工作记忆负荷对注意捕获的影响研究

注意捕获研究对于探讨两种控制过程:自上而下的加工与自下而上的加工之间的关系具有重要的意义。本文通过检验不同工作记忆负荷对注意捕获的影响,探讨自上而下的认知控制对注意捕获的影响机制。本研究共包括二个实验:实验一比较了单、双任务条件对颜色干扰子注意捕获的影响;实验二探讨了不同工作记忆负荷对颜色干扰子注意捕获的影响。实验结果表明:工作记忆不仅在选择性注意任务中具有认知控制作用,而且这种作用能扩展到注意捕获现象中。注意捕获不是纯粹的刺激驱动的加工过程,它还受到自上而下的认知控制的调节。具体表现为,随着工作记忆负荷水平的增加,无关干扰子产生的注意捕获的程度增大。     

社会计量器理论的研究进展：社交接纳/拒绝与自尊的关系

社会计量器理论提出自尊是个体对社交接纳或拒绝的主观计量器,它监控和调节着人们的人际关系质量。目前,该领域的研究主要从两方面展开：一方面从社交反馈的角度探讨了社交接纳与人际评价对状态自尊的影响;另一方面从社交行为的角度探讨了特质自尊对社交意愿和社交决策的影响。未来的研究需要对影响自尊的社交情境进行具体区分,并就社交反馈、心理变化与社交行为的关系,任务特性的认知过程对自尊的影响进行综合探讨。     

对恐怖情绪的调节：认知重评优于表达抑制 ——一样ERP研究

摘要 本研究采用事件相关电位（ERP）技术,通过测量由视觉诱发的脑电成分晚正波（LPP）来比较情绪调节策略在生理电特征上的差异,进一步探讨认知重评和表达抑制的优劣。实验结果表明：（1）从波幅的角度来比较：在400-600ms时间窗口内,认知重评条件下恐怖图片诱发的LPP波幅显著小于在自由观看条件下的波幅,而表达抑制和自由观看组所诱发的LPP波幅差异较小。（2）从时间进程的角度来比较：认知重评与自由观看组的差异发生在400ms并持续到600ms,甚至以后;而表达抑制和自由观看之间的差异发生在450ms但是只持续到550ms。这表明认知重评相较于表达抑制,对负性情绪起调节作用开始较早,并且持续时间较长。这为认知重评优于表达抑制策略提供了神经生理学上的证据。     

Adjustment of cognitive control to the frequency of dual-task interference

ABSTRACT

This study explored whether the control mechanisms recruited for optimising performance are similar for dual-task and interference-task settings. We tested whether the frequency of appearance of a secondary task resulted in an adjustment of anticipatory and reflexive forms of attentional control, as has been observed with other interference tasks (e.g. stroop and flanker). The results of two experiments demonstrated a proportion congruency effect (PCE): when a secondary task frequently appeared, primary task performance was slower. Additionally, there was a relative slowdown of dual-task performance in blocks wherein the secondary task appeared infrequently compared to blocks wherein it appeared frequently. However, this slowdown occurred when the primary task entailed a low level of control (Experiment 1) but was absent when it demanded a high level of control (Experiment 2). Overall, the results suggest that level of control can be adjusted to task demands related to the frequency of the secondary task.     

Does P3 Reflect Attentional or Memory Performances,or Cognition more Generally?

The study evaluated the off-line relationship of attention, memory and other cognitive performances with the auditory event-related potentials P3 (P300) and N2. The sample comprised 200 middle-aged construction workers. Verbal, visuomotor and memory tests were administered. Attentional domains were examined using CogniSpeed software. Slowed reaction times in the test of sustained attention (vigilance) were associated with delayed P3 latency (p < 0.001) and decreased P3 amplitude (p = 0.005), as well as with delayed N2 latency (p < 0.001). Visuomotor slowing in Digit Symbol was also related to delayed P3 latency (p = 0.030) and decreased P3 amplitude (p = 0.014). In contrast, mild cognitive impairment, short- and long-term memory, and concentrating or sharing attention with high working memory demands were not related to P3. The results suggest that P3 is linked to attentional performance with low working memory demands rather than to effortful working memory updating, retrieval from memory stores, or mild cognitive impairment.     

Cognitive distance of stairways: a multi-stairway investigation

The present study had two major purposes. First it sought to determine to what extent in an earlier study of distance estimation in stairways (Hanyu & Itsukushima, 1995) would generalize to other types of stairway. Second, it sought to examine which hypothesis, information storage or effort, better explain the earlier results, in which people overestimated distance and traversed time estimates. We obtained four distance and time measures: distance estimate, traversal time estimate, mental walking time and actual traversal time. To measure information, we had participants rate each stairway for complexity (simple-complex) and effort (effortless-effortful) before and after the distance and time measurement tasks. The results revealed that the earlier findings (Hanyu & Itsukushima, 1995) did not fully generalize. The results also did not support either the information storage or the effort hypothesis.     

Cognitive Load and the Equality Heuristic: A Two-Stage Model of Resource Overconsumption in Small Groups

Two studies were conducted to test a two-stage model of the psychological mechanisms underlying the overconsumption of scarce resources in small groups. The model proposes that members of groups sharing resources first anchor their consumption choices on an “equal-division” heuristic and then, given sufficient cognitive capacity, adjust their choices in a self-serving direction. The results from both studies support the model. The first study found that when faced with a common resource pool almost all group members expressed thoughts regarding equality; however, individuals with sufficient cognitive capacity requested more from the pool and expressed more task-relevant thoughts than individuals lacking the necessary cognitive resources. The second study provided additional support for the two-stage model by demonstrating that group members' cognitions occur in the order predicted by the model and by demonstrating that an individual difference, social value orientation, affects thought processes only when individuals are not experiencing high cognitive loads. Implications are discussed.     

关于自闭症的临床、实验心理学的研究

最近,国际上的临床心理学、实验心理学对自闭症的诊断、分类、发生率以及教育与治疗等,从各个角度展示了许多新的研究结果。实验心理学的调查结果表明,自闭症儿童的注意力异常,对视、听、触等感觉反应处理样式,不同于弱智儿童和正常儿童。语言障碍是自闭症儿童发展障碍中的核心症侯,这与自闭症在社会性和人际关系上存在障碍有着密切的关系。进入９０年代以后,对自闭症“心的理论”的各种实验研究,引起各国研究者的注目和争论     

Ethics and the Science of Animal Minds

Ethicists have commonly appealed to science to bolster their arguments for elevating the moral status of nonhuman animals. I describe a framework within which I take many ethicists to be making such appeals. I focus on an apparent gap in this framework between those properties of animals that are part of the scientific consensus, and those to which ethicists typically appeal in their arguments. I will describe two different ways of diminishing the appearance of the gap, and argue that both of them present challenges to ethicists seeking a firm scientific basis for their claims about the moral status of animals. I argue that more clarity about the role of appeals to science by applied ethicists leads to questions about the effectiveness of such appeals, and that these questions might best be pursued empirically.     

Social cognitive theory of posttraumatic recovery: the role of perceived self-efficacy

The present article integrates findings from diverse studies on the generalized role of perceived coping self-efficacy in recovery from different types of traumatic experiences. They include natural disasters, technological catastrophes, terrorist attacks, military combat, and sexual and criminal assaults. The various studies apply multiple controls for diverse sets of potential contributors to posttraumatic recovery. In these different multivariate analyses, perceived coping self-efficacy emerges as a focal mediator of posttraumatic recovery. Verification of its independent contribution to posttraumatic recovery across a wide range of traumas lends support to the centrality of the enabling and protective function of belief in one's capability to exercise some measure of control over traumatic adversity.