ObjectivesSeveral studies have examined the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on associative memory (AM) but findings were inconsistent. Here, we aimed to test whether twice-daily rTMS could significantly improve AM.MethodsIn this single-blind, sham-controlled experiment, 40 participants were randomized to receive twice-daily sham or real rTMS sessions for five consecutive days (a total of 16,000 pulses). The stimulation target in left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) exhibiting peak functional connectivity to the left hippocampus was individually defined for each participant. Participants (...) completed both a picture-cued word association task and Stroop test at baseline and 1 day after the final real or sham rTMS session. Effects of twice-daily rTMS on AM and Stroop test performance were compared using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance with main factors Group (real vs. sham) and Time (baseline vs. post-rTMS).ResultsThere was a significant Group × Time interaction effect. AM score was significantly enhanced in the twice-daily real group after rTMS, but this difference could not survive the post hoc analysis after multiple comparison correction. Further, AM improvement in the twice-daily real group was not superior to a previously reported once-daily rTMS group receiving 8,000 pulses. Then, we combined the twice- and once-daily real groups, and found a significant Group × Time interaction effect. Post hoc analysis indicated that the AM score was significantly enhanced in the real group after multiple comparisons correction.ConclusionOur prospective experiment did not show significant rTMS effect on AM, but this effect may become significant if more participants could be recruited as revealed by our retrospective analysis. (shrink)

The unified theory of dose and effect, as indicated by the median-effect equation for single and multiple entities and for the first and higher order kinetic/dynamic, has been established by T.C. Chou and it is based on the physical/chemical principle of the massaction law (J. Theor. Biol. 59: 253-276, 1976 (質量作用中效定理) and Pharmacological Rev. 58: 621-681, 2006) (普世中效指數定理). The theory was developed by the principle of mathematical induction and deduction (數學演繹歸納法). Rearrangements of the median-effect equation lead to Michaelis-Menten, Hill, Scatchard, (...) and Henderson-Hasselbalch equations. The “median” serves as the universal reference point and the “common link” for the relationship of all entities and is also the “harmonic mean” of kinetic dissociation constants. Over 300 mechanism-specific equations have been derived and published using the mathematical induction-deduction process. These equations can be deduced into several general equations, including the median-mediated whole/part equation, combination index theorem, isobologram equation, and polygonogram. It is proven that “dose” and “effect” are interchangeable, thus, “substance” and “function” are interchangeable, which leads to “the unity theory” (劑效、心物、知行一元論) in quantitative mathematical philosophy (數學的定量哲學) in functional context. Therefore, a general theory centered on the “median” and based on equilibrium dynamics has evolved. In other words: [「中」的宇宙觀： 以「中」爲基凖的動力學生態平衡]. Based on the median-effect equation of the mass-action law, the fundamental claim is that we can draw “a specific cure” for only two data points, if they are determined accurately. This claim has far reaching consequences since it defies the general held belief that two points can dray only a straight line. Remarkably, the unity theory (一元論) providesscientific/mathematical interpretation in equations and in graphics of Chinese ancient philosophy, including Fu-Si Ba Gua (伏羲八卦), Dao’s Harmony (和諧), the Confucian doctrine of the mean (儒家中庸之道), Chou Dun-Yi’s (周敦頤, 1017-1073) From Wu-ji to Tai-ji and Taiji Tu Sho (無極而太極及太極圖說). The moderntopological analysis for trinity yields an exact correspondence to the Ba-Gua, which was introduced over 4,000 years ago. Furthermore, the median-centered algorithm, promotes modern ecological content (生態學) in the equilibral dynamic state of harmony. It is concluded that Western science and Eastern philosophy are directly linked and complementary to each other. Since the truth in mathematical quantitative philosophy (數學的定量哲學) has no boundaries, East and West philosophies can flourish together for the common goal and ideal in science and in humanity (世界大同). (shrink)

以明末清初理學文本與話語為主要研究對象， 試圖重探明清之際思想轉型的重大議題。 從儒者的生死觀、工夫論、舜的聖人形象、孝行與家禮、 夫婦之倫、人性論等主題， 分析明清之際儒學如何在歷史發展及反思中自我修正與轉化， 建構一個能兼顧個人道德修養與家庭社群人倫，能對治晚明學風之弊， 並在日用人倫中重建社會秩序的思想體系。 呂妙芬新作《成聖與家庭人倫：宗教對話脈絡下的明清之際儒學》鎖定明清之際（以十七世紀為主）的理學為主要研究範圍，試圖以更豐富而新穎的史料、新的研究議題與視角，來探討明清之際儒學的發展與轉型，也試圖回應一 些過去學者提出的看法。 呂妙芬在本書裡認為理學的信念在清代仍是支持政治與社會的價值體系，理學的議題也仍是士人關心的問題，清代理學思想與話語也不盡然因襲舊說，而有其推陳出新之處，只是這方面較未被充分探討認知。 《成聖與家庭人倫》一書也強調當時儒學是在高度宗教對話的語境中發言，調整自我義理內涵，書中亦論及儒學宗教化與庶民化的現象，及對過去啓蒙論述的反思。 本書共分三部，第一部「成聖、不朽、家庭人倫」包含三章，主要探討明清之際儒學發展的延續與變化，並標出「成聖」與「家庭人倫」為核心議題。第一章〈生死觀的新發展〉探討明清之際理學話語中，是否出現類似個體靈魂 的概念？是否有關於死後想像的論述？第二章〈儒門聖賢皆孝子〉延續了上一章的討論，主要根據的文本也相近，焦點則轉到清初儒學與晚明儒學的差異。第三章〈聖人處兄弟之變〉考察明清士人對於《孟子》記載舜、象兄弟故 事的不同詮釋，說明士人對於舜的詮釋反映了他們對儒學理想與聖人形象的思索。 第二部「血脈與道脈的雙重認同」包含兩章，內容則離開思想觀念的分析，轉而探討萬里尋親、居家拜聖賢兩種實踐行為，藉此說明家族血脈與儒學道脈在儒家士人心目中具有同等重要的地位。第四章選擇與宗族文化密切相關的 萬里尋親孝行為主題，支持此類孝行的理念正是儒家的孝道思想，以及「家」作為永恆歸屬的觀念。第五章討論明清士人在家拜聖賢的禮儀實踐。明清時期祭拜儒家聖賢之禮，除了在孔廟、鄉賢祠、學校和書院中，或在某些民間 宗教的寺廟中舉行外，它也以一種堅持儒學正統、不與其他宗教混合的方式，走入士人家庭。 第三部「宗教對話語境下的儒學論述」共有兩章，分別討論夫婦之倫、人性論兩個主題。第六章探討儒學在夫婦之道的神聖性與戒淫之間的張力，以及因發言語境之差異所形成關於夫婦之倫的不同論述面向。第七章是針對明清氣 學人性論的探討。結論部分則分別就「從晚明到清初學術思想的延續與創新」、「儒學的宗教關懷與庶民化傾向」、「再思17世紀儒學轉型在中國思想史上的意義」三方面，總結說明本書的主要論點。.

Why do people comply with coronavirus disease 2019 public health guidance? This study considers cultural-psychological foundations of variation in beliefs about motivations for such compliance. Specifically, we focused on beliefs about two sources of prosocial motivation: desire to protect others and obligation to society. Across two studies, we observed that the relative emphasis on the desire to protect others as an explanation for compliance was greater in the United States settings associated with cultural ecologies of abstracted independence than in Chinese (...) settings associated with cultural ecologies of embedded interdependence. We observed these patterns for explanations of psychological experience of both others and self, and for compliance with mandates for both social distancing and face masks. Discussion of results considers both practical implications for motivating compliance with public health guidance and theoretical implications for denaturalizing prevailing accounts of prosocial motivation. (shrink)

The ‘happy fish’ dialogue is one of the best-known and heatedly debated passages of the Zhuangzi. Scholars have constructed different interpretations of the dialogue. Some argue that this dialogue expresses the idea of living at ease and enjoying life as it is; some refer to the idea of anti-anthropocentrism, while others reconstruct the dialogue as certain epistemological debates. This paper examines the connotations of ‘fish’, ‘water’, and ‘river’ in early Chinese political discourses and reads the political connotations in the dialogue (...) between Zhuangzi and Huizi. This can lead to an alternative interpretation, which is that, at its core, this passage is a dialogue between these two men on politics and their political careers. (shrink)

Recent years have seen a surge in accounts motivated by information theory that consider language production to be partially driven by a preference for communicative efficiency. Evidence from discourse production (i.e., production beyond the sentence level) has been argued to suggest that speakers distribute information across discourse so as to hold the conditional per-word entropy associated with each word constant, which would facilitate efficient information transfer (Genzel & Charniak, 2002). This hypothesis implies that the conditional (contextualized) probabilities of linguistic units (...) affect speakers’ preferences during production. Here, we extend this work in two ways. First, we explore how preceding cues are integrated into contextualized probabilities, a question which so far has received little to no attention. Specifically, we investigate how a cue's maximal informativity about upcoming words (the cue's effectiveness) decays as a function of the cue's recency. Based on properties of linguistic discourses as well as properties of human memory, we analytically derive a model of cue effectiveness decay and evaluate it against cross-linguistic data from 12 languages. Second, we relate the information theoretic accounts of discourse production to well-established mechanistic (activation-based) accounts: We relate contextualized probability distributions over words to their relative activation in a lexical network given preceding discourse. (shrink)

Status updates on social network sites (SNSs) as a new medium for people to express “what is on your mind” on the Internet can provide much information. In the current study, we statistically analysed survey data to examine whether individuals utilize impression management in their status updates on SNSs, whether their attempts at impression management are successful, and whether users who post these status updates can infer how others view them based on these contents, whether the status updates posted on (...) SNSs reflect information about users’ Big Five personality traits. The findings suggested that the meta–perception and perceivers’ judgments of all five traits are quite accurate, despite users’ aim to create different impression of most traits in their status updates. This study offers new empirical evidence about the model of interpersonal perception on SNSs and shows that status updates on SNSs can provide considerable information about their authors. (shrink)

This study explores the connections between time, travel, and creative acts such as painting and poetry, highlighting the similarities that unite these themes. It also focuses on the relationships between the East and the West in regards to these subjects, and posits that travel can be understood as an active form of meditation. The study argues that the meaning of wanderings can be found by learning to make them conscious, and that there has been a deep reflection on time, consciousness, (...) and mobility since ancient times. (shrink)

In association with the development of intermittent renewable energy generation, dynamic multiobjective dispatch faces more challenges for power system operation due to significant REG uncertainty. To tackle the problems, a day-ahead, optimal dispatch problem incorporating energy storage is formulated and solved based on a robust multiobjective optimization method. In the proposed model, dynamic multistage ES and generator dispatch patterns are optimized to reduce the cost and emissions. Specifically, strong constraints of the charging/discharging behaviors of the ES in the space-time domain (...) are considered to prolong its lifetime. Additionally, an adaptive robust model based on minimax multiobjective optimization is formulated to find optimal dispatch solutions adapted to uncertain REG changes. Moreover, an effective optimization algorithm, namely, the hybrid multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization and Teaching Learning Based Optimization, is employed to seek an optimal Pareto front of the proposed dispatch model. This approach has been tested on power system integrated with wind power and ES. Numerical results reveal that the robust multiobjective dispatch model successfully meets the demands of obtaining solutions when wind power uncertainty is considered. Meanwhile, the comparison results demonstrate the competitive performance of the PSO-TLBO method in solving the proposed dispatch problems. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that various epistemic challenges associated with eating disorders (EDs) can negatively affect the care of already marginalized patient groups with various EDs. I will first outline deficiencies in our understanding of EDs—in research, healthcare settings, and beyond. I will then illustrate with examples cases where discriminatory misconceptions about what EDs are, the presentation and treatment of EDs, and who gets EDs, instantiate obstacles for the treatment of various ED patient groups.

The introduction of corporate mode into universities with the widespread of neoliberalism has posed threats to intellectuals’ academic creativity and political sensitivity. To respond to the threats, I argue that it is high time we talk about educating hope. Moreover, I contend that Richard Rorty and Gilles Deleuze’s theories on hope can be of great help in understanding the complexity and exquisiteness of hope—non-representational and non-metaphysical, dependent on contingent encounters, transformative and political.

As part of a larger project, this paper serves as an overview that examines how “ai” 愛 as an affective concept made its way into the Chinese vocabulary, how it gained popularity at specific junctures in modern Chinese history, and the ways in which it has been adapted as a marker of modernity and a political discourse in Republican and Communist China in distinct ways. Although literary scholars have noted the significance of the shaping of love as an affective concept (...) for the project of Chinese modernity, they mainly focus on the conceptions and interpretations of love in the literature, and with a time frame from late imperial to Maoist China. The few studies about love in post-Mao era usually attribute the sources of such affect to Christianity. My paper makes a fresh contribution in three aspects. First, I take a longer historical perspective, from the 1910s to the 2010s, and dedicate, secondly, a large part of my study to the decisive impact from revolutionary radicalism to popular religions on the formation of the discourse of state propaganda and everyday politics, rather than manifestations in the literature and sources from Christianity. Third, I study some of the most controversial political figures in modern China, including Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, and Xi Jinping, rather than intellectuals and writers only. (shrink)

Increasing concerns have been raised regarding artificial intelligence (AI) bias, and in response, efforts have been made to pursue AI fairness. In this paper, we argue that the idea of structural injustice serves as a helpful framework for clarifying the ethical concerns surrounding AI bias—including the nature of its moral problem and the responsibility for addressing it—and reconceptualizing the approach to pursuing AI fairness. Using AI in healthcare as a case study, we argue that AI bias is a form of (...) structural injustice that exists when AI systems interact with other social factors to exacerbate existing social inequalities, making some groups of people more vulnerable to undeserved burdens while conferring unearned benefits to others. The goal of AI fairness, understood this way, is about pursuing a more just social structure with the development and usage of AI systems when appropriate. We further argue that all participating agents in the unjust social structure associated with AI bias bear a shared responsibility to join collective action with the goal of reforming the social structure, and we provide a list of practical recommendations for agents in various social positions to contribute to this collective action. (shrink)

For almost 700 years shoguns ruled Japan. These "gentleman warriors" developed a dedicated system of honor and strict guidlelines of behavior that Taira Shigesuke first brought together in his 16th century book—Bushido Shoshinshu. Present to a modern audience in clear, easy-to-read English, this new translation captures the majesty of the higher principles as well as the usefulness of the daily advice. From principles such as "a samurai should keep foremost in his mind the fact that he must die" to rules (...) regarding duty, personal obligation and even money management, this book sets out the guidelines that defined Japan's "way of the warrior." Honor and obligation are emphasised above all to the reader, who is taught that a samurai is expected to be indifferenet to pain, unquestioningly loyal, and an expert in his training. (shrink)

唯识学种子说通过在微分、刹那层面探讨深层心识的构造活动和存在的本质，论证了佛教缘起性空的非本体立场，属于一种“非本体”的本体诠释。但是，由于受到中国固有思维的影响，中国佛学不再侧重强调法性即空性的“非 本体”立场，而是把法性和心性主体结合起来，倾向于设立一种“实体化”的本体，形成了“心性本体论”。由非本体的本体诠释逐渐转向心性本体的本体诠释是印度唯识学在心识哲学层面中国化的基本趋势。.

A tic disorder (TD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by tics, which are repetitive movements and/or vocalizations that occur due to aberrant sensory gating. Its pathophysiology involves dysfunction in multiple parts of the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. Spontaneous brain activity during the resting state can be used to evaluate the baseline brain state, and it is associated with various aspects of behavior and cognitive processes. Theta–gamma coupling (TGC) is an emerging technique for examining how neural networks process information through interactions. However, the (...) resting-state TGC of patients with TD and its correlation with cognitive function have not yet been studied. We investigated the resting-state TGC of 13 patients with TD and compared it with that of 13 age-matched healthy children. The participants underwent resting-state electroencephalography with their eyes closed. At the global level, patients with TD showed a significantly lower resting-state TGC than healthy children. Resting-state TGC with the eyes closed was significantly negatively correlated with the attention quotient calculated for omission errors in a selective visual attention test. These findings indicate that the resting-state brain network, which is important for the attentional processing of visual information, is dysfunctional in patients with TD. Additionally, these findings support the view that TGC reflects information processing and signal interactions at the global level. Patients with TD may have difficulty gating irrelevant sensory information in the resting state while their eyes are closed. (shrink)

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) simulates uncertain gains and losses in real life situations and thus is a good measure of uncertain decision making. The role of working memory (WM) in IGT performance still remains unclear. The present study aimed to examine the effect of WM on IGT performance. Three groups of participants matched on gender ratio were randomly assigned to no WM load, low WM load, and high WM load conditions. Initially the three groups did not show significant difference (...) in WM capacity. They finished a modified version of IGT and then their implicit learning effect and explicit cognition on IGT were assessed. Results indicated a linear increasing trend of IGT performance among high WM load, low WM load and no WM load groups; participants in the no WM load and low WM load groups revealed implicit learning effect, while participants in the high WM load group did not; all participants showed explicit cognition on IGT to the same level. These results suggested that participants in the high WM load group showed good explicit cognition to IGT but showed poor performance. This pattern is similar to frontal patients. Further studies should be conducted to explore this issue. (shrink)

Background: The work engagement of police officers pertains to social stability and security, as well as to the orderly operation of the political-economic environment. Although there are many studies on work engagement at present, few studies focus on the influencing factors of police officers’ work engagement. According to the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory, organizational job resources (e.g., perceived organizational support) and personal resources (e.g., regulatory emotional self-efficacy) are important factors influencing work engagement. We assume a (...) moderated mediation model in which job satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and work engagement, regulatory emotional self-efficacy moderates not only the relationship between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction but also the relationship between job satisfaction and work engagement. Objective and Method: This study explores the drivers of work engagement through perceived organizational support and regulatory emotional self-efficacy among Chinese police officers using a convenient sampling method to administer a questionnaire to 744 Chinese police officers. A mediated model is proposed to investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction and the regulating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Results: Job satisfaction mediated a positive relationship between organizational support and work engagement, and the perceived organizational support-job satisfaction and the job satisfaction-work engagement relationships were positively moderated by regulatory emotional self-efficacy, such that these relationships were stronger at higher levels of regulatory emotional self-efficacy. These findings, have a practical significance for Chinese police officers’ work engagement advancement. (shrink)

In this article, I critique the commonly accepted distinction between commercial and altruistic surrogacy arrangements. The moral legitimacy of surrogacy, I claim, does not hinge on whether it is paid (‘commercial’) or unpaid (‘altruistic’); rather, it is best determined by appraisal of virtue-abiding conditions constitutive of the surrogacy arrangement. I begin my article by problematising the prevailing commercial/altruistic distinction; next, I demonstrate that an assessment of the virtue-abiding or non-virtue-abiding features of a surrogacy is crucial to navigating questions about the (...) moral legitimacy of surrogacy; in the final part, I reject other moral heuristics that might be proposed as alternatives to the commercial/altruistic dichotomy, and reiterate that a virtue-ethical framework is the most suitable way forward. (shrink)

Although several articles have investigated ethical product attributes, earlier research has not empirically examined different benefits offered by ethical attributes. This study demonstrates that ethical attributes have functional benefits as well as symbolic benefits. More importantly, when the ethical attribute benefit is congruent with the product category benefit, ethical attributes improve product evaluations. In addition, products with a higher degree of physical contact with consumers are affected more positively by benefit congruity of ethical attributes. For products with lower degree of (...) physical contact, benefit congruity of ethical attributes still has a positive impact, but not for consumers who have strong price–quality beliefs. (shrink)

This study is aimed to identify the relative effect of online review ratings and perceived crowding on purchase intentions of a consumer. Our study also investigated the contingent effect of gender and perceived crowding between the relationship of exogenous and endogenous variables. This study was conducted in the Malaysian restaurant industry. We applied the purposive sampling technique to identify respondents, the mall intercept survey method was used for data collection. Smart PLS software was applied for data analysis. This study demonstrates (...) through its results that online review ratings and perceived crowding have a positive effect on purchase intentions of a consumer. Moreover, if a consumer perceives crowding at a restaurant, this has a positive contingent effect on the relationship between review ratings and purchase intentions. This demonstrates that the consumer is more inclined to choose a restaurant with a high online review rating and has high perceived crowding at some unfamiliar place. Lastly, no evidence is found for the gender difference between review rating and purchase intentions; however, gender shows contingent effect and results confirmed that males preferred more crowded restaurants as compared to females. There are theoretical and practical implications for managers in the findings of this study. (shrink)

Matti Eklund (2017) has argued that ardent realists face a serious dilemma. Ardent realists believe that there is a mind-independent fact as to which normative concepts we are to use. Eklund claims that the ardent realist cannot explain why this is so without plumping in favor of their own normative concepts or changing the topic. The paper first advances the discussion by clarifying two ways of understanding the question of which normative concepts to choose: a theoretical question about which concepts (...) have the abstract property of being normatively privileged and a further practical question of which concepts we are to choose even granting some concepts are thus privileged. I argue that the ardent realist’s best bet for answering the theoretical question while avoiding Eklund’s dilemma is to provide a real definition of this property. I point out the difficulties for providing such a definition. I then argue that even with an answer to the theoretical question, the ardent realist faces a further dilemma in answering the practical question. In sum, though I see no knock-down argument against ardent realism, it may nonetheless die a death by a thousand cuts. I close by considering a deeper reason for why ardent realism is so difficult to defend: every argument starts somewhere. It is unclear how there can be an Archimedean point that makes no reference to any normative concepts that can nonetheless be employed to convince everyone to adopt ours. I then briefly propose two options for someone still inclined towards realism: (i) accept that our normative concepts are normatively privileged without attempting to explain why this is so, or (ii) be less ardent and accept a perspective-dependent account of normativity. (shrink)

BackgroundFatigue is an important factor for the safety of ships. In order to alleviate fatigue of the seafarers, the STCW Convention has made many regulations on the working time of seafarers. At present, if a crew member takes only one day off at home before returning to work on the ship, the working time on the ship must be re-calculated again. If the time spent at home is not sufficient to allow the crew to recover, the regulations of only stipulating (...) the working time, not stipulating the home vacation time, cannot guarantee the crew’s fatigue been well controlled. The aim of present study is to explore the relationship between vacation schedule and fatigue of the seafarers.MethodsIn present study, a simplified stress scale developed by the Ministry of Labor of Japan has been used as a measurement tool. The method of stratified sampling was adopted. Data collection mainly came from domestic ocean-going seafarers. Analysis was conducted using the Cross analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis methods.ResultsWe found that there was no difference between crew members of different positions in terms of average vacation time and on-board service time. The length of last vacation time and this service time for seafarers of different positions showed obvious differences. The rank has a significant effect on the length of the last vacation and the length of this service time. Also, the results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between the duration of vacation and overall fatigue, while there was a significant positive correlation between the length of service time on board and overall fatigue.ConclusionThe results indicated that a reasonable vacation schedule was crucial for the relief of the seafarers’ fatigue, and also played a positive role in the state of working on the ship again. (shrink)

What distinguishes low, middle, and high art? In this article, I give an ameliorative analysis of these concepts. On what I call the Capacity View, the distinction between low, middle, and high art depends on the relation between an artwork’s perceiver (specifically her aesthetic responsive capacities) and the perceived artwork. Though the Capacity View may not align perfectly with folk usage, the view is worth our attention due to three attractive upshots. First, it explains how an artwork’s status level can (...) be elevated or lowered over time and why biases can lead to mistaken judgments about such statuses. Second, it sheds light on the idea of cultural inheritance and why certain forms of aesthetic deference may be justified. Finally, it explains how high, middle, and low art each make distinctive contributions to the good life. (shrink)

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to perform the translation and adaption of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire into Chinese and assess the reliability of the Chinese version.Materials and MethodsThe Chinese version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire was created from a standard forward-backward translation. A total of 371 volunteers, aged between 20 and 89 years, participated in this survey. Participants were divided into three age-groups, and subgroup differences were examined by independent samples t-tests, ANOVA analysis as well as post-hoc (...) analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was applied to test the association between the total scores and each subscore. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire were assessed. The test-retest reliability was measured among 40 participants with a 2-week interval using intraclass correlation coefficient.ResultsStrong correlations were observed between the total scores and each subscore. In contrast, it was found low to moderate correlations among three subscores. The internal consistency was acceptable. The intraclass correlation coefficient for total scores of the Chinese version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire was 0.87.ConclusionThe Chinese version of the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire was a potentially reliable and practical tool for evaluating cognitive reserve accumulated through a person's life span. (shrink)

Interactional competence has attracted increasing attention due to its significance for language users. Previous studies concerning interactional competence mainly focus on synchronous interaction tasks, while the utilization of asynchronous interaction tasks is relatively under-explored despite the importance of asynchronous interaction in real life. Taking the “Responding To Forum Posts” task used in the International Undergraduate English Entrance Examination at Shanghai Jiao Tong University as an example, the study aims to validate the use of asynchronous interaction tasks in the assessment of (...) learner’s interactional competence. 49 students’ performances on the RTFP task were collected through a prototype test of the IUEEE in 2021. The data were analyzed through content analysis, analysis of variance, and ordinal logistic regression. The results showed that the task elicited a wide range of interactional features and test-takers at different proficiency levels differed significantly in the variety of features and the amount of emotion-based interaction. The study also found significant correlations between some of the features and test takers’ overall performance on interactional competence. The study has provided validity evidence for the RTFP task in the assessment of interactional competence and thrown light on the construct of asynchronous written interactional competence. (shrink)