篇章阅读中先行信息通达的若干影响因素

采用实时窗口阅读技术,探讨在篇章阅读理解中,当读者在建构先行信息已能考虑其合适与不合适这一条件下,先行信息与当前信息的关系及距离如何影响对先行信息的通达。实验一采用以句子为单位的自控阅读,通过再认探测技术,结果发现,被试在加工含回指词的目标句时,回指词的不合适先行词也会得以通达。实验二以词汇为单位呈现阅读材料,通过命名探测技术,结果发现,与当前回指词关系合适的先行词会得到更快的通达,而先行词与当前回指词距离的远近不会影响先行词的激活水平。     

学习不良儿童对情绪表达规则的认知特点

采用儿童对情绪表达规则的认知访谈故事,比较了学习不良儿童和一般儿童对情绪表达规则认知的发展特点。结果发现,学习不良儿童表情调节知识水平显著低于一般儿童,性别差异不显著,组别与年级交互作用不显著,表明两组儿童发展趋势类似,发展水平不同;学习不良儿童报告出较少的社会定向目标,自我保护目标得分与一般儿童差异不显著;学习不良儿童缺少根据不同人际关系类型灵活运用情绪表达规则的知识,而且较少把情绪表达规则的使用和目标联系起来     

Preschoolers' attention and emotion in an achievement and an effect game: A longitudinal study

Understanding positive emotions' shared and differentiating features can yield valuable insight into the structure of positive emotion space and identify emotion states, or aspects of emotion states, that are most relevant for particular psychological processes and outcomes. We report two studies that examined core relational themes (Study 1) and expressive displays (Study 2) for eight positive emotion constructs—amusement, awe, contentment, gratitude, interest, joy, love, and pride. Across studies, all eight emotions shared one quality: high positive valence. Distinctive core relational theme and expressive display patterns were found for four emotions—amusement, awe, interest, and pride. Gratitude was associated with a distinct core relational theme but not an expressive display. Joy and love were each associated with a distinct expressive display but their core relational themes also characterised pride and gratitude, respectively. Contentment was associated with a distinct expressive display but not a core relational theme. The implications of this work for the study of positive emotion are discussed.     

Size does matter: Women mentally rotate large objects faster than men

Performance in a computerized “mental rotation” task was measured in groups of males and females while they rotated Shepard‐Metzler‐like cube assemblies on either a standard laptop screen (size = 36 cm) or on a large display wall (584 cm) where the stimuli appeared at considerably larger sizes and within a much wider field of view than that typically used in most spatial tasks. Males and females did not differ significantly in performance in the standard size condition with regards to response time but females performed faster than males in the large display condition. Males were also found to be significantly more accurate than females, regardless of display. We found no sign of trading accuracy for speed for either of the sexes or screen size conditions. We surmise that such an effect may be due to differences in task‐solving strategies between the sexes, where a holistic strategy – which may be preferred by males is negatively affected by large object sizes, whereas a piecemeal approach, that may be preferred by females, is virtually unaffected by display size.     

Happiness: unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth,by Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener

No research to date has supported the ‘social contagion’ effect of laughter and smiles in a non-Western context, nor among children. Expressions of positive affect were here compared according to social and non-social conditions among 163 children between the ages of 5–12 while playing in a park in Afghanistan. Independent observers coded laugh and smile responses using published criteria and identified 147 laugh responses and 697 smile responses. Children in the social play condition demonstrated significantly more laughs than children in the non-social play condition, and the number of peer observers present in the social play condition significantly increased the number of participant smile responses, but not laugh responses. Findings supported the idea in Western research that laughter and smiles may function in moderating social relationships and communicating affect. The authors recommend future research to investigate the relationship between positive affect and well-being across cultures, with consideration for practical interventions.     

Off-line authorship effects in action perception

Does the perception of our actions differ from the perception of other individuals' actions when we observe them, like other individual's actions, in an offline perspective? Previous studies, using recognition as well as prediction judgments, suggest that it does even if the stimulus information is reduced to a single moving point-light. Here, we assessed whether this difference also affects the timing of actions. This was tested in two experiments, using a specific synchronization task. After some practice, self-generated action events were anticipated faster than other action events, provided that the anticipation could not be accomplished sufficiently well on the basis of easily detectable cues. The results are discussed with regard to the previous findings of off-line authorship effects in action perception.     

Salience Versus Proportional Reasoning: Rethinking the Mechanism Behind Graphical Display Effects

Two experiments examined predictions from two separate explanations for previously observed display effects for communicating low‐probability risks: foreground:background salience and proportional reasoning. According to foreground:background salience, people's risk perceptions are based on the relative salience of the foreground (number of people harmed) versus the background (number of people at risk), such that calling attention to the background makes the risk seem smaller. Conversely, the proportional reasoning explanation states that what matters is whether the respondent attends to the proportion, which conveys how small the risk is. In Experiment 1, we made the background more salient via color and bolding; in contrast to the foreground:background salience prediction, this manipulation did not influence participants' risk aversion. In Experiment 2, we separately manipulated whether the foreground and the background were displayed graphically or numerically. In keeping with the proportional reasoning hypothesis, there was an interaction whereby participants given formats that displayed the foreground and background in the same modality (graphs or numbers, thereby making the proportion easier to form) saw the probability as smaller and were less risk averse than participants given the information in different modalities. There was also a main effect of displaying the background graphically, providing some support for foreground:background salience. In total, this work suggests that the proportional reasoning account provides a good explanation of many display effects related to communicating low‐probability risks, although there is some role for foreground:background salience as well. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi-modal approach to cognitive training and assistance in minimally invasive surgery

Minimally-invasive surgery (MIS) offers many benefits to patients, but is considerably more difficult to learn and perform than is open surgery. One main reason for the observed difficulty is attributable to the visuo-spatial challenges that arise in MIS, taxing the surgeons’ cognitive skills. In this contribution, we present a new approach that combines training and assistance as well as the visual and the auditory modality to help surgeons to overcome these challenges. To achieve this, our approach assumes two main components: An adaptive, individualized training component as well as a component that conveys spatial information through sound. The training component (a) specifically targets the visuo-spatial processes crucial for successful MIS performance and (b) trains surgeons in the use of the sound component. The second component is an auditory display based on a psychoacoustic sonification, which reduces and avoids some of the commonly experienced MIS challenges. Implementations of both components are described and their integration is discussed. Our approach and both of its components go beyond the current state of the art in important ways. The training component has been explicitly designed to target MIS-specific visuo-spatial skills and to allow for adaptive testing, promoting individualized learning. The auditory display is conveying spatial information in 3-D space. Our approach is the first that encompasses both training for improved mastery and reduction of cognitive challenges in MIS. This promises better tailoring of surgical skills and assistance to the needs and the capabilities of the surgeons and, thus, ultimately, increased patient safety and health.     

自适应背景焦点显示技术在遥操作中的应用

遥操作界面中可视信息的有效呈现是提高操作绩效的重要途径。本研究提出自适应背景焦点显示技术原型,构建新型遥操作显示平台,并通过比较不同显示条件下遥操作绩效,考察其应用有效性及特点。结果显示：1）相比其他显示（单一纠正信息、单一指导信息、恒定背景信息和无背景信息）,自适应背景焦点显示可有效提高操作绩效;2）在降低主观负荷方面,单一纠正信息显示显著优于其他显示。本研究结果为遥操作显示界面的优化提供了新思路。