Gender Stereotype Activation versus Lexical Semantic Activation: An ERP Study

It is an open question whether social stereotype activation can be distinguished from nonsocial semantic activation. To address this question, gender stereotype activation (GSA) and lexical semantic activation (LSA) were directly compared. EEGs were recorded in 20 participants as they identified the congruence between prime-target word pairs under four different conditions (stereotype congruent, stereotype incongruent, semantic congruent, and semantic incongruent). We found that congruent targets elicited faster and more accurate responses and reduced N400 amplitudes irrespective of priming category types. The N400 congruency effect (i.e., the difference between incongruity and congruity) started earlier and had greater amplitude for GSA than for LSA. Moreover, gender category priming induced a smaller N400 and a larger P600 than lexical category priming. These findings suggest that the brain is not only sensitive to both stereotype and semantic violation in the post-perceptual processing stage but can also differentiate these two information processes. Further, the findings suggest superior processing (i.e., faster and deeper processing) when the words are associated with social category and convey stereotype knowledge.     

The Impact of Sonority on Onset-Rime and Peak-Coda Lexical Decision and Naming of Lexical Items by Children with Different Spelling Ability

The present study used the lexical decision (making YES/NO decision) and the vocalization (naming) paradigms in two reaction time experiments to examine the cohesiveness of onset-rime and peak-coda in the syllable structure of English lexical items. The aim was to study the effect of sonority hierarchy of liquids, nasals and obstruents on the accurate and rapid identification and naming of CCVCC words and pseudowords in relation to the spelling performance of 222 grades 4, 5 and 6 students. In the onset-rime lexical decision and naming tasks nasals were processed faster than the liquids and the obstruents. In the peak-coda lexical decision and naming the obstruents were processed faster than the liquids and nasals. The reaction time results suggest relationship with the spelling of English words even though the significant main effects of grade, spelling performance, mode of response and lexicality of the stimulus items need to be interpreted in the context of statistical interactions.     

Lexical studies of Filipino person descriptors: adding personality‐relevant social and physical attributes

Lexical studies have focused on traits. In the Filipino language, we investigated whether additional dimensions can be identified when personality‐relevant terms for social roles, statuses and effects, plus physical attributes, are included. Filipino students (N = 496) rated themselves on 268 such terms, plus 253 markers of trait and evaluative dimensions. We identified 10 dimensions of social and physical attributes—Prominence, Uselessness, Attractiveness, Respectability, Uniqueness, Destructiveness, Presentableness, Strength, Dangerousness and Charisma. Most of these dimensions did not correspond in a one‐to‐one manner to Filipino or alternative trait models (Big Five, HEXACO, ML7). However, considerable redundancy was observed between the social and physical attribute dimensions and trait and evaluative dimensions. Thus, social and physical attributes communicate information about personality traits, and vice versa. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

注意资源对正常人消极情绪偏向的影响

本研究以正常人为研究对象,分别采用词汇判断任务和后掩蔽范式,以两个行为实验考察了阈上/阈下两种情况下,注意资源的多少对消极情绪偏向的影响.结果发现,在阈上条件下,只有当注意资源缺乏时,才能出现消极情绪偏向;在阈下条件下,无论注意资源多少,都没有出现消极情绪偏向.表明消极情绪偏向在正常人中的出现不是"无条件的",而是受到注意资源多少的影响.     

汉语语音范畴性知觉及其发展

范畴性是言语知觉的一个显著特征,长期以来一直受到研究者的普遍关注。但汉语不同语音特征的范畴性知觉特点及其发展模式迄今为止还很少有研究涉及。本研究利用语音合成的方法分别改变辅音的送气/不送气特征和声调的基频曲线,生成语音刺激连续体,采用范畴性知觉的经典研究范式探讨了汉语正常成人被试嗓音启动时间（Voice onset time,VOT）和声调范畴性知觉的特点及不同年龄儿童的发展模式。研究结果表明：（1）成人被试对VOT和声调的知觉是范畴性的;（2）对于汉语声调特征,6岁儿童已经具有类似成人的范畴性知觉能力;而在VOT这一维度上,范畴知觉能力随着年龄发展不断精细化,但7岁儿童也尚未达到成年人的敏感程度,说明汉语VOT和声调这两个不同的语音特征经历了不同的发展模式。     

Well‐being and the accessibility of pleasant and unpleasant concepts

The trait–congruency hypothesis predicts that persons high in positive or negative trait affect more readily process pleasant or unpleasant stimuli, respectively. In two studies, participants were administered measures of personality and affect. Moreover, a yes/no lexical decision task with pleasant, unpleasant and neutral words was administered in Study 1, whereas a go/no‐go task was used in Study 2. Several methods to increase reliabilities of differences in reaction times are explored. Correlations of measures of personality and trait affect with decision times were mostly consistent with the trait–congruency hypothesis, particularly for decision times in the go/no‐go task that measured individual differences in valence‐specific decision times more reliably. The findings suggest that trait‐related concept accessibility is one source of trait congruity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

视-听跨通道汉语词汇信息加工中的抑制机制

采用选择性再认的方法考察在汉语词汇加工过程中 ,视 -听跨通道信息与视觉单通道信息加工过程中的抑制机制。结果表明 :对于视觉词汇的总体再认“否”反应 ,单通道干扰条件下的成绩优于跨通道干扰条件下的成绩。在视觉词汇加工过程中 ,对外在干扰材料的抑制效率不受输入干扰刺激的通道的影响。抑制效率受干扰材料语义关系性的影响 ,与目标材料属于同一语义范畴的比异范畴的干扰材料更难以被抑制。     

再探汉字加工中语音、语义激活的相对时间进程

在Zhou和Marslen-Wilson（2000）基础之上,进一步探讨汉字加工中语音和语义信息激活的相对时间进程及其对汉字加工理论的含义。采用启动范式,用同一目标字与语义相关启动字、同音启动字以及无关控制启动字配对,变化同音启动字读音与其声旁的规则性,变化启动字与目标字呈现之间的时间间隔（SOA,57ms或200ms）,使用两种实验任务（真假字判断和命名）,考察语义、语音效应发生的时间先后与效应量的大小。真假字判断实验发现,不管SOA如何,语义启动效应都非常显著,而同音启动效应则随SOA的增长而逐渐加大,从不显著到显著;同音启动字读音规则性对启动效应没有明显影响。命名实验发现,语义启动、同音启动效应同时存在于长、短SOA条件中。长SOA时,两者在数值上没有显著差异;短SOA时,同音不规则字产生的启动效应等同于语义启动效应,而同音规则字产生的启动效应则大于语义启动效应。结合其它实验发现,这些结果说明,在熟练的汉字加工中,语音信息的激活并不比语义信息早,语音激活也不是语义激活的先决条件;但汉字各种信息激活的相对激活量和时间进程会随任务性质和材料性质而在一定范围内有所改变。     

中国人人格结构的确认与形容词评定结果

中西方的人格结构既存在相似性,又有明显的差异性。该研究根据杨国枢和王登峰探讨中国人人格结构的“大七”模型时所用的中文人格特质形容词表,经过化简,由410个形容词压缩为273个;并扩大了被试量,由原来的733人（项目与人数比为1:1.8）扩大为1511人（项目与人数比为1:5.5）。采用相同的评定方法、评定程序和统计方法,得到了完全相同的人格结构。采用另外的样本进行的验证性因素分析也确认了中国人人格的七因素结构。由此揭示了中国人的人格结构及其与西方理论的差异,为系统研究中国人的人格特点和编制测量量表奠定了扎实的基础。文中还比较了大学生被试和社会人士在各个因素上的分数差异。     

非熟练中—英双语者跨语言长时重复启动效应

采用跨语言长时重复启动研究范式进一步探讨非熟练中－英双语者的记忆表征模型。被试为华南师范大学大一本科生共140名。实验自变量是语言条件（同语言和跨语言）和学习状况（学习过的和未学习过的）,实验因变量是单词判断的反应时和正确率。实验1中被试在学习和测验阶段都完成概念任务,结果表明获得了跨语言长时重复启动效应。实验2中被试在学习和测验阶段完成词汇任务,结果表明没有获得跨语言长时重复启动效应。实验3中被试在学习阶段完成概念任务,在测验阶段完成词汇任务,结果表明没有获得跨语言长时重复启动效应。实验4中在学习阶段的概念任务中呈现汉语单字词,在测验阶段的词汇任务中呈现英语翻译对等词,结果表明没有获得跨语言长时重复启动效应。总的实验结果表明,在基于内隐记忆的跨语言重复启动的范式下,非熟练中－英双语者的记忆表征支持概念表征共享、词汇表征分离的观点。更重要的是,非熟练中－英双语者需要经由汉语翻译对等词的词汇表征,才能通达英语单词的概念表征,支持了词汇连接模型的观点