Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat-relevant training in the detection of guns and knives

Counter-terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a dangerous or neutral object embedded within a visual search display on the basis of an emotional strategy ‘is it dangerous?’ or a semantic strategy ‘is it an object?’. The results showed a threat superiority effect that was enhanced by the emotional visual search strategy. In Experiment 2, whilst trainee police officers displayed a greater threat superiority effect than student controls, both groups benefitted from performing the task under the emotional than semantic visual search strategy. Manipulating situational threat levels (high vs. low) in the experimental instructions had no effect on visual search performance. The current findings provide new support for the language-as-context hypothesis. They are also consistent with a dual-processing account of threat detection involving a verbally mediated route in working memory and the deployment of a visual template developed as a function of training.     

不同母语类型留学生表达汉语句子的比较

以汉语句式为测试材料,研究留学生母语是否影响他们习得汉语的问题。结果发现,留学生在主动宾句、主谓谓语句/领属句、主谓谓语句（受事主语句）和“把”字句2上的成绩表现出与其母语类型相关的规律性,母语是英语的留学生与母语是日语和韩语的留学生有显著差异。与母语语法规则接近的汉语句式较易掌握,反之就较难。这一结果提示,母语语法影响留学生习得汉语语法,在初等汉语水平阶段需要按授课对象的母语类型组织教学。     

群体水平领域分数及其估计方法

对人才的需求已经引起各国政府和国际组织对教育的高度重视,纷纷在国家和地区层面进行大规模的教育评估。在大尺度教育评估中,如何向政府、管理者和公众报告学生表现是不可避免的重要问题。报告学生表现有多种方式,领域分数作为管理者和公众最容易理解和接受的分数报告工具之一,在近些年受到研究者和实践者的关注,因此也成为了大型教育评价项目的必然选择。文中将介绍群体领域分数的起源和定义,并重点介绍群体领域分数的估计方法和相关研究,最后对未来开展进一步研究进行展望。