Sherlock holmes ‐ Philosopher detective

Although prima facie no more than a successful private detective, Sherlock Holmes is a classic exponent of scientific method and has laid down several fundamental rules of scientific discovery and truth‐detection. While he rediscovered and modified well‐known principles of induction, analysis and synthesis, and decision theory, he also made significant contributions to patterns of explanation, and with his “principle of exclusion” was an ingenious innovator. This latter cornerstone of Holmes's methodology led him to an interesting modal theory of the “improbable possible” as a competitor to the famous doctrine of the “impossible probable” put forward by Aristotle in de Arte Poetica. Holmes's scientific discipline was seasoned by warmth, understanding, and boldness.     

The Impact of Coping Strategies on the Operations in the Jungle Course of the Brazilian Army

The aim of this study is to investigate which coping strategies can predict success or failure in the Brazilian Army’s Jungle Operations Course. To achieve this, the sample included 36 military volunteers (18 who quit and 18 who completed the course) from a total of 63 candidates (57.14%), all male career officers and sergeants of the Brazilian Army. Results indicate that completers (n = 18) show significantly higher scores in 2 of the 8 different coping strategy factors—self-control and positive reappraisal—than those in the quitters group (n = 18). In general, emotion-focused strategies were prominent in relation to problem-focused ones. The findings of this study suggest that coping strategies focused on emotion, especially self-control and positive reappraisal, can influence individuals’ performance in situations of intensive military training, which possibly makes them more resilient, preparing them for a more successful training.     

Causes,Counterfactuals, and Non-Locality

In order to motivate the thesis that there is no single concept of causation that can do justice to all of our core intuitions concerning that concept, Ned Hall has argued that there is a conflict between a counterfactual criterion of causation and the condition of causal locality. In this paper I critically examine Hall's argument within the context of a more general discussion of the role of locality constraints in a causal conception of the world. I present two strategies that defenders of counterfactual accounts of causation can pursue to respond to Hall's challenge—including the adoption of a counterfactual condition that is sufficient for causal action-at-a-distance in place of Hall's ‘process’ condition—and conclude that Hall's argument against counterfactual accounts of causation is unsuccessful.     

Who Wants to go First? Order Effects Within a Series of Competitive Sales Presentations

This research uses organizational buyers to examine whether the order in which a sales presentation occurs within a series of competitive sales calls influences a buyer’s choice of the Market Leader and a similarly positioned Me-Too product. The Me-Too product is most successful when presented last—a recency effect. The Market Leader also fares better in the last position, but in addition, it is also chosen more often when it is presented first—a primacy effect. The salesperson for the Me-Too product is able to reduce the Market Leader’s primacy advantage by using an agenda selling strategy, in which the seller encourages the buyer to directly compare products and eliminate those that fail to meet minimum criteria.     

创造非存在物初探

本文假定有些对象（例如福尔摩斯）是不存在的。关于这些对象,人们是应该采取实在论的立场,还是反实在论的立场呢？根据实在论,一个包含非存在对象的可能世界的域与该可能世界上的存在对象具有什么性质、做出什么行为无关;根据非实在论,一个包含非存在对象的可能世界的域依赖于该可能世界上的存在对象具有什么性质、做出什么行为。这里的分歧在于,非存在对象出现在（一个世界的）量化／指称域中是否依赖于（在该世界中）存在对象具有哪些性质,特别地,比如是否依赖于能够讲述故事的情感生物的行为？在《走向非存在》（牛津人学出版社,2005）一书中,我给出了一种内涵语言的语义学,以实在论的方式来处理非存在对象。本文旨在提供一种非实在论的语义学,以非实在论的方式来处理非存在对象。实在论解释是定域的,与此不同,非实在论解释是变域的。在非实在论语义下,关于非存在对象的非实在论直觉可被尊重,这主要体现在对非存在对象和存在对象之间的“依存”关系的分析。关于非存在对象,本文和《走向非存在》分别以非实在论和实在论的方式来处理,这使进一步的比较和选择工作成为可能。     

Reviews

F ordham , M ichael . Explorations into the Self
R edpearn , J oseph . My Self, My Many Selves
H obson , R obert F. Forms of Feeling: the Heart of Psychotherapy
C asement , P atricia . On Learning from the Patient
S hepherd , M ichael . Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Dr Freud
A bend , S. M., P order , M. S., W illick , M. S. Borderline Patients: Psychoanalytic Perspectives
V an H erik , J udith . Freud on Femininity and Faith     

模拟法官决策中心理控制源对后见偏差的影响

考察模拟法官决策中心理控制源对后见偏差的影响。实验采用2（心理控制源：外控型、内控型）×3（有无策略：后见组、分散注意组、指导组）两因素被试间实验设计。采用自编两个案例及问卷测查模拟法官决策中后见效应的差异。实验结果发现,不同心理控制源是导致模拟法官决策中后见偏差存在差异的影响因素。同时,两种策略都能够有效减少模拟法官决策中的后见偏差。     

IIA,rationality, and the individuation of options

The independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) is a popular and important axiom of decision theory. It states, roughly, that one’s choice from a set of options should not be influenced by the addition or removal of further, unchosen options. In recent debates, a number of authors have given putative counterexamples to it, involving intuitively rational agents who violate IIA. Generally speaking, however, these counterexamples do not tend to move IIA’s proponents. Their strategy tends to be to individuate the options that the agent faces differently, so that the case no longer counts as a violation of IIA. In this paper, we examine whether this strategy succeeds. We argue that the ways of individuating options required to save IIA from the most problematic counterexamples—in particular, cases where agents violate IIA due to nonconsequentialist moral beliefs—do so only at the expense of severely compromising its central function within decision theory.     

Mental time travel,memory and the social learning strategies tournament

The social learning strategies tournament was an open computer-based tournament investigating the best way to learn in a changing environment. Here we present an analysis of the impact of memory on the ability of strategies entered into the social learning strategies tournament (Rendell, Boyd, et al., 2010) to modify their own behavior to suit a changing environment. The tournament showed that a strategy's ability to remember the past and to predict the future were both key to its success. The possibility that a strategy needs to engage in an approximation of ‘mental time travel’ to succeed in the tournament strongly implies that investment in randomly timed social learning is not enough to guarantee success. A strategy must use social learning strategically with reference to both predicted future environmental states and past environmental states. We examine the two most successful strategies (DiscountMachine and Intergeneration) in terms of their use of memory and discuss the impact of their complex memory use on their ability to time learning moves strategically and track environmental change. The tournament suggests that the human capacity for mental time travel may have improved the efficiency of social learning and allowed humans to invest in more sophisticated social learning than is seen elsewhere in the animal kingdom.     

Applying the choice/no‐choice methodology: the case of children’s strategy use in spelling

The present study illustrates the usefulness of the choice/no‐choice method to investigate age‐related changes in children’s strategies. This method enables independent assessments of strategy use and execution. It is applied in children’s spelling strategies. Third‐ and fifth‐grade children were asked to write down words using a dictionary or not (choice condition). Then, they were successively required to spell words using each strategy (no‐choice condition). Performance showed that (a) strategy choices and accuracy differed in younger and older children, (b) strategy effectiveness was the strongest predictor of children’s strategy use, and (c) having the choice resulted in higher level of spelling accuracy (especially in older children) than having no choice. We discuss the implications of these results on how the choice/no‐choice method can be useful for understanding and investigating children’s strategy choices in spelling and other cognitive domains.     

The Limit of Mental Structures

The development of consistent health behaviors is important for chronic illness prevention and management. The current study experimentally compared two strategies—a personal-rule and a deliberation strategy—designed to help participants consistently perform their intended behaviors over a 7-week period in a real-world setting. Although the personal-rule strategy had theoretical support from behavioral economics and empirical support from both animal and human lab experiments, the deliberation strategy group was significantly more successful than the personal-rule strategy group, both initially (time to first violation, p < .01, Cohen's d = .51) and over the entire 7-week period (overall success, p < .05, Cohen's d = .18). These effects were significant even after controlling for known predictors of behavioral success, including individual-difference variables, person-behavior factors, and resolution-related factors.     

文学小说阅读影响社会认知的心理机制

摘要：文学小说阅读可以提高个体社会认知能力,但其中具体心理机制有待探索。本文通过梳理以往研究,从文学小说的社会性和文学性两个视角入手,结合模拟理论,精加工似然模型和叙事传输理论讨论了文学小说阅读影响社会认知的心理机制,并在此基础上初步构建了文学小说影响社会认知的动机-情感-认知加工策略框架。文学小说的社会性会增强读者对故事的情感卷入（叙事传输理论）,并引发读者对故事内容进行心理模拟（模拟理论）;文学小说的文学性同样能够增强读者对故事的情感卷入（叙事传输理论）,同时促使读者在动机层面愿意耗费更多认知资源去理解故事内容（精加工似然模型）,进而促进心理模拟。未来需要更多实证研究来检验这一框架的解释力,完善其边界条件,寻找脑机制层面的证据。     

Empirical tests of a fast-and-frugal heuristic: Not everyone “takes-the-best”

The fast-and-frugal heuristics approach to decision making under uncertainty advocated by Gigerenzer and colleagues (e.g., Gigerenzer & Goldstein, 1996) has achieved great popularity despite a relative lack of empirical validation. We report two experiments that examine the use of one particular heuristic—“take-the-best” (TTB). In both experiments the majority of participants adopted frugal strategies, but only one-third (33%) behaved in a manner completely consistent with TTB’s search, stopping and decision rules. Furthermore, a significant proportion of participants in both experiments adopted a non-frugal strategy in which they accumulated more information than was predicted by TTB’s stopping rule. The results provide an insight into the conditions under which different heuristics are used, and question the predictive power of the fast-and-frugal approach.     

Constructing the collective unconscious

Abstract: Innovative attempts at collating Jungian analytical psychology with a range of ‘post‐modern’ theories have yielded significant results. This paper adopts an alternative strategy: a Lacanian vantage point on Jungian theory that eschews an attempt at reconciling Jung with post‐structuralism. A focused Lacanian gaze on Jung will establish an irreducible tension between Jung's view of archetypes as factors immanent to the psyche and a Lacanian critique that lays bare the contingent structures and mechanisms of their constitution, unveiling the supposed archetypes’a posteriori production through the efficacy of a discursive field. Theories of ideology developed in the wake of Lacan provide a powerful methodological tool allowing to bring this distinction into focus. An assembly of Lacan's fragmentary accounts of Jung will be supplemented with an approach to Jungian theory via ?i?ek's Lacan‐oriented theory of the signifying mechanism underpinning ‘ideology’. Accordingly, the Jungian archetype of the self, which is considered in some depth, can begin to be seen in a new light, namely as a ‘master signifier’, not only of Jung's academic edifice, but also —and initially—of the discursive strategies that establish his own subjectivity. A discussion of Jung's approach to mythology reveals how the ‘quilting point’ of his discourse comes to be coupled with a correlate in the Real, a non‐discursive ‘sublime object’ conferring upon archetypes their fascinating aura.     

Financial self-regulation

Financial self-regulation includes self-regulation strategies. Such strategies—actions and thoughts promoting financial goals over financial temptations—can intervene at multiple points in the self-regulation process. We discuss financial self-regulation strategies in the context of the process model, highlighting empirically studied strategies shown to increase saving or reduce spending. We then discuss factors linked to strategy effectiveness. Although there is no consensus which specific strategy may be superior, there is evidence suggesting that financial strategies employed ahead of a tempting situation (vs. during the situation), self-generated strategies that fit one's personality, and a wider variety of strategies likely result in more self-regulatory success. We also discuss the limits of financial self-regulation strategies and the circumstances under which strategies may be ineffective.     

简算策略教学提高小学四年级儿童的计算水平及延迟效应

采用3组平衡组实验设计对小学四年级171名学生进行教学实验,两组实验班学生分别采用讲授式和探究式教学方法进行简算策略计算教学,对照班教师自主进行计算教学。结果揭示：通过专门开设简算策略教学训练课,实验班学生的的计算成绩、计算速度和计算兴趣显著高于对照班学生;实验班的延迟提示与不提示测验无显著差异,未出现策略“利用性缺陷”现象;讲授式和探究式教学方法进行策略教学的效果无明显差异。本研究表明：专门开设策略训练课能提高学生的计算水平和学习兴趣,是有效的和必要的;只要教学方法得当,策略“利用性缺陷”可以避免     

Turn your gaze upward! emotions,concerns, and regulatory strategies in Kierkegaard’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Christian Discourses</Emphasis>

This essay argues that there are concrete emotion regulation practices described, but not developed, in Kierkegaard’s Christian Discourses. These practices—such as attentiveness to emotion, attentional deployment, and cognitive reappraisal—help the reader to regulate her emotions, to get rid of negative, unwanted emotions such as worry, and to cultivate and nourish positive emotions such as faith, gratitude, and trust. An examination of the Discourses also expose Kierkegaard’s understanding of the emotions; his view is akin to a perceptual theory of the emotions that closely connects emotions and concerns. In particular, this analysis unearths two main regulatory strategies located in the Discourses, strategies that closely resemble present-day psychological accounts of emotion regulation. I conclude that contemporary research reinforces Kierkegaard’s philosophical analysis of emotions and emotion-regulation strategies. Drawing on this research provides the most persuasive interpretation of Kierkegaard’s understanding of the emotions and emotion-regulation strategies. Additionally, present-day research clarifies the otherwise elusive, opaque strategies he describes. Finally, my analysis demonstrates that Kierkegaard’s work can uniquely contribute to the present-day psychological research by emphasizing the need for diachronic regulation strategies, while the contemporary literature overwhelmingly focuses on synchronic strategies.