Managing intergroup attitudes among Hong Kong adolescents: Effects of social category inclusiveness and time pressure

Previous research has shown a widespread bias among Hong Kong adolescents against Chinese Mainlanders. Based on social identity and social cognitive theories, we examined the effects of identity frame switching (situational induction of social category inclusiveness) and time pressure (environmental constraints on social information processing) on Hong Kong adolescents' attitudes toward Chinese Mainlanders. Results indicated that Hong Kong adolescents had acquired a habitual tendency to make social comparisons within an exclusive regional framework of reference. This habitual tendency might lead to negative judgment biases toward Chinese Mainlanders, particularly when the adolescents made social judgments under time pressure. In addition, switching to an inclusive national frame of reference for social comparison attenuated negative intergroup attitudes. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Memory Evolutive Systems as a Model of Rosen’s Organisms – (Metabolic,Replication) Systems

Robert Rosen has proposed several characteristics to distinguish “simple” physical systems (or “mechanisms”) from “complex” systems, such as living systems, which he calls “organisms”. The Memory Evolutive Systems (MES) introduced by the authors in preceding papers are shown to provide a mathematical model, based on category theory, which satisfies his characteristics of organisms, in particular the merger of the Aristotelian causes. Moreover they identify the condition for the emergence of objects and systems of increasing complexity. As an application, the cognitive system of an animal is modeled by the “MES of cat-neurons” obtained by successive complexifications of his neural system, in which the emergence of higher order cognitive processes gives support to Mario Bunge’s “emergentist monism.” Dedicated to the memory of Robert Rosen who kindly accepted to come to Amiens while he was very ill.     

Control beliefs and susceptibility to the promises of memory improvement

Brain training is increasingly popular, and many believe in the efficacy of such programs without empirical evidence. We examined whether instructions promising memory improvement would influence subjective and objective cognition. Participants (n = 145; age: M = 50.64) were randomly assigned to a memory improvement or memory task condition. Participants completed demographic and perceived control over cognition measures, in addition to cognitive tasks and subjective cognition items for 7 days. Participants in the improvement condition reported significantly greater memory increases than those in the memory task condition. This effect was moderated by perceived control over cognition; participants in the improvement condition with high control beliefs were significantly more likely than those with low control beliefs or those in the task condition to report better memory. Individuals with higher control beliefs may be more susceptible to the claims of brain training programs, which is significant given that such programs are increasingly popular and commercially available.     

When does a referent public problem affect financial and political support for public action?

In three studies we examined the willingness to support action to remedy a public problem. In Study 1 and Study 2, people were asked whether they would financially contribute to solution of a public problem. In Study 3, people were asked whether they would sign a petition to support a public action. The aim was to test whether the willingness to support solution of a public problem is affected by the type of problem that is used as the referent. We hypothesized that the willingness to support a public action is lower when evaluated in the context of a high‐ as opposed to a low‐importance referent problem (importance contrast effect). We also hypothesized that the importance contrast effect is tied to the perceived relatedness between the target and referent problems. The importance contrast effect should be found only when the two problems relate to different category domains. The findings bear out this prediction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing human reorientation ability inside virtual reality environments: the effects of retention interval and landmark characteristics

The purpose of the present study was to assess the navigational behaviour of adult humans following a disorientation procedure that perturbed their egocentric frame of reference. The assessment was carried out in a virtual reality (VR) environment by manipulating the disorientation procedure, the retention interval, the relative positions of target and landmark. The results of experiment I demonstrated that adding a physical rotation to a virtual disorientation procedure did not yield an additional decrease in searching performance. The results of experiment II showed that shortening the delay between study and test phase decreased the errors more markedly for geometric than landmark ones. An orientation specificity effect due to the manipulation of the relative position between target and landmark was discussed across the experiments. In conclusion, VR seemed to be a valuable method for studying human reorientation. Moreover, the virtual experimental setting involved here promoted knowledge of the relationship between working memory and spatial reorientation paradigm.     

流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响

探讨不同转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.实验1探讨自由转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.实验2探讨限制转换条件下,流畅性对自然概念类别检索的影响.结果表明:两种转换条件下,对熟悉性流畅性一致类别的检索时间策略主要受到根据熟悉性形成的知晓感的调节和监控.对熟悉性流畅性不一致的类别,知晓感的形成主要受流畅性的影响,并以此来控制和调节检索时间策略.     

The effect of childhood bilingualism on episodic and semantic memory tasks

Kormi-Nouri, Moniri and Nilsson (2003) demonstrated that Swedish-Persian bilingual children recalled at a higher level than Swedish monolingual children, when they were tested using Swedish materials. The present study was designed to examine the bilingual advantage of children who use different languages in their everyday life but have the same cultural background and live in their communities in the same way as monolingual children. In four experiments, 488 monolingual and bilingual children were compared with regard to episodic and semantic memory tasks. In experiments 1 and 2 there were 144 boys and 144 girls in three school groups (aged 9-10 years, 13-14 years and 16-17 years) and in three language groups (Persian monolingual, Turkish-Persian bilingual, and Kurdish-Persian bilingual). In experiments 3 and 4, there were 200 male students in two school groups (aged 9-10 years and 16-17 years) and in two language groups (Persian monolingual and Turkish-Persian bilingual). In the episodic memory task, children learned sentences (experiments 1-3) and words (Experiment 4). Letter and category fluency tests were used as measures of semantic memory. To change cognitive demands in memory tasks, in Experiment 1, the integration of nouns and verbs within sentences was manipulated by the level of association between verb and noun in each sentence. At retrieval, a recognition test was used. In experiments 2 and 3, the organization between sentences was manipulated at encoding in Experiment 2 and at both encoding and retrieval in Experiment 3 through the use of categories among the objects. At retrieval, free recall or cued recall tests were employed. In Experiment 4, the bilingual children were tested with regard to both their first and their second language. In all four experiments, a positive effect of bilingualism was found on episodic and semantic memory tasks; the effect was more pronounced for older than younger children. The bilingual advantage was not affected by changing cognitive demands or by using first/second language in memory tasks. The present findings support the cross-language interactivity hypothesis of bilingual advantage.     

线索呈现位置对概率类别学习的影响

当前概率类别学习中主要存在多系统和单系统两种观点之争, 而持不同观点的研究者在其实验中分别采用了不同的线索位置呈现方式, 因此本研究采用经典的天气预测任务通过操纵线索位置的呈现方式来进一步探讨其对概率类别学习的影响。本研究包括2个实验：实验1考察所有线索位置固定和随机对概率类别学习系统的影响; 实验2通过单线索模式下线索位置固定考察概率类别学习的策略。结果发现, 当所有线索的呈现位置固定时, 概率类别学习是外显学习; 而当所有线索的呈现位置随机时, 概率类别学习是内隐学习; 而当只在线索单独出现时固定其位置, 概率类别学习仍是内隐学习。结果表明, 线索位置的不同呈现方式会影响概率类别学习中外显和内隐学习系统的竞争, 研究支持了多系统观点, 且概率类别学习的主要策略可能是多线索策略而不是单模式策略。     

视觉系统中类别信息加工区的特异性

近年来, 神经成像的研究结果显示, 在人类的腹侧视觉皮层内可能存在与特定类别刺激加工一一对应的类别信息加工区。但是, 类别信息加工区是否具有特异性仍然存在争议。文章总结了相关研究领域对这一颇具争议的问题的研究结果, 同时指出了末来研究可能深入的方向。这些方向包括：进一步探讨不同抽象水平的类别信息加工区域的特异性问题、检验类别信息加工区的拓扑分布观点、回答不同类别信息加工区之间的信息如何交流的问题、揭示类别信息加工区的学习机制。