Decision‐making competence: External validation through an individual‐differences approach

This study asks to what extent (a) individuals show consistent performance differences across typical behavioral decision‐making tasks, and (b) how those differences correlate with plausible real‐world correlates of good decision making. Seven tasks, chosen to span the domain of decision‐making skills, were administered to participants in an ongoing longitudinal study providing extensive social, psychological, and behavioral measures. Performance scores on individual tasks generally showed small, positive inter‐task correlations. An aggregate measure of decision‐making competence (DMC) was appropriately correlated with plausible sources, concomitants, and outcomes of good decision making, suggesting the underlying construct's external validity. Higher DMC scores were associated with more intact social environments, more constructive cognitive styles, and fewer ‘maladaptive’ risk behaviors. In each case, DMC adds to the predictive validity of general measures of cognitive ability. These results suggest that poor decision making on common laboratory tasks is related to real‐world antecedents and consequences of poor decision making. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Components of Short-Term Memory and Their Relation to Language Processing

Abstract— Verbal working memory consists of separable capacities for the retention of phonological and semantic information. Within the phonological domain, there are independent capacities for retaining input-phonological codes and output-phonological codes. The input-phonological capacity does not appear to be critical for language comprehension but is involved in verbatim repetition and long-term learning of new words. The semantic capacity is critical for both comprehension and production and for the learning of new semantic information. Different neural structures appear to underlie these capacities, with a left-parietal region involved in input-phonological retention and a left-frontal region involved in semantic retention.     

试论束皙之赋及其人品

束皙的赋作是六朝赋史中的特立独行者,选材的独特、语言的质朴使他在崇尚绮丽繁缛文风的西晋赋坛饱受争议。本文以为．正是柬皙赋中的这些迥异于时的因素使得他“代表了西晋文学非主流的一端”,对赋体表现空间的拓展及其功能的完善做出了贡献。     

动机对高一学生创造性的科学问题提出能力的影响

选取了360名高一学生,采用直接和间接激发内外动机的方式,通过两个研究考察了内外动机和不同水平的外部动机对中学生创造性的科学问题提出能力的影响,结果发现:(1)直接激发条件下,内部动机能够促进创造性的科学问题提出能力,尤其表现在流畅性以及独创性维度上;(2)直接激发条件下,外部动机能够抑制创造性的科学问题提出能力,尤其表现在独创性维度上;(3)评价情境不同引起的不同的动机水平对于创造性的科学问题提出能力的影响是不同的,期待正性评价不影响创造性的科学问题提出能力,但避免负性评价对创造性的科学问题提出能力有着显著的抑制作用.     

大学生第二外语词汇学习中的测试效应

本研究采用学习-测试研究范式,以"Swahili-汉语"配对词为实验材料,考察不同实验条件测试对大学生第二外语词汇习得的促进作用。研究发现:(1)不同实验条件的累积回忆正确率相同;(2)测试效应显著,且对长时保持具有促进作用;(3)被试对不同实验条件的学习效果的预期与事实不相符。这些结果表明,自我测试既有助于学生高效习得第二外语词汇,又有助于教师改善课堂教学。     

5岁儿童自我面孔的认知特点

具备自我面孔的识别能力是个体发展中的里程碑,以往的研究大多集中于儿童镜像自我面孔认知能力的发生发展,而缺乏对稍微年长儿童自我面孔识别发展特点的研究。本研究采用逐张呈现被试原本照片以及通过Photoshop改变内外部特征的面孔让儿童进行辨认的方法,考察5岁儿童自我面孔识别的特点。结果发现：（1）5岁儿童能正确识别原本的自我整体面孔,但对自我外部特征和内部特征的识别出现了明显的性别差异;（2）大多数5岁儿童认为发型变化的自我面孔不再是自己的,尤其是更换了异性发型的面孔;（3）儿童对自我面孔的眼睛部位更为敏感。     

Infant sign training and functional analysis

We taught manual signs to typically developing infants using a reversal design and caregiver-nominated stimuli. We delivered the stimuli on a time-based schedule during baseline. During the intervention, we used progressive prompting and reinforcement, described by Thompson et al. (2004, 2007), to establish mands. Following sign training, we conducted functional analyses and verified that the signs functioned as mands. These results provide preliminary validation for the verbal behavior functional analysis methodology and further evidence of the functional independence of verbal operants.     

The relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms. The mathematical language input provided by 35 kindergarten teachers was examined with 9 different input categories. The results of this study indicate that the role of each of these math talk categories is not as straightforward as was hypothesized. Although significant positive relations were found for math talk categories such as cardinality and conventional nominatives, the relations between the categories' calculation and number symbols and children's score on specific number sense tasks were negative. Moreover, a large diversity in math talk was negatively related to kindergartners' number sense acquisition. These results suggest that teachers should be careful and selective with the amount of math talk that they offer to young children.     

Linking sounds to meanings: Infant statistical learning in a natural language

The processes of infant word segmentation and infant word learning have largely been studied separately. However, the ease with which potential word forms are segmented from fluent speech seems likely to influence subsequent mappings between words and their referents. To explore this process, we tested the link between the statistical coherence of sequences presented in fluent speech and infants’ subsequent use of those sequences as labels for novel objects. Notably, the materials were drawn from a natural language unfamiliar to the infants (Italian). The results of three experiments suggest that there is a close relationship between the statistics of the speech stream and subsequent mapping of labels to referents. Mapping was facilitated when the labels contained high transitional probabilities in the forward and/or backward direction (Experiment 1). When no transitional probability information was available (Experiment 2), or when the internal transitional probabilities of the labels were low in both directions (Experiment 3), infants failed to link the labels to their referents. Word learning appears to be strongly influenced by infants’ prior experience with the distribution of sounds that make up words in natural languages.     

Numerosity and number signs in deaf Nicaraguan adults

What abilities are entailed in being numerate? Certainly, one is the ability to hold the exact quantity of a set in mind, even as it changes, and even after its members can no longer be perceived. Is counting language necessary to track and reproduce exact quantities? Previous work with speakers of languages that lack number words involved participants only from non-numerate cultures. Deaf Nicaraguan adults all live in a richly numerate culture, but vary in counting ability, allowing us to experimentally differentiate the contribution of these two factors. Thirty deaf and 10 hearing participants performed 11 one-to-one matching and counting tasks. Results suggest that immersion in a numerate culture is not enough to make one fully numerate. A memorized sequence of number symbols is required, though even an unconventional, iconic system is sufficient. Additionally, we find that within a numerate culture, the ability to track precise quantities can be acquired in adulthood.