适应性时间管理：死亡意识对时间知觉和跨期决策的影响

死亡意识是个体对自身死亡必然性的认识; 基于进化适应性的考量, 作者认为具有前瞻性的死亡意识作为人类特有的认知能力和个体生命史的终极坐标, 不仅可能引起恐惧感和防御反应, 更重要的是可以帮助人们做出适应性的时间管理。据此推论, 死亡意识的启动会加强人们对时间有限性的关注, 体验出更强的时间流逝感, 影响人们对时间的评估, 以及人们对不同时间点的成本与收益进行权衡而做出的跨期决策。本研究采用死亡凸显范式启动死亡意识, 通过两个实验探讨了死亡意识、时间知觉和跨期决策三者之间的关系。结果发现, 死亡意识启动使被试低估时间距离, 并表现出较低的跨期决策延迟折扣率, 从而在较小的即时获益与更大的延迟的获益之间更为偏好未来导向的选项。进一步的分析显示, 时间知觉在死亡意识和跨期决策延迟折扣率之间起到部分中介变量的作用。以上的研究结果初步揭示了死亡意识在时间管理上的适应性价值。     

状态焦虑对时距知觉的影响：认知评价和注意偏向有调节的中介作用

探讨状态焦虑对时距知觉的影响以及注意偏向与认知评价在其中的中介和调节作用。招募大学生60人, 随机分为高、低状态焦虑组, 用情绪诱导程序诱导高、低状态焦虑; 用点探测范式测量注意偏向; 用时间再现任务测量时距知觉; 用视觉模拟心境量表测量认知评价。结果发现：(1)状态焦虑会导致对2000 ms时距的高估; (2)注意偏向在状态焦虑对2000 ms时距知觉的影响中具有部分中介作用; (3)状态焦虑通过注意偏向影响时距知觉的中介过程受到认知评价的调节作用：只有当认知评价得分较高时, 即个体认为焦虑对心理健康有害程度较高时, 状态焦虑通过注意偏向影响2000 ms时距知觉。研究结果揭示了焦虑个体时距知觉的内部过程, 丰富了焦虑通过注意偏向影响时距知觉的解释视角, 为通过认知评价和注意偏向的调整改善焦虑个体时距偏差现象提供了重要参考。     

公平或是利益?权力对分配公平感的影响

通过3个实验逐步考察了高、低权力个体对三种分配方案(公平/劣势不公平/优势不公平)的公平感。结果发现：(1)被试的公平评级从高到低依次为公平、优势不公平、劣势不公平, 做出评级的反应时则从快到慢依次为公平、劣势不公平、优势不公平; (2)相对于低权力被试, 高权力被试对劣势不公平分配的公平评级更低, 而对公平分配和优势不公平分配的公平评级更高, 且做出公平判断的反应时更短。基于这些结果, 作者提出了公平与利益权衡的公平优先效应及权力的自我增强假设, 以更好地理解权力和公平的本质及二者的关系。     

McGurk效应的影响因素与神经基础

McGurk效应(麦格克效应)是典型的视听整合现象, 该效应受到刺激的物理特征、注意分配、个体视听信息依赖程度、视听整合能力、语言文化差异的影响。引发McGurk效应的关键视觉信息主要来自说话者的嘴部区域。产生McGurk效应的认知过程包含早期的视听整合(与颞上皮层有关)以及晚期的视听不一致冲突(与额下皮层有关)。未来研究应关注面孔社会信息对McGurk效应的影响, McGurk效应中单通道信息加工与视听整合的关系, 结合计算模型探讨其认知神经机制等。     

自闭症谱系障碍者的视运动知觉

视运动知觉是人脑对外界物体的运动特性的知觉。视运动知觉异常是自闭症谱系障碍者的一种常见表现, 其检测光流、二阶运动、协同性运动、生物运动及运动速度的能力异于健康控制组, 且过度迷恋重复性运动物体。该群体视运动知觉异常的原因探析集中于背侧/M细胞通路特定假设、复杂性假设、神经噪声假设、经验缺失假设、时空加工异常假设、极端男性脑理论和社会脑假设。但到目前为止, 尚缺乏一个统一准确的、可验证的解释。未来研究应注重考察自闭症者视运动知觉异常的个体差异和神经生理机制, 进一步整合和验证解释理论, 并着眼开发有效的视运动知觉测评工具和干预策略     

Triune ethics: The neurobiological roots of our multiple moralities

Triune Ethics Theory (TET) is a psychological theory developed to meet three goals. First, it attempts to harvest critical findings from neurobiology, affective neuroscience, and cognitive science and to integrate them into moral psychology for the purpose of informing psychological research on the moral life of persons. In contrast to dominant theories that focus on top-down, deliberative reasoning (e.g., Kohlberg), TET is a bottom-up theory that focuses on motivational orientations that are rooted in evolved unconscious emotional systems shaped by experience that predispose one to react to and act on events in particular ways. Second, it seeks to explain differences in moral functioning through a person by context interaction. Individuals differ in early emotional experiences that influence personality formation and behavior in context, while at the same time situations can evoke particular reactions, which vary with personality. Third, it suggests the initial conditions for optimal human moral development.     

Role of visual-perceptual skills (non-motor) in children with developmental coordination disorder

The purposes of this study were to examine test-retest reliability of the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (Non-Motor)-Revised (TVPS-R), to explore motor-free visual-perceptual skills, and to categorize subtypes thereof in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). One hundred and seventy-eight children, aged 9 and 10 years, identified as having DCD with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC), were assessed, along with 200 typically developing children. The results showed good test-retest reliability for the total perceptual quotient scores of the TVPS-R, but not for all subtests. Children with DCD performed significantly poorer compared to typically developing children on the visual-perceptual test, but the deficits were not common to all children with DCD. This study supported the stance that we should consider the heterogeneous characteristics of children with DCD when designing experimental studies or developing educational interventions.     

Cerebellar patients demonstrate preserved implicit knowledge of association strengths in musical sequences

Recent findings suggest the involvement of the cerebellum in perceptual and cognitive tasks. Our study investigated whether cerebellar patients show musical priming based on implicit knowledge of tonal-harmonic music. Participants performed speeded phoneme identification on sung target chords, which were either related or less-related to prime contexts in terms of the tonal-harmonic system. As groups, both cerebellar patients and age-matched controls showed facilitated processing for related targets, as previously observed for healthy young adults. The outcome suggests that an intact cerebellum is not mandatory for accessing implicit knowledge stored in long-term memory and for its influence on perception. One patient showed facilitated processing for less-related targets (suggesting sensory priming). The findings suggest directions for future research on auditory perception in cerebellar patients to further our understanding of cerebellar functions.     

Early top-down influences on bistable perception revealed by event-related potentials

A longstanding debate exists in the literature concerning bottom-up vs. top-down influences on bistable perception. Recently, a technique has been developed to measure early changes in brain activity (via ERPs) related to perceptual reversals (Kornmeier & Bach, 2004). An ERP component, the reversal negativity (RN) has been identified, and is characterized as an increase in negative potential over the posterior scalp from 150 to 350 ms for perceptual reversals compared to perceptual stability. This finding, although interesting, has not helped resolve issues related to the bottom-up vs. top-down debate because top-down influences have not been directly manipulated. The current study focused on resolving some of these issues by measuring the RN while observers maintained one of three 'intentional approaches', (1) try to reverse perception as often as possible, (2) try to stabilize perception for as long as possible, and (3) maintain a passive approach. Enhancements in RN amplitude were found for the intention-to-reverse condition compared to the passive condition. This finding suggests an early influence (150 ms) of top-down control on perceptual reversals of bistable figures. Results are discussed in terms of competing attention shifting vs. fatigue-based theories of bistable perception.