判断框架对时序知觉位置启动效应的影响

研究采用包含两种判断框架（判断刺激出现的先后次序）的时序判断任务探讨了决策偏向对时序知觉位置启动效应的影响。实验结果表明,时序知觉中存在着位置启动效应,而且在两个靶刺激出现时间间隔不同时,被试在“哪个靶刺激先出现”和“哪个靶刺激后出现”两种判断框架下的正确率存在显著差异,但在两个靶刺激同时出现时并没有出现显著的判断框架效应。因此,本研究推测时序知觉位置启动效应的作用机制不仅包括知觉增强加工过程,而且也与认知决策有关,这为反应偏向理论提供了新的支持证据。     

消费者对犯错品牌评价的时间打折效应及其影响因素

通过研究品牌犯错的时间打折效应,本文试图探讨潜在消费者（未购买者）对犯错品牌评价的心理倾向。实验1研究发现,随着品牌犯错事件时间距离的延伸,消费者对身体性危害-品牌犯错的评价不会改善,即没有出现时间打折效应,而对功能性危害-品牌犯错的评价则逐渐提高,从而表现出时间打折效应。但实验2研究进一步发现,随着品牌犯错事件相关性的增强,功能性危害-品牌犯错的时间打折效应也消失。结论：潜在消费者对犯错品牌评价的心理倾向表现为“消费者防御”,并且身体性危害-品牌犯错启动的消费者防御要强于功能性危害。     

句子阅读理解过程中句意的建构时间

一般语言学理论认为, 在句子阅读理解过程中, 句子意义建构是基于词汇语义整合的, 其反映在N400之上, 开始于词语呈现后约250 ms。然而, 近年关于语义P600效应的研究却提示句意建构可能存在多通道或方式, 读者甚至可能在N400反映的加工出现之前就已建立了初步句意。为探明在句子阅读理解过程中是否存在比N400反映的加工更早的句意建构, 以及如果存在这样的句意建构, 其是从何时开始的, 本研究开展了四个实验。实验1发现被试在句末双字词呈现200 ms后已将其联系到上文语义表征而建立了句意, 提示句意建构开始于N400反映的加工出现之前。实验2与3进一步发现, 读者开始建立句意的时间约在句末词呈现了150 ms之时。实验4排除了实验1~3效应的其他一些可能解释, 提升了实验1~3结果的可靠性。总体上, 本研究提示：在句子阅读理解过程中, 读者在句末双字词呈现了约150 ms之时就已建立了句意; 可能存在比N400反映的加工更早的句意建构。     

视听时间再校准：适应空间与适应客体的联合及独立作用

同一事件的视听成分即使同时发生, 由于两种信息的物理传播与神经传导速度的差异, 大脑知觉到它们的时刻仍会存在一定的延迟。时间再校准指大脑可以最小化并适应这段时间延迟的现象。本研究采用“适应—测验”范式, 在适应阶段连续给被试呈现视觉先于听觉或听觉先于视觉128ms的刺激对, 在测验阶段以时序判断任务来测量被试此时主观同时点的变化。通过操纵适应及新异视听刺激对(即适应客体与新异客体)在测验阶段出现的空间位置, 探索空间与客体因素对视听时间再校准的影响。结果发现, 当适应客体出现于适应空间时, 主观同时点显著偏向了时间延迟的方向; 同样显著或边缘显著的主观同时点偏移还发生于适应客体出现于未适应空间时, 以及新异客体出现于适应空间时。研究表明, 视听时间再校准在不同空间中的表现取决于适应空间与适应客体的联合或独立作用。     

文本阅读中时间信息加工特点及二阶段模型的建构

时间信息的加工一直是当代阅读心理研究的热点。以往研究对时间信息表征的性质、维度特征、提取机制等问题存在诸多争论, 主要表现为强印象假设与场景理论的冲突。我们认为, 文本阅读中时间信息的加工包括两个阶段：加工时间词以及低水平的更新情景模型阶段和通达与整合先前信息阶段, 强印象假设和场景理论争论的实质在于前者解释的是加工的第一个阶段, 而后者解释的是加工的第二个阶段, 因此, 总是难以调和。本项目首先在更高的理论层面上将二者加以整合, 然后采用经典的认知心理学研究方法与现代的眼动研究技术相结合的方法, 通过对文本阅读中时间信息表征性质、加工的维度特征、提取过程的激活与抑制特征等问题的探讨, 为本项目提出的时间信息加工的二阶段模型提供行为实验与眼动实验证据, 从而解决该领域中强印象假设与场景理论的长期争论。本项目的理论构想与研究技术对文本阅读其他问题的探讨具有重要的方法论意义。     

Neural substrates of cognitive skill learning in Parkinson's disease

While cognitive skill learning is normally acquired implicitly through frontostriatal circuitry in healthy individuals, neuroimaging studies suggest that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) do so by activating alternate, intact brain areas associated with explicit memory processing. To further test this hypothesis, 10 patients with PD and 12 healthy controls were tested on a modified, learning version of the Tower of London task while undergoing positron emission tomography at four different time points over the course of learning. Despite having less accurate problem solving abilities than controls, PD patients were able to acquire the skill learning task. However, as compared to controls, they maintained higher levels of cerebral blood flow activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus and showed an increase in activity in the frontopolar cortex and posterior cingulate over the course of learning. These findings reflect a shift to the explicit memory system in PD patients, enabling them to learn this cognitive skill, which is normally acquired by control subjects using implicit learning strategies and frontostriatal circuitry.     

Quantification over Sets of Possible Worlds in Branching-Time Semantics

Temporal logic is one of the many areas in which a possible world semantics is adopted. Prior's Ockhamist and Peircean semantics for branching-time, though, depart from the genuine Kripke semantics in that they involve a quantification over histories, which is a second-order quantification over sets of possible worlds. In the paper, variants of the original Prior's semantics will be considered and it will be shown that all of them can be viewed as first-order counterparts of the original semantics.     

Beyond Fear Emotional Memory Mechanisms in the Human Brain

ABSTRACT— Neurobiological accounts of emotional memory have been derived largely from animal models investigating the encoding and retention of memories for events that signal threat. This literature has implicated the amygdala, a structure in the brain's temporal lobe, in the learning and consolidation of fear memories. Its role in fear conditioning has been confirmed, but the human amygdala also interacts with cortical regions to mediate other aspects of emotional memory. These include the encoding and consolidation of pleasant and unpleasant arousing events into long-term memory, the narrowing of focus on central emotional information, the retrieval of prior emotional events and contexts, and the subjective experience of recollection and emotional intensity during retrieval. Along with other mechanisms that do not involve the amygdala, these functions ensure that significant life events leave a lasting impression in memory.     

Numerical and non-numerical ordinality processing in children with and without developmental dyscalculia: Evidence from fMRI

Ordinality is – beyond numerical magnitude (i.e., quantity) – an important characteristic of the number system. There is converging empirical evidence that (intra)parietal brain regions mediate number magnitude processing. Furthermore, recent findings suggest that the human intraparietal sulcus (IPS) supports magnitude and ordinality in a domain-general way. However, the latter findings are derived from adult studies and with respect to children (i.e., developing brain systems) both the neural correlates of ordinality processing and the precise role of the IPS (domain-general vs. domain-specific) in ordinality processing are thus far unknown. The present study aims at filling this gap by employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate numerical and non-numerical ordinality knowledge in children with and without developmental dyscalculia. In children (without DD) processing of numerical and non-numerical ordinality alike is supported by (intra)parietal cortex, thus extending the notion of a domain-general (intra)parietal cortex to developing brain systems. Moreover, activation extents in response to numerical ordinality processing differ significantly between children with and without dyscalculia in inferior parietal regions (supramarginal gyrus and IPS).     

Changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills: an fMRI study

The aim of the present study is to investigate the learning-related changes in brain activation induced by the training of hypothesis generation skills regarding biological phenomena. Eighteen undergraduate participants were scanned twice with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after training over a period of 2 months. The experimental group underwent eight biological hypothesis generation training programs, but the control group was not given any during the 2-month period. The results showed that the left frontal gyri, the cingulate gyrus, and the cuneus were activated during hypothesis generation. In addition, the brain activation of the trained group increased in the left inferior and the superior frontal gyri, which are related to working memory load and higher-order inferential processes. However, the activation after training decreased in the occipito-parietal route, which is associated with the perception and the analysis processes of visual information. Furthermore, the results have suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) region is the critical area in the training of hypothesis generation skills.