社交媒体使用对执行功能的影响：有益还是有害?

社交媒体使用对执行功能的影响尚存争议, 这与社交媒体使用强度起到的调节作用有关。中等强度的社交媒体使用会产生社交媒体心流体验, 使注意集中于目标信息, 并为个体提供了持续不断的社会奖励和情感支持, 对执行功能有益, 但高、低强度社交媒体使用则会损害执行功能。今后该领域的研究应该探讨社交媒体使用影响执行功能的“剂量效应”以及社交媒体使用类型对执行功能的具体影响, 还应关注不同认知水平的个体, 以进一步明确社交媒体使用与执行功能发展的关系。     

Tai Chi exercise training enhances executive function and fluid intelligence of healthy older adults: Cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence

Executive function and fluid intelligence are two of the crucial frontal lobe functions susceptible to aging. Tai Chi as a mind-body exercise has been proposed for preventing cognitive aging. However, whether Tai Chi has similar effects on multiple components of executive functions in older adults remains underspecified. Moreover, it is not currently known whether Tai Chi exercise training improvements in lower-order executive functions are able to explain improvements in higher-order fluid intelligence. Study 1 included a cross-sectional design based on a large sample of healthy older adults (55–79 years old). Modeling results showed that experience of Tai Chi training exerted significantly positive effects on fluid intelligence, inhibition and updating after controlling for age and education. Both inhibition and updating mediated effects of Tai Chi on fluid intelligence. Study 2 carried out a 12-month Tai Chi training intervention on a novice group and an experienced group of older adults. Results indicated that only the novices exhibited significant improvements in inhibition and fluid intelligence. In addition, improvements in fluid intelligence were no longer significant after controlling for improvements in inhibition. These results shed lights on the mechanism by which mind-body training enhances intelligence.     

Understanding the Adoptive Family within the Context of Christian Hospitality

Abstract : Adoptive families can take many forms, yet there are similarities across adoptive family types that can be studied. Relevant research regarding the adoptive kinship network, openness and contact in adoption, family communication about adoption, adoption‐related curiosity and information‐seeking, and adoptive identity is reviewed. Christian hospitality is provided as a context within which adoptive families are formed and understood.     

Assessing the Robustness of Mixture Models to Measurement Noninvariance

Abstract

Recent work reframes direct effects of covariates on items in mixture models as differential item functioning (DIF) and shows that, when present in the data but omitted from the fitted latent class model, DIF can lead to overextraction of classes. However, less is known about the effects of DIF on model performance—including parameter bias, classification accuracy, and distortion of class-specific response profiles—once the correct number of classes is chosen. First, we replicate and extend prior findings relating DIF to class enumeration using a comprehensive simulation study. In a second simulation study using the same parameters, we show that, while the performance of LCA is robust to the misspecification of DIF effects, it is degraded when DIF is omitted entirely. Moreover, the robustness of LCA to omitted DIF differs widely based on the degree of class separation. Finally, simulation results are contextualized by an empirical example.     

Parametric effects of syntactic-semantic conflict in Broca's area during sentence processing

The hypothesized role of Broca’s area in sentence processing ranges from domain-general executive function to domain-specific computation that is specific to certain syntactic structures. We examined this issue by manipulating syntactic structure and conflict between syntactic and semantic cues in a sentence processing task. Functional neuroimaging revealed that activation within several Broca’s area regions of interest reflected the parametric variation in syntactic-semantic conflict. These results suggest that Broca’s area supports sentence processing by mediating between multiple incompatible constraints on sentence interpretation, consistent with this area’s well-known role in conflict resolution in other linguistic and non-linguistic tasks.     

Exposure to Violence,Social Information Processing,and Problem Behavior in Preschool Children

Understanding the mechanisms by which early risk factors for social maladjustment contribute to disruptive behaviors in social settings is vital to developmental research and practice. A major risk factor for social maladjustment is early exposure to violence, which was examined in this short‐term longitudinal study in relation to social information processing (SIP) patterns and externalizing and internalizing behaviors in a sample of 256 preschool children. Data on exposure to violence were obtained via parent report, data on SIP were obtained via child interview, and data on child problem behavior were obtained via teacher report. Findings supported the hypothesis that, compared to children not exposed to violence, children reported to witness and/or experience violence are more likely to attribute hostile intent to peers, generate aggressive responses, and evaluate socially unaccepted responses (aggressive and inept) as socially suitable. The former were also found to exhibit higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Finally, SIP mediated the link between exposure to violence and problem behavior thus supporting this study's general approach, which argues that the link between exposure to violence and children's problem behaviors are better understood within the context of their perceptions about social relationships. Aggr. Behav. 38:429‐441, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sensitivity to lateral information on a perceptual word identification task in French third and fifth graders

This study aimed at examining sensitivity to lateral linguistic and nonlinguistic information in third and fifth grade readers. A word identification task with a threshold was used, and targets were displayed foveally with or without distractors. Sensitivity to lateral information was inferred from the deterioration of the rate of correct word identification when displayed with distractors. Results show that the two reader groups were sensitive to both right and left lateral information. The area of sensitivity to this information was more extended for the identification of easy words than difficult words. Examination of the detrimental effect of distractors suggests that in both third and fifth graders, the impact of lateral information on foveal processing is the result of a general distraction effect, but also of linguistic processing whose nature remains to be clarified.     

The Value of Task Conflict to Group Decisions

We tested the ability of task conflict to improve the quality of decisions made by four‐person groups. In a choice between two entrepreneurial investments, conflict was created by endowing group members with a preference for either one investment or the other. Because the decision was subjective, decision quality was necessarily judged by a process criterion, the reduction in the biased evaluation of new information to support the leading alternative. Groups in which conflict was installed exhibited less bias than individuals, who themselves exhibited less bias than groups without such conflict. Regardless of whether conflict was installed, groups that reached an early consensus exhibited the greatest information bias, while groups that experienced sustained conflict exhibited the least. Before achieving consensus, information bias was not significantly different from zero, but then rose steadily after that agreement. This result identifies one specific mechanism by which conflict can improve the process of group decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

4PLRT模型与3PLRT模型在瑞文标准推理测验中的比较研究

研究目的：考察反应时与智力的关系以及通过模型对比考察4PLRT模型特性。方法：以瑞文标准推理测验为例,对4PLRT模型与3PLRT模型作比较研究。结论：（1）项目时间参数与难度参数正相关,可以依据时间参数将瑞文标准测验划分成三大部分。（2）能力估计结果比较：由于项目参数和被试速度参数的作用,CTT条件下能力相等的不同被试在计时与非计时条件下存在差异。（3）关于被试的答题策略：被试会基于自身能力而充分权衡时间与准确性的关系。这两种不同模型下被试的能力值之间的比较也说明了时间是一个重要的智力评估因子。     

行政职业能力倾向测验:历史、现状与未来研究

经过二十多年的发展,行政职业能力倾向测验已经成为公务员考试中不可缺少的测评工具之一。在实践发展中,行测内外部的变化引发了许多研究问题。然而,现有研究的广度和深度都较为有限。为了提高行测的科学化水平,该文指出未来亟需从以下方面开展研究:(1)借鉴认知诊断理论对各个题型进行研究;(2)测量结构的确立;(3)分级分类考试的架构设计;(4)新题型开发;(5)分数合成;(6)试题公平性等。