Effect of anxiety on behavioural pattern separation in humans

Behavioural pattern separation (BPS), the ability to distinguish among similar stimuli based on subtle physical differences, has been used to study the mechanism underlying stimulus generalisation. Fear overgeneralisation is often observed in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders. However, the relationship between anxiety and BPS remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of anxiety (threat of shock) on BPS, which was assessed across separate encoding and retrieval sessions. Images were encoded/retrieved during blocks of threat or safety in a 2?×?2 factorial design. During retrieval, participants indicated whether images were new, old, or altered. Better accuracy was observed for altered images encoded during periods of threat compared to safety, but only if those images were also retrieved during periods of safety. These results suggest that overgeneralisation in anxiety may be due to altered pattern separation.     

自我损耗的视听通道效应

采用双任务实验范式,通过两个实验探讨了自我损耗的通道效应。实验1考察了完成视听工作记忆任务对执行手柄任务（非视听任务）的影响,结果发现,完成视觉损耗任务导致手柄任务的成绩显著地变差,完成听觉损耗任务、视听非损耗任务均对手柄任务的成绩没有影响。实验2考察了完成视听工作记忆任务对执行Stroop任务（视觉任务）的影响,结果发现,完成视觉损耗任务导致Stroop任务的成绩显著地变差,完成听觉损耗任务、视听非损耗任务对Stroop任务的成绩没有影响。研究结果表明同一自我控制任务通过视听通道完成对随后另一自我控制任务的影响不同,证实了自我损耗的视听通道效应。     

Terrorism and the Uses of Terror

“Terrorism”' is sometimes defined as a “form ofcoercion.” But there are important differences between ordinary coercion and terrorist intimidation. This paper explores some of those differences, particularly the relation between coercion, on the one hand, and terror and terrorization, on the other hand. The paper argues that while terrorism is not necessarily associated with terror in the literal sense, it does often seek to instill a mental state like terror in the populations that it targets. However, the point of instilling this mental state is not necessarily coercive or intimidatory: one can try to instill terror as an act of punishment, or as an expressive or therapeutic act, or because one values the political consequences that might follow, or because one thinks terror is preferable, from an ethical point of view, to the inauthentic complacency that characterizes the targeted population at present. Though this paper asks questions about the definition of “terrorism,” these questions are not asked for their own sake. The quest for a canonical definition of “terrorism” is probably a waste of time. But asking questions which sound like questions of definition is sometimes a fruitful way of focusing our reflections on terrorism and organizing our response. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

« Femmes au volant,danger au tournant » Les conductrices sont-elles victimes d’une menace de stéréotype ?

Owing to the sexuation of occupations associating technical attributes with men and relational skills with women, the latter are less numerous in professions where driving is involved. The negative stereotype associating women with poor driving skills is thus likely to have a cognitive and behavioral impact. According to the model of the stereotype threat, could activation of the threat inhibit the performance of women in a Highway Code test? After performing an association task that demonstrated a largely negative stereotype, 56 female students took a Highway Code test in two conditions: an experimental condition where the stereotype was activated by a comparison between men and women (N = 17); and a control condition without activation (N = 39). Subjects performed less well in the experimental condition, demonstrating the expected effects of the stereotype threat.     

Right‐wing authoritarianism,Big Five and perceived threat to safety

Using structural equations modelling, we performed a secondary analysis of the data collected by the Italian Observatory of the North West (Italian national sample, N = 976) to investigate the direct, mediated and moderated relations connecting the Big Five personality factors and perceived personal and societal threat to safety with right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). Openness, Conscientiousness and perceived societal threat to safety exerted additive effects on RWA; the relation between Openness and RWA was partially mediated by societal threat to safety and that between societal threat to safety and RWA was moderated by Openness. Limitations and possible developments of this research are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

自我损耗促进冒险行为

基于自我控制资源模型,本研究探讨了自我损耗对冒险行为的影响以及生理能量补充在其中的缓解作用。实验1和实验2分别通过“Stroop”和“非利手写作”任务操纵被试的自我损耗,两个实验均用气球模拟风险决策任务考察被试的冒险行为,并且通过摄入含有或不含有葡萄糖的柠檬水来操纵生理能量水平。结果发现,在排除无关变量后,高损耗者比低损耗者尽可能多地对气球进行充气以寻求奖赏(实验1和实验2),但饮用含葡萄糖的柠檬水能够有效降低这种反应(实验2)。该研究证实了自我损耗促进冒险行为,补充生理能量能有效缓解该效应。     

对威胁刺激的注意偏向：注意定向加速还是注意解除困难？

对威胁刺激的注意偏向普遍存在。注意定向加速和注意解除困难在不同阶段对注意偏向产生影响。威胁刺激属性、呈现时间以及被试特征是重要的调节因素。以杏仁核为核心的杏仁核?前扣带回网络可能是注意定向加速的神经基础, 而以眶额叶为中心的前额叶皮层可能是注意解除的神经基础。未来还需要就注意定向加速与注意解除困难的关系、注意偏向的调节机制以及其神经基础做更深入的研究。     

自我损耗：理论、影响因素及研究走向

自我的活动消耗心理能量后引起执行功能下降的过程称为自我损耗, 自我损耗是生活中诸多的适应不良现象的原因之一。近几年, 自我损耗理论在发生领域、损耗状态的时限和内在机制等方面均有所发展; 对自我损耗影响因素的探究主要集中于认知、情绪及人格特质等领域; 自我损耗后效的研究逐渐呈现出应用化的趋势。未来研究需要进一步探究自我损耗的机制, 对影响因素和损耗后效上存在的争议进行澄清, 并在测量工具上寻找突破以满足理论的发展需求。     

个体的政治倾向及其变化机制

政治倾向是个体在意识形态上的定位, 可以分为自由主义和保守主义, 政治倾向使个体在认知和行为等方面存在显著差异。虽然个体的政治倾向相对稳定, 但也会受威胁的影响而变化。动机性社会认知理论认为威胁使所有人都变得更加保守, 恐惧管理理论认为威胁使个体更坚信自己原有的文化世界观, 使原有政治倾向更加明显。本文在深入分析讨论的基础上, 指出两种理论分歧的原因在于忽略了外部威胁与内部威胁的不同。内部威胁可加强人们原有的政治倾向, 外部威胁可使人们更趋向保守。未来研究应在内外部威胁影响政治倾向变化的机制、政治倾向的本土化研究以及促进不同政治倾向个体间的和谐关系上做出努力。