Westernalization in the Mirror: On the Cultural Reception of Western Psychology

Miki Takasuna’s paper on “Proliferation of Western Methodological Thought in Psychology in Japan: Ways of Objectification” offers many significant clues for reconsidering the history and unity of psychology. Its treatment of the reception of psychology in Japan hints at the relevance of the models of the subject for psychology—including the allegedly “official” psychology. The aim of this paper is to suggest such reconsideration, on the basis of a distinction between psychology-importing and psychology-exporting countries, and provide a reflection on the cultural problems of assimilation by the latter of a discipline advanced by the former. This perspective leads us to acknowledge the existence of a variety of psychological programs corresponding to the transformation and modernization of different social realities. Also, an indication is offered of several possible levels of analysis of such programs, which are seen to be related with the emergence of psychology as the science of modernity.

认知负荷和控制性注意对工作记忆广度任务成绩的影响

通过stroop干扰实验严格筛选被试,考察了控制性注意能力不同的被试在加工部分认知负荷不同的工作记忆广度任务中的成绩。结果表明：任务复杂性和加工速度对工作记忆广度任务成绩有重要影响,任务越复杂或加工速度越快,被试的工作记忆广度任务成绩越低;在复杂的和加工速度快的工作记忆广度任务中,控制性注意能力高的被试成绩要好于控制性注意能力低的被试,但在简单的和加工速度慢的任务中两者成绩没有显著差异。     

Executive and motivational inhibition: Associations with self-report measures related to inhibition

Inhibition involves the withholding or suppressing of attention or responses to irrelevant or distracting stimuli. We examined the relationship between five experimental tasks of inhibition, represented by two measures of executive, intentional control inhibition and three measures of motivational inhibition characterized by bottom-up interruption of affective and reward/punishment sensitive mechanisms. Associations between these experimental tasks with three self-report measures related to inhibition were also examined. Correlational analyses indicated a small but significant association between the measures in the executive domain (stop task and Stroop task), but a lack of associations between the measures in the motivational domain (emotional Stroop task, a card playing task involving rewards and punishments, and a gambling task). Both measures of executive and motivational inhibition entered as significant predictors on the self-report measures related to inhibition in simultaneous regression analyses, but not consistently in the expected direction. The results suggest that inhibition is not a unitary construct, and demonstrate an association between experimental measures of inhibition and self-report measures related to inhibition.     

Union and separation in the therapy of pervasive developmental disorders and ADHD

Abstract :  This paper discusses the characteristics of psychotherapy for pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) in the context of the curative effects of the movement of images. The 'autistic spectrum' is widened here and includes not only PDD, but also ADHD. The main common characteristic in these two sets of disorders seems to be the lack of a subject, which manifests itself as the absence of awareness of otherness and difficulties with boundaries and language.
In these cases a normal psychotherapy is ineffective as it presupposes an established subject. However a psychotherapeutic approach with these patients can contribute to the emergence of a subject. In severe cases the process of union and separation which is enacted either in the therapeutic relationship or in symbolic play leads to the birth of a subject, and of language. In milder cases, such as ADHD, the moments of separation and confrontation with the therapist suffice.
I will discuss a case of my own with Asperger's syndrome in which union and separation in the play therapy occurred simultaneously. This indicates that union and separation are not a consecutive process, but are simultaneous and lead to dialectical movement. However, in neurotic cases with an established subjectivity the symbolic meaning of image plays a central role. This corresponds to Jung's understanding of image in alchemy.     

学科能力内隐观的普遍性及其年龄差异

数学、中文等学科能力,是先天固有不可改变的？,还是后天环境培养塑造,可以改变的？学生心目中对这类问题的主观想法,会直接影响学生的学习行为。其影响的范围,将取决于这类主观想法是否具有普遍性。比如,有些学生认为数学得父母遗传的,很难改变这些学生会不同同样认为中文、外语能力等,也是父母遗传的,变难改变？本研究了解是否有一主导思想,影响学生对不同学科能力的整体看法,同时也分析学生这类主观想法的年龄差异,。     

高中生选科的自我-他人决策差异：预期内疚的作用

本研究首次探讨高中生选科的自我-他人决策差异。结果发现：（1）当科目难度与兴趣存在冲突时,个体倾向于为自己选择低难度低兴趣科目,而为他人选择高难度高兴趣科目;（2）自我-他人决策差异存在程度效应：为近的社会距离他人（朋友）选科时自我-他人决策差异缩小;（3）预期内疚在高中生选科的自我-他人决策差异中起中介作用：相较于为自己选科,为陌生人选择低难度低兴趣科目诱发更高的预期内疚,从而降低其为陌生人选择低难度低兴趣科目的偏好。这些发现拓展了自我-他人决策差异的研究范畴,对家长、学校和教育咨询公司的选科指导具有一定的参考价值。     

The Impact of Stimuli Color in Lexical Decision and Semantic Word Categorization Tasks

In two experiments, we examined the impact of color on cognitive performance by asking participants to categorize stimuli presented in three different colors: red, green, and gray (baseline). Participants were either asked to categorize the meaning of words as related to the concepts of “go” or “stop” (Experiment 1) or to indicate if a neutral verbal stimulus was a word or not (lexical decision task, Experiment 2). Overall, we observed performance facilitation in response to go stimuli presented in green (vs. red or gray) and performance inhibition in response to go stimuli presented in red. The opposite pattern was observed for stop‐related stimuli. Importantly, results also indicated that color might also be used to categorize neutral stimuli. Overall, these findings provide support to the green‐go and red‐stop color associations and test the potential functional autonomy acquired by these colors and the boundary conditions to their effects on stimuli categorization.     

从“自然主体观察”论《周易》经传的书写

传统以来,中国社会向以儒家人文精神为主体,如此虽提升了人文精神,然亦导致后学末流过度重视人的主体性,而忽略经典中对"自然"的书写,及其中蕴含的超越性。再加上西方理性思潮的影响、科技文明的进步,更助长人的主导与支配性格,如此不仅破坏了自然的秩序,无形中也斫丧了人的超越性。《周易》哲学在揭示自然与人类相互间的关系,故前人往往侧重天人的观照。本文尝试以"自然"为主体观察,试图阐发《周易》经传中对"自然"的书写及其与人文、宗教三者的关系与安排。     

"心理理论"的实验任务与研究趋向

20世纪80年代以来,“心理理论”已成为发展心理学的研究热点和最活跃、最多产的领域。本文介绍了“心理理论”的涵义,解释为什么称之为“理论”,在作者自己实证研究的基础上,对“心理理论”实验任务进行了总结分析。主要从实验任务的角度探讨心理理论研究中存在的问题和认知与神经机制方面的发展趋向。     

Effects of arachidonic acid on the spatial cognition of aged rats

Abstract:  To examine the effects of arachidonic acid (AA) on age-related cognitive deficits, Fischer 344 rats were given an AA-supplemented powder diet for 12 weeks from 18.6 months old as part of the old AA (OA) group. Other age-matched rats were fed a non-AA-supplemented powder diet as part of the old control (OC) group, and young rats were fed lab pellets as part of the young control (YC) group. When the aged rats reached 20.0 months old, all animals were tested for spontaneous activity in an open field, followed by the Morris water maze place and cue tasks. Escape latencies for the place task showed that the YC rats were fastest, and there was no difference between the OA and OC groups. However, the probe test and the first block of the cue task indicated that the OA rats remembered the location of an invisible platform better than the OC rats. Although the amount of hippocampal AA was larger in the OA rats than in the OC rats, the difference was not significant. The results showed that AA administration to aged animals may alleviate age-related deficits in spatial cognition.