Age-related qualitative differences in post-error cognitive control adjustments

Detecting an error signals the need for increased cognitive control and behavioural adjustments. Considerable development in performance monitoring and cognitive control is evidenced by lower error rates and faster response times in multi-trial executive function tasks with age. Besides these quantitative changes, we were interested in whether qualitative changes in balancing accuracy and speed contribute to developmental progression during elementary school years. We conducted two studies investigating the temporal and developmental trajectories of post-error slowing in three prominent cognitive conflict tasks (Stroop, Simon, and flanker). We instructed children (8-, 10-, and 12-year-old) and adults to respond as fast and as accurately as possible and measured their response times on four trials after correct and incorrect responses to a cognitive conflict. Results revealed that all age groups had longer response times on post-error versus post-correct trials, reflecting post-error slowing. Critically, slowing on the first post-error trial declined with age, suggesting an age-related reduction in the orienting response towards errors. This age effect diminished on subsequent trials, suggesting more fine-tuned cognitive control adjustments with age. Overall, the consistent pattern across tasks suggests an age-related change from a relatively strong orienting response to more balanced cognitive control adaptations.     

早期亲子触觉经验促进个体社会性发展的心理机制

近期研究显示,早期亲子触觉经验和个体的社会性发展存在密切联系。关于这种联系产生的原因,已有研究多从神经科学的角度,探讨CT传入神经(C-tactile afferents)及有关环路在其间可能起到的作用。基于已有文献,本文将提出一个综合模型,系统阐述背后涉及的心理机制,着重论证亲子关系、个体探索行为以及与之关联的心理成分在其间扮演的角色,并在此基础上从研究设计的局限、有关变量关系的多元性以及未来可拓展方向对该领域研究进行进一步讨论和展望。     

The importance of reflection and evaluation processes in daily training sessions for progression toward elite level swimming performance

Self-regulated learning (SRL) involves self-directed metacognitive subprocesses and motivational beliefs that facilitate more effective and efficient learning. We investigated whether youth swimmers who are on track to becoming elite swimmers apply SRL subprocesses more frequently in their daily training sessions compared with swimmers who are not on this track. Insights into swimmers’ use of training-centered SRL could advance understanding about underlying individual characteristics that contribute to optimal engagement in daily training and, consequently, progression toward elite level swimming performance. We collected data on training-centered SRL subprocesses (evaluation, planning, reflection, speaking up, effort and self-efficacy) and performance data for 157 youth swimmers aged 12–21 years (73 males and 84 females). The results of a multivariate analysis of covariance revealed significantly higher scores for reflection processes during training for high-performing swimmers but lower scores for effort compared with lower-performing swimmers (p < 0.05). A closer examination of the high-performing group showed that those demonstrating greater improvement during a season scored significantly higher for evaluation processes after training compared with those evidencing less improvement during a season (p < 0.05). Significant between-group differences in SRL subprocesses remained after adjusting for differences in weekly training hours. Youth swimmers on track to becoming elite swimmers are characterized by more frequent use of reflection processes during training and evaluation processes after training, which suggests that these swimmers’ learning and training processes are more effective and efficient. Ultimately, this could contribute to a higher quality of daily training, which may result in greater improvements during a season, higher performance levels, and a greater chance of reaching the level of elite swimming performance.     

多元文化经历对领导者能力及发展的影响

随着全球化发展的深入, 越来越多的企业领导者具有多元文化经历。多元文化经历是指个体具有直接或间接与外国文化元素或人群进行交互的经历。拟从领导者发展(leader development)和领导力发展(leadership development)两个层面, 全面地探讨多元文化经历对企业领导者能力形成及发展的影响：第一, 探讨多元文化经历对领导者能力发展(包括个人层面、关系层面和社会层面能力)的影响及内部机制; 第二, 探讨多元文化经历对领导力发展(包括领导力涌现、领导力选拔和领导力效能)的影响及内部机制。项目成果不仅能够丰富领导者能力形成与发展等组织管理相关理论, 还能为企业的全球化管理及国际化人才培养实践提供建议。     

来自屏幕的纽带：视频聊天与儿童发展

随着近几年视频聊天的兴起, 越来越多的研究者开始探索视频聊天对儿童发展的影响。相较于传统通讯技术, 视频聊天具备了视听结合与即时互动的特征; 但同时, 作为数字媒体, 视频聊天仍然保持了传统屏幕媒体二维性的特征。汇总以往视频聊天与儿童学习的实证研究发现, 与录制视频教学比较, 视频聊天在婴幼儿词汇学习(d = 0.33)和动作学习(d = 0.90)上的教学效果更佳; 同时, 视频聊天也能够使婴幼儿在教学过程中保持较高的注意水平(d = 0.90)。视频聊天对儿童远距离亲子关系和同伴关系上均有一定的促进作用。视频聊天也可以作为一种辅助治疗手段应用于特殊儿童的干预中。未来研究仍需关注扩大视频聊天学习中儿童被试的年龄范围、共同观看者的不同支持行为对儿童视频聊天学习的效果产生的影响。     

高功能自闭症儿童不同常规度转喻加工的发展：来自ERP的证据

采用ERP技术考察了6~11岁高功能自闭症（HFA）儿童常规和新奇转喻的认知加工过程及发展轨迹。结果显示,6~8岁HFA组和典型发展（TD）组加工常规和新奇转喻的N400波幅无差异,未出现常规度效应,其波幅与错误句也无差异。9~11岁HFA组对新奇转喻N400波幅负于常规转喻,出现常规度效应,常规转喻N400波幅异于错误句,9~11岁TD组常规和新奇转喻均异于错误句。6~8岁HFA组对常规转喻N400差异波负于9~11岁,6~8岁TD组对常规和新奇转喻均负于9~11岁。HFA组转喻N400波幅均负于TD组。结论：HFA儿童常规和新奇转喻的加工较TD儿童存在缺陷。从6岁到11岁,HFA儿童常规转喻加工随年龄增长显著提高,新奇转喻则未出现明显变化,较之常规转喻,新奇转喻的加工尤为困难。     

Distributional learning has immediate and long-lasting effects

Evidence of distributional learning, a statistical learning mechanism centered on relative frequency of exposure to different tokens, has mainly come from short-term learning and therefore does not ostensibly address the development of important learning processes. The present longitudinal study examines both short- and long-term effects of distributional learning of phonetic categories on non-native sound discrimination over a 12-month period. Two groups of listeners were exposed to a two-minute distribution of auditory stimuli in which the most frequently presented tokens either approximated or exaggerated the natural production of the speech sounds, whereas a control group listened to a piece of classical music for the same length of time. Discrimination by listeners in the two distribution groups improved immediately after the short exposure, replicating previous results. Crucially, this improvement was maintained after six and 12 months, demonstrating that distributional learning has long-lasting effects.     

A hierarchy of cortical responses to sequence violations in three-month-old infants

The adult human brain quickly adapts to regular temporal sequences, and emits a sequence of novelty responses when these regularities are violated. These novelty responses have been interpreted as error signals that reflect the difference between the incoming signal and predictions generated at multiple cortical levels. Do infants already possess such a hierarchy of violation-detection mechanisms? Using high-density recordings of event-related potentials during an auditory local–global violation paradigm, we show that three-month-old infants process novelty in temporal sequences at two distinct levels. Violations of local expectancies, such as perceiving a deviant vowel “a” after repeated presentation of another vowel i-i-i, elicited an early auditory mismatch response. Conversely, violations of global expectancies, such as hearing the rare sequence a-a-a-a instead of the frequent sequence a-a-a-i, modulated this early mismatch response and led to a late frontal negative slow wave, whose cortical sources included the left inferior frontal region. These results suggest that the infant brain already possesses two dissociable systems for temporal sequence learning.     

What factors underlie children’s susceptibility to semantic and phonological false memories? Investigating the roles of language skills and auditory short-term memory

Two experiments investigated the cognitive skills that underlie children’s susceptibility to semantic and phonological false memories in the Deese/Roediger–McDermott procedure ( and ). In Experiment 1, performance on the Verbal Similarities subtest of the British Ability Scales (BAS) II (Elliott, Smith, & McCulloch, 1997) predicted correct and false recall of semantic lures. In Experiment 2, performance on the Yopp–Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation (Yopp, 1988) did not predict correct recall, but inversely predicted the false recall of phonological lures. Auditory short-term memory was a negative predictor of false recall in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2. The findings are discussed in terms of the formation of gist and verbatim traces as proposed by fuzzy trace theory (Reyna & Brainerd, 1998) and the increasing automaticity of associations as proposed by associative activation theory (Howe, Wimmer, Gagnon, & Plumpton, 2009).     

Collaborative Measurement Development as a Tool in CBPR: Measurement Development and Adaptation within the Cultures of Communities

This paper describes the processes we engaged into develop a measurement protocol used to assess the outcomes in a community based suicide and alcohol abuse prevention project with two Alaska Native communities. While the literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) is substantial regarding the importance of collaborations, few studies have reported on this collaboration in the process of developing measures to assess CBPR projects. We first tell a story of the processes around the standard issues of doing cross-cultural work on measurement development related to areas of equivalence. A second story is provided that highlights how community differences within the same cultural group can affect both the process and content of culturally relevant measurement selection, adaptation, and development.