Women's social experiences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 3-part measurement burst study among women in midlife with health risks

Women in midlife (ages 40–60) with elevated risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) often rely on social networks during times of high stress. Precautions against the spread of COVID-19—particularly stay-at-home-orders—could have limited positive social experiences during a stressful time, but also could have reduced unwanted negative social experiences. This report presents findings from an ecological momentary assessment study that used 3 bursts of 5 surveys per day for 5 days, to test for changes in women's social experiences: prior to COVID-19 (2019), during stay-at-home-orders (April-May 2020), and during initial reopening (August-September 2020). Participants were women aged 40–60 with one or more CVD risk factors (e.g., hypertension; N = 35, M_Age = 51, M_BMI = 32.2 kg/m²). Momentary reports showed that the number of positive interactions experienced in daily life did not significantly change from before to during the pandemic; positive interactions were more variable during stay-at-home orders than pre-COVID, but rebounded by initial reopening (to pre-COVID levels). In contrast, the number of negative social interactions and social comparisons decreased from before COVID to stay-at-home orders, and remained lower during initial reopening; these experiences were also less variable during stay-at-home orders and initial reopening than before COVID-19. Thus, in a vulnerable group of women with health risks, there is little evidence that social experiences worsened during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic; decreases in (potentially) negative social experiences may be a small but beneficial side effect of short-term public health precautions.     

4～6岁幼儿颜色偏好实验研究

本实验采用对偶比较法．对4—6岁幼儿进行颜色偏好实验研究,结果表明：在4—6岁的年龄段中,幼儿颜色偏好顺序依次为：红、黄、橙、蓝、紫、绿;男女幼儿的颜色偏好有明显差异;不同年龄之间的幼儿颜色偏好没有明显差异。     

Strategy combination during execution of memory strategies in young and older adults

The present study investigated whether people can combine two memory strategies to encode pairs of words more efficiently than with a single strategy, and age-related differences in such strategy combination. Young and older adults were asked to encode pairs of words (e.g., satellite-tunnel). For each item, participants were told to use either the interactive-imagery strategy (e.g., mentally visualising the two words and making them interact), the sentence-generation strategy (i.e., generate a sentence linking the two words), or with strategy combination (i.e., generating a sentence while mentally visualising it). Participants obtained better recall performance on items encoded with strategy combination than on items encoded with interactive-imagery or sentence-generation strategies. Moreover, we found age-related decline in such strategy combination. These findings have important implications to further our understanding of execution of memory strategies, and suggest that strategy combination occurs in a variety of cognitive domains.     

Are Some Psychotherapies Much More Effective Than Others?

In a previous paper we had reported on the examination of comparisons of 18 metaanalyses of active treatments with each other (Luborsky, Rosenthal, Diguer, et al., 2001). These metaanalyses gave a small and nonsignificant mean level of difference between types of treatments. The smallness of this correlation confirms Rosenzweig's (1936) expectation that because of the large overlap in effective ingredients of different psychotherapies, comparative studies of psychotherapies would show little difference. Such a comparison that includes psychoanalyses seems a long way off, but if outcomes of psychoanalyses are defined similarly to those in the other psychotherapies, the expected differences in outcomes may also be small.     

3~5岁幼儿一位数大小比较的信息加工模式

主要探讨我国幼儿对数量大小比较的信息加工模式。实验1探讨幼儿对一位数大小比较的发展状况及其心理表征特点,被试为3岁、4岁与5岁幼儿各20人,要求被试对1-9两两进行大小比较,然后对不同年龄幼儿对比成绩进行比较与聚类分析。实验2进一步探讨幼儿对数字的语义编码情况及其与数的大小比较的关系,被试与实验1相同,要求被试对1-9每个数字作出大、中或小的编码,然后分析数字的语义编码成绩与大小比较成绩的关系。实验3采用因果设计,探讨幼儿关于数字的语义编码对他们关于数的大小判断的影响,被试为30名4岁幼儿,随机分成训练组与控制组,对训练组被试进行数字语义编码训练,然后比较两组被试大小比较的成绩。结果表明：(1)幼儿一位数大小比较直接受其对数的语义表征的影响;(2)随着年龄的增长,幼儿对数的表征逐步表现出离散聚类模式,相应地,对一位数大小比较的信息加工过程就表现为由无序的、随机的过程逐步发展成为层次编码比较的过程。     

Geometric representation of association between categories

Categories can be counted, rated, or ranked, but they cannot be measured. Likewise, persons or individuals can be counted, rated, or ranked, but they cannot be measured either. Nevertheless, psychology has realized early on that it can take an indirect road to measurement: What can be measured is the strength of association between categories in samples or populations, and what can be quantitatively compared are counts, ratings, or rankings made under different circumstances, or originating from different persons. The strong demand for quantitative analysis of categorical data has thus created a variety of statistical methods, with substantial contributions from psychometrics and sociometrics. What is the common basis of these methods dealing with categories? The basic element they share is that the sample space has a special geometry, in which categories (or persons) are point masses forming a simplex, while distributions of counts or profiles of ratings are centers of gravity, which are also point masses. Rankings form a discrete subset in the interior of the simplex, known as the permutation polytope, and paired comparisons form another subset on the edges of the simplex. Distances between point masses form the basic tool of analysis. The paper gives some history of major concepts, which naturally leads to a new concept: the shadow point. It is then shown how loglinear models, Luce and Rasch models, unfolding models, correspondence analysis and homogeneity analysis, forced classification and classification trees, as well as other models and methods, fit into this particular geometrical framework.     

Word,nonword, and visual paired associate learning in Dutch dyslexic children

Verbal and non-verbal learning were investigated in 21 8-11-year-old dyslexic children and chronological-age controls, and in 21 7-9-year-old reading-age controls. Tasks involved the paired associate learning of words, nonwords, or symbols with pictures. Both learning and retention of associations were examined. Results indicated that dyslexic children had difficulty with verbal learning of both words and nonwords. In addition, analysis of the errors made during nonword learning showed that both phonological errors and general learning errors were distributed similarly for the reading groups. This suggests that nonword learning in dyslexics is slower, but not qualitatively different from normal readers. Furthermore, no differences were found between the dyslexics and age-matched normal readers on non-verbal learning. Long-term retention of the learned visual-verbal associations (both words and nonwords) was not impaired in dyslexic children as compared to normal readers. Finally, phonological awareness ability was assessed. Dyslexics performed worse than age-matched normal readers, but similar to reading-age controls.     

Perceived quality of life in Taiwan and Hong Kong: an intra-culture comparison

Cross-society comparisons have become increasingly important to the study of the perceived quality of life. A major critique of these studies, however, is the lack of attention to intra-culture variation. This paper examines how subjective quality of life differs, at both societal and individual levels, between Taiwan and Hong Kong, two Chinese societies that share their cultural heritage but vary in their social and political systems. We draw upon data from synchronic surveys conducted in November 2000 in Taiwan (n=1222) and Hong Kong (n=1044). Ordinal regression analyses confirm that, for both societies, reported satisfaction at the societal level contributes to the variance in individuals quality of life. Moreover, the perceived fairness with regard to personal effort within the opportunity structure provided by the society also significantly affects an individuals quality of life. Different factors accounting for quality of life variation in Taiwan and in Hong Kong are discussed. This paper suggests that for the intra-cultural, cross-society comparisons on quality of life, inclusion of various societal level indicators is not only important, but the subjective perception of the fairness that society also contributes a significant effect.