Phantom arcs: now you see them..

A new visual illusion is reported and illustrated. The illusion, dubbed 'phantom arcs', survives manipulations of contrast, scale, and hue. The arcs can be seen in printed versions as well as in images displayed on CRT or LCD monitors. Data collected in an undergraduate perception class reveal that the illusion can be seen by untrained observers.     

When Parsimony Fails. ..

The framework for an academic field outlines the content of that field. The field's textbooks and reviews organize the field according to the framework's outline. Today, the field of personality psychology lacks a single, integrative framework. As a consequence, the field appears disorganized and weak. The systems framework developed in this article provides a unified presentation of the field. The framework employs 4 topics to organize the field: personality's (a) identification (or definition), (b) components, (c) organization, and (d) development. Each of the four topics is associated, in turn, with its own subsidiary framework that outlines its more specific coverage. The systems framework communicates personality psychology more effectively than previous presentations of the field. Its fieldwide overview provides a unified perspective for studying, explaining, and evaluating the personality system.     

Linda问题的表象-命题双表征解释视角探究

本文首先提出了Linda问题的表象-命题双表征这一新的解释视角。该视角认为,Linda问题基于表象表征和命题表征可以有两种不同的解读与表征方式;而不同的被试在Linda问题上可能分别采取了上述表征方式之一;但由于Linda问题的特殊性,大多数被试采用了表象表征;大多数被试的这一表征取向则可能是所谓谬误判断出现的原因。本文通过4项研究,让被试在基于表象表征设计的转述版本与基于命题表征设计的转述版间选择接近自身理解的版本;并考察了将Linda问题修改成更符合命题表征的数学化表达形式能否降低所谓谬误水平;还考察了增加促使被试运用命题表征的排序项"Linda是全人类中的一员"能否降低所谓谬误水平。结果显示,在转述版本选择上,大多数被试选择了基于表象表征设计的版本;而上文所指的两个修正版Linda问题则都降低了被试的所谓谬误水平。这些结果支持了本文所提的视角。     

Associative learning and representation: Introduction

The papers published in this Special Issue are based upon presentations at a workshop on “Associative Learning and Representation”, which was sponsored by the Experimental Psychology Society and hosted by Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The workshop celebrated the contribution of Professor Nicholas Mackintosh to animal learning and conditioning in particular and experimental psychology in general in the year of his retirement from the Chair of Psychology at the University of Cambridge after 21 years in post. The date of the workshop, 9 July 2002, was particularly auspicious as it was the day of Professor Mackintosh's birth 67 years ago. Moreover, it is particularly fitting that this tribute is published in the Comparative and Physiological Psychology Section (B) of Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, which he founded in 1981 during his editorship of the Journal between 1977 and 1984.     

Dichotic sequence discrimination: The effect of continued practice

Summary Dichotic sequence discrimination was studied by means of a three-alternative forced-choice method. Two of the alternatives (same) consisted of a single pair of dichotic clicks with the stimulus at one ear preceding the stimulus at the other ear by a given temporal separation (e.g., R-t-L). One of the alternatives consisted of a single pair of clicks with the opposite sequence (e.g., L-t-R). The subjects' task was to discriminate between the different and the same dichotic pairs. The results indicate that discrimination is a nonmonotonic function of t, i.e., V- or U-shaped, with high levels at both short and long temporal separations (t=2 and 4 ms and t=64 and 96 ms) and with lower levels of discrimination for intermediate ts. A second experiment was performed to study the effect of continued practice by subjects trained in dichotic sequence discrimination for ts 4 and 64 ms (high discrimination levels) and for t=16 ms (low discrimination level). There was no systematic trend towards improvement over 8 blocks of 50 trials for each t. Discrimination levels of these ts did not differ between Experiments 1 and 2.Dr. Babkoff is spending the 1979–1981 academic year at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Department of Military Medical Psychophysiology, Forest Glen Annex, Building 189, Washington, D.C. 20012, USAThe experiments were conducted at the Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. The authors would like to thank the Bar-Ilan Research Committee for making funds available to conduct the experimentsThis material has been reviewed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and there is no objection to its presentation and/or publication. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense     

语义表征具身理论:情绪在概念表征中的作用

概念如何被表征是认知科学的热点问题,其中抽象概念如何表征是当前具身认知最具争议性的话题之一。与前期概念隐喻理论(强调意象图式)和知觉符号理论(强调情境内省信息)的观点不同,语义表征具身理论强调情绪经验信息在抽象概念表征和加工中的作用。具体而言,具体概念的表征主要来自感觉运动信息,而抽象概念的表征主要来自情绪经验信息和语言信息。研究证明,抽象概念的高情绪经验信息能够促进词汇的加工,且这一促进作用受词汇情绪效价的调节。未来研究应进一步考虑影响情绪经验信息发挥作用的因素,比如语言信息的丰富性、情绪唤醒或个体的情绪状态等。     

Bedside ethics and health system catastrophe: imagine if you will..

Preparations for large-scale disasters have tended to focus on triage schema, stockpiling of materials, and other logistical concerns. Less attention has been given to the myriad of distressing and almost unthinkable ethically charged dilemmas that will emerge at the bedside during a catastrophe, and how they may be best managed. Yet, it is these bedside issues that may limit or thwart the effectiveness of disaster planning, and, therefore, they ought to be carefully considered.     

Seeing sets: representation by statistical properties

Sets of similar objects are common occurrences--a crowd of people, a bunch of bananas, a copse of trees, a shelf of books, a line of cars. Each item in the set may be distinct, highly visible, and discriminable. But when we look away from the set, what information do we have? The current article starts to address this question by introducing the idea of a set representation. This idea was tested using two new paradigms: mean discrimination and member identification. Three experiments using sets of different-sized spots showed that observers know a set's mean quite accurately but know little about the individual items, except their range. Taken together, these results suggest that the visual system represents the overall statistical, and not individual, properties of sets.     

Human spatial representation: insights from animals

HUMAN NAVIGATION IS SPECIAL: we use geographic maps to capture a world far beyond our unaided locomotion. In consequence, human navigation is widely thought to depend on internalized versions of these maps - enduring, geocentric 'cognitive maps' capturing diverse information about the environment. Contrary to this view, we argue that human navigation is best studied in relation to research on navigating animals as humble as ants. This research provides evidence that animals, including humans, navigate primarily by representations that are momentary rather than enduring, egocentric rather than geocentric, and limited in the environmental information that they capture. Uniquely human forms of navigation build on these representations.