Aging and memory for expected and unexpected objects in real-world settings.

Adult age differences in the consistency effect were examined in 3 experiments. The consistency effect refers to items inconsistent with expectations being better remembered than items consistent with expectations. Younger and older adults walked into an office room and viewed objects that varied in their consistency with expectation. Immediate and delayed recognition tests on item information (i.e., distractors were defined by their semantic identity) revealed that both age groups recognized unexpected items better than expected items. However, when recognition of token information was requested (i.e., distractors were defined by their physical appearance), younger adults, in contrast to older adults, exhibited consistency effects. Also, under divided attention, young adults revealed the same pattern of data as did elderly adults under full attention. The results are discussed in terms of capacity-related differences in distinctive encoding.     

城市绿化景观观赏性的心理学研究

抽取上海地区具有代表性的公共绿地绿化景观样本,编制测评量表对其观赏性进行评价.通过探索性因素分析鉴别该量表的测评维度并基于理论推断和经验归纳确定评价指标,包括整体美感、正性情绪、色彩知觉、形态知觉、负性感受.120名大学生和研究生对景观样本的评价结果表明.高观赏性组的景观与低观赏性组的景观相比,前者的整体美感、正性情绪、形态知觉、色彩知觉维度评价指标及其所含测项的评分均高于后者,彼此差异达到极显著或非常显著的水平,而负性感受维度评价指标评分则是后者极显著地高于前者,而且其测项评分也显著高于前者.本研究编制的量表能够对城市绿化景观观赏性进行有效测评.     

0-6岁儿童早期教育观念的调查研究

本研究采用调查分析法、访谈法,对0-6岁儿童家长与教师的早期教育观念进行了调查.研究发现,这两类群体认为儿童在0-6岁期问最需要关注的是健康的身体素质、诚实守信的道德品质、坚持与专注的学习品质;不同年龄阶段儿童(0-3岁、4-6岁)需要关注的素质与早期教育方式因他们身心发展特点不同而有所不同;(3)青年人与中年人评定的结果基本一致,教师与家长在多个项目的评定上呈现出差异.研究的结果对早期教育的导向有所启示.     

Age-related changes in working and reference memory performance and locomotor activity in the Wistar rat

Wistar rats of three age groups were tested in an automated tunnel-maze system of variable geometry to investigate whether changes in spontaneous locomotor activity and in learning and memory develop differentially or in a correlated fashion as a function of age. Senescent (30 months) as well as mature-adult (17 months) rats showed an age-correlated decline of locomotor activity as compared to the mature-young (5 months) group. Both working-memory (measured as within-trial arm discrimination performance) and reference-memory (measured as avoidance of "blind alley" visits) were severely affected in the senescent group, whereas the middle-aged animals suffered only from a working-memory deficit. The findings provide evidence that locomotor deficits do not necessarily interfere in the assessment of age-related changes in cognitive performance. Furthermore the results support the hypothesis that working and reference memory have different underlying physiological correlates and that these neuronal systems are differentially affected by the aging process.