语义认知的习得、发展和老化及其神经机制

作为语言系统的重要组成部分, 探究语义认知发展机制及其神经机理对揭示人类语言发展、认知机制有着重要意义。以语义认知能力的习得、发展、老化认知机制为主线, 在系统阐释词汇-语义系统的习得、语义认知能力和策略发展的基础上, 进一步探讨了语义认知老化的认知机制及其神经机理。最后, 围绕儿童和成人的语义认知差异、句法和语义认知老化的差异、语义认知老化的影响因素等问题上进行了思考和展望。     

婴儿的痛觉

婴儿痛觉对婴儿的生长发育有重要意义, 已经日益引发研究者的兴趣。痛觉本质上是一种不愉悦的感官和情绪体验, 是通过早年与伤害有关的经历习得的。在心理学角度, 在介绍婴儿痛觉概念、神经生理机制、评估工具的基础上, 系统梳理痛觉对婴儿生长发育的影响及其影响因素十分必要。后续研究需继续完善婴儿痛觉的测量方法, 考察疼痛反应在不同文化和不同群体间的差异。     

The Role of Animacy in Children's Interpretation of Relative Clauses in English: Evidence From Sentence–Picture Matching and Eye Movements

Subject relative clauses (SRCs) are typically processed more easily than object relative clauses (ORCs), but this difference is diminished by an inanimate head-noun in semantically non-reversible ORCs (“The book that the boy is reading”). In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the influence of animacy on online processing of semantically reversible SRCs and ORCs using lexically inanimate items that were perceptually animate due to motion (e.g., “Where is the tractor that the cow is chasing”). In Experiment 1, 48 children (aged 4;5–6;4) and 32 adults listened to sentences that varied in the lexical animacy of the NP1 head-noun (Animate/Inanimate) and relative clause (RC) type (SRC/ORC) with an animate NP2 while viewing two images depicting opposite actions. As expected, inanimate head-nouns facilitated the correct interpretation of ORCs in children; however, online data revealed children were more likely to anticipate an SRC as the RC unfolded when an inanimate head-noun was used, suggesting processing was sensitive to perceptual animacy. In Experiment 2, we repeated our design with inanimate (rather than animate) NP2s (e.g., “where is the tractor that the car is following”) to investigate whether our online findings were due to increased visual surprisal at an inanimate as agent, or to similarity-based interference. We again found greater anticipation for an SRC in the inanimate condition, supporting our surprisal hypothesis. Across the experiments, offline measures show that lexical animacy influenced children's interpretation of ORCs, whereas online measures reveal that as RCs unfolded, children were sensitive to the perceptual animacy of lexically inanimate NPs, which was not reflected in the offline data. Overall measures of syntactic comprehension, inhibitory control, and verbal short-term memory and working memory were not predictive of children's accuracy in RC interpretation, with the exception of a positive correlation with a standardized measure of syntactic comprehension in Experiment 1.     

Professional Development in Social Justice: Analysis of American Counseling Association Conference Programming

This study was designed as a content analysis of 2012–2017 American Counseling Association conference sessions to examine how social justice was presented. Four findings emerged from the qualitative content analysis: (a) rates of social justice sessions varied over time; (b) there were more multicultural sessions than social justice sessions; (c) populations that were addressed least often and most often were identified; and (d) there was a decline in the number of social justice content sessions. Implications are presented.     

Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies—A Framework for Studying Personality Change

The importance of personality for predicting life outcomes in the domains of love, work, and health is well established, as is evidence that personality traits, while relatively stable, can change. However, little is known about the sources and processes that drive changes in personality traits and how such changes might impact important life outcomes. In this paper, we make the case that the research paradigms and methodological approaches commonly used in personality psychology need to be revised to advance our understanding of the sources and processes of personality change. We propose Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies as a framework for studying personality change that can address the limitations of current methods, and we discuss strategies for overcoming some of the challenges associated with Longitudinal Experience-Wide Association Studies. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读发展中的相对重要性

本研究基于简单阅读观理论,以两个样本共计666名大班至四年级的汉语儿童为研究对象,探索了识字量和词汇知识在儿童阅读能力发展中的作用及相对重要性的变化。结果显示,在阅读学习早期,识字量对阅读理解的重要性高于词汇知识。随着年级的升高,识字量的重要性降低,而词汇知识的重要性增加。这一发现证实简单阅读观理论也适用于解释汉语阅读能力的发展,并对今后的语文教学具有重要的启示意义。     

A methodology to assess the utility of future space systems

The Air Force SPACECAST 2020 study identified and prioritized some future space systems and technologies required in the next century. This paper presents the results of research on the SPACECAST 2020 value model. The model determines and prioritizes future space systems’ utility towards controlling and exploiting space. This research identifies the assumptions and simplifications in the additive utility function and assesses modifications. The research shows that mutual utility independence of the mission areas is a reasonable assumption. Mutual utility independence allows the use of the multiplicative and multilinear utility functions. Also, the SPACECAST 2020 scoring functions used the same scoring scale and only measured the utility of future capabilities. This study makes modifications to the SPACECAST 2020 measure-of-merit scoring functions. It replaces most of these functions with either a concave, convex, linear or ‘S’ scoring function, which have expanded capability ranges to include both current and future capabilities. The modified scoring functions and alternative utility functions do not alter the SPACECAST 2020 results but do improve the credibility and future usefulness of the model. This study shows that the initial assumption of using an additive utility function is also valid. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre-K attendance and social development: The moderating role of kindergarten classroom experiences

Many studies have established that there are important life-long benefits of attending pre-K. At the same time, recent research suggests that pre-K attenders may enter and exit kindergarten exhibiting less optimal social and learning behaviours than their non-attending peers, and little attention has been paid to what factors may contribute to these patterns of development after children enter kindergarten. The current study will address these gaps in knowledge using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 to examine the social and learning behaviours of pre-K attenders and nonattenders at kindergarten entry and exit. Moreover, we will determine the extent to which children's social and behavioural skills change at differential rates across the kindergarten year as a function of pre-K attendance and their kindergarten classroom experiences, with a focus on the academic rigour, activity settings and teacher-student relationships.