Thought translation, tennis and Turing tests in the vegetative state

Brain damage can cause massive changes in consciousness levels. From a clinical and ethical point of view it is desirable to assess the level of residual consciousness in unresponsive patients. However, no direct measure of consciousness exists, so we run into the philosophical problem of other minds. Neurologists often make implicit use of a Turing test-like procedure in an attempt to gain access to damaged minds, by monitoring and interpreting neurobehavioral responses. New brain imaging techniques are now being developed that permit communication with unresponsive patients, using their brain signals as carriers of messages relating to their mental states.     

心理测验在人才测评中的应用

本文探讨了心理测验在人才测评中应用价值和存在的问题,讨论了科学的人才测评与心理测验的关系,期望可以科学的把心理测验应用到人才测评工作中,提高人才测评的有效性和可靠性。     

观点采择对内隐刻板印象的影响研究

该研究对大学生在观点采择和控制两种条件下,性别-职业刻板印象的内隐联想测验结果的对比进行实验。研究表明：观点采择策略的干预效果明显,刻板印象的内隐效应在明显地减弱;在性别-职业刻板印象上存在内隐效应,而且没有性别差异,无论在正常情况下还是受到观点采择策略的干预,男女被试均表现出同等的情形,说明内隐刻板印象具有一定的适应性,在内隐的和无意识的水平上观点采择无法完全消除刻板印象;实验证明研究设计的性别-职业刻板印象的IAT纸笔测验版本是可行的。     

Race-Norming of Neuropsychological Tests

Recent studies in the United States indicate that some neurologically intact minority groupings perform well below White Americans on neuropsychological tests. This has sparked the production of race-norms, especially for African Americans, that seek to reduce false positive rates (i.e., neurologically intact individuals misdiagnosed with cognitive impairment) in neuropsychological assessments. There are problems with this enterprise including: possible justification for inferior/superior treatment of different racial groupings; unknown effects on false negative rates (i.e., cognitive deficit misdiagnosed as normal); the overlooking of factors possibly responsible for group racial differences (e.g., acculturation); non-scientific and non-operational definitions of race/ethnic groupings; and an impossibly large number of potential race/ethnic groupings for which to generate race-norms. An alternative approach is to use a single set of combined race/ethnic norms and estimate preexisting neuropsychological skill levels by using individual comparison standards. This alternative has been poorly researched, a situation that needs correcting.     

Sleep deprivation and sustained attention performance: integrating mathematical and cognitive modeling

A long history of research has revealed many neurophysiological changes and concomitant behavioral impacts of sleep deprivation, sleep restriction, and circadian rhythms. Little research, however, has been conducted in the area of computational cognitive modeling to understand the information processing mechanisms through which neurobehavioral factors operate to produce degradations in human performance. Our approach to understanding this relationship is to link predictions of overall cognitive functioning, or alertness, from existing biomathematical models to information processing parameters in a cognitive architecture, leveraging the strengths from each to develop a more comprehensive explanation. The integration of these methodologies is used to account for changes in human performance on a sustained attention task across 88 h of total sleep deprivation. The integrated model captures changes due to time awake and circadian rhythms, and it also provides an account for underlying changes in the cognitive processes that give rise to those effects. The results show the potential for developing mechanistic accounts of how fatigue impacts cognition, and they illustrate the increased explanatory power that is possible by combining theoretical insights from multiple methodologies.     

Confidence judgments in real classroom settings: monitoring performance in different types of tests

During testing, students have a valuable opportunity to exercise and improve their self-regulatory skills. However, the extent to which they profit from those experiences may vary according to some personal, test-related, and environmental factors. This study investigated the effects of metacognitive skills and test types on students' test performances, confidence judgments, and on the accuracy of those judgments. A sample of 129 psychology undergraduate students (50 men and 79 women, mean age = 18.9 years) were categorized according to their metacognitive skills (high vs average vs low) and had their test performances and monitoring processes in two different types of tests (i.e., multiple-choice and short-answer tests) compared throughout one academic term. Their test preparation practices, along with their attributional and regulatory processes during test-taking, were also compared by using open-ended questions. The results showed that: (1) high-metacognitive students presented more effective test preparation practices, better test performances, and superior attributional, regulatory, and monitoring processes than their counterparts; (2) differences in performance and judgment accuracy were significantly larger in the short-answer tests than in the multiple-choice tests; and (3) over time, students' performances and confidence levels varied in specific patterns according to the type of test being taken. The results are discussed, focusing on the educational implications of the interactions observed and on how they may determine what students can learn from test-taking experiences. In addition, based on the results obtained, specific suggestions on how to increase the metacognitive awareness of university students through instruction and on how to improve their academic assessment are provided.     

WITHIN‐SUBJECT REVERSIBILITY OF DISCRIMINATIVE FUNCTION IN THE COMPOSITE‐STIMULUS CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR

According to the composite-stimulus control model (Weiss, 1969, 1972b), an individual discriminative stimulus (S^D) is composed of that S^D''s on-state plus the off-states of all other relevant S^Ds. The present experiment investigated the reversibility of composite-stimulus control. Separate groups of rats were trained to lever-press for food whenever a tone or a light S^D was present. For one group, the nonreinforced S^Δ condition was tone-and-light absence ($\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$). Tone-plus-light (T+L) was S^Δ in the other group. On a “stimulus compounding” test that recombined composite elements, maximum responding occurred to that composite consisting only of elements occasioning response increase. That was T+L for the group trained with $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ as S^Δ and $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ for the group trained with T+L as S^Δ. The S^Δ composite was next reversed over groups in Phase 2. In Phase 2 tests, maximum responding that was comparable in magnitude to that of Phase 1 was again controlled by the composite consisting only of elements most recently occasioning response increase—whether T+L or $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$. The inhibitory conditioning history of both composite-elements currently occasioning responding did not weaken the summative effect. These results confirm and extend Weiss''s composite-stimulus control model, and demonstrate that such control is fully reversible. We discuss how translating conditions of the stimulus-compounding paradigm to a composite continuum creates a functional and logical connection to intradimensional control measured through stimulus generalization, reducing the number of different behavioral phenomena requiring unique explanations.     

情景判断测验的性质、功能与开发编制

给出了情景判断测验的定义,对其性质、功能作了探讨,提出了开发编制的两种基本模式。特别是,分析了行为情景所蕴涵的问题常系结构不良,而对行为反应选项所作判断却属定向比较选择,指出了二者间的不同;同时,主张引进表征水平理论等来指导试题编写。     

不同归因方式的诱导对自尊不同学生失败后测验成绩的影响

采用2×2两因素被试间设计检验了不同归因方式的诱导对自尊不同学生失败后测验成绩的影响。结果表明:(1)总体上,高自尊组在失败后的测验成绩显著优于低自尊组;(2)内部归因后,高自尊组的后继测验成绩非常显著地优于低自尊组;外部归因后,高、低自尊组的后继测验成绩无显著差异;(3)对于高自尊组,内部归因后的后继测验成绩优于外部归因后的成绩,但未达到显著性水平;对于低自尊组,外部归因后的成绩显著优于内部归因后的成绩。     

焦虑水平与体育高考生竞技状态关系及其对策

通过对体育高考学生焦虑状况的调查与评定 ,探讨焦虑水平与体育高考生竞技状态的关系。采用Spielberger状态 -特质焦虑量表对 2 5 9名考生进行调查 ,其中男 2 0 5人 ,女 5 4人。结果表明 ,在体育高考的情境压力下 ,学生的焦虑水平普遍提高 ,女生明显高于男生 (p <0 .0 1) ,其状态焦虑得分既非常显著地高于常模 (p <0 .0 1) ,也高于相关研究报告中普通高考学生的平均得分。体育高考学生适宜的状态焦虑水平为男 38～ 5 0分 ,女 4 1～ 5 2分。作者对结果进行了讨论分析 ,认为这反映了体育高考情境的特殊性 ,也反映了个体间最佳焦虑水平的差异性。其结果为我们重视对体育高考学生这一特殊的应试群体进行心理技能训练提供了依据。