多级属性Q矩阵的验证与估计

多级属性是将诊断测验中传统的二值(即两种水平, 通常定义为0和1)属性定义为多值(多个水平可以为0, 1, …), 它不但可以描述学生对于知识属性是否掌握, 而且可以描述学生在属性上的掌握程度, 这样使得诊断测验能提供给被试更丰富的知识掌握详情。本文将适用于二级属性Q矩阵的统计量(S统计量)拓展到多级属性下的Q矩阵验证和估计, 在两种常见的条件下, 设计了两种估计算法：联合估计算法和在线估计算法。模拟实验结果表明：联合估计算法适用于对专家界定的初始Q矩阵进行验证, 当初始Q矩阵中包含较少的错误时, 通过联合估计算法有很大可能恢复正确的Q矩阵; 在线估计算法适用于对“新项目”进行属性向量和项目参数的在线标定, 基于一定数量的“基础项目”, 在线估计算法对于新项目的估计也能达到较满意的成功率。实证数据分析则进一步展示了该方法的使用。     

Phonation Types Matter in Sound Symbolism

Sound symbolism is a non-arbitrary correspondence between sound and meaning. The majority of studies on sound symbolism have focused on consonants and vowels, and the sound-symbolic properties of suprasegmentals, particularly phonation types, have been largely neglected. This study examines the size and shape symbolism of four phonation types: modal and creaky voices, falsetto, and whisper. Japanese speakers heard 12 novel words (e.g., /íbi/, /ápa/) pronounced with the four types of phonation and rated the size and roundedness/pointedness each of the 48 stimuli seemed to represent on seven-point scales. The results showed that phonation types as well as consonantal and vocalic features influenced the ratings. Creaky voice was associated with larger and more pointed images than modal voice, which was in turn associated with larger and more pointed images than whisper. Falsetto was also associated with roundedness but not with smallness. These results shed new light on the acoustic approaches to sound symbolism and suggest the significance of phonation types and other suprasegmental features in the phenomenon.     

Effects of irrelevant object structure on early attention deployment

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have suggested that Gestalt principles or grouping factors in a visual scene modulate attention deployment in early visual processing. The present study examined the effects of an extrinsic grouping factor, region commonality, on early ERP spatial attention. Effects of sex were also explored, since the processing of task-irrelvant objects may differ between the sexes. Twenty-four participants were required to discriminate one side of rapidly-presented bilateral letters, and attention effects were indexed by hemispheric lateralization accroding to attended visual fields. In results, an early P1 attention effect (70–110 ms) increased when the letters were surrounded by an object, compared to the control stimulus without a complete object, and this result was more prominent in women than in men. The present study demonstrates that visual object and sex differences play a novel role at very early cortical stages of processing in attention deployment to a task-irrelevant visual structure.     

贵州少数民族儿童青少年SNARC效应的发展

采用奇偶判断任务,考察二年级至大学阶段贵州民族儿童青少年SNARC效应的发展状况。结果显示：三年级开始出现SNARC效应（包括正确率SNARC效应）;各阶段SNARC效应无显著差异;高、低年级正确率存在显著差异,六年级以后各阶段正确率无显著差异。结论：民族儿童三年级开始形成数字的空间表征。SNARC效应的大小不因年龄而发生变化;被试对奇偶知识的掌握存在发展过程,三年级可能基本理解奇偶信息,六年级后熟练掌握奇偶信息。     

Conditionals,Context, and the Suppression Effect

Modus ponens is the argument from premises of the form If A, then B and A to the conclusion B (e.g., from If it rained, Alicia got wet and It rained to Alicia got wet). Nearly all participants agree that the modus ponens conclusion logically follows when the argument appears in this Basic form. However, adding a further premise (e.g., If she forgot her umbrella, Alicia got wet) can lower participants’ rate of agreement—an effect called suppression. We propose a theory of suppression that draws on contemporary ideas about conditional sentences in linguistics and philosophy. Semantically, the theory assumes that people interpret an indicative conditional as a context‐sensitive strict conditional: true if and only if its consequent is true in each of a contextually determined set of situations in which its antecedent is true. Pragmatically, the theory claims that context changes in response to new assertions, including new conditional premises. Thus, the conclusion of a modus ponens argument may no longer be accepted in the changed context. Psychologically, the theory describes people as capable of reasoning about broad classes of possible situations, ordered by typicality, without having to reason about individual possible worlds. The theory accounts for the main suppression phenomena, and it generates some novel predictions that new experiments confirm.     

Additional considerations when measuring adaptive control in conflict tasks

A recent review article by Braem et al. (2019, Trends in Cognitive Sciences) summarises some of the major challenges associated with investigating the dynamics of cognitive control in conflict tasks and recommends steps that researchers can take to minimise these challenges. This commentary highlights two further considerations for researchers studying the dynamics of cognitive control. First, researchers should consider analysing effects stemming from trial n - 2 to identify (a) how the congruency sequence effect emerges over a longer series of trials and (b) whether residual feature-integration effects remain in confound-minimised designs. Second, data from hand-tracking studies indicates that the dynamics observed in button-press measures of response time reflect the functioning of dissociable processes. Consequently, researchers should consider how the various manipulations used to investigate the dynamics of cognitive control might impact different processes underlying performance.     

Psychological Comparison Processes and Self-Concept in Relation to Five Distinct Frame-of-Reference Effects: Pan-Human Cross-Cultural Generalizability over 68 Countries

The concept of self is central to personhood, but personality research has largely ignored the relevance of recent advances in self-concept theory: multidimensionality of self-concept (focusing instead on self-esteem, an implicit unidimensional approach), domain specificity (generalizability of trait manifestations over different domains), and multilevel perspectives in which social-cognitive processes and contextual effects drive self-perceptions at different levels (individual, group/institution, and country) aligned to Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. Here, we provide theoretical and empirical support for psychological comparison processes that influence self-perceptions and their relation to distal outcomes. Our meta-theoretical integration of social and dimensional comparison theories synthesizes five seemingly paradoxical frame-of-reference and contextual effects in self-concept formation that occur at different levels. The effects were tested with a sample of 485,490 fifteen-year-old students (68 countries/regions, 18,292 schools). Consistent with the dimensional comparison theory, the effects on math self-concept were positive for math achievement but negative for verbal achievement. Consistent with the social comparison theory, the effects on math self-concept were negative for school-average math achievement (big-fish-little-pond effect), country-average achievement (paradoxical cross-cultural effect), and being young relative to year in school but positive for school-average verbal achievement (big-fish-little-pond effect—compensatory effect). We demonstrate cross-cultural generalizability/universality of support for predictions and discuss implications for personality research. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

“Who said it?” How contextual information influences perceived profundity of meaningful quotes and pseudo-profound bullshit

Psychological research on pseudo-profound bullshit—randomly assembled buzz words plugged into a syntactic structure—has only recently begun. Most such research has focused on dispositional traits, such as thinking styles or political orientation. However, none has investigated contextual factors. In two studies, we introduce a new paradigm by investigating the contextual effect on pseudo-profound bullshit and meaningful quotes. In Study 1, all participants rated the profundity of statements in three contexts: (a) isolated, (b) as allegedly said by a famous author, or (c) within a vignette (short story). Study 2 serves as a conceptual replication in which participants rated statements in only one of three contexts. Overall, our results demonstrate that although contextual information such as author's name increases the perceived profundity of bullshit, it has an inconsistent effect on meaningful quotes. The present study helps to better understand the bullshit receptivity while offering a new line of research.