脑激活水平和主观体验强度的定量关系

综合现有各种实验资料,推导对于同一个物理刺激,人的脑区激活水平和人的主观体验强度之间的定量关系,得到联系有关参量的一个数学公式.     

Role of motivation to respond to provocation, the social environment, and trait aggression in alcohol-related aggression

Little attention has been paid to the motivation to respond to provocation and to the interaction between this motivation, alcohol, the drinking environment, and individual characteristics. Undergraduates at six Canadian universities (N = 1,232) read three vignettes describing conflict situations with social environmental manipulations while imagining themselves as either sober or intoxicated. Self-ratings assessed likelihood of assertive and aggressive responses and motivational indices of anger, offensiveness of the instigator's actions, and importance to respond to the provocation. Respondents also completed a measure of trait aggression. Multi-group structural equation models supported the hypothesis that perceived likelihood of reactive aggression is influenced by perceived alcohol intoxication, gender, trait aggression, social environmental factors, and motivation to respond to the provocation. In addition, a number of interactions were found among the predictors. These results provide insight into the types of factors that may influence aggression in drinking situations.     

Gender differences in emotional and overt/covert aggressive responses to stress

We examined the role of stress exposure on gender differences in hostile (emotional and behavioral) reactions within the context of a laboratory paradigm. Aggressive behavior was indexed via the intensity (overt) and the duration (covert) of putative shocks delivered to a confederate. Half of the participants were exposed to a chronic stressor (high stress) and half were not (low stress). Participants' emotional responses were measured via self-report mood ratings before and after the experiment. Men displayed higher aggression in both stress conditions, which corresponded to their ratings of state hostility. On the other hand, women in high stress delivered lower intensity shocks, and this decreased overt aggression was positively correlated with sadness ratings. However, women did not decrease their levels of shock duration (covert aggression) under high stress and showed equivalent shock duration compared with men in high stress. These findings are discussed in terms of differential overt manifestations of distress between men and women.     

广告中性别刻板印象信息的内隐效应

尝试采用以图片为实验材料及不同步骤的IAT程序测量广告中性别刻板印象的内隐效应及其操作强度,结果表明：（1）广告中的性别刻板印象具有很强的内隐效应;（2）高刻板化程度者具有更强的内隐性别刻板效应;（3）当刺激材料为图片时,不同的IAT程序测得的内隐性别刻板效应不同。     

Quantifying Intervention Intensity: A Systematic Approach to Evaluating Student Response to Increasing Intervention Frequency

Response to intervention (RTI) has been discussed as a new model of assessment. Although the basic process by which RTI works has received frequent attention in the literature, the available research leaves several important questions unanswered (Kavale et al. in Learn Disabil Q 28(1): 2–16, 2005). One concept within RTI that has received little empirical consideration is intervention intensity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the application of increased intervention frequency on the mathematics performance of students and to evaluate this increased frequency as a systematic means of increasing and quantifying intervention strength. Results indicate that although all students were responsive to the intervention, some participants were sensitive only to more frequent application of the treatment or at more intense levels of treatment. Through this methodology a means of quantifying treatment intensity was also identified and implications for future research are discussed.     

Status of the provoker,opportunity to retaliate,and interest in video violence

Two hypotheses derived from affect-dependent stimulus arrangement theory [Zillmann D, Bryant J (1985): In: “Selective Exposure to Communication.” Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.] were tested: (1) provoked persons will express less interest in seeing video violence than will those not provoked, unless they anticipate an opportunity to retaliate against their provocateur; and (2) when provoked persons anticipate an opportunity to retaliate against a provocateur who is not high status, they will express greater interest in seeing video violence than will those not provoked. After being provoked or not provoked by a high or low status experimenter, half the 160 male college student participants were led to believe that their evaluation of the experimenter would determine the experimenter's grade for conducting the research, and half were not given any reason to expect an opportunity to evaluate him. Then each man indicated his degree of interest in seeing each of twelve video selections that had been described in brief paragraphs, three each in four content categories: aggressive, humorous, mildly erotic, and neutral. In confirmation of the first hypothesis, provoked subjects who did not anticipate opportunity to retaliate expressed less interest in seeing aggressive material than did those not provoked. In relationship to the second hypothesis, provoked subjects showed the greatest interest in aggressive video material when they anticipated an opportunity to retaliate against a low status provocateur, but their interest was not greater than corresponding nonangered subjects. The effect of provocation upon interest in the other categories of video material was generally in line with what would be predicted from the theory. When there was no anticipated opportunity to retaliate, interest in humorous material was greater in provoked subjects than in those not provoked. In the case of the mildly erotic category of video selections, there was less interest expressed among provoked subjects when they anticipated having a chance to retaliate against a low status experimenter.     

Effects of 1 mA and 2 mA transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory performance in healthy participants

Anodal transcranial current stimulation (tDCS) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been shown to enhance working memory (WM) in neuropsychiatric patients. In healthy populations, however, tDCS obtains inconclusive results, mostly due to heterogeneous study and stimulation protocols. Here, we approached these issues by investigating effects of tDCS intensity on simultaneous WM performance with three cognitive loads by directly comparing findings of two double-blind, cross-over, sham-controlled experiments. TDCS was administrated to the left DLPFC at intensity of 1 mA (Experiment 1) or 2 mA (Experiment 2), while participants completed a verbal n-back paradigm (1-, 2-, 3-back). Analysis showed no overall effects of tDCS on WM, but a significant interaction with cognitive load. The present study suggests that cognitive load rather than tDCS intensity could be a decisive factor for effects on WM. Moreover, it emphasizes the need of thorough investigation on study parameters to develop more efficient stimulation protocols.     

A cognitive architecture for modeling emotion dynamics: Intensity estimation from physiological signals

Current approaches to emotion recognition do not address the fact that emotions are dynamic processes. This work concerns itself with the development of a cognitive architecture for modeling the dynamics of emotions with specific focus on a gray-box model for dynamic emotion intensity estimation that can incorporate findings from appraisal models, specifically Scherer’s Component Process Model. It is based on Dynamic Field Theory which allows the combination of theoretical knowledge with data-driven experimental approaches. A user study is conducted applying the proposed model to estimate intensity of negative emotions from physiological signals. Results show significant improvements of the proposed model to common methodology and baselines. The flexible cognitive architecture opens a wide field of experiments and directions to deepen the understanding of emotion processes as a whole.     

Disruptive effects of stimulus intensity on two variations of a temporal discrimination procedure

Previous reports using stimulus intensity changes to disrupt temporal discrimination have shown shifts in the psychophysical curve for time, while studies using other disruptors have shown a flattening of the curve. The current study investigated the impact of increases and decreases in stimulus intensity on temporal discrimination in pigeons, to determine if a flattening of the curve could be extended to this disruptor. The brightness of the sample to be timed was manipulated under two procedural variations, in which the response alternatives were differentiated by color or location. Results showed that all subjects in the color procedure, and one in the location procedure, showed a flattening of the psychophysical curve when they experienced increased stimulus intensity in descending order. No subjects exposed to an ascending order of stimulus intensities, and none of the other subjects in the location procedure, showed any impact of changed stimulus intensity. Minimal disruption was found when test sessions presented decreased stimulus intensity levels in a second series. These results, together with those using other types of disruptors, add to the evidence of a flattening of the psychophysical curve when temporal discrimination is disrupted.     

Narcissism and unprovoked aggression

It is widely accepted that narcissists become aggressive when they experience ego‐threat. However, there is surprisingly little empirical research on the relationship between narcissism and aggression. Equivocal findings suggest that aggression in narcissists either occurs only in response to provocation, or regardless of provocation. One‐hundred and thirty‐seven collegiate men completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory followed by a sham aggression paradigm, which afforded them the opportunity shock, or refrain entirely from shocking an ostensible opponent confederate. Participants were identified as “unprovoked aggressors,” “retaliatory aggressors,” or “nonaggressors” contingent on when and if they chose to administer electrical shocks to the confederate. Results indicated that participants who were high on narcissistic traits were more likely to be unprovoked aggressors than their low narcissism counterparts. Results are discussed in relation to threatened egotism theory and call for more research on narcissism, aggression, and the moderating effect of provocation. Aggr. Behav. 36:414–422, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.