Components of attentional effort for repeated tasks

This paper identifies four attentional processes that increase efficiency and accuracy in repeated lexicographic tasks using an instructed strategy approach. We propose a framework to decompose attentional effort used to make a decision into four components: Orientation, Wrong Target, Duration, and Repetition. Orientation assesses attention to decision rules and the location of relevant information. Wrong Target measures wasted effort on unneeded information. Duration gauges time spent on each piece of needed information. Repetition measures the number of views on each relevant item. Greater Orientation is associated with lower effort in other components and increased accuracy. Repetition is most variable across individuals but generates the greatest improvement with practice. Duration is less affected by the other components and shows minimal improvement with experience. Finally, Wrong Target is similarly resistant to practice, but it is the only component strongly and positively associated with making errors.     

汉语双字词句知觉广度的眼动研究

阅读知觉广度通常指阅读者在阅读文本过程中每次注视能获取有用视觉信息的范围。既往的汉语知觉广度的研究一般把单字作为基本的知觉呈现单元,但在某些呈现条件下,此类呈现方式会导致阅读过程中的语义加工的完整性被破坏。本研究采用眼动追踪技术,使用移动窗口范式和中央凹掩蔽范式,使用双字词句作为阅读材料,双字词作为基本的知觉呈现单元,探讨在保证知觉呈现单元语义完整性的基础上大学生的汉语阅读知觉广度。实验一采用移动窗口范式,结果发现,知觉广度范围为注视词左侧1个双字词及右侧1-2个双字词的空间。实验二采用中央凹掩蔽范式,结果验证了实验一的研究结果。该结果表明,在汉语阅读过程中,以双字词为基本的视觉呈现单元,较既往研究中单字为基本呈现单元的情况,更好地保证了阅读中语义的完整性,从而获得了更大的知觉范围。该结果建立于视觉呈现单元的语义完整性的基础上,是对现有的汉语阅读知觉广度理论的完善和扩展。     

中文阅读中切词过程的年老化:眼动证据

研究包含两项实验考察中文阅读中的词切分是否受年老化影响。发现如下结果:(1)实验一显示,静态提示词汇正确边界(词间空格和词阴影条件)消极影响青年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对老年组的影响,静态提示词汇错误边界(非词空格)消极影响老年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对青年组的影响。(2)实验二显示,动态提示词汇正确边界(提示词n+1边界和提示词n边界)积极影响老年组总阅读时间的程度大于其对青年组的影响。(3)在眼动数据上,两项实验均发现呈现条件与组别交互影响凝视时间和跳读概率。总的来说,提示词汇(正确/错误)边界影响老年组句子阅读时间/眼动过程的模式不同于其对青年组的影响,说明中文阅读中的切词会受到年老化的影响。     

汉语新词词汇化的眼动研究

本研究采用眼动技术,操纵词类型和熟悉性来探讨汉语新词的词汇化程度。结果发现,新词在眼动早期、晚期加工指标上和词汇词没有显著差异;相比低熟悉新词,高熟悉新词在凝视时间、回视时间及总注视时间上加工时间更短。研究表明部分新词已达到与《现代汉语词典》中词汇词词汇化程度的相同水平,新词与词之间没有严格的界限,熟悉性在新词词汇化过程中起到了主要作用。     

The implications of rejecting free will: An empirical analysis

While skeptical arguments concerning free will have been a common element of philosophical discourse for thousands of years, one could make the case that such arguments have never been more numerous or forceful than at present. In response to these skeptical attacks, some philosophers and psychologists have expressed concern that the widespread acceptance of such skeptical attitudes could have devastating social consequences. In this paper, I set out to address whether such concerns are well-founded. I argue that there is reason to believe that should skeptical arguments result in the widespread dismissal of human free will, the results of such a dismissal are likely to be more positive than negative.     

高低阅读技能聋生词汇加工的语境预测性效应特点:眼动证据

本研究考察中文聋生读者利用语境预测性信息促进词汇加工的过程特点。实验采用3（组别：高阅读技能聋生组vs.高阅读技能聋生的能力匹配健听组vs.低阅读技能聋生组）×2（句子背景对目标词的预测程度：高预测vs.低预测）混合设计。结果发现：（1）目标词的左侧词汇上,能力匹配健听组在凝视时间和总注视时间两个指标上可见语境预测性效应,两个聋生组在任何指标上均没有语境预测性效应;（2）目标词上,能力匹配健听组在首次注视时间、凝视时间和总注视时间三项指标上均可见显著的语境预测性效应,高阅读技能聋生组仅在总注视上可见语境预测性效应,低阅读技能聋生的任何眼动指标均没有语境预测性效应。由此可见,聋生在利用语境预测性促进词汇加工方面与健听读者有所差异;相对于低阅读技能聋生,高阅读技能聋生读者识别词汇时能更多地利用语境预测性信息。     

Expanding the Political Psychology Toolkit: The Potential of Discursive Psychology for Understanding Contentious Political Debate at a Grassroots Level

In its location at the intersection of political science and psychology, political psychology draws on many of the research techniques of both disciplines in its exploration of power, voting behavior, leadership, attitudes, and values. One hitherto relatively underutilized approach for understanding public policy debate is discursive psychology (DP). Applying this perspective to a contentious policy issue in Australia, we seek to demonstrate that this approach can add richness and depth to our understanding of how ordinary citizens engage in public policy debates. We suggest that this type of analysis can augment insights obtained from more traditional methods—such as focus groups, experimental approaches, and opinion polling—by analyzing how debates are constructed and presented at the grassroots level. This research is innovative in two ways. First, it applies a rigorous, empirical research approach to an area in which it has not previously been used: the study of public policy issues. Second, rather than analyzing the communicative practices of political leaders, we consider the rhetorical arguments made by ordinary citizens in their engagement with political issues and how they negotiate what counts as evidence. This can provide insights into how public debate can be conducted more productively and respectfully.     

The effect of repetitive saccade execution on the attention network test: Enhancing executive function with a flick of the eyes

The simple act of repeatedly looking left and right can enhance subsequent cognition, including divergent thinking, detection of matching letters from visual arrays, and memory retrieval. One hypothesis is that saccade execution enhances subsequent cognition by altering attentional control. To test this hypothesis, we compared performance following repetitive bilateral saccades or central fixation on the revised attention network test, which measures the operation of three distinct attentional networks: alerting, orienting, and executive function. The primary finding was that saccade execution increased the subsequent operation of the executive function network, which encompasses attentional control. Specifically, saccade execution decreased response time to target stimuli in the presence of response-incongruent flankers. A secondary finding was that saccade execution decreased response time to targets when an invalid location was cued prior to target onset. These findings suggest that saccades are an effective means of improving attentional control. Of greater theoretical importance, the study establishes attentional enhancement as a potential mechanism by which saccades enhance other aspects of cognition. Although some saccade execution effects have been found to depend on consistency of handedness (i.e., the consistency with which an individual uses one hand over the other), saccade-induced enhancement of attentional control occurred independently of handedness consistency.     

Health promotion from the perspective of social cognitive theory

Abstract

This article examines health promotion and disease prevention from the perspective of social cognitive theory. The areas of overlap with some of the most widely applied psychosocial models of health are identified. The models of health promotion and disease prevention have undergone several generational changes. We have shifted from trying to scare people into health, to rewarding them into health, to equipping them with self-regulatory skills to manage their health habits, to shoring up their habit changes with dependable social supports. These transformations have evolved a multifaceted approach that addresses the reciprocal interplay between self-regulatory and environmental determinants of health behavior. Social cognitive theory addresses the socio structural determinants of health as well as the personal determinants. A comprehensive approach to health promotion requires changing the practices of social systems that have widespread detrimental effects on health rather than solely changing the habits of individuals. Further progress in this field requires building new structures for health promotion, new systems for risk reduction and greater emphasis on health policy initiatives. People's beliefs in their collective efficacy to accomplish social change, therefore, play a key role in the policy and public health approach to health promotion and disease prevention.     

How social context moderates the self-evaluative emotions experienced due to health risk behaviour

When people are confronted with the potential negative physical outcomes of their own health risk behaviour, they experience a self-threat. This threat is felt as negative self-evaluative emotions. We hypothesise that the threat will lead to more private self-evaluative emotions (e.g. regret) in a private social context, whereas more public self-evaluative emotions (e.g. embarrassment) will be felt in a public social context with negative norms. Consistent with our hypotheses, we show that participants anticipate feeling more private self-evaluative emotions when confronted with the negative consequences of their unhealthy behaviour when alone, and more public self-evaluative emotions when in a group (Study 1). They further anticipate more public self-evaluative emotions in response to a health self-threat when the group norm is negative, and more private self-evaluative emotions when the group norm is lenient (Study 2). Finally, in a cross-sectional study amongst smokers, we show that private but not public negative self-evaluative emotions concerning their own smoking habits are positively correlated with the intent to quit smoking (Study 3). These studies show that a distinction needs to be made between public and private self-evaluative emotions, in terms of their antecedents and effects. Theoretical implications and further lines of research are discussed.