Individual differences of visual imagery ability in the benefit of a survival judgment task

This study investigated whether or not visual imagery ability affected the benefit of a survival judgment task. Based on the median split of their VVIQ score, 92 undergraduate students were classified as either high imagers (n = 46) or low imagers (n = 46). In the survival task, participants were requested to judge whether an item presented in the form of two Chinese characters was necessary or not in a survival situation. In the image judgment task, participants were requested to judge whether an item presented in the form of two Chinese characters arouses mental images or not. Participants were presented 18 concrete nouns at 4 s intervals in each condition. In both the survival judgment and the image judgment tasks, high imagers recalled more words than low imagers did. This result showed that imagery ability influenced the benefit of the survival judgment task. These results were discussed from the functional perspective of memory. Finally, we proposed the combination hypothesis, which combined elaboration and functional perspectives to explain the benefit of the survival judgment task.     

Role of face‐to‐face and computer‐mediated communication time in the cohesion and performance of mixed‐mode groups

Although the rapid development of information technology has led to the increasing use of computer‐mediated communication (CMC), few studies have examined the relational aspect of mixed‐mode groups that use both face‐to‐face (FTF) communication and CMC. A field study comprising 42 student groups was conducted to assess the relationships among communication time, cohesion, and performance in mixed‐mode groups. The findings suggest that time spent in FTF communication significantly predicted group social cohesion, but time spent in CMC did not. In contrast, group task cohesion was predicted by time spent in CMC but not by time spent in FTF communication. Time spent in CMC was also a strong predictor of group task performance. These results suggest that FTF communication contributes to the social aspect of mixed‐mode groups and that CMC is beneficial to their task‐related aspect. The findings of mediation analyses showed a significant indirect effect among time spent in FTF communication, group social cohesion, and group contextual performance. In other words, time spent in FTF communication had a positive effect on group social cohesion, which in turn positively affected group contextual performance. However, no mediating effect was found among time spent in CMC, group task cohesion, and group task performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

个人自立对注意偏向影响的眼动研究

通过使用基于眼动的罗夏墨迹测验图观察任务与新异/自我观点观察任务来探究个人自立对注意偏向的影响。结果发现:(1)除了第四张图片以外,个人自立高分组在观察其他9张罗夏墨迹测验图时的眨眼率都显著或边缘显著的高于低分组;(2)个人自立高分组在观察两张新异/自我语句图片时进行新异/自我观点回视的次数都要显著多于低分组;(3)在观察第1张新异/自我语句图时,个人自立低分组对自我观点的注意明显多于新异观点。     

The effect of priming a thin ideal on the subsequent perception of conceptually related body image words

Our research examined the effects of thin ideal priming on the perception of body image words in participants without an eating disorder. Half of the participants were primed by viewing thin models, and half were primed with gender-neutral shoes. Subsequently, all participants (N = 56) completed a Stroop task for three categories of words: neutral (BOOKS), shoe (CLOGS), and body (THIGHS). Lastly, all participants completed a body dissatisfaction questionnaire. We predicted that body dissatisfaction scores would be correlated with the Stroop effect. We found a significant correlation between body dissatisfaction and the body effect of slower color naming times for the body related words compared to the neutral words. Our study demonstrates that body dissatisfaction and a brief priming with thin models results in subsequent differences in performing a Stroop task in a non clinical population of female participants.     

搞好哮喘控制是一项长期而艰巨的任务

哮喘在全世界是一个严重的公共卫生问题。当哮喘未控制时,哮喘可以影响患者的日常生活质量,甚至可以致命。搞好哮喘控制工作是一项长期而艰巨的任务,在实际工作中应推广以“哮喘临床控制”为核心的哮喘治疗循环模式,即评估患者的哮喘控制水平、治疗并达到哮喘控制、监测并维持哮喘控制。     

任务切换中切换代价产生的机制

关于任务切换中切换代价的来源和本质,目前主要有三种观点:任务设置惯性、任务设置重构和联结竞争。为揭示三者的关系,研究了在不同延迟时间条件下,预先信息与刺激类型对切换代价的影响机制。结果发现:延迟时间、预先信息和刺激类型对切换代价均有显著的作用,但是,三者之间的二次和三次交互作用均不显著。这表明,切换代价反映了任务设置惯性、任务设置重构和联结竞争三种成分,并且三者的关系是具有可加性的序列认知加工。     

飞行员动态空间表征建构的策略研究

运用动态视觉空间工作记忆任务探讨了飞行员和对照组的动态空间表征的建构特征。从两个方面考察策略运用:(1)在客体运动轨迹表征反应选择项上,根据客体运动轨迹的几何特征将选择项设置为整体型策略和局部型策略;(2)有关策略运用的问卷测试。结果发现,在完成运动轨迹的动态工作记忆时,飞行员更多采用整体策略,控制组更多采用局部。结果提示具有较高空间能力的飞行员在合并运动刺激元素、整合客体表征转化为整体表征时具有优势。最后提出延时动态空间表征表达运动客体运动轨迹表征,其空间构型依赖于一段时间的客体运动特性的积累。     

Distinct neural correlates for two types of inhibition in bilinguals: response inhibition versus interference suppression

To examine the effects of bilingualism on cognitive control, we studied monolingual and bilingual young adults performing a flanker task with functional MRI. The trial types of primary interest for this report were incongruent and no-go trials, representing interference suppression and response inhibition, respectively. Response times were similar between groups. Brain data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) to identify brain regions where activity covaried across conditions. Monolinguals and bilinguals activated different sets of brain regions for congruent and incongruent trials, but showed activation in the same regions for no-go trials. During the incongruent trials, monolinguals activated the left temporal pole and left superior parietal regions. In contrast, an extensive network including bilateral frontal, temporal and subcortical regions was active in bilinguals during the incongruent trials and in both groups for the no-go trials. Correlations between brain activity and reaction time difference relative to neutral trials revealed that monolinguals and bilinguals showed increased activation in different brain regions to achieve less interference from incongruent flankers. Results indicate that bilingualism selectively affects neural correlates for suppressing interference, but not response inhibition. Moreover, the neural correlates associated with more efficient suppression of interference were different in bilinguals than in monolinguals, suggesting a bilingual-specific network for cognitive control.     

Human performance on the temporal bisection task

The perception and processing of temporal information are tasks the brain must continuously perform. These include measuring the duration of stimuli, storing duration information in memory, recalling such memories, and comparing two durations. How the brain accomplishes these tasks, however, is still open for debate. The temporal bisection task, which requires subjects to compare temporal stimuli to durations held in memory, is perfectly suited to address these questions. Here we perform a meta-analysis of human performance on the temporal bisection task collected from 148 experiments spread across 18 independent studies. With this expanded data set we are able to show that human performance on this task contains a number of significant peculiarities, which in total no single model yet proposed has been able to explain. Here we present a simple 2-step decision model that is capable of explaining all the idiosyncrasies seen in the data.     

Temporal preparation,response inhibition and impulsivity

Temporal preparation and impulsivity involve overlapping neural structures (prefrontal cortex) and cognitive functions (response inhibition and time perception), however, their interrelations had not been investigated. We studied such interrelations by comparing the performance of groups with low vs. high non-clinical trait impulsivity during a temporal preparation go no-go task. This task measured, in less than 10 min, how response inhibition was influenced both by temporal orienting of attention (guided by predictive temporal cues) and by sequential effects (produced by repetition/alternation of the duration of preparatory intervals in consecutive trials). The results showed that sequential effects produced dissociable patterns of temporal preparation as a function of impulsivity. Sequential effects facilitated both response speed (reaction times – RTs – to the go condition) and response inhibition (false alarms to the no-go condition) selectively in the low impulsivity group. In the high impulsivity group, in contrast, sequential effects only improved RTs but not response inhibition. We concluded that both excitatory and inhibitory processing may be enhanced concurrently by sequential effects, which enables the temporal preparation of fast and controlled responses. Impulsivity could hence be related to less efficient temporal preparation of that inhibitory processing.