with the ability to work out new spatial information from memory. In two experiments, participants had to study line drawings depicting shapes linked either by straight or meandering lines. Afterwards, they had to remember the straight-line distances or to infer the straight-line distances. Several spatial abilities were also assessed: perceptual discrimination, mental rotation, and visuo-spatial working memory span. The results showed that males outperformed females in spatial inference and mental rotation. Experiment 2 extended the study to old people. The results replicated and clarified those obtained in Experiment 1. Spatial inference and mental rotation showed age-related and gender-related differences; in addition, age reduced the visuo-spatial memory span. Overall, the findings suggest that gender differences favouring males are maximised with tasks requiring active processing and strategic control of metric information.     

False memories in music listening: exploring the misinformation effect and individual difference factors in auditory memory

ABSTRACT

The study of false memory has had a profound impact on our understanding of how and what we remember, as shown by the misinformation paradigm [Loftus, E. F. (2005). Planting misinformation in the human mind: A 30-year investigation of the malleability of memory. Learning & Memory, 12(4), 361–366. doi:10.1101/lm.94705]. Though misinformation effects have been demonstrated extensively within visual tasks, they have not yet been explored in the realm of non-visual auditory stimuli. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate whether post-event information can create false memories of music listening episodes. In addition, we explored individual difference factors potentially associated with false memory susceptibility in music, including age, suggestibility, personality, and musical training. In two music recognition tasks, participants (N?=?151) listened to an initial music track, which unbeknownst to them was missing an instrument. They were then presented with post-event information which either suggested the presence of the missing instrument or did not. The presence of misinformation resulted in significantly poorer performance on the music recognition tasks (d?=?.43), suggesting the existence of false musical memories. A random forest analysis indicated that none of the individual difference factors assessed were significantly associated with misinformation susceptibility. These findings support previous research on the fallibility of human memory and demonstrate, to some extent, the generality of the misinformation effect to a non-visual auditory domain.     

Listening to the Voices of Children in Early Schooling in the South African Context of HIV/AIDS

This study explored how children in early schooling interpreted their social reality to construct vulnerable childhoods in an HIV/AIDS context. Ten males and ten females between the ages of eight and nine years from low-income families in KwaZulu-Natal participated in the study. In order to raise the voices of the children, a listening framework was created through participatory techniques. Focus group interviews, drawings, story telling and projection techniques were used in the study. The study found that children actively interpreted their social reality through engaging with circumstances that surrounded their lives in an HIV/AIDS context. Child activism is important to HIV/AIDS education.