Lexical processing in children and adults during word copying

Copying text may seem trivial, but the task itself is psychologically complex. It involves a series of sequential visual and cognitive processes, which must be co-ordinated; these include visual encoding, mental representation and written production. To investigate the time course of word processing during copying, we recorded eye movements of adults and children as they hand-copied isolated words presented on a classroom board. Longer and lower frequency words extended adults' encoding durations, suggesting whole word encoding. Only children's short word encoding was extended by lower frequency. Though children spent more time encoding long words compared to short words, gaze durations for long words were extended similarly for high- and low-frequency words. This suggested that for long words children used partial word representations and encoded multiple sublexical units rather than single whole words. Piecemeal word representation underpinned copying longer words in children, but reliance on partial word representations was not shown in adult readers.     

大学生思维方式与应对方式的关系研究

运用思维方式问卷和应对方式问卷对663名大学生进行测试,旨在从文化视角探讨大学生思维方式的特点及其与应对方式的关系。结果表明:(1)大学生思维方式在专业、地域、年级等人口统计变量上存在显著差异:文科生思维的整体性显著高于理工科和艺术类;南方人思维的变化性显著高于北方人;大二学生思维的整体性显著高于大一和大三,大一思维的变化性显著高于大四年级。(2)思维方式对应对方式具有显著的预测作用。其中,协变性对积极应对正向作用显著、对消极应对中的自责和合理化负向作用显著;矛盾性对积极应对负向作用显著、对消极应对正向作用显著。思维的整体性和变化性针对性较强:整体性有助于解决问题的积极应对,变化性可有效避免自责、幻想、合理化的消极应对方式。     

Horse sense: social status of horses (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Equus caballus</Emphasis>) affects their likelihood of copying other horses’ behavior

Animals that live in stable social groups need to gather information on their own relative position in the group's social hierarchy, by either directly threatening or by challenging others, or indirectly and in a less perilous manner , by observing interactions among others. Indirect inference of dominance relationships has previously been reported from primates, rats, birds, and fish. Here, we show that domestic horses, Equus caballus, are similarly capable of social cognition. Taking advantage of a specific "following behavior" that horses show towards humans in a riding arena, we investigated whether bystander horses adjust their response to an experimenter according to the observed interaction and their own dominance relationship with the horse whose reaction to the experimenter they had observed before. Horses copied the "following behavior" towards an experimenter after watching a dominant horse following but did not follow after observing a subordinate horse or a horse from another social group doing so. The "following behavior," which horses show towards an experimenter, therefore appears to be affected by the demonstrator's behavior and social status relative to the observer.