极地环境中的心理学研究

极端特殊的孤立与封闭环境向深入南极大陆的科考人员提出了极其严峻的挑战,同时也为心理学研究提供了一个天然实验室。对于南极科考人员而言,多数人越冬期间会在不同程度上经历和承受“越冬综合症”和“四分之三现象”,他们的积极心理经历和体验已经开始受到关注。文章重点介绍了有关南极科考人员可能出现的症状、适应特征、科考人员的人格特征以及站区文化对行为的影响等方面的研究结果,对现有研究存在的问题进行了初步探讨,提出了未来研究将会开展更广泛的国际化合作、聚焦环境、人格和行为三者的关系以及积极心理学在特殊环境中的重要作用等主题     

Neural circuitry of the bilingual mental lexicon: Effect of age of second language acquisition

Numerous studies have proposed that changes of the human language faculty caused by neural maturation can explain the substantial differences in ultimate attainment of grammatical competences between first language (L1) acquirers and second language (L2) learners. However, little evidence on the effect of neural maturation on the attainment of lexical knowledge in L2 is available. The present functional magnetic resonance study addresses this question via a cross-linguistic neural adaptation paradigm. Age of acquisition (AoA) of L2 was systematically manipulated. Concrete nouns were repeated across language (e.g., French–German, valise^suitcase–Koffer^suitcase). Whereas early bilinguals (AoA of L2 < 3 years) showed larger repetition enhancement (RE) effects in the left superior temporal gyrus, the bilateral superior frontal gyrus and the right posterior insula, late bilinguals (AoA of L2 > 10 years) showed larger RE effects in the middle portion of the left insula and in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG). We suggest that, as for grammatical knowledge, the attainment of lexical knowledge in L2 is affected by neural maturation. The present findings lend support to neurocognitive models of bilingual word recognition postulating that, for both early and late bilinguals, the two languages are interconnected at the conceptual level.     

“90后”大一新生适应性及心理健康状况研究

目的研究分析"90后"大一新生心理适应能力及心理健康状况,为更好地开展"90后"大一新生的心理健康教育工作提供依据。方法采用心理适应能力问卷和症状自评量表(SCL-90)对四川大学和四川师范大学2009级800名新生进行调查。结果①有54.9%的学生心理适应能力较差,仅有3.3%的学生有较强的心理适应能力;②"90后"大一新生的心理健康水平总体低于全国青年常模,除躯体化和敌对因子外,其它因子得分显著高于常模(P0.05);③不同心理适应能力的"90后"大一新生在SCL-90各个维度上均存在显著差异(P0.05),但性别比较时,只在恐怖因子上存在显著差异(P0.05)。结论"90后"大一新生心理健康状况不容忽视,学校应结合"90后"学生的特点,加强心理健康教育,提高"90后"大一新生的心理适应能力及心理健康水平。     

Time-course of attention for threatening pictures in high and low trait anxiety

Cognitive studies about anxiety suggest that the interplay between automatic and strategic biases in attention to threat is related to the persistence of fear. In the present study, the time-course of attention to pictures with varying threat levels was investigated in high trait anxious (HTA, n=21) and low trait anxious (LTA, n=22) students. In a visual probe detection task, high and mild threat pictures were presented at three durations: 100, 500, and 1250 ms. Results indicated that all individuals attended to the high threat pictures for the 100 ms condition. Differential responding between HTA and LTA individuals was found for the 500 ms condition: only HTA individuals showed an attentional bias for mild threatening stimuli. For the 1250 ms condition, the HTA individuals attended away from high and mild threat pictures. The observed pattern of differential attention to threatening pictures may explain the persistence of fear in HTA individuals.     

Attentional sets influence perceptual load effects,but not dilution effects

Perceptual load theory [Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 451–468.; Lavie, N., & Tsal, Y. (1994) Perceptual load as a major determinant of the locus of selection in visual attention. Perception & Psychophysics, 56, 183–197.] proposes that interference from distractors can only be avoided in situations of high perceptual load. This theory has been supported by blocked design manipulations separating low load (when the target appears alone) and high load (when the target is embedded among neutral letters). Tsal and Benoni [(2010a). Diluting the burden of load: Perceptual load effects are simply dilution effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36, 1645–1656.; Benoni, H., & Tsal, Y. (2010). Where have we gone wrong? Perceptual load does not affect selective attention. Vision Research, 50, 1292–1298.] have recently shown that these manipulations confound perceptual load with “dilution” (the mere presence of additional heterogeneous items in high-load situations). Theeuwes, Kramer, and Belopolsky [(2004). Attentional set interacts with perceptual load in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 11, 697–702.] independently questioned load theory by suggesting that attentional sets might also affect distractor interference. When high load and low load were intermixed, and participants could not prepare for the presentation that followed, both the low-load and high-load trials showed distractor interference. This result may also challenge the dilution account, which proposes a stimulus-driven mechanism. In the current study, we presented subjects with both fixed and mixed blocks, including a mix of dilution trials with low-load trials and with high-load trials. We thus separated the effect of dilution from load and tested the influence of attentional sets on each component. The results revealed that whereas perceptual load effects are influenced by attentional sets, the dilution component is not. This strengthens the notion that dilution is a stimulus-driven mechanism, which enables effective selectivity.     

Motivational Effects of Outcome Feedback on Motor Performance

This study examined the effects of success and failure feedback on subsequent motor performance. Based upon the general motivation (or level-of-aspiration) hypothesis, initial success should lead to better subsequent performance than does initial failure, while the reverse prediction was derived from the cognitive dissonance theory. To test these rival hypotheses, two experiments were conducted on undergraduate male students (n =120) performing a motor maze task. Initial failure improved subjects’ subsequent performance, thus supporting the dissonance theory. However, this effect was observed only under low-ego-involving conditions, thereby suggesting that the effects of dissonance and ego involvement are interdependent. The findings were discussed in terms of motivational and informational/attributional effects of outcome feedback on motor performance.     

无聊：一个久远而又新兴的研究主题

无聊是个体由于知觉到生活无意义而产生的负性情绪体验, 它会直接或间接地影响各种社会心理功能。目前, 有关心理健康、社会适应、学业成绩等一系列心理问题的研究已经揭示了无聊的负性作用。但是, 无聊领域的研究还停留在理论探讨和相关研究层面, 概念定义尚没有完全统一, 缺乏系统的理论和完整的模型结构。未来研究可进一步深入探究无聊的作用机制, 并制定有效的干预方案来改善人们的无聊状态。     

Prism adaptation in schizophrenia

The prism adaptation test examines procedural learning (PL) in which performance facilitation occurs with practice on tasks without the need for conscious awareness. Dynamic interactions between frontostriatal cortices, basal ganglia, and the cerebellum have been shown to play key roles in PL. Disruptions within these neural networks have also been implicated in schizophrenia, and such disruptions may manifest as impairment in prism adaptation test performance in schizophrenia patients. This study examined prism adaptation in a sample of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (N=91) and healthy normal controls (N=58). Quantitative indices of performance during prism adaptation conditions with and without visual feedback were studied. Schizophrenia patients were significantly more impaired in adapting to prism distortion and demonstrated poorer quality of PL. Patients did not differ from healthy controls on aftereffects when the prisms were removed, but they had significantly greater difficulties in reorientation. Deficits in prism adaptation among schizophrenia patients may be due to abnormalities in motor programming arising from the disruptions within the neural networks that subserve PL.     

Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: A Preliminary Study of its Factorial Structure

This study examined the factorial structure of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability in a sample of 313 individuals who sustained spinal cord injury (SCI). Three models were examined. The first model tested the hypothesis that psychosocial adaptation is composed of a single, global factor, in which positive (adaptive) and negative (nonadaptive) reactions define two opposing poles of the same dimension. The second model tested the validity of two distinguishable factors, representing adaptive and nonadaptive dimensions. The third model examined the relationship between the 2-factor model and a third dimension, that of denial. The data from the instruments measuring psychosocial adaptation to trauma and disability (the Reactions to Impairment and Disability Inventory and the Purdue Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Revised) were submitted to a series of confirmatory factor analyses, and the results from the goodness of fit tests and fit indices provided strong support to the validity of the latter two models. The findings indicated that the structure of adaptation to SCI can be best conceptualized as representing two, moderately linked but clearly distinguishable, factors and that the construct of denial of disability further elucidates our understanding of the structure of adaptation to loss of body integrity.