盲人的时间水平方向隐喻的通道特异性

通过2个实验, 考察了感觉通道对盲人的时间水平方向隐喻的影响。实验1发现, 盲人只在动作水平上存在同阅读方向一致的时间水平方向隐喻, 对表征过去的词或句子按左键反应和对表征将来的词或句子按右键反应时更快, 表明盲人用于隐喻时间的空间信息是知觉性的。实验2比较了明眼人可视组被试和明眼人遮眼组被试的时间空间隐喻, 发现明眼人可视组被试只在动作水平上存在时间水平方向隐喻, 明眼人遮眼组被试只在刺激在右侧时呈现才出现动作水平的时间水平方向隐喻。综合分析表明, 盲人和明眼人可视组被试的反应更为接近, 表明盲人的时间空间隐喻未受听觉信息的影响。盲人通过运动通道获得的空间认知代偿了视觉通道信息的缺失。     

A comparison of general and specific instructions to promote task engagement and completion by a young man with Asperger syndrome

Previous research has suggested that the topography of instructions (general vs. specific) may influence the likelihood that young children comply with instructions. The purpose of the current study was to compare the rates of task completion of a young man diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when provided with general and specific instructions pertaining to the task. The results showed that specific instructions occasioned higher levels of task completion, even when no differential reinforcement contingencies were in place.     

Can counselling/psychotherapy be helpful in reducing barriers to learning for the person with specific learning difficulties?

This paper explores the relative helpfulness of counselling/psychotherapy to individuals experiencing specific learning difficulties, as a means of reducing barriers to learning by allowing the individual to return to learning from experience. Highlighting earlier studies which indicate the positive impact of psychological therapy on educational attainment and inhibiting factors such as stress, this research investigates the experience of counselling from the perspective of the person with specific learning disabilities. Using Empirical Phenomenological Research, the study explores their understandings of the circumstances and factors by which therapy is found to be helpful or unhelpful, seeking to contribute to debate on whether psychological interventions that are ‘specialist’ in orientation are potentially more helpful than ‘generalist’ therapeutic approaches. The findings point both to the potential value of psychological therapies for persons with special educational needs as a complement to other interventions and also to the importance of considering the experiences of the client in addition to diagnostic assessments.     

Language specific prosodic preferences during the first half year of life: Evidence from German and French infants

There is converging evidence that infants are sensitive to prosodic cues from birth onwards and use this kind of information in their earliest steps into the acquisition of words and syntactic regularities of their target language. Regarding word segmentation, it has been found that English-learning infants segment trochaic words by 7.5 months of age, and iambic words only by 10.5 months of age [Jusczyk, P. W., Houston, D. M., & Newsome, M. (1999). The beginnings of word segmentation in English-learning infants. Cognitive Psychology, 39, 159–207]. The question remains how to interpret this finding in relation to results showing that English-learning infants develop a preference for trochaic over iambic words between 6 and 9 months of age [Jusczyk, P. W., Cutler, A., & Redanz, N. (1993). Preference for the predominant stress patterns of English words. Child Development, 64, 675–687]. In the following, we report the results of four experiments using the headturn preference procedure (HPP) to explore the trochaic bias issue in German- and French-learning infants. For German, a trochaic preference was found at 6 but not at 4 months, suggesting an emergence of this preference between both ages (Experiments 1 and 2). For French, 6-month-old infants did not show a preference for either stress pattern (Experiment 3) while they were found to discriminate between the two stress patterns (Experiment 4). Our findings are the first to demonstrate that the trochaic bias is acquired by 6 months of age, is language specific and can be predicted by the rhythmic properties of the language in acquisition. We discuss the implications of this very early acquisition for our understanding of the emergence of segmentation abilities.     

乙脑患儿血清神经元特异性烯醇化酶、S-100蛋白、髓鞘碱性蛋白测定及其临床意义

为了解流行性乙型脑炎（乙脑）患儿血清神经元特异性烯醇化酶（NSE）、S-100蛋白（S-100）、髓鞘碱性蛋白（MBP）含量变化及其临床意义,用酶联免疫吸附法检测100例乙脑患儿血清NSE、S-100、MBP含量变化。结果显示,乙脑组患儿血清NSE、S-100、MBP含量与对照组比较显著增高（P均〈0．01）,增高程度与病情严重程度相平行（P〈0．01）。因此,血清NSE、S-100、MBP含量测定对乙脑患儿脑损伤严重程度及临床预后判断有重要参考价值。     

汉语音节累积词频对同音字听觉词汇表征的激活作用

汉语同音字音节的累积词频是同音单字词的具体词频之和, 即音节作为词被听到的频数, 也称为音节词频。它对词汇通达的作用还没获得一致看法。本文探讨听觉词汇通达中同音字表征的激活如何受累积词频的影响, 构成累积词频的具体词频和同音字数又会在其中起何作用。研究采用跨通道的音-字同音判断范式和配套的协方差分析分离出听觉的词汇表征激活作用。实验1固定同音字数, 同时变化累积词频和具体词频(其中具体高、低频同时也是同音字族内的高、低频), 结果发现具体词频的提高对表征激活有积极作用; 累积词频的提高仅在错误率上产生微弱的抑制作用, 而这个微弱作用可以归结为同音字族内高频字表征的激活对低频字表征的抑制。实验2固定具体词频, 同时变化累积词频和同音字数, 结果发现同音字数增加对表征激活产生抑制, 没有发现累积词频的作用。两个实验的结果说明, 音节累积词频对同音字的听觉词汇表征激活不起确定作用, 能够起作用的是同音字族内的具体词频和同音字数; 但同音字数变化的抑制作用仅在具体词频不变时才发生, 因此起决定作用的是同音字族内高频字表征激活和低频字表征抑制的机制。     

四卡问题的视角效应发生机制：领域一般性还是领域特殊性？

视角效应（Perspective Effects)是指四卡问题解决中,当被试从不同的角度对条件规则进行检验时,其选择偏向会在卡片p,q和-p,q之间发生稳定变化的现象。视角效应对四卡问题的解决有重要影响,但其存在条件及发生机制仍存在争议。本研究通过3个实验,探讨四卡问题中的视角效应。实验1和实验2采用混合实验设计,结果表明,转换社会契约、因果规则的四卡问题中,发现视角效应,抽象规则中,提供反例比提供充分必要条件更有利于产生视角效应。实验3在不同视角下研究四卡问题与条件推理的关系。结果表明,四卡问题与条件推理之间不具有逻辑一致性,产生分离现象。总之,视角效应在抽象规则和特定规则中均存在,而提供反例更有利于视角效应的产生。领域一般性或领域特殊性均不能有效解释视角效应的产生,两种机制的综合调节为解释视角效应提供新的角度。     

Teaching Principal Components Using Correlations

Introducing principal components (PCs) to students is difficult. First, the matrix algebra and mathematical maximization lemmas are daunting, especially for students in the social and behavioral sciences. Second, the standard motivation involving variance maximization subject to unit length constraint does not directly connect to the “variance explained” interpretation. Third, the unit length and uncorrelatedness constraints of the standard motivation do not allow re-scaling or oblique rotations, which are common in practice. Instead, we propose to motivate the subject in terms of optimizing (weighted) average proportions of variance explained in the original variables; this approach may be more intuitive, and hence easier to understand because it links directly to the familiar “R-squared” statistic. It also removes the need for unit length and uncorrelatedness constraints, provides a direct interpretation of “variance explained,” and provides a direct answer to the question of whether to use covariance-based or correlation-based PCs. Furthermore, the presentation can be made without matrix algebra or optimization proofs. Modern tools from data science, including heat maps and text mining, provide further help in the interpretation and application of PCs; examples are given. Together, these techniques may be used to revise currently used methods for teaching and learning PCs in the behavioral sciences.     

Does Talker‐Specific Information Influence Lexical Competition? Evidence From Phonological Priming

In this study, we examined whether the lexical competition process embraced by most models of spoken word recognition is sensitive to talker‐specific information. We used a lexical decision task and a long lag priming experiment in which primes and targets sharing all phonemes except the last one (e.g., /bagaR/“fight” vs. /baga?/“luggage”) were presented in two separate blocks of stimuli. In Experiment 1, the competitor prime block was presented only once to listeners, and no modulation of the competitor priming effect as a function of a talker change between the primes and targets was observed. However, attenuation in the competitor priming effect in the case of a talker change between the primes and targets was observed in Experiment 2 in which the competitor prime block was presented five times to listeners. We discuss our findings in reference to hybrid models of spoken word recognition in which repetition of words with the same talker could be a key factor in the formation and access to talker‐dependent representations.     

Accelerated lamellar disintegration in eutectoid steel

The fastest kinetics of lamellar disintegration (predicted duration of 44 min) in AISI 1080 steel is obtained with a novel approach of incomplete austenitisation-based cyclic heat treatment involving forced air cooling with an air flow rate of 8.7 m³ h^?1. A physical model for process kinetics is proposed that involves lamellar fragmentation, lamellar thickening, divorced eutectoid growth and generation of new lamellar faults in remaining cementite lamellae in each cycle. Lamellar fragmentation is accentuated with faster rate of cooling through generation of more intense lamellar faults; but divorced eutectoid growth is ceased. Accordingly, as compared to still air cooling, much faster kinetics of lamellar disintegration is obtained by forced air cooling together with the generation of much smaller submicroscopic cementite particles (containing more proportion of plate-shaped non-spheroids) in divorced eutectoid region.