Verb gapping: An action-gap compatibility study

This study addresses the processing of verb-gapping sentences, e.g., John closes a juice bottle and Jim [ ] a lemonade bottle. The goal was to explore if there would be an interaction between language comprehension and motor action not only for overt action verbs but also for gapped verbs. Participants read gapping sentences that either described clockwise or counter-clockwise manual rotations (e.g., closes vs. opens a juice bottle). Adopting a paradigm developed by Zwaan and Taylor (2006), sentence presentation was frame-by-frame. Participants proceeded from frame to frame by turning a knob either clockwise or counter clockwise. Analyses of the frame reading-times yielded a significant effect of compatibility between the linguistically conveyed action and the knob turning for the overt-verb (e.g., closes/opens a juice bottle) as well as for the gapped-verb frame (e.g., a lemonade bottle) – with longer reading times in the match condition than in the mismatch condition – but not for any of the other frames (e.g., and Jim). The results are promising in providing novel evidence for the real-time reactivation of gapped verbs and in suggesting that action simulation is not bound to the processing of overt verbs.     

析其数之理,赏其序之美--今本《周易》卦序排列数学规律再探

今本《周易》卦序是一篇精美绝伦的古典作品,其思想之深刻耐人寻味,其数理之精妙绝无仅有,其设计之完美令人叹为观止。《序卦》卦序的排列蕴含多重数理原则,本文将对一阴五阳卦分布律、二阳四阴卦分布律、三阴三阳卦分布律进行更精密地刻画以期对其认识更臻完善。而十二辟卦分布律、上经十八卦容斥律和下经十八卦容斥律的发现,更使我们有理由相信,《序卦》卦序是古人高超的数学才华的集中体现,是一件隐身数千年的数学极品。     

Automatic imitation of intransitive actions

Previous research has indicated a potential discontinuity between monkey and human ventral premotor-parietal mirror systems, namely that monkey mirror systems process only transitive (object-directed) actions, whereas human mirror systems may also process intransitive (non-object-directed) actions. The present study investigated this discontinuity by seeking evidence of automatic imitation of intransitive actions--hand opening and closing--in humans using a simple reaction time (RT), stimulus-response compatibility paradigm. Left-right and up-down spatial compatibility were controlled by ensuring that stimuli were presented and responses executed in orthogonal planes, and automatic imitation was isolated from simple and complex orthogonal spatial compatibility by varying the anatomical identity of the stimulus hand and response hemispace, respectively. In all conditions, action compatible responding was faster than action incompatible responding, and no effects of spatial compatibility were observed. This experiment therefore provides evidence of automatic imitation of intransitive actions, and support for the hypothesis that human and monkey mirror systems differ with respect to the processing of intransitive actions.     

任务需求对语义水平负相容效应的影响

结合掩蔽启动范式和Go-Nogo范式, 证明了语义水平负相容效应的存在, 考察了任务需求对语义水平负相容效应的影响。实验以汉字“左”和“右”作为掩蔽启动项, 在两个Block的Go试次中分别以双箭头和汉字为目标项, 要求被试做辨别反应, 在Nogo试次中不呈现目标项, 无需反应。行为结果发现, 只有当启动项与任务需求相关时才出现负相容效应。ERP结果发现, 只有在任务需求相关时Go任务中一致条件下的P3潜伏期更长; Nogo任务中, 相关条件下两种汉字启动项诱发的N2平均波幅差异显著, 相关和无关两种条件下P3波幅差异显著。说明语义水平负相容效应受自上而下任务需求影响, 这种影响是通过自上而下认知控制加工的调节实现的。     

Opportunities for Immigrants’ Acculturation and Identification Varieties

This article elucidates how members of the two largest immigration groups living in Germany (i.e., immigrants with a Russian or Turkish background) deal with and integrate values and practices deriving from their ethnocultural minority group and the larger society. A special emphasis of this article is on how context conditions form opportunities for varieties of acculturation and identification. The pattern of results suggests a taxonomy of immigrants’ acculturation, consisting of Blended Integration, Alternating Integration, Separation, and Dis‐Integration. This taxonomy is based on immigrants’ integration of cultural aspects, while it proved to be analytically useful to conceptualize their national self‐allocation as an additional dimension. Immigrants’ development of these different varieties was found to be linked to their perceptions of compatibility and acceptance by the larger society. Relative to immigrants with a Turkish background, immigrants with a Russian background experience less deep incompatibilities between values and practices deriving from the cultural groups, thus having more latitude for acculturation and integration. In contrast, immigrants with a Turkish background experience more challenges to acculturation and integration as a result of being confronted more frequently with incompatibilities and experience less societal acceptance. Further conceptual and societal implications are discussed.     

任务转换中的反应-反应相容性效应

采用任务转换范式,分别以阿拉伯数字奇偶判断和组成汉字词的汉字结构一致性判断为任务,通过两个实验探查了不同类型材料在任务转换中的反应—反应相容性效应。结果发现:(1)材料类型对反应—反应相容性效应有影响,任务转换前阿拉伯数字材料存在反应—反应相容性效应,汉字词材料不存在反应—反应相容性效应;(2)任务转换时段对阿拉伯数字奇偶判断任务的反应—反应相容性效应没有影响,转换前后阿拉伯数字奇偶判断任务都存在反应—反应相容性效应;(3)任务转换时段对汉字词任务的反应—反应相容性有影响。转换前没有反应—反应相容性效应,转换后存在反应—反应相容性效应。     

Adjectives Modulate Sensorimotor Activation Driven by Nouns

We performed three experiments to investigate whether adjectives can modulate the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns. In Experiment 1, nouns of graspable objects were used as stimuli. Participants had to decide if each noun referred to a natural or artifact, by performing either a precision or a power reach-to-grasp movement. Response grasp could be compatible or incompatible with the grasp typically used to manipulate the objects to which the nouns referred. The results revealed faster reaction times (RTs) in compatible than in incompatible trials. In Experiment 2, the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing either disadvantageous information about object graspability (e.g., sharp) or information about object color (e.g., reddish). No difference in RTs between compatible and incompatible conditions was found when disadvantageous adjectives were used. Conversely, a compatibility effect occurred when color adjectives were combined with nouns referring to natural objects. Finally, in Experiment 3 the nouns were combined with adjectives expressing tactile or shape proprieties of the objects (e.g., long or smooth). Results revealed faster RTs in compatible than in incompatible condition for both noun categories. Taken together, our findings suggest that adjectives can shape the sensorimotor activation elicited by nouns of graspable objects, highlighting that language simulation goes beyond the single-word level.     

Feeling Half-Half? Exploring Relational Variation of Turkish-Heritage Young Adults’ Cultural Identity Compatibility and Conflict in Austria

Growing up in multicultural environments, Turkish-heritage individuals in Europe face specific challenges in combining their multiple cultural identities to form a coherent sense of self. Drawing from social identity complexity, this study explores four modes of combining cultural identities and their variation in relational contexts. Problem-centered interviews with Turkish-heritage young adults in Austria revealed the preference for complex, supranational labels, such as multicultural. Furthermore, most participants described varying modes of combining cultural identities over time and across relational contexts. Social exclusion experiences throughout adolescence related to perceived conflict of cultural identities, whereas multicultural peer groups supported perceived compatibility of cultural identities. Findings emphasize the need for complex, multidimensional approaches to study ethnic minorities’ combination of cultural identities.     

Flowers and spiders in spatial stimulus-response compatibility: does affective valence influence selection of task-sets or selection of responses?

The present study examined the effect of stimulus valence on two levels of selection in the cognitive system, selection of a task-set and selection of a response. In the first experiment, participants performed a spatial compatibility task (pressing left and right keys according to the locations of stimuli) in which stimulus-response mappings were determined by stimulus valence. There was a standard spatial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effect for positive stimuli (flowers) and a reversed SRC effect for negative stimuli (spiders), but the same data could be interpreted as showing faster responses when positive and negative stimuli were assigned to compatible and incompatible mappings, respectively, than when the assignment was opposite. Experiment 2 disentangled these interpretations, showing that valence did not influence a spatial SRC effect (Simon effect) when task-set retrieval was unnecessary. Experiments 3 and 4 replaced keypress responses with joystick deflections that afforded approach/avoidance action coding. Stimulus valence modulated the Simon effect (but did not reverse it) when the valence was task-relevant (Experiment 3) as well as when it was task-irrelevant (Experiment 4). Therefore, stimulus valence influences task-set selection and response selection, but the influence on the latter is limited to conditions where responses afford approach/avoidance action coding.     

Compatibility and the use of information processing strategies

When a prominent attribute looms larger in one response procedure than in another, a violation of procedure invariance occurs. A hypothesis based on compatibility between the structure of the input information and the required output was tested as an explanation of this phenomenon. It was also compared with other existing hypotheses in the field. The study had two aims: (1) to illustrate the prominence effect in a selection of preference tasks (choice, acceptance decisions, and preference ratings); (2) to demonstrate the processing differences in a matching procedure versus the selected preference tasks. Hence, verbal protocols were collected in both a matching task and in subsequent preference tasks. Silent control conditions were also employed. The structure compatibility hypothesis was confirmed in that a prominence effect obtained in the preference tasks was accompanied by a lower degree of attention to the attribute levels in these tasks. Furthermore, as predicted from the structure compatibility hypothesis, it was found that fewer comparisons between attribute levels were performed in the preference tasks than in the matching task. It was therefore concluded that both these processing differences may explain the occurrence of the prominence effects. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.