任务定势对自动语义激活过程调节作用的ERP研究

摘要：本研究致力于探讨自上而下的因素对自动加工的影响。选取的自上而下因素为任务定势,自动加工过程为自动语义激活过程。研究采用ERPs技术,中文词汇为刺激,利用掩蔽启动范式,采用反应时和N400为指标。实验任务有三个：对问号后出现的词进行生物/非生物的词汇分类判断;对圆圈后出现的词进行是否含上下结构的字的词汇结构判断;对带“*”的词进行真词/假词判断。研究发现先前完成的任务形成的任务定势会对随后的自动语义激活过程产生调节作用：在词汇分类判断任务后,掩蔽启动刺激对靶刺激产生启动效应。在词汇结构判断任务后,掩蔽启动刺激对靶刺激没产生显著的启动效应。     

刻板印象激活效应对社会分类的影响

采用改进的flanker范式,探讨了刻板印象激活效应对社会分类的影响,并考察了匹配刺激出现概率对刻板印象激活效应影响社会分类的调节作用。实验一发现,性别刻板印象激活后,按性别分类时,匹配刺激中和不匹配刺激中面孔分类反应时之间的差异是显著的,但按年龄分类时,二者间的差异不显著。实验二表明,匹配刺激出现概率为80%时和50%时,匹配刺激中和不匹配刺激中面孔分类反应时之间的差异是显著的;但当匹配刺激出现概率为20%时,二者间的差异不显著。结果表明,刻板印象激活效应对与该刻板印象对应的社会分类有显著的影响,对与该刻板印象无关社会分类不会产生影响。刻板印象激活效应对社会分类的影响受匹配刺激出现概率的调节。     

How semantic categorization influences inhibitory processing in middle-childhood: an Event Related Potentials study

Throughout middle-childhood, inhibitory processes, which underlie many higher order cognitive tasks, are developing. Little is known about how inhibitory processes change as a task becomes conceptually more difficult during these important years. In adults, as Go/NoGo tasks become more difficult there is a systematic decrease in the P3NoGo response, indicating the use of effective inhibitory strategies (Maguire et al., 2009). This paper investigates the age at which children employ similar inhibitory strategies by studying behavioral and Event Related Potential (ERP) measures of response inhibition for three Go/NoGo tasks. Seventeen 7-8 year-olds and twenty 10-11-year-olds completed three Go/NoGo tasks that differed in the level of categorization necessary to respond. Both age groups displayed slower reaction times as the tasks became more difficult. Further, both groups displayed the predicted Go vs. NoGo P3 amplitude differences in the two simplest tasks, but no significant P3 differences for the most complex task. The reason for this pattern of responses was different in the different age groups. Similar to adults in previous work, the oldest children showed an attenuation of the P3 NoGo response with task difficulty, and no corresponding changes in the Go amplitude. The younger children displayed the opposite pattern, a significant increase in the Go amplitude with task difficulty, and no changes in the NoGo response. These response patterns indicate that efficient inhibitory strategies are developing throughout middle-childhood.     

The ease of lying

Brain imaging studies suggest that truth telling constitutes the default of the human brain and that lying involves intentional suppression of the predominant truth response. By manipulating the truth proportion in the Sheffield lie test, we investigated whether the dominance of the truth response is malleable. Results showed that frequent truth telling made lying more difficult, and that frequent lying made lying easier. These results implicate that (1) the accuracy of lie detection tests may be improved by increasing the dominance of the truth response and that (2) habitual lying makes the lie response more dominant.     

Towards a computational theory of experience

A standing challenge for the science of mind is to account for the datum that every mind faces in the most immediate – that is, unmediated – fashion: its phenomenal experience. The complementary tasks of explaining what it means for a system to give rise to experience and what constitutes the content of experience (qualia) in computational terms are particularly challenging, given the multiple realizability of computation. In this paper, we identify a set of conditions that a computational theory must satisfy for it to constitute not just a sufficient but a necessary, and therefore naturalistic and intrinsic, explanation of qualia. We show that a common assumption behind many neurocomputational theories of the mind, according to which mind states can be formalized solely in terms of instantaneous vectors of activities of representational units such as neurons, does not meet the requisite conditions, in part because it relies on inactive units to shape presently experienced qualia and implies a homogeneous representation space, which is devoid of intrinsic structure. We then sketch a naturalistic computational theory of qualia, which posits that experience is realized by dynamical activity-space trajectories (rather than points) and that its richness is measured by the representational capacity of the trajectory space in which it unfolds.     

The behavioral activation for depression scale-short form: development and validation

Following a landmark component analysis of cognitive therapy by Jacobson and colleagues (1996), there has been renewed interest in behavioral activation (BA) treatments for depression. The Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS) was developed to measure when and how clients become activated over the course of BA treatment. Multiple studies have provided initial support for the BADS but have also identified several potential problems. Four studies were conducted in order to develop and provide initial evaluation of a short form of the BADS that addresses these concerns. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on existing data using the original BADS in order to identify items to retain for the short form. In Study 2, these items were administered to a new sample of college students with elevated depressive symptoms and were analyzed with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Study 3 examined the predictive validity of the BADS-SF by examining the BADS-SF and depression scores in relation to activity tracking and reward-value ratings over the course of 1 week. Study 4 examined BADS-SF data over the course of BA treatment for two clients using cross-lagged panel correlations. With one client, changes in BADS-SF scores led changes in depression scores by 1 week, whereas with the other client changes in BADS-SF and depression scores occurred concurrently. These studies resulted in a nine-item scale that demonstrated good item characteristics as well as acceptable internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity.     

The effect of attending to motor overflow on its voluntary inhibition in young and older adults

Motor overflow refers to involuntary movement or muscle activity coinciding with voluntary movement. We examined whether 16 young adults (18-30 years) and 16 older adults (50-80 years) could voluntarily inhibit overflow. Participants performed a finger pressing task, exerting 50% of their maximal force. Overflow was concurrently recorded in the non-task hand. In the first condition, participants were not made aware of their motor overflow. Then participants, though informed of it, were asked to ignore their overflow. Finally, participants were requested to inhibit overflow with, and then without visual feedback, or vice versa. Overflow was exacerbated when older adults were unaware of it, and was reduced once they were informed. For young adults there was no significant difference between these conditions. Both Age Groups could significantly reduce overflow when so requested, independent of visual feedback. Thus motor overflow can be modulated by higher order cognitive control with directed attention.     

Neuroimaging and neuroenergetics: Brain activations as information-driven reorganization of energy flows

There is increasing focus on the neurophysiological underpinnings of brain activations, giving birth to an emerging branch of neuroscience – neuroenergetics. However, no common definition of “brain activation” exists thus far. In this article, we define brain activation as the information-driven reorganization of energy flows in a population of neuroglial units that leads to an overall increase in energy utilization in this population. On the basis of this definition, the key aspects of modern biochemical and biophysical approaches to neuroenergetics are considered from the perspective of the links between these approaches within the context of the free energy minimization principle and the neurophysiological conception of deviance detection. In this light, we consider brain basal activity as subserving internal representations of the environment (predictive coding), and brain activation as reflecting the level of deviance from predictive coding.     

应用Rasch模型测试和分析儿童入学准备状态

本研究的目的在于应用Rasch模型编制和分析数学入学准备测验,从而分析Rasch模型的有效性和优势。自编数学入学准备测试,对150名平均年龄为6.6岁的儿童进行测查,应用Rasch模型对题目和评分等级做出修正并分析结果。结果表明修正后的测试具有较好的信效度,较好地拟合了Rasch模型,评分等级设置合理,测试的整体难度相对较低。儿童的Rasch分数和性别无关,但受到年龄、家庭社会经济地位的影响。相对于经典测量理论而言,应用Rasch模型进行入学准备测试的编制和分析具有优势。     

与当前任务无关的规则对自动反应激活过程的影响

摘要：本研究致力于探讨自上而下的任务因素对自动反应激活过程的影响。研究包含两个实验,采用掩蔽启动范式,选取字母和数字作为刺激,任务因素为与当前任务无关的处于预备状态的任务规则。实验一初步验证了与当前无关的处于预备状态的任务规则可以影响自动反应激活过程;实验二进一步证明了这种影响具有广泛性,即与当前无关的任务规则所设定的所有刺激系列都可以影响当前任务中的反应启动过程。研究总结论为：与当前任务目的无关、且存在自动刺激-反应联结的其他任务规则也能通过对被掩蔽的启动刺激反应的调节来影响对靶刺激的反应,从而影响启动效应的发生。