Influences of stereotype and social distance on prejudice toward African Americans

The study sought to identify the influential factors of stereotypes, social distance, and prejudice toward racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. We used data from the American General Social Survey (GSS) of 2012, and analysed the data of 4 820 individuals (3 700 Caucasians, 722 African Americans, and 398 others; males?=?44.2%, females?=?55.8%). Data were analysed using the SPSS 18.0 Statistics Program. In order to test for differences in racial prejudice by demographic characteristics by stereotyping and social distancing, we utilised variance and regression analyses procedures. Results suggest that stereotypes and social distance effects on prejudice toward African Americans vary according to ethnicity, gender, age, education, and income. Specifically, older and less-educated white males were more prejudiced toward African Americans than were individuals from other sociodemographic groupings. There was a direct relationship between the holding of stereotypical views and social distance, in that those who showed higher levels of stereotyping maintained a greater social distance from African Americans and showed greater implicit prejudice toward them. Racism toward African Americans remains a major social concern in the USA, and is largely influenced by sociodemographic factors.     

Future self-appraisals and global self-esteem: Who benefits more from thinking about the future,and why?

People tend to think positively about their future selves. However, it remains unclear to what extent this tendency depends on the positivity of their current self-appraisal. To study this problem, we employed the assumptions of construal level theory, the concept of self-enhancement, and the assumptions of temporal self-appraisal theory, and we examined the role of global self-esteem in the relationship between temporal distance and future self-appraisals measured in absolute (Study 1), comparative temporal (Study 2), or comparative social (Study 3) ways. In all three studies, when assessed in terms of specific dimensions, future self-appraisals increased with temporal distance only in people with low self-esteem, but when assessed in terms of general dimensions, self-appraisals were higher in the distant compared to the near future irrespective of self-esteem level.     

音乐句法加工的影响因素

音乐句法是指将离散的音符元素组合成序列的规则。音乐句法加工受到音乐结构特征和听众自身特征两个方面的影响。针对每个方面,本文聚焦于近年来进展迅速的几个因素进行评述,分别是依存距离和音乐时间结构,听者的年龄和音乐训练程度。未来研究应进一步比较不同距离的句法加工,澄清音乐时间结构何时并且如何影响句法加工,考察音乐句法加工中遗传和环境的作用以及发展的敏感期,并对这些因素之间的共同影响展开研究。     

The effects of ordinal load on incidental temporal learning

How can we grasp the temporal structure of events? A few studies have indicated that representations of temporal structure are acquired when there is an intention to learn, but not when learning is incidental. Response-to-stimulus intervals, uncorrelated temporal structures, unpredictable ordinal information, and lack of metrical organization have been pointed out as key obstacles to incidental temporal learning, but the literature includes piecemeal demonstrations of learning under all these circumstances. We suggest that the unacknowledged effects of ordinal load may help reconcile these conflicting findings, ordinal load referring to the cost of identifying the sequence of events (e.g., tones, locations) where a temporal pattern is embedded. In a first experiment, we manipulated ordinal load into simple and complex levels. Participants learned ordinal-simple sequences, despite their uncorrelated temporal structure and lack of metrical organization. They did not learn ordinal-complex sequences, even though there were no response-to-stimulus intervals nor unpredictable ordinal information. In a second experiment, we probed learning of ordinal-complex sequences with strong metrical organization, and again there was no learning. We conclude that ordinal load is a key obstacle to incidental temporal learning. Further analyses showed that the effect of ordinal load is to mask the expression of temporal knowledge, rather than to prevent learning.     

Number comparison and number ordering as predictors of arithmetic performance in adults: Exploring the link between the two skills,and investigating the question of domain-specificity

Recent evidence has highlighted the important role that number-ordering skills play in arithmetic abilities, both in children and adults. In the current study, we demonstrated that number comparison and ordering skills were both significantly related to arithmetic performance in adults, and the effect size was greater in the case of ordering skills. Additionally, we found that the effect of number comparison skills on arithmetic performance was mediated by number-ordering skills. Moreover, performance on comparison and ordering tasks involving the months of the year was also strongly correlated with arithmetic skills, and participants displayed similar (canonical or reverse) distance effects on the comparison and ordering tasks involving months as when the tasks included numbers. This suggests that the processes responsible for the link between comparison and ordering skills and arithmetic performance are not specific to the domain of numbers. Finally, a factor analysis indicated that performance on comparison and ordering tasks loaded on a factor that included performance on a number line task and self-reported spatial thinking styles. These results substantially extend previous research on the role of order processing abilities in mental arithmetic.     

时间距离与大学生自我-品牌联结的价值偏好——基于解释水平的研究

自我-品牌联结指消费者使用品牌构建、强化和表达自我的程度。本文试图通过未来时间距离下自我品牌价值偏好的研究,揭示出大学生消费价值观的发展变化。实验1通过操纵时间距离揭示了大学生消费价值观的变化,结果表明：在近期时间距离下,大学生功能性价值的自我-品牌联结强于象征性价值,在未来时间距离下,象征性价值则强于功能性价值。实验2通过操纵成败反馈情景启动自我认知探讨了其发生机制,结果表明：在积极反馈情境下,随着时间距离延伸,大学生象征性价值的自我品牌联结逐渐强于功能性价值;而在消极反馈情景下无论近期还是远期,功能性价值一直强于象征性价值。结论：随着时间距离延伸,大学生消费价值观从实用主义过渡到理想主义,其机制是积极自我认知偏向的启动。     

心理距离对风险决策框架效应的影响

解释水平理论是一种解释心理距离怎样影响个体的思维决策的社会认知理论。研究基于解释水平理论,探查了心理距离对风险决策框架效应的影响。实验从心理距离的四个维度入手,每个维度均采用2（解释水平高、低）×2（正框架、负框架）的被试间设计,用于检验解释水平是否调节框架对被试决策任务的选择。结果表明,当心理距离越远,解释水平越高时,被试产生明显的框架效应;而当心理距离越近,解释水平越低时,框架效应明显减弱。除了大概率情况下的框架效应削弱至不显著,其余维度的高、低解释水平下的框架效应均显著。     

时间自我透视与价值偏好

该研究对大学生时间自我透视与价值偏好之间的关系进行了探讨。结果发现,当从远期的时间距离来透视自我（可能自我知觉）时,个体更加偏好理想主义价值;当个体从近期的时间距离来透视自我（当前自我知觉）时,个体更加偏好实用主义价值。但是,时间自我透视与价值偏好之间并非遵循严格的线性关系。此外,研究还发现,上述规律只出现于个体对自我的知觉中,个体对他人的时间透视并未表现出类似的规律。     

Perceived cultural distance and acculturation among exchange students in Russia

The relations of perceived cultural distance, personality, acculturation orientations and outcomes were studied among exchange students (N = 187) in Russia who came from various countries in Asia, sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. The hypothesis was supported that a larger perceived cultural distance between mainstream and immigrant culture is associated with less psychological (homesickness and stress) and sociocultural (behaviour with Russian students and behaviour with co‐nationals) adjustment. The statistical relations between perceived cultural distance, personality and sociocultural adjustment were much stronger for host domain behaviour than for home domain behaviour. Adjustment was higher for participants with more cultural empathy, openmindedness and flexibility. Adjustment showed statistically stronger associations with cultural distance than with acculturation orientations. It is concluded that cultural distance may be more salient than acculturation orientations in studies of heterogeneous groups of immigrants. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mental time line: An analogue of the mental number line in the mapping of life events

A crucial aspect of the human mind is the ability to project the self along the time line to past and future. It has been argued that such self-projection is essential to re-experience past experiences and predict future events. In-depth analysis of a novel paradigm investigating mental time shows that the speed of this “self-projection” in time depends logarithmically on the temporal-distance between an imagined “location” on the time line that participants were asked to imagine and the location of another imagined event from the time line. This logarithmic pattern suggests that events in human cognition are spatially mapped along an imagery mental time line. We argue that the present time-line data are comparable to the spatial mapping of numbers along the mental number line and that such spatial maps are a fundamental basis for cognition.