Infant touching behaviour during mother–infant face‐to‐face interactions

The study of infant communication during mother–infant interactions has largely focused on infants' distal behaviours, while neglecting their more proximal behaviours, such as touch. Yet, touch is an important modality through which infants and mothers communicate; it is also a vital means through which infants self‐regulate and explore their surroundings. The present study was designed to investigate the touching behaviours of 44, 51/2‐month‐old, healthy, full‐term infants during face‐to‐face mother–infant interactions. A still‐face (SF) procedure was used in order to examine differences in the types and locations of infant touch across normal and perturbed interaction periods, when mothers exhibit changes in their emotional availability. Results revealed that infant touch varied with changes in maternal availability. During the SF period, when mothers were unavailable, infants used more active, soothing, and reactive tactile behaviours (stroke, finger, pat, and pull), and they spent more time touching themselves. In contrast, infants used mostly passive touch (static) during the Normal periods, when their mothers were available. They also spent a significant portion of time touching their mothers. The variations in infant touch across periods suggest that infants communicate their affective states through touch. The findings also support the regulatory and exploratory roles of infant touch, especially during periods of maternal unavailability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

面孔加工的认知神经科学研究：回顾与展望

面孔加工的认知神经科学研究中的核心问题是,是否存在功能和神经机制上独立的面孔加工模块以及面孔加工系统的组织形式。使用电生理、脑成像以及对脑损伤病人进行神经心理学检查等手段,研究者已经找到选择性地对面孔反应的脑区,即梭状回面孔区（FFA）。文章从面孔加工系统的特异性与多成分性以及面孔识别模型等方面,系统回顾了该领域的主要研究成果。文章最后还简单展望了今后的研究方向。     

Facial age cues and emotional expression interact asymmetrically: age cues moderate emotion categorisation

Facial attributes such as race, sex, and age can interact with emotional expressions; however, only a couple of studies have investigated the nature of the interaction between facial age cues and emotional expressions and these have produced inconsistent results. Additionally, these studies have not addressed the mechanism/s driving the influence of facial age cues on emotional expression or vice versa. In the current study, participants categorised young and older adult faces expressing happiness and anger (Experiment 1) or sadness (Experiment 2) by their age and their emotional expression. Age cues moderated categorisation of happiness vs. anger and sadness in the absence of an influence of emotional expression on age categorisation times. This asymmetrical interaction suggests that facial age cues are obligatorily processed prior to emotional expressions. Finding a categorisation advantage for happiness expressed on young faces relative to both anger and sadness which are negative in valence but different in their congruence with old age stereotypes or structural overlap with age cues suggests that the observed influence of facial age cues on emotion perception is due to the congruence between relatively positive evaluations of young faces and happy expressions.     

Glucose regulation and face recognition deficits in older adults: the role of attention

The present study investigated the perceptual, attentional, and memory processes underlying face recognition deficits observed in older adults with impaired glucoregulation. Participants were categorized as good glucoregulators or poor glucoregulators on the basis of an oral glucose tolerance test. Using event-related potential (ERP) methodology, 23 participants (62–88 years) performed a 2-stimulus oddball task. Participants were asked to rate and memorize 10 “target” faces, which were then presented amongst 120 unfamiliar foils. Behavioral results indicated that good glucoregulators were significantly more accurate at recognizing target faces. ERP markers of early visual perception (P1 and N170 components) and memory formation (P3 component) were unaffected by glucoregulatory efficiency. The P2 component, an index of attentional processing, was larger and delayed in the poor glucoregulators. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest that face recognition deficits in poor glucoregulators may be due to impairments in attentional processing.     

探索性因素分析因子抽取方法的比较

探索性因素分析决定因子抽取的方法主要有Bartlett法、K1原则、碎石检验法、Aaker原则、PA、MAP等六种,通过对样本1的395名大学生的学习过程问卷调查获得真实数据,运用这六种方法进行因素分析分别抽取7、4、2、4、3、2个因子;应用样本2的383名大学生的问卷调查数据进行验证性因素分析,结果显示,碎石检验方法与MAP方法抽取的二因素模型更理想。研究表明,因子抽取需兼顾“简约性原则”与“完备性原则”,同时要根据一定的理论建构、专业知识和经验来决定因子数。     

适应范式在人脸知觉研究中的应用

适应范式为考察各种心理现象或心理过程的机制提供了一条重要的途径。本文在简要介绍传统适应范式和功能性磁共振适应范式的基础上,重点回顾了它们在人脸知觉研究中的应用,提出人脸适应后效除源于尺寸和朝向等低、中水平物理信息的编码加工外,更多地基于身份和性别等高水平社会信息的编码,且其效应量依赖于高水平的基于标准的竞争性编码加工机制。对人脸类别属性的编码标准和时效性等问题仍有待进一步分析。     

面孔重复启动效应:知觉结构和语义表征的贡献

以30名大学生为被试,探讨了熟悉和陌生的正倒立面孔对重复启动效应的影响,以此考察知觉结构和语义表征对面孔重复启动的贡献.结果表明:(1)熟悉面孔的重复启动既存在知觉启动也存在语义启动,而不熟悉面孔仅仅存在知觉启动.(2)知觉结构和语义表征对启动效应的贡献是联合的,而不是分离的;在熟悉面孔中,语义表征对重复启动的贡献大于知觉结构的贡献.(3)知觉结构和语义表征对重复启动的贡献与加工阶段有关.知觉结构在初始阶段起作用,随后作用逐渐减弱;而语义表征存在于信息加工的整个过程.