Overweight and cognition

There is a growing concern among health authorities that an increasing number of people in the Western world become overweight and even obese. It is well known that obesity is related to several diseases (e.g., diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure) and that such diseases related to obesity lead to early death. It has also been discussed whether overweight and obesity in themselves or in relation to such diseases lead to cognitive decline. On the basis of data from a large, population‐based, prospective study we examined three cognitive domains: episodic memory, semantic memory, and spatial ability. Two body measures were used to define normal weight and overweight, body‐mass index and waist/hip ratio. Although these two body measures reveal quite different prevalence data of overweight, the associations between overweight and cognition are similar. For episodic memory, overweight interacts with age, but when controlling for hypertension, stroke and diabetes, this interaction disappears. For semantic memory, normal weight participants outperform overweight participants even after controlling for these diseases. For spatial ability, the well‐established advantage for men holds for young‐old and old‐old normal‐weight participants. For overweight participants, this advantage holds for middle‐age participants only. We conclude that there is a weight‐cognition relationship even after controlling for obesity‐related diseases. The results are discussed in terms of possible biological mechanisms.     

Episodic memory development: theory of mind is part of re‐experiencing experienced events

Two experiments with 3½‐ to 6½‐year‐old children showed that theory‐of‐mind development is associated with the growth of episodic memory. Episodic memory was assessed by manipulating informational conditions such that they permit or prevent the formation of episodic memories in terms of re‐experiencing the recalled event. Only experienced events, e.g. seeing how one puts a picture of a frog into a box, can be remembered by re‐experience. Events known through indirect information cannot be re‐experienced, e.g. putting pictures into the box when blindfolded and being later shown on video what was on these cards. Children were also tested on a battery of theory‐of‐mind tasks assessing their understanding of the origins of knowledge. There was a significant interaction in both experiments showing that recall of directly experienced items improved in relation to indirectly presented items the higher children's theory‐of‐mind scores. The discussion suggests that episodic memory development is specifically linked to the growing ability to introspect an ongoing experience and interpret it as representing an actual past event. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting Affective Responses to Unexpected Outcomes

In decisions under uncertainty, decision makers confront two uncertainties: the uncertain linkage between actions and outcomes and the uncertain linkage between these outcomes and his or her affective responses to them. The two studies reported here examine affective responses to expected and unexpected outcomes in various settings. In Study 1, a scenario-based laboratory experiment (N = 149), we examined subjects' predicted responses to a range of outcomes, as a function of how surprising the outcome was. Study 2, a field study (N = 127), involved the expectations of bowlers about their scores in an upcoming game and about their responses to various outcomes at, above, and below expectations. We also measured actual affective reactions after the bowlers had completed their games. Findings suggest that subjects both expect and experience a loss-averse, expectation-based value function broadly of the Prospect Theory type. They also anticipate, and experience, an amplifying effect of outcome surprise, though they underestimate its size. We argue that such underestimation, together with overtight prediction ranges, may expose subjects to much larger affective variation with outcome variability than they anticipate.     

青少年结果预期与评价的ERP研究

大脑不断地对环境事件产生预期并将这些预期与实际结果进行比较, 通过对反馈刺激的结果评价以优化后续行为。采用抽奖式赌博任务范式, 操纵得奖的确定性程度, 利用事件相关电位技术(ERP), 研究青少年结果预期与评价的认知和神经电生理过程, 以成人作为对照组进行比较分析。研究结果表明：(1)在反映自动、快速结果评价的FRN上, 无论在高确定性还是在低确定性条件下, 青少年与成人均未表现出显著性差异; (2)组别与确定性程度在P300波幅上表现交互作用显著, 简单效应分析表明, 在高确定性条件下, 青少年组输、赢的P300波幅表现出差异; 而成人组输、赢的P300波幅无显著性差异。青少年对反馈刺激自动的快速结果评价能力已接近成人水平, 而对反馈刺激功能意义评价的控制加工能力还未发展成熟。     

风险偏好预测中的性别差异和框架效应

11 8名大学生被试在得益和损失两种任务框架下对自己、其他男性和女性的风险偏好进行了预测。结果发现 ,被试在损失框架下对各类对象风险偏好的预测均高于得益框架 ,且都高估了男性的风险偏好 ,低估了女性的风险偏好。在损失框架下 ,女性被试对各类对象的风险偏好预测高于男性的预测。研究认为 ,性别原型知识、任务框架和即时情绪共同影响被试的风险偏好预测。     

初级军官心理选拔的预测性

目的：通过建立院校学员胜任特征及初级军官评价模型,探讨初级军官心理选拔检测系统的预测性。方法：某军校340名男性本科学员入校时完成初级军官心理选拔检测,毕业前进行院校胜任特征评价,对162名学员毕业后1~5年进行部队工作表现追踪评价。结果：中国MBTI-G人格类型测验对院校学员管理能力、影响力、约束力、口头表达、军人气质、人际关系等有较好的预测性,预测符合率72.13%;中国军人明尼苏达个性调查表6项精神障碍维度对情绪稳定性有较好的预测,预测符合率71.90%;院校学员一般能力倾向测验对学业成绩、文字表达、口头表达、人际关系和决策能力等胜任特征也有一定的预测性,预测符合率66.70%;三项测验院校胜任特征总预测符合率达81.70%,部队胜任特征总预测符合率76~87%。结论：为我军初级军官心理选拔提供了实用工具,为提高心理选拔预测准确性提供了科学依据     

无关言语对汉字短时记忆系列回忆的影响*

采用视觉呈现字表和听觉呈现无关言语方式,探讨在字表项目保持期间阻止被试复述情况下,不同呈现位置的无关言语对汉字短时记忆系列回忆的影响。在字表保持期间,采用计算任务进行分心作业。实验结果发现：(1)无关言语对汉字短时记忆系列回忆成绩存在显著影响;(2)在字表保持期间阻止被试进行复述消除了字表呈现期间呈现无关言语对回忆成绩产生的干扰效应;(3)汉字短时记忆系列回忆成绩表现出系列位置效应。实验结果没有完全支持客体情节记忆模型。     

重视临床决策规则 因病施治

临床决策规则作为一种决策的工具日益受到重视和应用,依赖于大量原创性研究或循证医学的证据,旨在通过把临床资料数据的收集、整理和解释的过程标准化,指导选择诊疗手段或路线,降低临床决策中的不确定性,限制或减少不必要的检查和治疗,降低因不必要检查(测)和/或治疗所带来的医疗费用的支出,提高效率,使诊疗最优化,促进患者安全,维持或增进临床的后果。从临床决策规则的概念、存在的条件、研制方法、应用现状和未来发展方向和重点等几个方面加以论述。     

Deterministisches Chaos: Einige Wissenschaftstheoretisch Interessante Aspekte

Deterministic Chaos: Some Interesting Points of View from the Philosophy of Science. A comparatively simple example is used to present some of the main features of deterministic chaos. From the point of view of the philosophy of science, three questions are dealt with: if the equations of motion of chaotic systems are falsifiable in a strict sense; whether experiments on chaotic systems are reproducible; to what extent the development of chaotic systems is predictable. It emerges that in these respects chaotic systems, though being deterministic, behave essentially in the same way as stochastic (indeterministic) systems do.