Temporal patterns of behavior from the scheduling of psychology quizzes

Temporal patterns of behavior have been observed in real-life performances such as bill passing in the U.S. Congress, in-class studying, and quiz taking. However, the practical utility of understanding these patterns has not been evaluated. The current study demonstrated the presence of temporal patterns of quiz taking in a university-level introductory psychology course and used these patterns to manage the traffic of quiz takers in a computerized testing lab. Results are discussed in terms of the applications of tracking temporal response patterns.     

日常生活事件时间关系推理的初步研究

对时间推理的研究主要有两种范式,习俗周期性时间推理和时间关系推理。以往大多数研究集中在习俗周期性时间推理上,而时间关系推理研究则相对薄弱。本研究在以往研究的基础上,对日常生活事件的时间关系推理进行了研究。实验设计考虑了推理任务的模型数量、前提数量、无关前提以及有无肯定答案等因素,形成了六类推理任务。研究发现:推理任务的模型数量、前提数量、无关前提、是否有肯定答案以及推理者时间维度上的人格特征等都会影响个体的时间关系推理;被试一般是以呈现的前提顺序来表征推理任务的。但是,当被试意识到无关信息时,可以从整体上表征问题。     

Timing recalibration in childhood Tourette syndrome associated with persistent pimozide treatment

In this study, we have tested the effects of the dopamine D₂ receptor blocker pimozide on timing performance in patients with Tourette syndrome (TS). Nine children with TS were tested off‐medication and following 3 months of daily treatment with pimozide. Subjects completed a time reproduction and a time production task using supra‐second temporal intervals. We show that pimozide improves motor timing performance by reducing the patients' variability in reproducing the duration of visual stimuli. On the other hand, this medication has no effect on the reproduction accuracy and on both variability and accuracy of the performance on the time production task. Our results suggest that pimozide might have improved motor timing variability as a result of its beneficial side effect on endogenous dopamine levels (i.e., normalization).     

主角情绪和时间信息对情境模型加工的影响

采用移动窗口技术探讨了情境模型加工中主角情绪与时间转换因素对情境模型加工的影响。实验1采用单因素被试内设计, 结果显示, 关键句的阅读时间模式为：放松-放松=担心-放松<放松-担心=担心-担心。实验2采用4×2两因素被试内设计, 结果在担心-担心模式下大的时间转换比小的时间转换的阅读时间长, 而时间转换因素对于主角情绪状态是担心-放松、放松-放松和放松-担心模式的加工没有影响。实验结果表明, 读者在阅读语篇时实时追踪主角的情绪状态, 出现了部分的情绪转换效应。阅读中读者体验到的积极的情绪状态有利于情境模型的建构, 相反, 体验到的消极的情绪状态会妨碍情境模型的建构。时间转换因素在一定程度上影响了对主角情绪状态的加工, 主角担心-担心的情绪状态在大的时间转换条件下, 前后两种相同的消极情绪可能会产生一种叠加效应, 使读者的情境模型加工更加困难; 而在小的时间转换条件下, 读者对从放松转向担心的情绪状态的加工会花费更多的认知资源。     

“时间窗”—— 认知加工的后勤基础

时间加工是认知加工的内在属性。因此, 理解发生在知觉或更广泛的认知过程中的时间加工极为重要。为了应对中枢信息加工所面临的外部挑战, 大脑显然已形成了一些用于整合信息的特殊时间窗。已经发现, 其中一个时间窗介于数十毫秒的范围内, 它用于为意识活动产生必要的建构单元。来自反应时、时序阈限以及神经元结构振荡反应的研究为该时间窗的存在提供了实证证据。另一个时间窗的作用范围是2~3秒, 它用于产生“主观现在感”或作为使知觉体的标识保持不变的时间整合区间。支持该窗口存在的实验证据来自时距再现、两可图形、感觉运动同步以及神经生理学研究。还有一种时间窗以昼夜节律的形式存在。所有的心理和生理功能似乎都有着24小时的周期性变化。时间窗的紊乱会以神经或精神疾病的形式表现出来, 这恰恰表明了在基础研究之外对时间加工进行研究的重要性。     

概率贴现和时间贴现在人脑中的分离

本研究运用ERP技术来检验概率贴现和时间贴现是否反映了相同的神经机制过程。在本研究中,我们在一个刺激中同时操纵概率贴现（风险vs.安全）和时间贴现（1个月后vs.今天）水平。通过对两个过程上的ERN以及全时间段的ERP分析来确定它们是否反映了相同的认知过程。结果发现,这两者在ERN上存在差异,同时这两个效应在ERP的时程和出现的电极点上都存在差异。这些差异表明这两者可能包含着不同的神经机制过程。     

社会排斥的研究范式与理论模型

社会排斥是一种普遍现象, 对个体和社会有很大影响, 具多种表现形式。常见研究范式有拒绝范式、放逐范式、孤独终老范式及其他范式。其理论模型有需要-威胁的时间模型、多元动机模型及情绪麻木和自我控制失败说。当前研究在社会排斥对基本需要、情绪和自尊有何影响上存在争议。未来需谨慎使用研究范式, 明确研究对象, 提高研究的生态效度, 寻找社会排斥出现的原因, 探索有效的干预措施, 在中国文化背景下开展社会排斥研究。     

Whose picture is this? Children's memory for item and source information

Children aged 3½ to 6½ years viewed pictures of common objects presented either once or three times on one of two consecutive days. A different hand puppet was used to present the pictures on each day, providing both perceptual and temporal cues to source. At test, old (studied) and new (non‐studied) pictures were presented for item recognition and source identification. Results showed that both item and source accuracy were higher for older (M = 5; 9 years) than younger children (M = 4; 6 years). Significant interactions between Age and Day of study were found for both item and source accuracy. For younger children, accuracy was higher for pictures studied on Day 1 than Day 2 (significant for source identification but not item recognition), whereas older children showed the opposite pattern: Higher accuracy for Day 2 than Day 1 (significant for item recognition but not source identification). Results are interpreted with respect to proactive interference and response bias. The utility of signal detection theory measures in determining the basis of age differences in performance of source identification is discussed.     

Context effects in a temporal discrimination task" further tests of the Scalar Expectancy Theory and Learning-to-Time models

Pigeons were trained on two temporal bisection tasks, which alternated every two sessions. In the first task, they learned to choose a red key after a 1-s signal and a green key after a 4-s signal; in the second task, they learned to choose a blue key after a 4-s signal and a yellow key after a 16-s signal. Then the pigeons were exposed to a series of test trials in order to contrast two timing models, Learning-to-Time (LeT) and Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET). The models made substantially different predictions particularly for the test trials in which the sample duration ranged from 1 s to 16 s and the choice keys were Green and Blue, the keys associated with the same 4-s samples: LeT predicted that preference for Green should increase with sample duration, a context effect, but SET predicted that preference for Green should not vary with sample duration. The results were consistent with LeT. The present study adds to the literature the finding that the context effect occurs even when the two basic discriminations are never combined in the same session.