Grammatical Gender in Speech Production: Evidence from Czech

Three experiments demonstrate gender congruency effects (i.e., naming times of a picture are faster when the name of the target picture and a distractor noun are gender congruent) in Czech. In the first experiment, subjects named the pictures by producing gender-marked demonstrative pronouns and a noun. In the second and third experiments, subjects produced a gender-marked numeral (marked with a suffix) plus a noun. Two types of such suffixes exist in Czech. Some numerals vary in nominative singular with gender, others do not. The results show significant gender congruency effects in all experiments. They suggest that gender congruency effects can be obtained not only with free, but also with bound morphemes. In the second and third experiment the effect only emerged when the suffix was gender-marked (as opposed to gender-invariant), supporting the view that the gender congruency effect is due to competition at the level of phonological forms rather than at the grammatical level.     

汉字的无线索回忆再认效应:重复学习和重复测验的作用

采用无线索回忆再认范式,对基于熟悉性的汉字语义特征再认进行了探索,考察了重复学习和重复测验对汉字语义特征的无线索回忆再认效应(RWCR效应)的影响。实验1采用即时测验,实验2采用延时测验,结果发现:(1)无论即时还是延时测验,汉字语义特征的再认均存在RWCR效应。(2)在即时测验时,重复学习对熟悉性有显著影响,重复测验对熟悉性没有影响;重复学习和重复测验均提高回想成绩,但二者无差异。(3)在延时测验时,重复学习组和重复测验组的熟悉性评分均下降,但前者下降快于后者;重复测验组回想的遗忘率较低,重复学习组回想的遗忘率较高。上述结果说明,汉字的语义特征存在稳定的RWCR效应,且重复学习主要影响熟悉性,重复测验主要影响回想。进一步证明了再认记忆的双加工理论。     

急性心肌梗死发病年轻化的因果分析

越来越多的中青年人因急性心肌梗死住院甚至猝死,其发病具有原因和结果的必然联系。过劳、不良生活习惯、吸烟、大量饮酒等原因都会使冠状动脉内斑块形成或冠状动脉痉挛而诱发急性心肌梗死。患者及医务工作者都应针对病因及发病机制积极治疗并有效预防,从而提高全民的心血管健康水平。     

Losing sight of oneself in the above-average effect: When egocentrism, focalism, and group diffuseness collide

Four experiments examined the relative influence of three causal processes in the above-average effect (AAE) and related comparative biases: (a) egocentrism, (b) focalism, and (c) referent group diffuseness. By manipulating the inclusion or exclusion of the self from the referent group (Experiments 1-3) or target group (Experiment 4), the relative contributions of each influence were assessed. In direct comparisons, single peers were systematically judged more favorably relative to groups including the self, suggesting that egocentrism plays a lesser role than focalism or group diffuseness. Thus, in response to the question such as “How friendly is Nancy compared to the rest of us?” the answer tends to be “More friendly.”     

Spatial memory in rats after 25 hours

We investigated the time course of spatial-memory decay in rats using an eight-arm radial maze. It is well established that performance remains high with retention intervals as long as 4 h, but declines to chance with a 24-h retention interval (Beatty, W. W., & Shavalia, D. A. (1980b). Spatial memory in rats: time course of working memory and effect of anesthetics. Behavioral & Neural Biology, 28, 454-462). It is possible that 24 h reflects a genuine retention limitation of rat spatial memory. Alternatively, it may be possible to identify factors that might support memory performance even after very long delays. The current experiment was conducted to test the above two hypotheses. We evaluated performance using two intertrial intervals (24 and 48 h) and two retention intervals (1 and 25 h). Increasing the intertrial interval produced an approximately constant increase in performance for both retention intervals. This improvement is consistent with a trial-spacing effect (i.e., the superiority of spaced over massed trials). Rat spatial memory apparently lasts at least 25 h.     

Can the irrelevant speech effect turn into a stimulus suffix effect?

The irrelevant sound effect (ISE) and the stimulus suffix effect (SSE) are two qualitatively different phenomena, although in both paradigms irrelevant auditory material is played while a verbal serial recall task is being performed. Jones, Macken, and Nicholls (2004) have proposed the effect of irrelevant speech on auditory serial recall to switch from an ISE to an SSE mechanism, if the auditory-perceptive similarity of relevant and irrelevant material is maximized. The experiment reported here (n = 36) tested this hypothesis by exploring auditory serial recall performance both under irrelevant speech and under speech suffix conditions. These speech materials were spoken either by the same voice as the auditory items to be recalled or by a different voice. The experimental conditions were such that the likelihood of obtaining an SSE was maximized. The results, however, show that irrelevant speech—in contrast to speech suffixes—affects auditory serial recall independently of its perceptive similarity to the items to be recalled and thus in terms of an ISE mechanism that crucially extends to recency. The ISE thus cannot turn into an SSE.     

A colorful walk, but is it on the mental number line? Reply to Cohen Kadosh, Tzelgov, and Henik

Cohen Kadosh, Tzelgov, and Henik [Cohen Kadosh, R., Tzelgov, J., and Henik, A. (2008). A synesthetic walk on the number line: The size effect. Cognition, 106, 548-557] present a new paradigm to probe properties of the mental number line. They describe two experiments which they argue to be inconsistent with the exact small number model proposed by Verguts, Fias, and Stevens [Verguts, T., Fias, W., Stevens, M. (2005). A model of exact small-number representation. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12, 66-80]. We discuss the data, assumptions, and conclusions of Cohen Kadosh et al.'s paper in relation to existing models of numerical cognition.     

面孔识别异族效应的研究

异族效应是面孔识别过程中一种非常稳定的现象,表现为对本族面孔的识别与再认成绩显著高于异族面孔.脑成像研究也证实了这两类面孔在神经表征上的差异.关于该效应主要有知觉经验说与社会分类说两种理论解释,但围绕着其心理机制仍然存在着很多争议然,未来的研究需要考虑族群认同等社会-人格因素对于异族效应的影响,并注意考察本族面孔与异族面孔有提取阶段可能存在的神经活动的差异.     

Towards a “Sophisticated” Model of Belief Dynamics. Part I: The General Framework

It is well-known that classical models of belief are not realistic representations of human doxastic capacity; equally, models of actions involving beliefs, such as decisions based on beliefs, or changes of beliefs, suffer from a similar inaccuracies. In this paper, a general framework is presented which permits a more realistic modelling both of instantaneous states of belief, and of the operations involving them. This framework is motivated by some of the inadequacies of existing models, which it overcomes, whilst retaining technical rigour in so far as it relies on known, natural logical and mathematical notions. The companion paper (Towards a “sophisticated” model of belief dynamics. Part II) contains an application of this framework to the particular case of belief revision. Presented by Hannes Leitgeb