The continuing need for disinterested research

For scientific knowledge to be trustworthy, it needs to be dissociated from material interests. Disinterested research also performs other important non-instrumental roles. In particular, academic science has traditionally provided society with reliable, imaginative public knowledge and independent, self-critical expertise. But this type of science is not compatible with the practice of instrumental research, which is typically proprietary, prosaic, pragmatic and partisan. With ever-increasing dependence on commercial or state funding, all modes of knowledge production are merging into a new, ‘post-academic’ research culture which is dominated by utilitarian goals. Growing concern about conflicts of interest is thus a symptom of deep-seated malaise in science and medicine. An expanded version of this paper was presented at an International Conference on “Conflict of Interest and its Significance in Science and Medicine” held in Warsaw, Poland on 5–6 April, 2002.     

Guard dogs of perception: the corporate takeover of science

The belief that science is "a driver of growth in the knowledge economy" has led in recent decades to increasing encouragement by government of the involvement of industry and of commerce in the sponsorship and direction of research in universities, and to the increasing influence of industrial representatives on advisory panels associated with the publicly funded scientific research councils. By extending the doctrine of commercial confidentiality into university laboratories, inconvenient findings have been suppressed, and both free endeavour and free speech undermined. This has narrowed our scientific horizons and compromised government advisors. It is argued that scientific freedom is a guarantor of our wider liberties. Science, which tells us who we are and how we can live better, is being distorted so twisting our understanding of the ways in which we might progress, shutting off alternatives to existing models of development. Business now stands as a guard dog at the gates of perception. Only the inquiries which suit its needs are allowed to pass.     

Processing valence and intensity of infant expressions: the roles of expertise and gender

Several studies have provided evidence of a women's better accuracy in interpreting emotional states. Despite this difference is generally ascribed to the primary role of female gender in the affective relation with the offspring, to date, little information is available regarding gender differences in the ability to interpret infant facial expressions. In the present study, we examined the roles of gender and expertise in interpreting infant expression in 34 men and women who differed in their experience with infants. Women showed a significantly higher level of decoding accuracy compared to men. Expertise positively affected facial expressions decoding among women only. Our results suggest that in judging emotional facial expressions of infants, there is an interaction of biological (i.e., gender) and cultural factors that is independent of a woman's socioeconomic status.     

BNP和CRP在ACS患者的预后评估中的相关性分析研究

为了探讨血浆脑钠肽（BNP）和C反应蛋白（CRP）在急性冠状动脉综合征（ACS）患者的预后评估中两者的水平与临床预后的关系,连续性入选120例ACS患者。测定症状发作平均（34.2±16.3）h的血浆BNP和CRP水平,随访患者住院期间,30d,3个月病死率及主要心脏不良事件（MACE）（心原性死亡,再次心肌梗死,再发心绞痛,继发心衰和再入院的复合终点）发生率。结果显示,当将CRP、BNP和年龄等其他冠心病危险因素放入同一模型预测ACS的预后时,血浆CRP水平失去了预测效能,而血浆BNP水平升高独立于各因素预测30d和3个月病死率及MACE发生率。因此,BNP和CRP能够很好地对ACS患者进行危险分层,预测近期病死率和MACE发生率。BNP可能是较CRP更好的预测ACS患者近期临床预后的指标。     

The impact of conflict of interest on trust in science

Conflicts of interest have an erosive effect on trust in science, damaging first the attitude of the public toward scientists and their research, but also weakening the trusting interdependence of scientists. Disclosure is recognized as the key tool for management of conflicts, but rules with sanctions must be improved, new techniques for avoidance of financial conflicts by alternative funding of evaluative research must be sought, and there must be new thinking about institutional conflicts of interest. Our profession is education, and both the public and research professionals of all ages would benefit from greater understanding of how science should and does work. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an International Conference on “Conflict of Interest and its Significance in Science and Medicine” held in Warsaw, Poland on 5–6 April, 2002.     

刻意训练在AOC电子竞技运动专长获得中的作用

以AOC电子竞技运动为研究领域,通过考察97名顶级高手对16种领域相关活动的评价以探索该领域的刻意训练活动,并进一步分析3种水平共271名被试进行刻意训练活动对其竞技水平的影响作用。结果发现,在AOC电子竞技运动领域存在3种刻意训练活动;不同水平被试进行刻意训练活动的时间量存在差异;刻意训练活动的时间量可有效预测竞技水平,而经验年份对竞技水平无预测作用;刻意训练活动的娱乐性因领域而异,且在不同水平被试间存在差异。     

The political economy of research councils: Different roles of research councils in science policy

Research councils have traditionally been used by governments to determine the funding allocations of scientific research. During the 1970s and 1980s the traditional “laissez-faire” science policy characteristics of research councils changed. Government policy on fundamental science was conceived as the active search for, and support of scientific fields considered to be of strategic value to economic development. This article addresses the consequences these changes have had on the objectives and structures of research councils. It will attempt to explain the differential choice of governments in implementing the more active forms of science policy. An analysis is made of the changing roles and activities of research councils in three nations having active policies on (strategic) fundamental science.     

Effects of response cards on student participation and academic achievement: A systematic replication with inner-city students during whole-class science instruction

We evaluated the use of response cards during science instruction in a fifth-grade inner-city classroom. The experiment consisted of two methods of student participation-hand raising and write-on response cards-alternated in an ABAB design. During hand raising, the teacher called upon 1 student who had raised his or her hand in response to the teacher's question. During the response-card condition, each student was provided with a laminated board on which to write one- or two-word answers in response to each question asked by the teacher. Frequency of active student response was 14 times higher with response cards than with hand raising. All 22 students scored higher on next-day quizzes and on 2-week review tests that followed instruction with response cards than they did on quizzes and tests that covered facts and concepts taught with the hand-raising procedure.     

Giving Science a Bad Name: Politically and Commercially Motivated Fallacies in BSE Inquiry

It is a feature of scientific inquiry that it proceeds alongside a multitude of non-scientific interests. This statement is as true of the scientific inquiries of previous centuries, many of which brought scientists into conflict with institutionalised religious thinking, as it is true of the scientific inquiries of today, which are conducted increasingly within commercial and political contexts. However, while the fact of the coexistence of scientific and non-scientific interests has changed little over time, what has changed with time is the effect of this coexistence on scientific inquiry itself. While scientists may no longer construct their theories with various religious dictates in mind, growing commercial and political interests in science have served to distort the interpretation of science. Using the U.K.’s recent crisis with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as my context, I examine two ways in which this distortion has occurred – the interpretation of the science of BSE by politicians and by commercial parties for the purposes of justifying policy decisions and informing the public of risk, respectively. Fallacious reasoning, I contend, is the manifestation of this distortion in these contexts. In demonstration of this claim, I examine how politicians and commercial parties alike have employed two fallacies in their assessments of the science of BSE. These fallacies extend in novel ways the set of so-called traditional informal fallacies. The interpretation of science, I conclude, is a rich context in which to conduct a study of fallacious reasoning; moreover, such a study can contribute in significant ways, I argue, to the public understanding of science.     

创造力与能力、专长及胜任力关系评述

创造力的实质及其培养问题,一直处于心理学家研究的视野当中。本文试图对创造力与能力、专长及胜任力等相关概念的关系作以简要评述,以期获得对创造力更深刻的理解。     

Patients’ health or company profits? The commercialisation of academic research

This paper is a personal account of the events associated with the author's work at the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children on a drug, deferiprone, for the treatment of thalassaemia. Trials of the drug were sponsored by the Canadian Medical Research Council and a drug company which would have been able, had the trials been successful, to seek regulatory approval to market the drug. When evidence emerged that deferiprone might be inadequately effective in a substantial proportion of patients, the drug company issued legal threats when the author proposed informing her patients and the scientific community. Until protests were made by international authorities in her field of research, the hospital and university did not adequately support the author's academic freedom and responsibilities as a medical practitioner. It is argued that underlying cause of this, and of other similar cases, is the political philosophy which is driving the commercialisation of universities and bringing about the deregulation of drug approval procedures. Together these changes constitute a serious threat to the public good.     

《管子》公平观对员工激励的启示

《管子》从执政的角度定义了如何建设正确的公平观,本文从《管子》关于“公平是什么”这一核心问题的回答出发,以现代组织管理者的角度去探讨如何实现对员工恰当的激励。这就是要从组织整体的角度去营造恰当的公平观,并且围绕社会公平、个人公平、经济公平等几个方面在组织内部建立公平合理的组织气氛,并最终有效的激励员工。     

质性比较专家与新手的物理问题解决过程

本实验致力于回答两个问题 :(1 )在何种任务限制下 ,专家表现出对新手的解题优势 ;(2 )可以采用何种实验手段 ,来细致刻画解题过程中运用的程序性知识 (“条件 -行动”)。本实验以物理学领域的“欧姆定律”为研究内容 ,采用专家 -新手比较范型 ,对被试的言语报告进行编码与分析 ,进而描绘了解题活动所依赖的“条件 -行动”关系 ,从中展现了专家解题相对于新手的整体优势。对这些优势的进一步个案分析表明 ,物理学解题专长的实质在于 :(1 )条件化操作 (从已知条件得出复杂关系 ) ;(2 )精致化知识 (比例公式与嵌套公式 )。     

Pickup of Essential Kinematics Underpins Expert Perception of Movement Patterns

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined the ability of badminton players of different skill levels (12 experts and 12 nonexperts) to anticipate the direction of badminton strokes. Participants viewed either film or point-light displays under a range of temporal or spatial occlusion conditions. World-class players were able to consistently pick up useful predictive information from the advance (precontact) kinematics of both the lower body and the racquet when the motion of those features was presented in isolation, whereas recreational players' use of the same information depended on the concurrent presence of linked segments. Participants' information pickup closely matched key biomechanical changes in the movement pattern being viewed, although, contrary to a common-coding view of perception and action (e.g., W. Prinz, 1997), some important differences were evident between the characteristics of the experts' movement prediction and those of expert movement production.     

The trouble with halos: Invited commentary on Kim,S., & Harris,P. L. (2014). Children prefer to learn from mind‐readers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology

This commentary on Kim and Harris (2014) addresses the authors’ interpretation of the halo effect, in which 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children preferentially agreed with an informant who could read other people's minds, regardless of domain of knowledge.     

The Effect of Differing Measuring Methods on the Relationship of Motives

Over the past 30 years, few approaches to the study of motivation have generated the volume of research as have studies of the need for achievement, need for affiliation, and need for power. Yet few studies have been concerned with the interdependency of these motives. The goals of the present paper were to determine whether these motives are interdependent, and to compare two different measures of these needs. Ninety men and women from introductory psychology classes served as the subjects. They were administered the TAT and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule test to determine the strength of these motives. The findings suggest that these psychogenic needs are not independent of each other. While the present results show no significant correlation between these needs among men, a significant one emerges for women. There were also significant correlations between the two techniques of measuring the motives, a test involving fantasy materials and a “self report” questionnaire.     

The attentional blink is attenuated for objects of expertise

Perceptual expertise with a specific domain of stimuli has been shown to afford numerous benefits to information processing performance. Previous work has suggested that face perception, a domain of perceptual expertise for many, is less susceptible to one of the most robust examples of information processing limits, namely the attentional blink. Here we extend this finding to non-face objects of expertise, supporting an expertise-related account of this benefit. Further, the attenuation of the attentional blink phenomenon was correlated with expertise at an individual level, whereby greater expertise with cars yielded a smaller attentional blink for these stimuli. These results support previous work suggesting that extensive experience with a class of objects, such as in the case of perceptual experts, can reduce the consequence of inherent limitations in human information processing. Possible mechanistic accounts of how experience may circumvent processing limitations are discussed.