Youguo Chen

Increasing evidence shows that time perception can also be described as a form of unconscious Bayesian inference. A controversy in Bayesian modeling of time perception revolves around whether individuals rely on the statistical regularity of input durations as priors (statistical priors) or dynamically update the priors with each estimate (dynamic priors). In a time reproduction task, participants were asked to reproduce a series of sample durations within both short and long time ranges, while the electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded synchronously. Behavioral results showed that within each range, short durations were overestimated while long durations were underestimated. Additionally, the reproduced time increased proportionally with the duration of the preceding trial. Prediction errors (PE) were calculated based on both types of priors. Within each range, the statistical and dynamic priors both predicted the PE decreased as the sample duration of the current trial increased, while only the dynamic prior predicted PE increased with the sample duration of the preceding trial. EEG results showed that the offset of the sample duration elicited a frontocentral distributed P3a. Within each range, the P3a amplitude decreased as the current sample duration increased, and increased as the duration in the previous trial increased. The PE calculated based on dynamic priors more accurately predicted the P3a amplitude compared to the PE calculated using statistical priors. These results suggest that the P3a serves as a neural signature of temporal PE and provide electrophysiological evidence supporting the dynamic prior hypothesis. Taken together, our study demonstrated a link between Bayesian models and predictive coding theory, offering a viable neural implementation of Bayesian predictive coding.

Values influence various aspects of an individual’s life. Current theories on values internalization primarily consider from the observer’s perspective, lacking information from the subjective perspective of the individuals internalizing these values. To understand the process of values internalization in real-life contexts, this study employed qualitative interviews, conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 interviewees. The interview data were coded using thematic analysis. The results indicate that: (a) the process of values internalization includes four stages: ignoring-resisting stage, understanding stage, attempting to practice stage, and integration stage. (b) These stages exhibit distinct characteristics in terms of cognition, behavior, motivation, emotion, self-relevance, importance, and priority. And (c) the primary internal factors influencing values internalization are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding negative consequences, while major life events and peer behavior are the main external factors. This study reveals the process and characteristics of values internalization from the individual perspective, expanding and supplementing the observer’s perspective on the theory and research of values internalization, and providing a more comprehensive theoretical foundation for measuring.

Loneliness is a major public health issue, leading to serious physical and mental health problems. Research has shown that trait‐like, chronically lonely individuals exhibit either avoidance or approach behaviour towards social connections. However, how social avoidance and approach motivation co‐occur in trait‐like, chronically lonely individuals remains unclear. We hypothesized that loneliness would first induce social avoidance and then approach motivation, given the inherent negative bias of loneliness and the general process model of threat and defence, which asserts that threat first activates avoidance motivation followed by approach motivation. To test this hypothesis, we used sub‐ and supra‐second time bisection tasks in social and non‐social contexts based on the motivational dimensional model of time perception. The results showed that high‐loneliness (HL) and low‐loneliness (LL) individuals had similar sub‐second time estimates in non‐social contexts. However, HL individuals lengthened time in the sub‐second range in social contexts and shortened time in the supra‐second range compared to LL individuals, regardless of social or non‐social context. These findings suggest that HL individuals exhibit proximal social avoidance and distal general approach as a defence mechanism, which is consistent with the general process model of threat and defence and extends the evolutionary theory of loneliness.

Clarifying the stages of the values internalization process enables a more effective selection of interventions to promote targeted internalization. However, no specialized instrument currently exists to measure this process. Grounded in the four-stage model of values internalization, this study aimed to develop and validate a Values Internalization Scale (VIS) for adults. Data from Sample 1 (N = 474) were subjected to item analysis and exploratory factor analysis, yielding a scale with a four-factor structure. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity tests were conducted using Sample 2 (N = 470). The results indicated that the four-factor model demonstrated a good model fit and that the scale exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability, criterion-related validity, and test–retest reliability. The final 25-item VIS comprises four dimensions: ignoring-resistance, understanding, attempt to practice, and integration stages. The 25-item VIS developed in this study performed exceptionally well regarding reliability and validity and can be utilized in subsequent research on the internalization of values.

Values influence various aspects of an individual’s life. Current theories on values internalization are primarily considered from the observer's perspective, lacking information from the subjective perspective of the individuals internalizing these values. To understand the process of values internalization in real-life contexts, this study employed qualitative interviews, conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 interviewees. The interview data were coded using thematic analysis. The results indicate that: (1) The process of values internalization includes four stages: ignoring-resisting stage, understanding stage; attempting to practice stage; integration stage. (2) These stages exhibit distinct characteristics in terms of cognition, behavior, motivation, emotion, self-relevance, importance, and priority. (3) The primary internal factors influencing values internalization are achieving positive outcomes and avoiding negative consequences, while major life events and peer behavior are the main external factors. This study reveals the process and characteristics of values internalization from the perspective of the individual, expanding and supplementing the observer’s perspective on the theory and research of values internalization, and providing a more comprehensive theoretical foundation for measuring values internalization.

The hypothesis that individuals can accurately represent temporal information within approximately 3 s is the premise of several theoretical models and empirical studies in the field of temporal processing. The significance of accurately representing time within 3 s and the universality of the overestimation contrast dramatically. To clarify whether this overestimation arises from an inability to accurately represent time or a response bias, we systematically examined whether feedback reduces overestimation at the 3 temporal processing stages of timing (encoding), working memory, and decisions proposed by the scalar timing model. Participants reproduced the time interval between 2 circles with or without feedback, while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was synchronously recorded. Behavioral results showed that feedback shortened reproduced times and significantly minimized overestimation. EEG results showed that feedback significantly decreased the amplitude of contingent negative variation (CNV) in the decision stage but did not modulate the CNV amplitude in the encoding stage or the P2–P3b amplitudes in the working memory stage. These results suggest that overestimation arises from response bias when individuals convert an accurate representation of time into behavior. Our study provides electrophysiological evidence to support the conception that short intervals under approximately 3 s can be accurately represented as “temporal gestalt.”

Spatiotemporal interference has attracted increasing attention because it provides a window for studying the neural representation of magnitude in the brain. We aimed to identify the neural basis of spatiotemporal interference using a Kappa effect task in which two circles were presented in sequence with two time intervals and three space distances. Participants reproduced the time intervals while ignoring the space distance when electroencephalogram signals were recorded synchronously. The behavior results showed that production time increased with time interval and space distance. Offset of the time intervals elicited typical P2 and P3b components. Larger parietal P2 and P3b amplitudes were elicited by the combination of longer time intervals and longer space distances. The parietal P2 and P3b amplitudes were positively correlated with the production time, and the corresponding neural source was located in the parietal cortex. The results suggest that the parietal P2 and P3b index updates a common representation of spatiotemporal information in working memory, which provides electrophysiological evidence for the mechanisms underlying spatiotemporal interferences. Our study supports a theory of magnitude, in which different dimensions can be integrated into a common magnitude representation in a generalized magnitude system that is localized at the parietal cortex.