Infants perceive human point-light displays as solid forms

While five-month-old infants show orientation-specific sensitivity to changes in the motion and occlusion patterns of human point-light displays, it is not known whether infants are capable of binding a human representation to these displays. Furthermore, it has been suggested that infants do not encode the same physical properties for humans and material objects. To explore these issues we tested whether infants would selectively apply the principle of solidity to upright human displays. In the first experiment infants aged six and nine months were repeatedly shown a human point-light display walking across a computer screen up to 10 times or until habituated. Next, they were repeatedly shown the walking display passing behind an in-depth representation of a table, and finally they were shown the human display appearing to pass through the table top in violation of the solidity of the hidden human form. Both six- and nine-month-old infants showed significantly greater recovery of attention to this final phase. This suggests that infants are able to bind a solid vertical form to human motion. In two further control experiments we presented displays that contained similar patterns of motion but were not perceived by adults as human. Six- and nine-month-old infants did not show recovery of attention when a scrambled display or an inverted human display passed through the table. Thus, the binding of a solid human form to a display in only seems to occur for upright human motion. The paper considers the implications of these findings in relation to theories of infants' developing conceptions of objects, humans and animals.     

让公众走近现代健康理念——从陈晓旭剃度出家及英年早逝说起

现代健康观是文明进步的产物。让公众走近现代健康观,是追寻人类理想,建设和谐社会,管好国家核心资源,全面提高人民群众健康水平的需要。按照现代健康观的基本精神开展健康教育,是当今社会的重要课题。     

类皮亚杰数量守恒任务中的负启动效应

采用负启动研究范式,考察九岁儿童在类皮亚杰数量守恒任务中的负启动效应。实验一重复了Houdé等人的实验过程,发现我国儿童在解决类皮亚杰数量守恒任务中也存在负启动效应,负启动量为310.9ms;实验二改进了Houdé等人研究的实验材料,排除实验材料形状的干扰,发现依然存在负启动效应,负启动量为200.04ms。实验结果表明,成功完成类皮亚杰数量守恒任务需要认知抑制过程的参与。     

双语跨语言的句法启动

本文介绍了跨语言句法启动的图片描述法、补句法和句子回忆法三种研究方法;总结了跨语言句法启动研究关注的主要问题,包括：词序的一致性对跨语言句法启动的影响、词汇因素在跨语言句法启动中的作用、语言内和语言间句法启动的比较以及跨语言句法启动产生的机制等。同时也指出,在双语词序一致性,第二语言的熟练程度,双语语言学特性的差异性是否或者如何影响跨语言的句法启动等方面仍需进一步的研究     

保留的跨通道启动与老化：对于近期观点的总结

通道内重复启动的研究提示老年人内隐记忆未受损, 这不只体现在视觉通道上还包括其他感觉通道(例如触觉、听觉和嗅觉)。然而很少有研究考察启动任务是否具有通道特异性。在以年轻人为被试的研究中发现跨通道迁移(视觉到触觉和触觉到视觉)和通道内迁移(视觉到视觉, 触觉到触觉)具有相似性。一项最近的研究进一步探索老年人在跨通道启动任务上是否受损。结果显示视觉和触觉间的跨通道启动在年轻被试和老年被试上都是保留的且具有对称性。并且, 对于自然声响、图片的通道内和跨通道启动任务随着年老化发展仍旧保留。这些行为结果和其它最近神经科学结果显示跨通道启动发生于枕叶后纹状皮层区, 而这一区域在老年人中未损坏。这一领域未来的研究方向包括利用不同知觉通道间、利用熟悉的和新异的刺激并结合行为的和脑成像的方法, 通过设计完善的跨通道启动来研究正常老人与阿尔兹海默病人, 还包括将设计得完善的启动任务包括在用于改善老年人记忆功能的项目中。     

A new dynamical model of brainstorming: Linear, nonlinear, continuous (simultaneous) and impulsive (sequential) cases

In this paper, we extended the linear dynamical model of [Brown, V., Paulus, P. B. (1996). A simple dynamic model of social factors in group brainstorming. Small Group Research, 27, 91-114] on two accounts. First, we modelled the sequential type brainstorming using impulsive differential equations by treating each category as an impulse and tested its validity in the two experiments that investigated and demonstrated the beneficial effects of sequential priming and memory in individual brainstorming. Finally, we considered the nonlinear case of brainstorming in writing or brainwriting where dyads exchanged their ideas in a written format and that eliminated negative factors occurring in oral brainstorming (e.g., evaluation apprehension, free-riding, production blocking) and enhanced the upward performance matching, and conducted the second experiment in order to test its validity in this paradigm with the effects of sequential priming and memory. Comparisons showed good agreement between results of experiments and those of the mathematical model.     

The Time Course of Verb Processing in Dutch Sentences

The verb has traditionally been characterized as the central element in a sentence. Nevertheless, the exact role of the verb during the actual ongoing comprehension of a sentence as it unfolds in time remains largely unknown. This paper reports the results of two Cross-Modal Lexical Priming (CMLP) experiments detailing the pattern of verb priming during on-line processing of Dutch sentences. Results are contrasted with data from a third CMLP experiment on priming of nouns in similar sentences. It is demonstrated that the meaning of a matrix verb remains active throughout the entire matrix clause, while this is not the case for the meaning of a subject head noun. Activation of the meaning of the verb only dissipates upon encountering a clear signal as to the start of a new clause.     

熟练维-汉双语者第二语言的概念表征的特征

以母语为维吾尔语,第二语言为汉语的的维吾尔族大学生为被试,使用语言内和语言间启动条件下的真假字判断任务,通过3个实验探讨了熟练的维汉双语者的第二语言的语义表征的特点,即他们的第二语言的语义表征是共同存储的还是独立存储的。结果发现,实验1语言内启动条件下,即启动刺激（维语）和目标刺激（维语）之间具有语义联想关系时,产生了显著的启动效应。实验2（启动刺激为维语,目标刺激为汉语）和实验3（启动刺激为汉语,目标刺激为维语）的跨语言启动条件下,都产生了显著的启动效应,说明被试的第二语言的语义表征是共同存储的。这些结果表明：被试的第二语言的概念表征是同第一语言的概念表征共同存储的,支持了共同存储理论。     

Priming family values: How being a parent affects moral evaluations of harmless but offensive acts

In modern liberal societies people are generally reluctant to morally condemn acts that they find personally distasteful so long as those acts are not harmful or unfair to others. However, in providing character education for their children, parents often have to censure harmless but offensive acts. Thus, we hypothesize that the parental role broadens the scope of morality beyond narrow considerations of harm and fairness. To test this idea we asked parents and nonparents to morally evaluate harmless/offensive acts and a control harmful act. We manipulated whether the parental role was primed before they evaluated these acts. Parents and nonparents did not differ in their moral objections to the control act regardless of parental role priming. However, when the parental role was primed parents were more morally opposed to harmless but offensive acts than were nonparents. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding the dynamics of moral judgment and the recruitment of parents into moral reform movements.     

Cultural chameleons and iconoclasts: Assimilation and reactance to cultural cues in biculturals’ expressed personalities as a function of identity conflict

Bicultural individuals vary in the degree to which their two cultural identities are integrated versus conflicting—Bicultural Identity Integration (BII). Past research on attribution biases finds that BII influences the way that biculturals shift in response to cultural primes: integrated biculturals shift assimilatively, whereas conflicted biculturals shift contrastively. Proposing that this reflects assimilation versus reactance responses, we tested whether it extends to shifts in self-perceived personality. In two experiments with Asian-American participants, we found that BII influences the direction of cultural priming effects (assimilation versus contrast) on the personality dimensions of need for uniqueness (Experiment 1) and extraversion (Experiment 2). As hypothesized, high BIIs shifted in a culturally assimilative direction, perceiving the self as more uniqueness-seeking and extraverted following American versus Asian priming, whereas low BIIs shifted in the reverse direction. Implications for research on bicultural identity, priming, personality, organizational and consumer behavior are discussed.