认知心理学归类理论述评

概念和归类是认知心理学的一个重要研究领域。大千世界纷坛繁杂．人们正是通过概念和归类才在心理上把这个杂乱无章的世界条理化。概念是对一类物体的心理表征．归类是根据概念把一系列的例子选择出来。但在很多情况下,二者表达着近乎相同的意思,因为二者都涉及到事物的心理表征。在早期的研究中．归类理论多把相似性（ｓｉｍｉｌａｒｉｔｙ）作为其理论基础,也即把相似性作为归类的依据。但后来的研究发现,归类仅仅以相似为基础是远远不够的．基于相似性的归类理论有很多局限性。八十年代后期出现了一种崭新的归类理论──基于理论知识…     

表达·抽象·归类——关于概念发生的探讨

理性认识何以产生？概括论的说明遇到了困难。理论不是从有限的观察陈述中合逻辑地推论出来的。概括论是一种既成性的解释,而不是发生论的说明。表达产生抽象。替代对象物的替代物的出现产生了原始的概念。替代物对于对象物属性的分离,使人类能够在思维中独立地运演与把握属性,这是人类建立概念的基础。抽象由此产生与完成。人们按对象物的某一种属性进行归类操作,这即是思维中的规定性与现实的多样性的矛盾产生的原因。在表达产生的抽象替代物的参与下,人类对于制造工具中的“人操作下的物—物间关系”有了有意识的选择,有了理性的理解与解释,这是人类最初产生的因果关系意识。因果关系意识是人类最基本的理解与解释的思维框架之一。     

什么是概念的拓扑空间?

本文主要讨论的是概念的拓扑空间问题。作者认为,概念研究是哲学的一个主要任务,哲学研究的工作就是要对已经形成的各种概念进行分类整理,对概念的意义进行澄清,对概念的作用加以规定。通过对哲学史上的五个概念问题个案的说明,作者指出了概念的拓扑性质是概念之间具有这样一种空间关系,即概念与概念的极限关系和连续性质形成了概念之间的拓扑空间。这里强调的是概念的形式化特征,从逻辑的观点看,概念的拓扑空间就是一种逻辑空间。     

青少年自我描述归类与人格维度特点

对青少年自我描述的内容进行归类时发现,依据不同的归类标准会得到不同的人格结构。500多名青少年学生提供了620个不同的对自我的描述,除9个项目属于对身体和家庭状况的描述外,所有的人格特征既可以归属到中国青少年人格结构的19个二级因素,又可以归属到西方大五人格结构的30个层面。这一结果表明,外显的人格特征分类无法准确表达人格结构的实际构成,人格结构的确定还需要实证评定及对内隐结构的探索。文中还讨论了心理学研究中国化（本土化）的思路与策略。     

不确定归类的类别等级一致性限制与分离

该文以大学生被试,实验考察在集中呈现类别成员信息的非对齐类别等级结构条件下的不确定归类。实验结果表明,对个体的不确定归类会受类别的上下级包含关系限制而保持等级一致性,导致出现下级归类错误或上级归类错误;而对群体的不确定归类不会受类别上下级包含关系限制而保持等级一致性,而是与类别层次的实际分布相一致,出现上下级归类的分离。     

论实践概念的三个层次

实践概念的含义在中西方都有一个逐渐演变的过程,在这一复杂的演变过程中,逐渐形成了实践概念的三个层次的含义:形上的实践概念、道德的实践概念和经验的实践概念.建议在今后的实践哲学讨论中,学者们对自己是在何种层次上使用实践概念要有明确的意识,并作出清晰的界定,反对像以往那样抽象的使用实践概念.     

人造物概念的表征：功能、意图和目的论的解释

以概念结构研究从“相似”到“解释”的理论转向为背景,评述人造物领域的“意图-历史论”（Bloom, 1996）,提出人造物概念结构中自上而下的约束是来自“使用目的”而不是“设计意图”。分析近期报告的大量实验,最后提出人造物概念表征的“基于使用的目的论”的解释模式和人造物归类的双重目标模型。     

归类的相似性对比模型研究综述

本文阐述了近期归类中的相似性对比模型的研究,首先介绍了相似性对比的空间模型、基于特征的对比模型以及最近提出的结构匹配模型,并且详细阐述结构匹配模型观点以及它的应用方面的研究,旨在抛砖引玉,引起更多的人们来关注本领域的研究与发展。     

基于因果关系归类中的实验效应

采用与Rehder实验相同的程序,考察了不同非典型特征值用语和基本比率信息表达方式对基于因果关系归类的影响.实验1结果表明,非典型特征值采用"正常"或典型特征值的相反值并不会对归类中的实验效应产生不同的影响.实验2结果表明,与将基本比率信息表达为具体明确的一个值"75%"相比,"A倾向于具有特征X"的表达方式会削弱一致性效应.突显因果位置效应.这些结果说明.改变两种实验效应强度的是Marsh和Ahn实验中采用的基本比率信息的表达方式而不是Rehder实验中的非典型特征值用语.     

面相观看与概念变化——维特根斯坦是不是一个概念工程师？

维特根斯坦的“面相观看”不仅是对“知觉经验”议题的讨论,更是一种元哲学层面的方法论。倡导哲学家致力于概念革新的“概念工程”是当代最炙手可热的哲学方法论议题。但有种观点提出维特根斯坦的面相观看是一种不同于概念工程的方法论。这个观点是站不住脚的。实际上,面相观看可以是概念工程的一种形式或一个环节,捍卫这个主张要具体回应三种可能的挑战：其一,面相观看作为一种知觉经验无法概念化;其二,概念工程预设了概念的单一性,而这无法覆盖语词在生活世界的多样性;其三,面相观看是治愈的,这与概念工程的积极建构是不融贯的。     

Category learning from equivalence constraints

Information for category learning may be provided as positive or negative equivalence constraints (PEC/NEC)—indicating that some exemplars belong to the same or different categories. To investigate categorization strategies, we studied category learning from each type of constraint separately, using a simple rule-based task. We found that participants use PECs differently than NECs, even when these provide the same amount of information. With informative PECs, categorization was rapid, reasonably accurate and uniform across participants. With informative NECs, performance was rapid and highly accurate for only some participants. When given directions, all participants reached high-performance levels with NECs, but the use of PECs remained unchanged. These results suggest that people may use PECs intuitively, but not perfectly. In contrast, using informative NECs enables a potentially more accurate categorization strategy, but a less natural, one which many participants initially fail to implement—even in this simplified setting.

维特根斯坦的哲学观

该文介绍了后期维特根斯坦对哲学的看法。其要点是:哲学的核心工作是概念考察;所考察的是自然概念,用以考察的也是自然概念;因此,哲学工作和实证科学是在两个层面上展开的;哲学的目标不是建构理论;哲学的任务是治疗由误解哲学语法所造成的智性扭曲。文章最后粗略讨论了观念和概念的关系。     

《四库提要》易类补正

《四库提要》是中国古典目录学史上的经典著作,具有极高的学术价值,但也不可避免存在一些错误.本文对其易类17条提要的谬误进行了补正.     

Prevention,not treatment,is the only hope

If our goal is the reduction or elimination of emotional disorders in our country, or in the world, a major social revolution is required. Individual psychotherapy is available to a small number only. No mass disorder has ever been eliminated by treating one person at a time. Psychotherapy is useful in teaching the possibility of unlearning damaging habits and thus it contradicts the organic-brain disease model advanced by political conservatives. Organic explanations of mental disorder find causes inside the person and ignore or deny the pathological environments of poverty, racism, sexism and exploitation. The organic model is supported by corporate power and conservative citizens' groups. It is time for radicals to come together to expose the power elite for its control of invalid ruling ideas.     

Activating Basic Category Exemplars in Sentence Contexts: A Dynamical Account

This paper examines the influence of context on the processing of category names embedded in sentences. The investigation focuses on the nature of information available immediately after such a word is heard as well as on the dynamics of adaptation to context. An on-line method (Cross Modal Lexical Priming) was used to trace how this process unfolds in time. We found that the information available immediately after a category word is presented is not altered by the sentence context in which the word is immersed. Rather, the structure of availability of particular exemplars of the category resembles the typicality structure of a conceptual representation. The adaptation to context occurs later (between 300 and 450 ms after the category word) and takes the form of a rapid reorganization of the structure rather than a gradual activation of a contextually relevant exemplar. We claim that such data is best accounted for in a dynamical framework, where a coherent global structure emerges through locally guided self-organization.     

Category learning with a goal: how goals constrain conceptual acquisition

A novel task was used to examine the roles that goals play in concept acquisition. In Experiment 1, we varied the type of interaction, and thus the task goal, of participants working in a novel domain. Following those interactions, participant responses showed that they had organized their knowledge in terms of goal-relevant features. Using a variation of the same methodology, Experiment 2 provided evidence that the goal relevance also played a role in how the participants structured their knowledge of the items, specifically what information about the items was associated with differentiating the categories encountered. The results suggest that the goals not only highlighted particular features, they determined the centrality of those features in the conceptual knowledge. We discuss the results in terms of the goal-framework hypothesis; the idea that goals structure information and provide coherence to the acquired concepts. We discuss how this approach informs category learning research.     

Contrastive Constraints Guide Explanation‐Based Category Learning

This paper provides evidence for a contrastive account of explanation that is motivated by pragmatic theories that recognize the contribution that context makes to the interpretation of a prompt for explanation. This study replicates the primary findings of previous work in explanation‐based category learning (Williams & Lombrozo, 2010), extending that work by illustrating the critical role of the context in this type of learning. Participants interacted with items from two categories either by describing the items or explaining their category membership. We manipulated the feature overlap between the categories and examined both the explanations generated and acquired knowledge of the categories. Explanations for membership in a given category were influenced by the unprompted contrast category, indicating an important role for contrastive processing in the generation of explanations. The influence of the contrast category was similarly seen in the transfer performance of the participants.     

Monitoring of learning at the category level when learning a natural concept: Will task experience improve its resolution?

Researchers have recently begun to investigate people's ability to monitor their learning of natural categories. For concept learning tasks, a learner seeks to accurately monitor learning at the category level — i.e., to accurately judge whether exemplars will be correctly classified into the appropriate category on an upcoming test. Our interest was in whether monitoring resolution at the category level would improve as participants gain task experience across multiple study-test blocks, as well as within each block. In four experiments, exemplar birds (e.g., American Goldfinch, Cassin's Finch) paired with each family name (e.g., Finch) were studied, and participants made a judgment of learning (JOL) for each exemplar. Of most interest, before and after studying the exemplars, participants made category learning judgments (CLJs), which involved predicting the likelihood of correctly classifying novel birds into each family. Tests included exemplars that had been studied or exemplars that had not been studied (novel). This procedure was repeated for either one or two additional blocks. The relative accuracy of CLJs did not improve across blocks even when explicit feedback was provided, whereas item-by-item JOL accuracy improved across blocks. Category level resolution did improve from pre-study to post-study on an initial block, but it did not consistently increase within later blocks. The stable accuracy of CLJs across blocks poses a theoretical and empirical challenge for identifying techniques to improve people's ability to judge their learning of natural categories.     

Why 'Health' is not a Central Category for Public Health Policy

We normally think that public health policy is an important political activity. In turn, we normally understand the value of public health policy in terms of the promotion of health or some health-related good (such as opportunity for health), on the basis of the assumption that health is an important constituent or determinant of wellbeing. In this paper, I argue that the assumption that the value of public health policy should be understood in terms of health leads us to overlook important benefits generated by such policy. To capture these benefits we need to understand the ends of public health policy in terms of the promotion of 'physical safety'. I then go on to argue that the idea that 'health' is an important category for evaluating or estimating individuals' wellbeing in the normative context of social policy is confused. I then clarify the relationship between my arguments and QALY-based accounts of health assessment. In the final section of the paper, I defend this surprising conclusion against various attacks.