Pattern and process in the evolution of learning

A century after E. L. Thorndike's (1898) dissertation on the comparative psychology of learning, the field seems ready for a reassessment of its metatheoretical foundations. The stability of learning phenotypes across species is shown to be similar to that of other biological characters, both genotypic (e.g., Hox genes) and phenotypic (e.g., vertebrate brain structure). Moreover, an analysis of some current lines of comparative research indicates that researchers use similar strategies when approaching problems from either an ecological view (emphasizing adaptive significance) or a general-process view (emphasizing commonality across species). An integration of learning and evolution requires the development of criteria for recognizing and studying the divergence, homology, and homoplasy of learning mechanisms, much as it is done in other branches of biological research.     

Culture and Personality Studies, 1918–1960: Myth and History

The field known as "culture and personality studies" in the middle decades of the 20th century was a precursor of contemporary cross-cultural research on personality. Its rejection by anthropologists and sociologists after 1950 was accompanied by stereotypes that have hardened into myth and obscured its character and relevance for contemporary investigators. This article dispels some prevalent misconceptions (concerning its chronology, its theoretical unity, its positions on individual differences and its relationship to Freudian psychoanalysis) and proposes a tentative explanation of its decline.     

Observation of behavior,inference of function,and the study of learning

Before the present century, the primary means of studying animals was observation of the form and effects of their behavior combined with presumption of their intent. In the present century, ethologists continued to emphasize observation of form and replaced presumption of intent with the study of proximate function and evolution. In contrast, most learning psychologists minimized both observation of form and presumption of intent by defining behavior in terms of simple environmental effects and establishing intent by deprivation operations. We discuss advantages of the use of observation in the study of learning, examine arguments that it is unnecessary, irrelevant, and unscientific, and consider some practical considerations in using observation. We conclude that observation of the form of behavior and concern with its ecological function should be an important part of the arsenal of techniques used to study learning.     

Community Science: Creating an Alternative Place to Stand?

This article comments on two emerging views of community psychologys approaches to the use of research for responding to social problems in contemporary community contexts – (a) the formation of a new field of community science, or (b) the updating of community psychology research traditions. If community science is to become established as a field related to community psychology, its proponents will need to agree upon conventions of epistemology, foci of interest, methods, and standards by which its work can be judged so that it can be distinguished from other human sciences. These articles provide early sketches for what community science might be. However, as noted in this commentary, we need to heed signs of concern about community psychologys continued relevance in public discourse regarding the analysis of and responses to social problems. While this special issue offers some promising responses to the concern of what the field can contribute, the field would be well served if we broaden our dialogue about a renewal of community psychologys commitment to social justice and the need for its perspectives in the practice of research that seeks to address community-based issues in the early 21st century.     

Cognitive biases in human causal learning

The main aim of this work was to look for cognitive biases in human inference of causal relationships in order to emphasize the psychological processes that modulate causal learning. From the effect of the judgment frequency, this work presents subsequent research on cue competition (overshadowing, blocking, and super-conditioning effects) showing that the strength of prior beliefs and new evidence based upon covariation computation contributes additively to predict causal judgments, whereas the balance between the reliability of both, beliefs and covariation knowledge, modulates their relative weight. New findings also showed "inattentional blindness" for negative or preventative causal relationships but not for positive or generative ones, due to failure in codifying and retrieving the necessary information for its computation. Overall results unveil the need of three hierarchical levels of a whole architecture for human causal learning: the lower one, responsible for codifying the events during the task; the second one, computing the retrieved information; finally, the higher level, integrating this evidence with previous causal knowledge. In summary, whereas current theoretical frameworks on causal inference and decision-making usually focused either on causal beliefs or covariation information, the present work shows how both are required to be able to explain the complexity and flexibility involved in human causal learning.     

Sequential learning in non-human primates

Sequential learning plays a role in a variety of common tasks, such as human language processing, animal communication, and the learning of action sequences. In this article, we investigate sequential learning in non-human primates from a comparative perspective, focusing on three areas: the learning of arbitrary, fixed sequences; statistical learning; and the learning of hierarchical structure. Although primates exhibit many similarities to humans in their performance on sequence learning tasks, there are also important differences. Crucially, non-human primates appear to be limited in their ability to learn and represent the hierarchical structure of sequences. We consider the evolutionary implications of these differences and suggest that limitations in sequential learning may help explain why non-human primates lack human-like language.     

Human technical enhancement: an introduction to the currents of the debate as well as their fracture lines

The main objective of this article is to suggest a panel of the different positions active in the human enhancement's debate, to analyze their arguments and to point out the dividing zones. The transhumanist movement is therefore presented in order to highlight the principal thematic of its philosophy, its means of action and the plurality of its subgroups. The purpose is to reassess its complexity in an introductory manner far from the usual, excessive simplifications. In a second time, the "bioconservative" movement is also examined in its foundations to emphasize the norms and principles that are undoubtedly shared by the opponents to the human being's modification. Then, the thinkers of the "liberal ethics" are exemplified as a more moderate alternative, although not flawless. Generally open-minded towards the application of enhancement technologies, they protect as an ultimate guardian, the harm principle, as well as the absolute respect of individual freedom. Once the protagonists are introduced, the true meaning of these positions is replaced in the context of the three main fracture lines: the human nature, the normality criterion and the equality principle. A complex debate indeed that we could summarize by a simple question: what will human do about the human in the 21st century?     

双眼视差的神经机制与知觉学习效应

双眼瞳距使得空间某物体在左右眼视网膜的成像存在微小位置差异, 这种差异被称为双眼视差(binocular disparity), 是立体视知觉的重要信息来源。对双眼视差的心理物理学研究始于18世纪初, 迄今已有接近两百年的历史。近年来, 双眼视差研究主要集中在两方面。其一是用电生理、脑成像技术考察双眼视差在视觉背、腹侧通路的模块化表征, 其脑区表征反映出视觉系统的层级式、平行式加工规律。其二是应用知觉学习范式研究双眼视差的可塑性。未来研究应综合脑成像和神经调控技术考察双眼视差的神经机制及其学习效应, 包括双眼视差与多种深度线索间的信息整合和交互作用。应用方向上, 可结合虚拟现实等技术优化训练范式, 实现立体视力的康复和增强。     

心理理论的比较认知研究

非人灵长类的心理理论是比较认知研究的重要内容,它对于揭示心理理论的起源和本质,具有重要的意义。该文综述了近年来有关心理理论比较认知的现场观察研究和实验室研究,分析了关于非人灵长类对视觉知觉经验的理解,对意图和目的的理解,以及对愿望和信念理解研究的方法和结果。许多研究关于实验设计,实验结果以及对结果的解释存在争议。如非人灵长类对意图和目的的理解,是运用心理表征,还是刺激－反应的联结,非人灵长类理解同种个体和理解人类个体的心理状态存在什么差异,实验设计是否可靠而有效地测量了非人灵长类的心理理论等。该文提出实验结果和理论解释的差异和争议,可能与研究者所持的理论假设,实验任务和设计等有关。关于非人灵长类的心理理论概念的界定,从社会生态学效度和文化差异等角度综合考虑,设计恰当的实验来考察非人灵长类的心理理论,是解决目前争议必须解决的问题,也是心理理论比较认知研究面临的困难。     

Redefining Ecological Ethics: Science,Policy, and Philosophy at Cape Horn

In the twentieth century, philosophy (especially within the United States) embraced the notion of disciplinary expertise: philosophical research consists of working with and writing for other philosophers. Projects that involve non-philosophers earn the deprecating title of "applied" philosophy. The University of North Texas (UNT) doctoral program in philosophy exemplifies the possibility of a new model for philosophy, where graduate students are trained in academic philosophy and in how to work with scientists, engineers, and policy makers. This "field" (rather than "applied") approach emphasizes the inter- and transdisciplinary nature of the philosophical enterprise where theory and practice dialectically inform one another. UNT's field station in philosophy at Cape Horn, Patagonia, Chile is one site for developing this ongoing experiment in the theory and practice of interdisciplinary philosophic research and education.     

School coexistence and learning in adolescence from a gender perspective

This article reviews recent research about academic learning and school coexistence in adolescence from a gender perspective. It focuses on the research developed by the Preventive Psychology research group (UCM), specially the results from the Spanish National Study of School Coexistence using a sample of 22,247 secondary school students. Research shows that girls are overrepresented in positive indicators whereas boys are in negative indicators, not only in academic adjustment but also in school coexistence. Girls' better academic achievement can be explained by their higher tendency to overcome sexism: they identify with traditional masculinity values (such as success orientation) without giving up traditional femininity values (such as empathy). Based on this, the following conclusions are reached: 1) to extend the advantages of equality also to men; 2) to emphasize that sharing academic contexts and activities is necessary but sufficient to construct equality; and lastly, 3) to improve school coexistence, it is necessary to adopt a integrative gender approach to prevent any kind of violence, including violence against women.     

Implicit and explicit category learning by capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

Current theories of human categorization differentiate an explicit, rule-based system of category learning from an implicit system that slowly associates regions of perceptual space with response outputs. The researchers extended this theoretical differentiation to the category learning of New World primates. Four capuchins (Cebus apella) learned categories of circular sine-wave gratings that varied in bar spatial frequency and orientation. The rule-based and information-integration tasks, respectively, had one-dimensional and two-dimensional solutions. Capuchins, like humans, strongly dimensionalized the stimuli and learned the rule-based task more easily. The results strengthen the suggestion that nonhuman primates have some structural components of humans' capacity for explicit categorization, which in humans is linked to declarative cognition and consciousness. The results also strengthen the primate contrast to other vertebrate species that may lack the explicit system. Therefore, the results raise important questions about the origins of the explicit categorization system during cognitive evolution and about its overall phylogenetic distribution.     

Cooperative learning revisited

The endeavor to teach academic skills known as cooperative learningis of interest to behavioral educators due to its record of effectiveness, its use of behavioral procedures, and its relatively widespread adoption by regular educators. All forms of cooperative learning emphasize operations that encourage students to work together to achieve commonly held goals rather than competing with or ignoring the efforts of others. Despite the apparent soundness of the approach, the present commentary raises several issues. First, it states that some cooperative learning proponents fail to describe the behavioral processes underlying the approach. Second, it is pointed out that it is unclear whether cooperative learning is an independent or dependent variable. Given that cooperative learning applies group contingencies to academic behavior, the question is raised as to whether group contingencies do, in fact, produce desirable social interactions, and whether group contingencies are appropriate for academic behaviors. A concern is also raised as to whether the spontaneous peer tutoring generated by cooperative learning compares favorably with planned peer tutoring. Finally, it is claimed that the minor variations from academic group contingencies that cooperative learning proponents have introduced do not require identifying a new process.     

Transfer of visual information after unilateral input to the brain

Visual callosal connections are more numerous and widespread in the association areas than in the primary visual cortex and adjoining visual areas. In keeping with this, the amount of "wrong" ipsilateral visual field that is represented in the various cortical areas of primates and cats increases as one goes from primary visual cortex to extraoccipital areas. Therefore it can be argued that transfer of unilaterally presented visual stimuli occurs mainly at the temporal and parietal cortical level.     

Certification, accreditation, and quality control in behavior analysis

Implementing quality control measures in the discipline and professional practice of behavior analysis is a challenging, but nevertheless important, step in the evolution of our field. The Association for Behavior Analysis currently seeks to ensure quality in behavior analysis by sponsoring an accreditation program for graduate academic programs and by promoting certification of individual practitioners. The accreditation reviews are conducted by ABA, whereas certification status is awarded by an independent, nonprofit credentialing entity: the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc. Among the challenges that ABA faces as it pursues various quality control measures, particularly in its educational programs, are (a) how extensively should academic programs specify the verbal and nonverbal terminal repertoires in all three branches of behavior analysis (applied, experimental, and conceptual); (b) how extensively should programs that emphasize applied behavior analysis integrate science-based criteria for the evaluation of interventions; and (c) how extensively should programs that emphasize service delivery include training in formal research methodology.     

The Legacy of Adolf Meyer''s Comparative Approach: Worcester Rats and the Strange Birth of the Animal Model

The breeding of albino rats had an enormous impact on experimental psychology in the twentieth century. Rats were, and for many questions still remain, the "standard animal" for laboratory research in neurology, psychology, and physiology. Albert Meyer was one of the figures most responsible for developing the albino rat as an experimental model. Despite Meyer's pioneering work with albino rats, his rat research has received only sparse attention. Little is known about the way in which the animal served Meyer's more famous psychiatric program. In this article, the author discusses the role that albino rats played in Meyer's animal research. He then turn to the contrast between the way in which Meyer viewed the animal's role in research and the way rats were later used as a laboratory "standard" to assure scientific generality. This comparison highlights the changes that occurred in comparative psychology in the twentieth century, and it further clarifies some of the concerns associated with the use of animal models today.     

Bioethics in the twenty-first century: why we should pay attention to eighteenth-century medical ethics.

Those of us who work in the field of bioethics tend to think that, because the word "bioethics" is new, so too the field is new in all respects, but we are not the first to do bioethics. John Gregory (1724-1773) did bioethics just as we do it, at least two centuries before we thought to do it. He deployed philosophical methods as sophisticated as our own. Indeed, Gregory took up the very best moral philosophy available to thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, namely, David Hume's moral philosophy and its core concept of sympathy. Gregory also responded in a conceptually powerful and clinically applicable way to the problems of his time, just as we do. I want here to outline Gregory's accomplishment and to identify some aspects of its importance for bioethics in the twenty-first century.     

人类数能力的演化基础——数能力比较研究的启示

人类的数能力可以发展到很高的抽象水平,但大量研究表明,人类婴儿和非人灵长类也具有基本的数表征和数推理能力。文章从表征内容和表征形式两个方面系统地比较了人类婴儿和非人灵长类的数能力,并对比了成人和非人灵长类数表征的生理基础。人类和非人灵长类在这三方面存在的相似性揭示了他们可能享有相同的数表征系统。在今后的研究中,进一步探讨这两者相似的数表征核心系统,可以加深我们对人类数能力起源和本质的理解     

Subjective science: Kenneth Spence's human learning research program

This article examines Kenneth Spence's human learning research from 1949 to 1967. His works show the conditioning field to be in turmoil over basic issues during this time. These issues included whether determinism should be accepted, how to interpret a psychological test score, what psychometric properties a test should have, and how to use theoretical constructs. Turmoil occurred because behaviors and events had different meanings and degrees of importance to different investigators. Thus, what appeared as "objective" scientific change in the conditioning field was really the adaptation of personal preferences in word meanings, research goals, and research methods. These issues also indicate disputes about definitions and purposes of scientific activity during Spence's era.     

The simultaneous chain: a new approach to serial learning

Recent advances have allowed the application of behaviorism's rigor to the control of complex cognitive tasks in animals. This article examines recent research on serially organized behavior in animals. 'Chaining theory', the traditional approach to the study of such behavior, reduces intelligent action to sequences of discrete stimulus-response units in which each overt response is evoked by a particular stimulus. However, such theories are too weak to explain many forms of serially organized cognition, both in humans and animals. By training non-human primates to produce arbitrary sequences that cannot be learned as chains of particular motor responses, the simultaneous chaining paradigm has overcome limitations of chaining theory in experiments on serial expertise, the use of numerical rules, knowledge of ordinal position, and distance and magnitude effects.