On the Path Towards Thinking: Learning from Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Steiner

This paper is a philosophical study of the nature of thinking based on the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Rudolf Steiner. For Heidegger, the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers exemplified genuine thinking, appreciating the meaning of Being. But this kind of philosophy was soon replaced by the onto-theological approach, in which Being was reductively objectified, and the question of the meaning of Being was forgotten. Hence, according to Heidegger, we still have to learn to think. Commentators on Heidegger point to the similarities between his approach to thinking and that of various mystical teachings, such as those of Meister Eckhart or Zen Buddhism. Another less well known philosopher who devoted himself to this question was Rudolf Steiner. Like Heidegger, Steiner claims that we do not know what it means to really think. Steiner was however more outspoken in insisting that only through a kind of meditative practice can we directly experience the nature of thinking. Present day materialistic explanations of thinking as caused by the brain stand in clear opposition to his spiritual conception of thinking. Drawing upon Heidegger (somewhat) and Steiner (mostly) I argue against the materialistic understanding of thinking as jumping to unwarranted conclusions. The paper ends with describing some of the elements of Steiner Waldorf education which are intended to promote the development of living, creative thinking.     

手指的感知、运动以及数量表征对数字认知的促进作用

手指是儿童在习得数字符号之前最常使用的表征数量的工具,大量研究都表明手指在数字认知中具有促进作用。但是,目前仍不清楚手指在数字认知中的作用机制。综述从手指感知、手指运动以及手指数量表征三个方面总结了手指在数字认知中所起的作用。手指感知可能通过影响儿童的数量表征能力间接地影响其它数学能力;与表征量有关的手指运动可能促进了数量大小的加工。关于手指数量表征在数字认知中的作用存在两种有争议的观点：一种认为手指数量表征促进了儿童由非符号数量表征向符号数量表征的转化;另一种认为手指数量表征可能是一种数量语义表征方式。未来应该在发展、作用机制、性别差异等方向继续开展研究,进一步探讨手指在数字认知中所起的作用。     

地震伤截肢纪实与感悟

笔者亲身经历了“5·12”四川汶川8．0级特大地震中救治地震伤员的医疗工作,结合相关的创伤性截肢的一些经验和一些感悟,初步分析了地震伤员的创伤性截肢的特点、原因以及创面处理的一些措施和原则,以期与同道共同探讨类似突发性、群发性伤害事件中更加有效的救治措施。     

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): An overview

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a recently developed psychotherapy procedure which has been reported to dramatically increase efficiency in the treatment of psychological disturbances rooted in traumatic memories. Following a review of the research on EMDR's efficacy, clinical considerations are addressed, including the client's experience and the potential for negative effects or treatment failure. Finally, the role of EMDR in clinical practice is discussed. Initial reports are encouraging, and further research is recommended. Clinicians who choose to use EMDR are urged to obtain formal training.     

Operant conditioning of eye movement in the monkey (Macaca nemestrina)

With the horizontal electrooculographic potential as the operant, four monkeys (Macaca nemestrina) were conditioned to move their eyes at high and low rates by initial use of fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement, followed by a changeover to multiple schedules of fixed-ratio reinforcement and discriminated differential reinforcement of low rate. These differences in rate of eye movement were not observed in a control animal given the same patterns of discriminative stimuli and deliveries of the reinforcing agent independent of its eye movements.     

The discrimination of natural movement by budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) and pigeons (Columba livia)

Three experiments examined the ability of birds to discriminate between the actions of walking forwards and backwards as demonstrated by video clips of a human walking a dog. Experiment 1 revealed that budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates) could discriminate between these actions when the demonstrators moved consistently from left to right. Test trials then revealed that the discrimination transferred, without additional training, to clips of the demonstrators moving from right to left. Experiment 2 replicated the findings from Experiment 1 except that the demonstrators walked as if on a treadmill in the center of the display screen. The results from the first 2 experiments were replicated with pigeons in Experiment 3. The results cannot be explained if it is assumed that animals rely on static cues, such as those derived from individual postures, in order to discriminate between the actions of another animal. Instead, this type of discrimination appears to be controlled by dynamic cues derived from changes in the posture of the demonstrators.     

Yoking Gnosis and Logos: On the Knowledge Function of Some Exceptional Mental States for Well-Being

Earlier religious formations everywhere dynamically engaged in pursuit of knowledge. Of particular interest is direct experience of knowledge rather by learning through practice; former approximates gnosis and latter refers to logos. Study of transcendental experiences was an ambitious project of William James, the founder of modern psychology. The present paper makes it more explicit by looking into correlative thinking and paranormal experiences. Second, the advances in cognitive science of religion (CSR) indicate integration of gnosis and logos, and they perhaps access discrete cognitive processes analogous to Kahneman’s (American Psychologist 58:697–720, 2003) System I (intuition) and System 2 (reasoning). Third, gnosis, trance and intuition are correlated. Lastly, exceptional mental states have significance for psychological well-being.     

Intergroup alliances and rejections within a protest movement (analysis of the social representations)

Studied the development of a student protest movement which, after an initial success, rapidly declined. Opinion surveys were conducted simultaneously with an analysis of the social representations which our population (i.e. male and female university students) held about itself, its potential partners and the proposed strategies. For this latter method, different words related to the protest movement were used as stimuli for a free association task. Similarities between dictionaries were analysed according to Johnson's clustering method and Kruskal's multidimensional scaling method. The structure of social representations allows us to explain the lack of success of the protest movement in terms of intergroup differentiation: the students refused an alliance with the leaders of the movement and rejected their strategies because they progressively defined them and their culture as foreign to and incompatible with themselves. The concept of social representation is discussed in light of the findings.     

Slow movement execution in event-related potentials (P300)

We examined whether slow movement execution has an effect on cognitive and information processing by measuring the P300 component. 8 subjects performed a continuous slow forearm rotational movement using 2 task speeds. Slow (a 30-50% decrease from the subject's Preferred speed) and Very Slow (a 60-80% decrease). The mean coefficient of variation for rotation speed under Very Slow was higher than that under Slow, showing that the subjects found it difficult to perform the Very Slow task smoothly. The EEG score of alpha-1 (8-10 Hz) under Slow Condition was increased significantly more than under the Preferred Condition; however, the increase under Very Slow was small when compared with Preferred. After performing the task. P300 latency under Very Slow increased significantly as compared to that at pretask. Further, P300 amplitude decreased tinder both speed conditions when compared to that at pretask, and a significant decrease was seen under the Slow Condition at Fz, whereas the decrease under the Very Slow Condition was small. These differences indicated that a more complicated neural composition and an increase in subjects' attention might have been involved when the task was performed under the Very Slow Condition. We concluded that slow movement execution may have an influence on cognitive function and may depend on the percentage of decrease from the Preferred speed of the individual.     

Examining age-related movement representations for sequential (fine-motor) finger movements

Theory suggests that imagined and executed movement planning relies on internal models for action. Using a chronometry paradigm to compare the movement duration of imagined and executed movements, we tested children aged 7-11 years and adults on their ability to perform sequential finger movements. Underscoring this tactic was our desire to gain a better understanding of the age-related ability to create internal models for action requiring fine-motor movements. The task required number recognition and ordering and was presented in three levels of complexity. Results for movement duration indicated that 7-year-olds and adults were different from the other groups with no statistical distinction between 9- and 11-year-olds. Correlation analysis indicated a significant relationship between imagined and executed actions. These results are the first to document the increasing convergence between imagined and executed movements in the context of fine-motor behavior; a finding that adds to our understanding of action representation in children.